Stewart Butterfield
Born 1973 · Age 52
Canadian entrepreneur; co-founder of Flickr and Slack; former CEO of Slack; known for building user-focused collaboration and photo-sharing products.
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Life & Career Timeline
Early childhood on a commune; grew up without utilities
Spent first five years living in a log cabin on a remote commune without running water or electricity after his father fled the U.S. draft.
Born in Lund, British Columbia
Born Dharma Jeremy Butterfield in Lund, British Columbia, Canada.
Family moved to Victoria, British Columbia
Family relocated from the commune to Victoria when Butterfield was five.
Self-taught coding in childhood
Became immersed in computing after his family bought a computer; taught himself how to code as a child.
Designed websites for income during university
Made money designing websites while at university (freelance/web design work in the 1990s).
B.A. in Philosophy, University of Victoria
Received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of Victoria.
M.Phil. in Philosophy, Clare College, Cambridge
Earned a Master of Philosophy from Clare College, Cambridge; thesis on 19th-century scientific thinkers.
Joined Gradfinder.com with Jason Classon
Worked with Jason Classon to build the startup Gradfinder.com.
Gradfinder.com sold (acquisition)
Gradfinder.com was sold (reported sold for a substantial profit shortly after Butterfield joined).
Launched '5K competition' web design contest
Created a contest centered on designing websites under 5 kilobytes.
Received Chrysler Design Award
Recognized with a Chrysler design award (reported 2001).
Married Caterina Fake
Married future Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake (marriage later ended in divorce in 2007).
Started developing Game Neverending
Ludicorp developed a massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Game Neverending; included photo-sharing features.
Co-founded Ludicorp
Co-founded Ludicorp in Vancouver with Caterina Fake and Jason Classon to build Game Neverending.
Mortgaged home to keep Ludicorp afloat
As funds ran low during Game Neverending development, Butterfield and cofounders mortgaged their home to continue operations.
Launched Flickr (photo-sharing service)
Pivoted Ludicorp from Game Neverending to launch Flickr, a pioneering photo-sharing site that helped usher in Web 2.0.
Named BusinessWeek 'Top 50' Leader (Entrepreneur)
Recognized by BusinessWeek as one of the top 50 leaders in the entrepreneur category.
Ludicorp / Flickr acquired by Yahoo!
Ludicorp and Flickr were acquired by Yahoo! (reported March 2005); Butterfield continued as General Manager of Flickr at Yahoo.
Included in MIT Technology Review TR35 (Under 35)
Named one of Technology Review's '35 innovators under 35' (TR35) in 2005.
Won Webby Award (Special Achievement) with Caterina Fake
Recognized with a Webby Award for Special Achievement (shared with Fake).
Named in Time 100 and featured on Newsweek cover
Included in Time magazine's 'Time 100' most influential people (2006) and appeared on the cover of Newsweek.
Divorced Caterina Fake
Butterfield and Caterina Fake divorced in 2007; their child was born the same year.
Child born (with Caterina Fake)
Butterfield and Fake's child (daughter Sonnet, reported in some sources) was born in 2007.
Left Yahoo! (General Manager, Flickr)
Resigned from Yahoo and left his role leading Flickr on July 12, 2008; returned to Vancouver to contribute to local tech culture.
Legacy Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Victoria
Received the 'Legacy Distinguished Alumni Award' from the University of Victoria (November 2008).
Founded Tiny Speck
Co-founded Tiny Speck, an online games company (initial seed financing reported at about $1.5 million).
Conceived Slack as internal communications tool
While at Tiny Speck, Butterfield began work on an internal multi-channel communications product that would later become Slack.
Launched Glitch (Tiny Speck's MMO)
Tiny Speck launched the massively multiplayer online game Glitch on September 27, 2011.
Glitch game world closed
Glitch was closed on December 9, 2012, due to failure to attract a sufficiently large audience; website remained online.
Released Glitch art under Creative Commons
Tiny Speck made most of Glitch's art available under a Creative Commons license after closure.
Announced release of Slack (preview)
Announced Slack—an instant-message-based team communication tool developed inside Tiny Speck—previewed publicly in August 2013.
Early Slack growth and organic adoption
Slack grew at a weekly rate of ~5–10%; first-week August reports noted >120,000 daily users registered. Early six-month data showed ~16,000 users registered without advertising.
Public release of Slack
Slack's go-to-market/public release occurred in February 2014.
Speaking engagement: 'We Don’t Sell Saddles Here'
Gave a public talk (listed Feb 2014) about Slack, business and marketing.
Inc. Magazine Company of the Year; multiple 2015 honors
Slack named Inc. Magazine's 2015 Company of the Year. Butterfield also received WSJ Technology Innovator (2015), TechCrunch Founder of the Year Crunchie (2015), and inclusion in Vanity Fair New Establishment, Advertising Age Creative 50, and Details' Digital Mavericks lists.
Slack funding and user milestones (2015)
By December 2015 Slack had raised US$340M in venture capital and reported >2 million daily active users, including 570,000 paying customers.
Raised $80M round to support platform strategy
Slack announced an $80M financing (reported mid/late 2015) to support its platform strategy (part of total VC raised).
Featured on 'Masters of Scale' podcast
Appeared on Reid Hoffman's 'Masters of Scale' podcast (May 2017) to discuss Slack's scaling strategy.
Engaged to Jennifer (Jen) Rubio
Became engaged to Jennifer Rubio, co-founder of Away Luggage, in May 2019.
Slack stock debut (direct listing / public trading)
Slack announced its public listing in June 2019 with an opening reference price of $38.50 and a market capitalization reported around US$21.4 billion (other sources cite ~$19.5B).
Married Jen Rubio
Reported marriage to Jen Rubio in 2020 (Wikipedia lists m.2020).
Salesforce announced agreement to buy Slack
Salesforce confirmed plans to acquire Slack Technologies for US$27.7 billion (announced Dec 2020; deal closed in 2021).
Salesforce acquisition of Slack completed
Sale/merger with Salesforce finalized in 2021; Slack became part of Salesforce while continuing as an entity; Butterfield remained CEO following acquisition (per sources).
Announced departure as Slack CEO
Butterfield announced he was leaving his role as CEO of Slack (reported December 2022).
Left Salesforce / Slack early January
Departed Salesforce / Slack early in January 2023 after announcing his December 2022 departure.
Net worth estimated at US$1.7 billion
Research sources (e.g., EBSCO/Forbes-cited figures) estimated Butterfield's net worth at approximately US$1.7 billion as of March 2024.
Child reported missing
On April 21, 2024, Butterfield's 16-year-old child was reported to have run away/missing.
Child found alive; abduction arrest
The missing child was found alive on April 29, 2024; a 26-year-old man was arrested for abduction.
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