Adam Wilkinson of MetaLab and Tiny writes on Medium about startups, product building, company acquisitions, and running a sustainable business.
Commenters recommend his 'Unicorns vs. Horses' essay for its perspective and point to 'The Power of Anti-Goals' as the one to read.
We examined both Kato and Slack for internal use at our company a while ago. I personally preferred Kato's split pane chat windows and handling of multiple team (which Slack still doesn't do right). We also thought it was more competitively priced. After we had made a case internally for team chat, we started a full department trial of Slack, at which point point our users became fairly enamoured with it, and probably unwilling to uproot and change to a new service.
I have a feeling this matches the world at large for Slack. By implementing a very personable interface users seem to grow a positive emotional connection to the service. This reflects in their usage which is also positive and casual, encouraged by features like custom emoji. All this comes together into not the most practical and functional features on paper, but definitely the most enrapturing user experience.
A good read if you want to learn more about Slack's on going world domination: https://medium.com/@awilkinson/slack-s-2-8-billion-dollar-secret-sauce-5c5ec7117908
I know of one company which explicitly has this approach: http://tiny.website/
> We won't try to flip your business in 3-5 years. We won't mess with your team and culture. We won't lock you into golden handcuffs or push complex deal terms. We won't ruin your life with months of unnecessary due diligence. We won't renegotiate and grind you on terms.
> …
> We started Tiny to create the buyer we wish we could have sold to.
Background: https://medium.com/@awilkinson/the-berkshire-hathaway-of-the-internet-391a8ee83db
To my knowledge, no one else makes similar commitments to both keep good things as-is and also to buy and hold indefinitely. At least from the outside, Tiny's model is unique.
1.2.: Business model for "horses" is to pay back shareholders by delivering a valuable service to actual customers at a reasonable price. Business model for "unicorns" is to build the largest possible user base to attract the largest possible investment inflows.
More information: Unicorns vs. Horses https://medium.com/@awilkinson/unicorns-vs-horses-f81d8dd61f17
The Great CEO Within. Free ebook. Popular (1K+ HN points). Good methods.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8
Unicorns vs Horses. Article. Good perspective.
https://medium.com/@awilkinson/unicorns-vs-horses-f81d8dd61f17
For those not aware, Dribbble was acquired by Metalab/Tiny back in 2017 (and is briefly referenced under #20)
https://medium.com/@awilkinson/dribbble-2-0-c2cd1fa184c5#.8k5gezlet
Also may be related article, "Unicorns vs. Horses
Why I want to be In-N-Out Burger, not McDonalds":
https://medium.com/@awilkinson/unicorns-vs-horses-f81d8dd61f17