Going Public from Yellowstone: Slack’s NYSE Debut and the Reality of Change
James Sherrett recounts Slack’s direct public offering (DPO) on June 20, 2019, when shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WORK, roughly five years after Slack’s first revenue and at a valuation north of $20 billion. Instead of being in New York, he was on a family trip in West Yellowstone with spotty internet, balancing work with family. He describes placing insider sell orders the night before, the DPO mechanics versus an IPO (including immediate insider trading flexibility but greater pricing uncertainty), and a launch-morning panic when his orders hadn’t saved. After spending the day offline biking and exploring with his son, he later catches up on headlines and teammate photos from the NYSE. Sherrett shares Butterfield’s framing of going public as a rite of passage rather than the journey’s peak, then reflects on questions he later received about whether money changed Slack, noting it did through growth, new people, increased conservatism, and intensified competition (especially with Microsoft Teams), while much of Slack’s spirit and customer focus remained. He concludes that the changes weren’t all positive but were overwhelmingly so from his perspective, and teases future stories about finding frontiers, and accepting less ambition.
00:00 Slack goes public as WORK
01:28 Choosing Yellowstone over the NYSE: family, FOMO, and the trip out
03:28 The night before: placing orders and feeling the stakes
04:13 DPO vs IPO: why Slack took the direct listing route
06:09 Launch morning panic: scrambling and the opening bell
07:13 Wall Street movie moment: how the price of WORK got set
08:51 Unreal meets reality: orders fill and WORK starts trading
10:06 Offline celebration: bikes, rivers, and a day away from the news
13:03 Did money change Slack?
15:47 Closing thoughts: next on the journey
