This Company is Everywhere Today... But It Was An Accidental Glitch

In 2009, Stewart Butterfield was not trying to build one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in history.

He was trying to build a game.

The company was called Tiny Speck. The product was an online multiplayer game named Glitch. It was ambitious, creative, and deeply loved by a small community.

It failed.

After years of development, the game could not find enough users to sustain itself. In 2012, Glitch was shut down.

From the outside, this looked like another startup that didn’t work.

But inside the company, something else had quietly taken shape.

The Tool Behind the Work

While building Glitch, the team faced a familiar problem.

They were distributed. They were moving quickly. And existing communication tools were inefficient — fragmented across emails, chats, and internal systems.

So they built their own solution.

A simple internal tool to organise conversations, share files, and keep work moving.

It wasn’t the product.

It was just something that made building the product easier.

After Glitch shut down, the team looked at what they had.

The game was gone.

But the internal tool remained.

That tool became Slack.

What Founders Often Miss

There’s a tendency to think successful companies start with clear intent.

A well-defined idea. A validated market. A structured plan.

But many of the most impactful companies didn’t begin that way.

They emerged.

From side tools. From internal needs. From things built out of necessity rather than strategy.

Slack wasn’t a pivot because the founders suddenly had a new idea.

It was a recognition.

That the most valuable thing they had built was not the thing they originally set out to create.

The Problem With Over-Attachment

Founders often become deeply attached to their initial idea.

They invest time, identity, and energy into making it work.

Which makes it difficult to step back and ask:

Is this actually the right thing?

Or is something else here more valuable?

In many cases, the opportunity is already present.

It just doesn’t look like the original plan.

The 2026 Reality: Ideas Are Cheap, Signals Are Everywhere

Today, the conditions for building are very different.

You can:

launch faster
test ideas quickly
build internal tools with AI
iterate without heavy cost

This creates an environment where signals appear constantly.

A workflow that works unusually well.
A feature people keep using.
A tool your team relies on more than expected.

These are not distractions.

They are data.

The Skill Is Not Just Starting — It Is Noticing

Starting a business still matters.

But the more subtle skill is knowing what to pay attention to once you’ve started.

Because the first idea is often not the final one.

And sometimes, the most valuable product is the one you built to solve your own problem.

Slack did not come from a moment of inspiration.

It came from paying attention to what was already working.

From Idea to Awareness

If you’re building something today, the question is not "Is this idea good?"

It is also:

What else is emerging while I build this?
What tools am I creating?
What behaviours are repeating?
What problems am I solving that others might have too?

If you already have an idea, check out of free validation tool here.

Sometimes the company you build is not the one you planned. It could be the one you discover along the way from toying with your original idea.