Slack was a ‘nightmare’: an Indian startup’s homegrown solution

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Remember when email was the Next Big Thing? I remember how thrilled I was to create my first account, the name of which I will not disclose because it was too embarrassing (along with several of my AOL Instant Messaging names). Email came with a slew of its own problems, like when my high school dean would send an announcement out with a missing detail, and the questions asking for said detail would lead to 58 new emails in a matter of 10 minutes. And then 100 more emails asking if people wouldn’t hit “reply all.” And then 100 more emails asking if people would stop hitting “reply all” to tell people not to “reply all.”

What a mess.

Now, there are a bevy of internal messaging services just for offices that allow file sharing, team collaboration, and communication via hilarious gifs, among other features. Slack is probably the most famous of these. However, for one startup in India, their mission to create a better office messaging app became clear for them when they themselves used Slack – and hated it.

They themselves used Slack – and hated it.

“It’s a nightmare when you want to talk across teams,” Bhavin Turakhia tells Tech in Asia. Bhavin is co-founder and CEO of Directi group, which oversees international call company Ringo, mobile meal voucher company Zeta, online store domain registry Radix, ad site Media, and educational nonprofit Codechef. It also oversees Flock, a homegrown Slack competitor.

Bhavin had been thinking about creating an internal messaging system a while, but Flock launched in India in September 2014. It provides support for 2,200 domain names in about 25 different countries. Most of its customers are in the US and India.

Let the office games begin

Bhavin Turakhia, co-founder of Directi group, under which Flock falls.

Depending on how much conversation history you want to keep around, how much space your file sharing is going to take up, and the amount of support you want on-hand for problems, Flock can be free. A middle-tier plan offering up to 10GB of space for file sharing and unlimited conversation history is available for US$3 per person per month. In comparison, similar plans from Slack can range from free (5GB total storage) to US$6.67 per active user per month, plus an US$8 flat monthly fee (10GB file storage per team member). Teams wanting more space can contact Flock for special rates.

Inspired by a model based on collaboration, the scrappier model makes Flock ideal for smaller companies, says Bhavin. “A lot of work in startups is done with teams that come together and want to finish a project.” Flock also offers an API for personalized platforms, and developers can create their own apps for use with the platform. However, several features that are included on Slack as app add-ons are included from the get-go with Flock, including polls and video conferencing. It also has a to do list feature that notifies team members upon completion of tasks.

Apps that are a variation on the traditional to do list are popular in India, with startups like dunzo, Haptik, and MagicX all finding funding this year. Niki, which combines task management with a messaging app, raised funding from Ratan Tata last month.

One out of many