$3.8 billion Slack is falling into a tough cycle every hot startup goes through
Its incredible founding story, popular CEO, and beautiful app turned the $3.8 billion startup into a press golden boy over the past two years.
But the narrative is about to change.
In just the past week, Slack was hit pretty hard from all angles: a potential marketing blunder, a sudden executive departure, and lagging product innovation - not to mention a new rival in Microsoft.
Even in Silicon Valley's move-fast culture, Slack's meteoric rise has been nothing but impressive. And the press embraced it with sweet headlines so far.
But the recent developments show Slack's honeymoon period with the press may be coming to an end, as it faces higher expectations and increased scrutiny - stepping into the most difficult phase of Silicon Valley's "press cycle."
We've seen this story with almost every hotshot startup before. Facebook went through years of criticism before turning into a $330 billion goliath, while Uber's still trying to prove some people wrong about its whopping $62 billion valuation. Dropbox is in a tougher spot, but at least it's in a better situation than companies like Groupon and Zynga, who quickly faded into obscurity after failing to keep up their once beloved brand.
'Silicon Valley Time'
Perhaps the best explanation for this can be found in a blog post by Aaron Zamost, a former Google PR guy who's now leading Square's communications.
Zamost calls this press cycle a "predictable arc" that runs like a "clockwork," based on what he calls "Silicon Valley Time." Here's how he describes it:
"A company's narrative moves like a clock: it starts at midnight, ticking off the hours. The tone and sentiment about how a business is doing move from positive (sunrise, midday) to negative (dusk, darkness). And often the story returns to midnight, rebirth and a new day."
In other words, every big-time startup gets hyped up from a shiny up-and-comer to the "greatest company in the world" phase, before hitting the wall and facing constant question marks that kick it into the ground. The truly great ones, however, overcome the "worst company in the world" moniker and circle back to everyone's favorite toy.
Last July, when Zamost wrote the post, Slack was put in the "Hottest company in the Valley" bucket. But based on what we're seeing now, Slack may be going from the "Greatest company in the world!" to the "Greatest company in the world?" category.
Of course that doesn't mean this is the start of the end for Slack. As Zamost points out, companies heading into the darker portion of Silicon Valley Time need to stay focused and levelheaded. And if the business fundamentals are strong, it'll eventually make a comeback and prove all the pundits wrong.
Will Slack be able to do it? At least judging by Butterfield's response to some of the articles, he seems undeterred by any of it, yet.