Not being able to find a file when you know it exists is bad enough. When you’re a small business strapped for time and resources, it’s even more frustrating.
Stockpress co-founders Jessica Storry and Ian Parkes knew this pain all too well. They ran a web design and software development agency with their other co-founding partners Bart Romanowski and Kamila Romanowska, and they’d use a combination of Dropbox and email to coordinate assets and deliverables. ‘But any time anyone would request something, it was hard to find,’ said Storry. ‘We just didn’t have any way to centralise everything.’ So they built a self-service tool that allows small- and mid-market customers to successfully manage their own digital assets – and Stockpress was born.
With eight full-time and four part-time employees, Stockpress started using Slack after a customer added them to their workspace. ‘I have no idea how we got anything done before,’ said Storry, who is also Stockpress’s CEO. ‘It wasn’t nearly as efficient or as fast as we do things with Slack.’
Stockpress is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, but it’s remote-first, encouraging the team to work in Slack from wherever they are. They forgo the formality and inconvenience of email in favour of Slack Connect, which brings communications out of siloed inboxes and into Slack channels. It allows them to collaborate securely with not just with external clients, but also partners and freelancers.
‘The speed of getting things done is remarkable,’ said Parkes, who is the Chief Revenue Officer at Stockpress. The transparency it provides for their small team saves time and increases productivity every day. ‘We get full visibility into what’s going on without needing to call a meeting or get an explanation from someone,’ said Storry. ‘That wouldn’t happen in email.’
Slack is integral to how we collaborate with clients, partners and freelancers. Without it, I have no idea how we would run our business.
Coordinating fast-moving partnerships with ease
Stockpress uses Slack Connect with all its larger clients. ‘When they need me, I can respond so much faster than if I missed an email,’ said Storry. In addition to clients, Stockpress leverages this feature to also work with external development partners and freelancers. ‘Everybody’s in Slack with us: it’s our primary source of communication.’
In fact, a new Stockpress partnership with Webflow was almost entirely orchestrated in Slack Connect. ‘From the initial project and product development to the launch, 99% of our communication was in Slack,’ said Parkes. ‘Slack Connect brought partnerships, commercial, dev, sales and marketing teams together from both sides to accelerate the launch. We would never have been able to work so quickly otherwise. It was instantaneous.’
For example, at one point, Webflow requested to create a promo, and within seconds, the marketing team was in the Slack channel connecting with sales to make it happen. ‘It was just so much easier to coordinate all the moving parts and people in Slack,’ said Storry. The context that Slack provides also makes it seamless for anyone new to join and hit the ground running. ‘I love the ability to reference Slack along the way, get things done quicker and have it as an index.’
One of the reasons we upgraded to a paid subscription was because we wanted to be able to reference our old messages, which is so worth it because of all the rich history.
A better way to work from anywhere
To optimise operations and remain competitive with limited resources, Stockpress taps into Slack’s many integrations, such as Intercom, which sends alerts directly in Slack whenever anyone needs help, and Asana, which organises tasks and keeps everyone aligned towards project goals. Of course, the company is also creating its own app in Slack, which makes it easy to stay updated on new files, comments, annotations and more.
‘I also love using the Google Calendar integration because if I don’t respond, teammates, clients and partners know I’m in a meeting,’ said Storry. (The Google Calendar app will automatically set your Slack status to In a meeting or Out of office according to your calendar, helping colleagues to know when they can expect a reply from you.)
Largely remote internally, with clients, freelancers and partners spread across the world, Stockpress leans on Slack to not only collaborate but also build camaraderie and transparency across time zones. ‘Huddles are one of my favourite features,’ said Storry. ‘I love that other teammates can see when we’re in one, so if we don’t write back, they know why.’ Similarly to the Google Calendar app, huddles automatically update your Slack status to keep everyone in the loop.
Navigating the non-stop nature of small businesses can be a challenge, but Stockpress leverages Slack to scale its growth from anywhere. The team can speed up communications, manage workflows and nurture client relationships, all while embracing the flexibility and freedom of owning their businesses.
