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SLACK IS A CHAT TOOL THAT HELPS BUSINESSES CUT DOWN ON INTERNAL EMAIL. IS IT TRUE IT CAME ABOUT BY MISTAKE? Mistake is strong; more like a happy accident. We were initially building a game

called Glitch and our team was spread between San Francisco and Vancouver. We needed to communicate easily; not just programmers, but artists, animators and sound designers. We needed to

collaborate and swap assets and we had to be notified when things progressed. So we created Slack and fairly soon we saw a lot of potential in it as a commercial tool. We switched tack and

started developing it again from scratch. Over the next six months, we invited other Silicon Valley companies to try it out. Initially it was a real slog. It's very difficult to get a

team of people to adopt a new way of communicating, but you can't use Slack by yourself, so you have to convince a whole group to switch at once. WHAT OTHER PROBLEMS WERE THERE EARLY

ON? With things like application performance monitoring and CRM [customer relationship management], a large company might use 100 different tech tools. Even small businesses will use a

selection that are not designed to work together. Slack aims to tie all these things together – to handle automated messages from, say, Facebook, Twitter and GitHub, as well as messages from

real people and colleagues. The product wasn't particularly polished to start with. Then there was the problem that all startups in this space have: people worry you'll disappear

tomorrow and take all their messages with you. That made it harder to convince people to give it a try. It was after six months that it became clear people were finding true value. Six

months after that we did our public launch and then it had momentum. SLACK IS VALUED AT OVER $1BN, MAKING IT A FABLED UNICORN BUSINESS – A STARTUP VALUED AT OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS. DOES

THAT STATUS COME WITH PRESSURE? There is definitely pressure because we know we have to grow into that value at some point in the future. Every time you raise venture capital money it

increases how successful you need to be to justify the investment. We are in a different position to some Silicon Valley businesses because we are a fairly straightforward proposition: we

sell software for money. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO KEEP INNOVATING, REFINING AND BUILDING TO INCREASE VALUE TO THE CUSTOMER? Early on, being innovative is what differentiates you from the rest.

Over time there is still that need, but also to find new growth channels. We are thinking a lot about how we serve the needs of very big companies that want us to integrate [with all of

their workplace systems]. We can't stand still because it's not like we are the only product in the market dealing with communication. We don't have any obvious big

competitors at the moment but that won't be the case forever, so we need to get as far ahead as we can. YOU'RE A BRIT IN SILICON VALLEY. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED SINCE MOVING THERE?

The culture of this place has so many advantages. The appetite for risk is very high and you are surrounded by people all doing the same thing, so it does not seem crazy to take venture

capital money, start a business and try to create something that's worth a billion dollars. Having that community of like-minded, slightly insane people around you is really what makes

it work. Now it's hard for me to imagine doing something like this anywhere else. WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO YOUNG PROGRAMMERS WHO WANT TO EMULATE YOUR SUCCESS? I had an interest in

software from a young age and I loved making stuff and experimenting. Two characteristics I had were curiosity and a relentless optimism. I could try something, build an app, make a website

– I think that attitude is an important part of becoming successful in this space. I can see common ground with new engineers joining Slack; the curiosity of wanting to make things is an

essential part of it. It's also important to understand what failure is – it's not a disaster, but a positive learning experience – so you're prepared to give it a go. Learn

the skills, join a startup, maybe. And when you feel you've learned enough, try it for yourself. SIGN UP TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE GUARDIAN SMALL BUSINESS NETWORK HERE FOR MORE ADVICE,

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