Initially developed as a direct digitisation of the inter-departmental memo, email has been long embedded into our work lives. The emergence of a new generation of workplace communication tools aim to get closer to how human beings actually interact and the exceptional growth of these solutions brings a host of challenges for their creators. This episode sees Cal Henderson, Co-Founder and CTO of Slack, talk to Hg’s Jason Richards about the unlikely birth story of the app, the value of knowing how your customers actually use your product, the gear shifts required in both your code and your organisation as you grow quickly and the support that comes from being part of a tech community (in this case the Bay Area). This podcast was recorded as part of Hg’s Technology Leaders Summit 2021. Listen to Part 2 now in series 3 of Orbit.