Perhaps no technological advancement has contributed more to the decline of email, changing the way we collaborate and communicate at work, than Slack.
Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield is one of the co-founders. Since its launch in 2013, Slack boasts over a million active daily users. The company raised $539.95 million in nine rounds from 26 investors.
Prior to Slack, Butterfield co-founded and led Flickr–the image and video hosting website–from 2003 through its 2005 acquisition by Yahoo!
Time magazine named Butterfield one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and he has been ranked among Business Week‘s “Top 50 Leaders.” Butterfield was also recognized as the 2015 Technology Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal, and has been featured on Vanity Fair‘s “New Establishment List.”
Despite phenomenal success, Slack is committed to making the world more equitable. The company has one of the highest percentages of African American engineers among Silicon Valley companies, at seven percent. In addition, over 10% of its workforce is part of the LGBTQ community, and 45% of its managers are women.
Slack continues to explore how to further diversity. From the company’s blog post, “All kinds of people should be able to be successful at Slack.”
“While much focus has been on the pipeline, we understand that increasing the diversity of applicants and new hires will not result in any significant change, if people from underrepresented groups cannot thrive at the company. Workplace policies that foster inclusion are equally important.â€
Slack also contributes to various organizations focused on diversifying the pipeline, such as Hack the Hood and Code2040.
This is a company that doesn’t just talk the diversity talk–it really walks the walk.
Stewart Butterfield will take part in what is sure to be a fascinating one-on-one keynote at Black Enterprise‘s TechConneXt tech summit.
Register for Black Enterprise’s TechConneXt Technology Summit: The Intersection of Innovation and Opportunity, held October 10-11, 2016 at the San Francisco Marriott Waterfront Hotel!