It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an... enterprise software company? We give the full Acquired treatment to newly-public Slack, one of the most extreme and successful pivots of all-time. From a log cabin in Canada to a never-ending game and back again, Slack’s journey has more twists and turns than a Hobbit’s tale. Tune in for one APLUSS story you don’t want to miss!

Sponsors:

• WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25
• Intapp: https://bit.ly/intappceleste
• Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
• Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25

More Acquired!

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Merch Store!

© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

• Kara Swisher’s Flipcam interview with Glitch:  https://www.wsj.com/video/tiny-speck-stewart-butterfield-speaks/C51EAD27-FE8E-46AE-B785-6ECF1A9798B0.html
• Marc Andreessen on “all will still end well...” https://twitter.com/patphelan/status/1142733251691405312
• The Glitch public domain archive: https://www.glitchthegame.com
• Naming Slack: https://twitter.com/stewart/status/780906639301812225?s=21

Carve Outs

• Ben: The Expanse on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/The-Expanse-Season-1/dp/B018BZ3SCM
• David: Give to any non-profit on Alma: https://alma.app/blog/1-4-million-reasons-to-love-alma-search