In the heart of Boston, where historic cobblestone streets meet modern innovation, two small businesses are making waves with big ideas.
A creative agency working with B2B SaaS tech companies looking to scale their content marketing efforts, Datalily (formerly CXD Studio), offers everything from copywriting and content strategy to design, data campaigns, market research, and data analysis. The core team of four has a freelance support squad of 10-15, and built their business using Slack. “We’re a very small team, so we heavily rely on Slack for all our operations,” said Finance and Operations Manager Thiago Guimarães.
Down the street, Stockpress has built a self-service tool that allows small and mid-market customers to successfully manage their own digital assets. With seven full-time and four part-time employees, they started using Slack after a customer added them to their workplace. “I have no idea how we got anything done before,” said CEO and Co-Founder Jessica Storry. “It wasn’t nearly as efficient or as fast as we do things now with Slack.”
Both businesses are headquartered in Boston but are remote-first, encouraging the teams to work in Slack from wherever they are. When talking with external partners and clients, they forgo the formality and inconvenience of email in favor of Slack Connect, which brings communications out of siloed inboxes and into Slack channels, allowing them to collaborate securely with not just with external clients, but partners and freelancers.
“The speed of getting things done is remarkable,” said Stockpress Co-Founder Ian Parkes. The transparency it provides 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. That wouldn’t happen in email,” said Storry.
Slack is integral to us collaborating with clients, partners, and freelancers. Without it, I have no idea how we would run our business.
Building valuable partnerships through Slack Connect
Often closely involved in their clients’ day-to-day processes, Datalily uses Slack Connect to stay in sync. “We work very closely with our clients as partners,” said Chief Marketing Officer Katherine Boyarsky. “With Slack Connect, we can be an extension of their marketing organization.”
Stockpress uses Slack Connect with all of their 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 works with external development partners and freelancers in Slack Connect. “Everybody’s in Slack Connect 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.”
Slack Connect improves our client experience drastically, which is important to our team because we’re small and do a lot of execution, but we’re also consultants. It’s crucial our clients feel like we’re part of their team. With Slack, they know that it’s always going to be a white glove experience.
Delivering the best possible experience for clients
To properly manage resources, deliver quality work, and make informed decisions, small businesses need to stay on top of every last detail, many of which can easily get lost in email threads. Slack Connect enables Datalily to quickly find solutions for any issue — without the back-and-forth of email. “When clients need a quick answer, and they see that green dot, they know we’ll respond quickly,” said Boyarsky. And if they need to reference past conversations, projects, or data, it’s at their fingertips. “I love the ability to reference Slack along the way, get things done quicker, and have it as an index,” said Guimarães.
They’re also able to seamlessly send work back and forth via Slack, with both clients and freelancers. “If there are any questions on the work, we can quickly hash it out in Slack,” said Datalily’s Chief Creative Officer Gabby Pinto. They use threads to stay organized, and emoji to gauge reactions. Often, if team members change or new people get involved, project details can get lost in an email thread. “But in Slack, anyone can catch up on what’s happening and start contributing more quickly,” Boyarsky said.
This kind of visibility is paramount. “In email, it’s easy to work in silos, forget to add people, and lose information,” said Guimarães. “But in Slack, everyone can see everything.” This is especially crucial if one of their colleagues needs to step in for someone else. “We pride ourselves on how fast and well we can do things, so it’s important our clients know we’re available in Slack.”
Plus, with conversation history at their fingertips, Stockpress can instantly access contextual knowledge whenever they need it. “One of the reasons we upgraded to a paid plan was because we wanted to be able to reference our old messages, which is so worth it because of all the rich history,” said Storry.
I know if there’s a work emergency, it will go in Slack. This makes it easier to stay on top of things and be responsible. We can solve problems quickly and avoid them from becoming bigger problems.
A better way to work from anywhere
To optimize operations and remain competitive with limited resources, both Datalily and Stockpress tap into Slack’s many integrations, from Asana and Bonsai to Intercom and Google Calendar. “Integrations save us so much time,” said Boyarsky. “Instead of having to go into another tool, I get my alerts and take action in Slack, then move forward.”
Largely remote internally, with clients, freelancers, and partners spread across the world, Datalily and Stockpress lean on Slack to not only collaborate but build camaraderie across time zones. “We’re very flexible in our hours and location, and Slack makes that possible,” said Datalily’s Boyarsky. “If we want to get some fresh air, go to a coffee shop, or walk the dog, Slack allows us to easily switch from our computer to our phones without being tied to our house or office.”
Datalily spends a lot of time in Slack huddles, where they can catch up quickly, collaborate, and co-create in real time, via audio or video. “We’re in huddles constantly. They save us so much time,” said Boyarsky. Sometimes, they even keep a huddle open to build camaraderie when they work remotely. “We’re all in a huddle listening to music together while we work. It’s like our office.”
“Huddles are one of my favorite features,” agreed Stockpress’s Storry. “I love that other teammates can see when we’re in one, so if we don’t write back, they know why.”
Navigating the non-stop nature of small businesses can be a challenge, but Datalily and Stockpress leverage Slack to scale their growth from anywhere. They can speed up communications, manage workflows, and nurture client relationships, all while embracing the flexibility and freedom of owning their businesses.
“Between our core team and our external clients and partners, we’re always working from different places, but Slack and Slack Connect bring us all together,” said Guimarães. “We’re able to talk quicker, solve things, and have a little fun, which improves morale and makes work better for everyone.”
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