Short answer: we have no intention of ever getting acquired. We are 100% bootstrapped, and we plan to become and stay sustainable, so we can be in it for the long haul.
Also, regarding acquisitions, I’ve been there, done that, and I wouldn’t be building this company just to do the same thing again (life’s too short for that).
I love Slack as a company and as a product (I spend many hours in it daily). However, in hindsight, it’s not possible to integrate one complex piece of software into another complex piece of software. We ended up with a union of two separate sets of constraints (from each product) which made it impossible to make it all work. We didn’t know this when we started. I really value my experience at Slack, and it was through that experience that I learnt this lesson, along with many others, that have helped us make Screen what it is today.
For Screenhero users, I feel that with Screen being publicly available today, the Screenhero -> Slack -> Screen transition has been one step forward, two steps back, and three steps forward again. I’m committed to continuing the forward steps from here on in.
Ok, I will bet this is true! Sorry you weren't given more latitude in Slack. Anyway you have my support. Starting tomorrow we will be giving a full try to screen.so.
Why not making a Slack-like chat system as well? It seems a natural expansion. (I am the CEO of SerpApi. Feel free to email me at julien at serpapi.com)
We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Slack is great for what it does! And if you read through https://screen.so/about, I have lived the experience that it’s impossible to do two things well. So in an ideal world, Slack continues to innovate on the messaging side, we continue to innovate on our side, and we mindfully integrate with each others’ platforms to give our users the best possible experience.
I feel it’s like 1 step forward and 2 steps back kind of thing.