Packy McCormick: evaluation

Transcript context

…That makes sense. The only question in my mind is if you look at it like Slack is a great way to index startups. Basically, if you want to make a bet that startups grow and have lots of money to spend in the future because they're cash-generating machines and need lots of great tools. Maybe the place that Salesforce actually ends up investing is a migration path from you've loved Slack and now we make it easy to onboard to the full Salesforce CRM suite. It's probably my product background but I don't see that. It's hard for you to imagine what that bridge looks like, where you're like, oh great, you and your team have all been communicating in this place. Therefore, somehow, your Salesforce CRM implementation will now be easier. I think the big thing here—they mentioned it in the press release as well—is Slack Connect. To the extent that you think that Slack Connect will be a way that the company can communicate with all of the different partners or clients that it has, then that makes a ton of sense for a Salesforce integration where you're not just plugging into email and tracking your email conversations, but you have your lead right there. You click Start a Slack Connect channel, and then you're in conversation right within the Salesforce products to the extent that there is integration. That's where I see that happening. Slack just reported their numbers and they grew (I think) from 380,000 Slack Connect endpoints to 520,000 Slack Connect endpoints in the last quarter alone. This has been a huge area and focus for the business (maybe in retrospect) running up for a Salesforce acquisition because this certainly does make them a lot more attractive as—like Ben Thompson called it—The Work Social Network. I think that's the most appealing piece of the product if I'm Salesforce. Let's talk a little bit more about Slack Connect. Why is this so strategic for Slack? This has been the drum that they've been beating basically, not their whole life as a public company but most of it, right?…

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