--- title: Slack’s founder got one hour with Benioff before the... description: Stewart Butterfield says he got only about an hour of facetime with Marc Benioff before Salesforce's Slack acquisition was announced, and his last meeting was... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/slack-s-founder-got-one-hour-with-benioff-before-the-27-7bn-sale-vnwzhimxe twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Slack’s founder got one hour with Benioff before the $27.7bn sale | daily.dev og:description: Stewart Butterfield says he got only about an hour of facetime with Marc Benioff before Salesforce's Slack acquisition was announced, and his last meeting was... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/slack-s-founder-got-one-hour-with-benioff-before-the-27-7bn-sale-vnwzhimxe og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/VNWZHiMxE.png og:image:alt: Slack’s founder got one hour with Benioff before the $27.7bn sale og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Slack’s founder got one hour with Benioff before the $27.7bn sale **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Stewart Butterfield says he got only about an hour of facetime with Marc Benioff before Salesforce's Slack acquisition was announced, and his last meeting was cut short when Matthew McConaughey arrived. The account comes from Johnny Rodgers, one of Slack's original eight team members, in part two of his 'Building Slack' series. Rodgers writes that Butterfield watched executives approve expensive celebrity appearances while cutting travel, and an annual Hawaii retreat called Laulima cost millions. Slack co-founder Cal Henderson says Salesforce's sales team did not really use or understand the Slack product. Butterfield decided to leave in autumn 2022, and the Davos trip, where he expected to meet customers but ended up on an innovation panel with will.i.am, was the tipping point. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much facetime did Stewart Butterfield get with Marc Benioff before Salesforce's Slack acquisition was announced Stewart Butterfield says he got only about one hour of total facetime with Marc Benioff before the $27.7bn deal was announced. His last meeting with Benioff was cut short because Matthew McConaughey, one of Salesforce's celebrity spokespeople, arrived. Salesforce announced the acquisition in December 2020 at $45 a share, more than double Slack's stock price at the time. _Curious how big acquisitions really play out behind the scenes? Track founder stories like this on daily.dev._ ### Why did Stewart Butterfield leave Slack after the Salesforce acquisition Butterfield decided to leave in autumn 2022 after a trip to Davos where he expected to meet customers but instead ended up on an innovation panel with will.i.am. He had earlier described a lack of incorporation between Slack's culture and Salesforce's culture, calling the integration 'just elimination' in a leaked all-hands meeting. He planned to announce his exit on December 1, 2022, only to learn a day earlier that Bret Taylor, who brokered the deal, was also leaving. _Following post-acquisition culture clashes helps engineers weigh offers at acquired companies, track it on daily.dev._ ### Why didn't Salesforce's sales team adopt Slack after the acquisition Slack co-founder Cal Henderson says Salesforce's sales team got put onto Slack but weren't really using it, especially in sales, because they didn't understand the product. Salesforce traditionally sells to one department at a time, while Slack needed buy-in from a whole leadership team, so Salesforce's sales team sold the products they understood and could sell vertically instead. _Evaluating whether a tool will actually get adopted org-wide? Follow real adoption stories like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Salesforce's Agentforce hype outpaces its delivery](https://daily.dev/posts/salesforce-s-agentforce-hype-outpaces-its-delivery-kqxjgm9bg) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Connect Slack to Salesforce with Hosted MCP Servers](https://daily.dev/posts/connect-slack-to-salesforce-with-hosted-mcp-servers-ytypu6hbh) · Salesforce Developers Blog · 2 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#business](https://daily.dev/tags/business), [#salesforce](https://daily.dev/tags/salesforce), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture), [#slack](https://daily.dev/tags/slack) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/slack-s-founder-got-one-hour-with-benioff-before-the-27-7bn-sale-vnwzhimxe) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Slack’s founder got one hour with Benioff before the $27.7bn sale","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/slack-s-founder-got-one-hour-with-benioff-before-the-27-7bn-sale-vnwzhimxe","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/slack-s-founder-got-one-hour-with-benioff-before-the-27-7bn-sale-vnwzhimxe"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T20:19:37.227Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T20:54:22.202Z","description":"Stewart Butterfield says he got only about an hour of facetime with Marc Benioff before Salesforce's Slack acquisition was announced, and his last meeting was...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6477e1b518a5017525993c2cc46e9c5b?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6477e1b518a5017525993c2cc46e9c5b?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/slack-s-founder-got-one-hour-with-benioff-before-the-27-7bn-sale-vnwzhimxe","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"business,salesforce,company-culture,slack","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Slack’s founder got one hour with Benioff before the $27.7bn sale"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/slack-s-founder-got-one-hour-with-benioff-before-the-27-7bn-sale-vnwzhimxe#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How much facetime did Stewart Butterfield get with Marc Benioff before Salesforce's Slack acquisition was announced","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Stewart Butterfield says he got only about one hour of total facetime with Marc Benioff before the $27.7bn deal was announced. His last meeting with Benioff was cut short because Matthew McConaughey, one of Salesforce's celebrity spokespeople, arrived. Salesforce announced the acquisition in December 2020 at $45 a share, more than double Slack's stock price at the time. Curious how big acquisitions really play out behind the scenes? Track founder stories like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did Stewart Butterfield leave Slack after the Salesforce acquisition","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Butterfield decided to leave in autumn 2022 after a trip to Davos where he expected to meet customers but instead ended up on an innovation panel with will.i.am. He had earlier described a lack of incorporation between Slack's culture and Salesforce's culture, calling the integration 'just elimination' in a leaked all-hands meeting. He planned to announce his exit on December 1, 2022, only to learn a day earlier that Bret Taylor, who brokered the deal, was also leaving. 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