When companies decide to go public, they often do so with an IPO, because additional help from Wall Street and the financial sector can help strengthen their valuation. However, Slack Technologies, the company behind the popular workplace collaboration tool Slack, decided to do things a little differently. The company debuted today on the NYSE under the ticker WORK through direct registration instead of going through the IPO route. Unlike an IPO, a direct listing means that the company did not issue new shares and did not have to raise additional capital. Instead, Slack could become a publicly traded company without having to pay the high fees and requirements associated with using a subscriber. On the eve of its IPO, the company had set a reference price of €26 per share, but its shares were up more than 60% in the first few minutes of trading after opening at €38.50. Slack's share price eventually hit a high of $42 through the close of the day at $38.62, meaning the company is now valued at almost $23 billion.
Build your clientele
In its relatively short five years of existence, Slack has been able to gain strength in the growing business collaboration market where many other platforms have failed. What the future holds for the now-public company remains to be seen, but one area it has excelled in is adding more and more paying customers. According to Slack's S-1 report dated April, the company's workplace collaboration platform had more than 10 million daily active users, with 88,000 paying customers. However, earlier this month, Slack revealed that it now has more than 95,000 paying customers and that 645 of them reported annual recurring revenue above €100,000. Slack has several big-name competitors, including Microsoft Teams and Workplace by Facebook, but other companies are also trying to carve out a place for themselves in the growing collaborative workspace. The company's CEO, Stewart Butterfield, has repeatedly said that his platform will eventually replace the company's workplace email. If direct reference from him is any indication, Slack might one day achieve this goal. via ZDNet