We Don’t Sell Saddles Here

Source: https://medium.com/@stewart/we-dont-sell-saddles-here-4c59524d650d Author: Stewart Butterfield Date: 2024-07-27

Summary

Stewart Butterfield’s internal memo to Slack employees at launch, arguing that Slack should think of itself as “selling organizational transformation,” not a messaging product. Classic product vision essay — the product is a means, not the end.

Key Claims

• “We don’t sell saddles, we sell the ability to ride.” The product is not the thing — the transformation it enables is the thing.
• Slack’s actual pitch: dramatically reduce email, make work more transparent, preserve institutional knowledge.
• The memo is addressed to employees to align them on the vision — sales and marketing is downstream of internal clarity.
• Relevance to AI products: AI tools need to be sold as transformation (what you can now do) not capability (what the AI can do).

Concepts

• Classic product/startup essay; relevant to AI product positioning