🚀 The $27 Billion Slack story

Hi Guy & Farzan here 👋 

Lots of great founder stories for you this week.

Read time: 7 mins

In the mail:

1. Founder story: The reluctant founder & his surf company 🏄‍♂️

2. Founder playbook: The $27 Billion Slack story 🚀

3. Video playbook: A $2M/year business in 2 years 🔥

4. Video playbook: Broke immigrant to $50M CEO 💪

5. Video short: Start a boring business ⚡️

6. A quote: On being on failure 😎

1. Founder story

🏄‍♂️ The story of Need Essentials: From surf coast dairy farm to world-leading wetsuit creator.

🐄 Background:
Growing up on a dairy farm on the surf coast in Victoria, Ryan Scanlon had humble beginnings. Between milkings, he discovered his passion for surfing.

🎨 The Creative Beginnings:
Ryan’s artistic side led him to study fine art at University. His creativity landed him a unique role at Quiksilver, hand-painting fabric designs. The journey with Quiksilver would span over two decades, during which he mastered the art of technical product design.

🌍 The Wanderer:
Adventure called out to Ryan! He packed his surfboard and travelled around the world, searching for the best waves and simplifying life to the bare essentials.

🏢 The Reluctant Founder:
2012 saw Ryan leaving Quiksilver for the last time. Inspired by his minimalist travels, he started making surfing wetsuits for himself and his friends. The brand's ethos? Cutting out the non-essentials. That's how "needessentials" was born.

📈 Growth & Authenticity:
Amidst a sea of corporate mergers in the surf industry, needessentials flourished by focusing on authenticity, quality, and understanding surfer needs. Ryan emphasizes: "Our customers know this is a passion project, not a get-rich-quick scheme".

📌 Golden Lesson:
"Don't make stuff that will end up in landfill." Every founder should prioritize sustainable and responsible product creation. Building with integrity and understanding the impact on the environment is the real wealth in today's world.

Read Ryan’s full story on Founderoo.

2. Founder playbook

🚀  The unique story of Slack and its $27 billion purchase by Salesforce

Have you ever wondered how Slack came from being a funny online game to an enterprise software giant? We did some digging for you to find out. Here’s a summary of what we found out:

🎮 Humble Origins: 
Slack began as a dream for a web-based multiplayer game in late 2012. But as they say, when one door closes, another opens!

🔧 The Power of Feedback: 
By the Summer of 2013, the power of customer feedback sculpted Slack into a tool ready for preview. It's like kneading the perfect loaf of bread – you keep adjusting until it's just right.

📰 Traditional Media Magic: 
Forget the beta. With a grand media splash, 8,000 sign-ups flooded in on DAY 1! The floodgates had opened.

🏫 Educating the Unaware: 
Ever tried selling shoes to someone who's never worn them? That's Slack for you, opening eyes to a product category many never realized they were missing.

👥 Team Persuasion: 
Pitching to teams instead of entire companies? It's like seeding a garden. A little nurturing here, some sunshine there, and voilà, a blossoming enterprise is started.

👂 Active Listening: 
Picture Slack with giant ears, absorbing every feedback, every tweet. That's how closely they listened!

❤️ A Customer-First Ethos: 
Imagine the founder of a billion-dollar company personally handling Twitter feedback! That's Slack's Stewart Butterfield for you, a captain always ready to steer the ship.

🏆 Stewart's golden nugget?
"It's not just about building. It's about listening, iterating, and educating." And with that mindset, Slack soared high, touching the $27 billion mark with Salesforce's acquisition!

To read the full story, get onto Founderoo.

3. Video playbook

🔥 How Karl built A $2.5M per year business in just 2 Years

In this video, Pat flew out to Chicago to interview Karl Hughes, a remarkable individual who built a $2.5M business in just two years. Karl revealed how he began without even a landing page or website and discussed how anyone can launch a profitable productized service harnessing just one skill. Enjoy!

4. Video playbook

💪 Broke immigrant to $50M CEO

This is the story of Lee, who transformed from high school challenges to establishing America's leading exotic car rental company. His $20 million car collection showcases brands like Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, attracting elite clients such as Floyd Mayweather and Michael Jordan. This tale highlights Lee's intense passion, strategic networking, and unwavering resilience that paved the way for his monumental success.

5. Video short

⚡️ Start a boring business…

6. A quote on failure 😎

All done. What did you think?

👍 It was bloody great
😐 Meh - it was average
👎 It was pretty crap

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See you next Sunday
Guy + Farzan 👋 
Founderoo