Home › Case studies › CRED
ManagementBrand PositioningFintechAdvanced2018
CRED: Premium Brand Without Revenue
The challenge
Slack started as an internal communication tool at a gaming company called Tiny Speck. When their game Glitch failed in 2012, CEO Stewart Butterfield realized their internal tool was more valuable than the game itself. Enterprise software was dominated by Microsoft and IBM.
The strategy
Slack's go-to-market strategy was bottom-up adoption — target individual teams and employees rather than IT departments. If teams loved it, they would pressure companies to buy it. This reversed the traditional top-down enterprise software sales model.
Want the full story, outcome and quiz?
Read how CRED executed it, the results, key lessons and test yourself with a quiz. Free on CaseLearn.
Try the full case free →Key lessons (preview)
- Bottom-up adoption through individual users bypasses traditional enterprise sales gatekeepers.
- Delightful product experience creates word-of-mouth that no marketing budget can replicate.
- Tracking engagement metrics like DAU reveals health better than vanity metrics like sign-ups.