Hacker News Reader

I see the counterargument, but we are still pushing companies onto the public that are losing copious amounts of money. Part of me wonders if we aren't witnessing the irrational exuberance before the (cyclical) fall.

View on HN

This is not irrational exuberance. Slack makes a very sticky enterprise product with tremendous network effects. It’s hard to get rid of because it integrates with all sorts of other things within the enterprise. The value of chat is unlikely to diminish anytime soon. Losing money today to acquire customers who will stick around for years is a great idea. In fact, to move for profits today at the expense of growth would be foolish.

Really? I know an org of > 2,000 people who recently switched away from Slack to the open-sourced Mattermost. I don't think Slack is untouchable. Overall point is considering other companies too with massive losses being pushed on the public feels like a trend, and maybe ominously represents a certain phase in a cycle.

Mattermost CEO here,

Thanks for the mention. Increasingly we see mention of "Slack or Mattermost" as part of DevOps stacks. In my mind, the space is growing quickly and there's room for multiple winners.

I'm excited about having more and more functionality people love available in an open source alternative.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com