Justin Gallagher’s Post

Quick win for early-stage startups: Set up live product events in Slack This makes your product truly live in a Slack channel and shows momentum to the team. Create Slack notifications for events such as: - New signup - User did {core product action} - User reached your assumed "aha moments" - User viewed your upgrade page/reached a paywall - A trial ended - User upgraded 🥳 / downgraded 😢 - New onboarding call booked 📞 For product usage tracking I'd recommend setting up Segment from day 1. Use Segment events to trigger a webhook that triggers event-based Slack notifications. For calls booked, Calendly has Slack integration that does just that. For money-related events, use Stripe or special tooling like Baremetrics or ChartMogul Hope this helps (drop a like if it does 🙃) Feel free to add other early-stage tips in the comments 👇

Tech Tuesday: Essential Tools for Startup Efficiency In the dynamic world of startups, having the right tools can make all the difference. This week on Tech Tuesday, DazzlinDeZigns.com highlights Slack, a powerful messaging app that enhances team communication and collaboration. With Slack, you can streamline your conversations, manage projects, and integrate with numerous other tools to keep your operations running smoothly. For startups looking to enhance their administrative efficiency, Slack is a game-changer. What tools are you using to keep your team connected? #TechTuesday #StartupTools #Slack

You never know where your success hides. As a founder myself, I know what it takes to find that perfect startup idea that will truly rock (usually, a lot of work and a couple of failures). But love for innovation and hustle pays off, trust me. Just take a look at Stewart Butterfield's story. You should know him as the founder of Slack. What you don't know is that his first startup was a complete disaster. Let's track his road to success 👇 2004: Stewart Butterfield (he also has a cool middle name: Dharma Jeremy) co-founds Flickr, the photo-sharing website that took the internet by storm. Millions are suddenly obsessed with sharing their pics. 2005: Yahoo scoops up Flickr for $1.9 billion. Stewart cashes in and starts brainstorming his next big thing. 2009: Butterfield sets his sights on online gaming with a new venture called Tiny Speck. But the game itself… Well, let's just say it wasn't quite as big a hit as Flickr: with more than $15 million in venture capital funding, the project closed in 18 months. Undeterred, 2009 sees the birth of Slack Technologies, hatched from the ashes of the game project. This time, Stewart focuses on internal communication tools – a problem he knew all too well from his previous ventures. Late 2012: The Slack app, with its now-famous channels for real-time team chat, starts development. August 2013: Slack launches in a limited preview, and it's an instant hit. Turns out, everyone hates email overload and wants a more engaging way to work together. By 2015, Slack turns into a huge success in record time. I'm talking about a $1 billion valuation in just 8 months! Butterfield has created a unicorn. 2019: Slack goes public, proving that a well-designed chat app can be a serious game-changer. Inspiring story, right? I always say that the fear of failure is probably the #1 factor that holds great innovators back. So don't fear; just try and try again until you create your billion-dollar product. And what inspires you to move forward and innovate? Share your experiences in the comments! #Slack #SuccessStory #Innovation #Technology #NeverGiveUp

One of the biggest nightmares for non-technical startup founders is navigating the complexities of software development. When things go wrong, they can halt progress and drain valuable resources. If you're a founder facing these hurdles, know that you're not alone. In my experience, partnering with the right technology team can be the game-changer that takes a startup from struggling to scaling. Having worked with over 100 startups over the past 9 years, I've seen firsthand how the right technology partner can transform a business. It’s not just about writing code — it’s about understanding the vision, communicating openly, and delivering services that drive success. #StartupSuccess #TechInnovation #FounderTips #ScaleYourBusiness #TechPartnership #BitsolTechnologies

The Developer's Dilemma Developers in startups often face a dilemmatic situation - creating a robust MVP under investor pressure without sufficient time or resources. We've been there and have worked out a solution. Our team can streamline your software development process, help you manage resources effectively, and deliver a product that impresses both your team and investors. Let's turn the 'developer's dilemma' into a success story. #TechStartups #DeveloperLife #SoftwareDevelopment #MVP

Investor pressure can be overwhelming for any startup founder. Balancing speed, quality, and cost while meeting investor expectations can feel like an impossible task. That's where we come in. Our team of experts specializes in process optimization and best practices tailored to your startup's unique needs. We'll help you crack the code on delivering impressive MVPs with limited resources and looming deadlines. Let us be your trusted advisor and solution provider as you navigate these waters. Tomorrow's success starts today. #TechStartups #InvestorPressure #ProcessOptimization #MVPs #StartUpLife #SuccessStartsHere

I initially adopted bootstrapping out of necessity. But today, I view it as the default founder operating system. The rules have also changed. ▪️ Traditional bootstrapping is often viewed as self-funding, but a better descriptor today is customer-funding. ▪️ Traditional bootstrapping is still seen as mutually exclusive to fundraising, but many bootstrapped companies customer-fund to traction and then choose to pursue fundraising - not for survival, but growth. This is why I coined a new term: “BOOTSTART”, which is a play on bootstrapping and starting up. In yesterday’s newsletter, I shared practical tactics for bootstarting your idea to traction. In case you missed it, 👇 https://lnkd.in/gx4MBAkp

It is a great privledge to be backing Stella Garber for a second time, as well as her sensational co-founders Brian Schmidt and Justin Gallagher. It’s also great to working with Index Ventures again, too. One thing I have learned in my venture career is that humans are lazy, and software that does simple things can feel like magic. Hoop uses AI to automatically harvest to do items from all of your communication channels. Today it’s single player, and in the future it will be your whole team. Read more about why we invested: https://lnkd.in/geTy-kyZ

From Idea to Impact: The Story of Slack In 2009, Stewart Butterfield and his team set out to create a multiplayer online game. As they developed the game, they built an internal messaging tool to communicate more effectively. Little did they know, this tool would become their main focus. Recognizing its potential, Stewart pivoted the team towards developing this tool into a standalone product: Slack. Launched in 2013, Slack aimed to revolutionize workplace communication with its user-friendly interface and powerful integrations. However, Slack faced an uphill battle. Early adopters loved the product, but growth was slow. They struggled to convert free users into paying customers and faced competition from established players. Undeterred, Stewart and his team persevered. They focused on improving user experience, expanding integrations, and listening closely to customer feedback. Their efforts paid off when Slack gained traction among startups and tech companies looking to streamline communication. By 2015, Slack had raised substantial funding and surpassed a $1 billion valuation, earning the coveted unicorn status. Today, Slack is a staple in modern workplaces worldwide, transforming how teams collaborate and communicate. The journey of Slack exemplifies the importance of resilience, adaptability, and customer-centricity in building a successful startup. It's a testament to how a simple idea, nurtured with passion and perseverance, can evolve into a global phenomenon. #StartupStory #Slack #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #TechStartup #LinkedIn

As an early-stage startup investor, it's rare to get the chance to back a successful repeat founder—especially one who built companies like Stack Overflow. It’s even rarer when they’re working on something that, if it succeeds, could easily be a $100B business. That might sound like hyperbole, but when you see what Jeffrey Szczepanski and the Reframe Technologies, Inc. team are building, I think you’ll agree. The desktop interface hasn’t evolved in 30 years, still based on the outdated skeuomorphic concept of the physical desktop. To change that, Jeff and team have created the Organized Work Environment (OWE)—a native app that turns traditional desktops into dynamic, context-aware workspaces. By organizing apps, AI tools, and info into “Streams,” Reframe reduces cognitive load and fosters deep focus, aligning digital workspaces with how we naturally think and operate. Plus, the OWE enables collaboration through context-aware Streams, allowing teams to communicate seamlessly—think Figma, but for everything else. I'm excited to share that we’ve co-led a seed round in Reframe with our friend Brad Svrluga at Primary Venture Partners with participation by Founder Collective. Jeff and team will start giving alpha access in early 2025—stay tuned!