If you haven’t been paying attention to what is happening within the enterprise software space, you can be forgiven for not being familiar with Slack. For those late to the party, Slack is a communication platform threatening to dethrone email, Google Hangouts, and HipChat as the business communication tools of choice. Once you have discovered the power of Slack, you’ll find it hard to go back to traditional messaging interfaces like phone calls and text messaging.
The startup community has welcomed Slack with open arms, as has the investment community. With millions of dollars in investment funding from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners, and Slow Ventures, Slack is a runaway success story in the enterprise software space. If you want to jump on-board this rocket ship and utilize Slack as your team communication tool of choice, following are seven must-have Slack integrations for your entrepreneurial endeavor.
Notify
Notify is a must-use tool for entrepreneurs on Slack. This handy resource will automatically alert you whenever your company is mentioned online. Whether you’re mentioned in a post on Quora, in an article on LinkedIn, or in a post on Reddit, you and your team will instantly be advised, allowing you the opportunity to engage and maximize your media mentions.
VC Club
VC Club is another must-use Slack tool for entrepreneurs. This helpful resource connects you with angel investors and venture capitalists discussing a variety of topics. Whether you’re looking for insider intelligence on market trends or the latest scoop on funding announcements, you’ll find the conversations you seek via VC Club.
Pipe
If your startup team works with APIs, Pipe is a must-discover resource. Pipe lets you integrate any existing API with Slack to enable custom notifications based upon your parameters. Whether you integrate with a cryptocurrency API to receive Bitcoin notifications or an e-commerce API to receive sales updates, Pipe makes creating custom alerts in Slack easy.
Spaces
Recently acquired by Slack, Spaces makes team collaboration on documents easy. Whether you and your co-founder want to work on a pitch deck together or you are sharing a sales presentation with remote team members across the globe, Spaces makes real-time document sharing seamless.
Slack List
Slack List offers details on the top communities within Slack. Whether you want to network with other technology entrepreneurs or you hope to connect with designers to improve your UX and UI skills, you can do so thanks to Slack List. Categories range from business and gaming channels to music, movies, and social channels.
Meekan
If you don’t want to wait for back-and-forth communications in Slack to schedule team meetings, you need to add Meekan to your list of must-use Slack integrations. Meekan offers a scheduling interface that reacts to your requests. Tell Meekan you want to schedule anything from a tele-conference to product update meeting, and instantly be advised as to optimum times for your team to meet in Slack.
Startup
If you hope to network with other global entrepreneurs who are using the Slack platform, add Startup to your bookmark list. Startup connects you with over 2000 entrepreneurs who can offer everything from angel investor insights to growth hacks and marketing advice.
Once you experience the power of Slack, you’ll begin to wonder how your team ever functioned without it. The above-listed integrations make your experience even more intoxicating. Be warned though; once you fall down the Slack rabbit hole you might not resurface for quite some time.