Can Slack survive Microsoft’s onslaught?

Slack is worth about US$18 billion after their amazingly successful listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

About five minutes after their triumph, it would be funny at best, or arrogant at worst, for me to write them an open letter offering advice… so I’ll go with “funny.” So, consider this friendly advice from a big fan who uses their collaboration and communication app to simultaneously manage five different tech ventures.

To survive, Slack has to overcome one major hurdle and one lethal threat. It has to replace email, which many see no reason to stop using. And it has to fight off Microsoft. I don’t know which one will be harder to pull off.

Slack wants to replace email.

They’ve been honest about that goal for years. How can they do it?

Getting customers to make a switch, particularly from an established product that already provides a lot of value, is a major challenge.

There are about 4 billion email users and even more individual email accounts.

In comparison, Slack announced in 2019 it had 10 million active daily users.

Slack has a lot of customers to add. That’s actually a good problem to have. But they also need to do this relatively quickly. As much momentum as they have, they’re not…