Stewart Butterfield has twice attempted to build a video game. Both times, he failed.
Out of those failures, Butterfield helped usher in and build two of the most important tools for their respective fields. Flickr, which was sold for somewhere between 22 and 25 million dollars to Yahoo!, reshaped our ability to upload and share photography on the web.
He developed his newest venture out of the frustration he felt when attempting to communicate with his co-workers. Together they developed a tool that would solve their internal communication problems. That tool became the massively popular, Slack.
Slack’s stunning growth over the last year has changed his company dramatically. His company grew from a team of 80 to over 200 in just one year.
But despite that growth and its recent $2.8 billion valuation, Butterfield does not subscribe to the idea that his company, or its product, is in anyway changing the world.
“It's hard for me to say that I feel like we're doing the world some huge favor,” said Butterfield.
“Internally we have this mission: To make people's work lives simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.
And we like that because it's like suitably modest.”
Credits
Related Links
Recognition
Pictures of the Year International
Year: 2016
Place: First
Category: Multimedia Photographer of the Year
NPPA's Best of Photojournalism
Year: 2016
Place: Third
Category: Feature Multimedia Package
NPPA's Best of Photojournalism
Year: 2016
Place: Third
Category: Multimedia Portfolio
Goal
The goal of this production was to make a short film about Canadian-born CEO & cofounder of Slack, Stewart Butterfield, for the Wall Street Journal Magazine’s fifth annual Innovator Awards.
The Challenge
Mr. Butterfield’s company provides low cost communication software to teams. While that may be exciting in use, it isn’t the most engaging topic for video. MediaStorm needed to develop a film that was as engaging to watch as it was informative.
The Solution
Editor and Producer, Tim McLaughlin, decided the film needed to open with a problem most everyone has dealt with; the amount of email we get in our inbox.
Opening with a problem that is eventually “solved” by Mr. Butterfield’s software creates a more personal connection between the subject and the viewer. It helps that Mr. Butterfield commiserates with the issue in a personal and humorous way. In order to visualize Mr. Butterfield’s narrative, MediaStorm used screen capture software to illustrate some of the frustrations Mr. Butterfield expressed with modern communication software.
The Results
The films were premiered at The Wall Street Journal Magazine’s fifth annual Innovator Awards on November 4, 2015 and were released online the following day.
About WSJ. Magazine
With five global editions spanning 62 countries, WSJ. Magazine—which publishes 12 issues a year—is The Wall Street Journal's luxury-lifestyle publication dedicated to the power and passions of the Journal's readership.
WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards films by MediaStorm
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