Flourishing Freemium

Abstract

When Slack came onto the scene in 2014, it promised to kill email once and for all. This collaborative instant communication platform was envisioned with the extremely lofty goal of completely revolutionizing workplace culture. Yet, while ambitious, it is hard to say that this goal has not been met. Used by 77% of Fortune 100 companies, Slack is the fastest-growing enterprise software ever created, reaching 10 million daily active users and a 13.2 billion dollar valuation in only 5 years. Users also just love the product, as is documented by the many thousands of notes of appreciation on Slack’s Wall of Love and the 3 million users who put their money where their mouth is by actively paying for the service. In fact, this 30% conversion rate soars high above the industry standard, with Dropbox having a “really good” conversion rate of 4% and most normal conversion rates sitting around 1%. With these mind-boggling statistics, you have to wonder, how did Slack manage to take on the Goliath that is email and become so successful?