Is Slack ($WORK) on a growth path after a somewhat rough public debut? The data reflects that this could indeed be the case. 

For one, it has been on a mega-growth-trajectory leading up to its direct offering, which has since stumbled on public markets. We should state that Thinknum employees use Slack in the office everyday to send GIFs of cats and memes to one another.

Hiring slowdown

The wildly successful messaging and workplace collab platform has stalled hiring precipitously. Since April 2019, job openings have dropped from 216 to 124 as of the end of August, a decrease of 43%. Since its DPO, the number of openings listed at Slack's careers website has shrunk by 33%.

What gives? The most likely answer is how the market reacted to the public debut of the stock, and how the company has been put in the position of needing to manage its quarterly narrative through expense management. It's similar to another big IPO, that has also stumbled - and subsequently seen job postings decline (Uber). 

Still loved by users

In terms of both Slack's growth, and in terms of its acceptance among its users, the company has seen booming trends. So many big apps make a market debut only to see their rating fall - on the Google ($GOOG) Play App Store, Slack's rating has climbed - and it was already ahead of typical ratings. And, to top it all off, there are clearly more users still coming to the platform - Google App Ratings have risen by nealry 18% so far in 2019. 

Slack has its earnings call not long after this article posts. For all future updates on the company and how the alternative data stacks against it, keep it tuned to Thinknum media.

About the Data: 

Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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