How Microsoft Crushed Slack

By contrast, consumer software tools that enhance human agency, that serve us when we are most creative and intentional, are often built by hobbyists and used by a handful of nerds. If such a tool ever gets too successful one of the Marl-serving companies, flush with cash from advertising or growth-hungry venture capital, will acquire it and kill i... See more

“A decade ago there was a really sharp divide between consumer and enterprise, these spaces were highly compartmentalized. We brought a lot of consumer thinking and consumer tactics to enterprise...Gradually over the last decade or so, the barriers have really come down, to the point where I think most founders see this consumerized approach as pro... See more

This makes me sad: the part of the Internet that fills me with the most optimism are platforms like Shopify and Stripe and Substack that make it possible for individual entrepreneurs to try and build their own businesses with world-class tools at their disposal; making it hard to utilize those tools primarily benefits established companies and apps... See more

But with a free tier to push the business, perhaps too many users were free and not enough were in the paying category. It seems that the writing might have been on the wall last June when the company announced it was laying off 14% of its workforce.