Slack stories

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 07:19:06 -0700

When you spent years and years working at a place like Slack, especially getting a front-row seat to watching it grow from small to very big, it is nice to hear other people’s stories of that time.

Two newsletters I’ve really enjoyed reading:

Building Slack: This one is written by Ali Rayl and Johnny Rodgers and covers the time from pre-launch up through (as of mid-March 2026) COVID times. This one is special to me because Ali was one of my closest coworkers and friends my entire time there, and Johnny worked in product engineering and we crossed paths many times. The perspectives are very familiar to me, and each post dusts off some memory of working in that place, at that time.

These essays cover a lot of how product decisions were made and executed as the company grew. Which, as you might expect, gets more challenging as everything around the product changes — from people, to competitors, to broader themes like remote work — and Ali and JR cover it well.

A Slack Story: Another great one. Written by James Sherrett, who worked at a range of roles at Slack, from marketing, to accounts, to sales, to executive programs. James’ writing is clear, engaging and deeply personal.

Working at Slack through the high-growth years tested everyone, making you always wondering if you were the only one that was holding on for dear life, so seeing someone that was highly respected and seemingly always steadfastly cool like James write about the stresses and questions of the job makes this account memorable.

While I was closer to Ali and Johnny in the work we did, James had a similar seat as me as “early but not early early” and the finding-your-way theme was very familiar to me.

I will almost definitely not write down a chronicle of my time there, though I do treasure it, so I am incredibly thankful to James, Johnny and Ali for writing down their memories. I strongly recommend subscribing to their newsletters if you like personal recollections of building one of the most beloved software products ever from people that helped make it that way.

Hello, Slack

Sat, 28 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, I started at Tiny Speck as their engineering manager, working on Slack. Slack is getting bigger in almost every way that matters and I’m excited about getting to take part in it.

So what does taking this particular role at this particular company mean to me? It means I’m working for the same people that built the company that hired me that moved me from the east coast to San Francisco. It means I’m managing at a company that shaped most of my thoughts about software development and how to build products that people love. It also means I get to take those experiences and principles and help build frameworks where we keep doing those good things but at a different scale than we are all used to.

So, is this a little scary? You betcha. Am I excited? Oh yeah.

Posts tagged "slack" - nolan caudill's internet house

Slack stories

Hello, Slack