Early Life and Education
Daniel Stewart Butterfield was born in Lund, British Columbia, Canada, on March 21, 1973. He spent his early childhood in a log cabin without running water or electricity, growing up in a commune. His family later moved to Victoria when he was five. He taught himself to code and changed his name to Stewart at 12.
Rise to Success
Butterfield's career began with his co-founding of Ludicorp in 2002, which developed the online game Game Neverending. When that project failed, he and his team pivoted to create Flickr. Flickr quickly gained popularity, becoming a cornerstone of the early web 2.0 era and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. After leaving Yahoo! in 2008, Butterfield co-founded Tiny Speck in 2009. During the development of the multiplayer game Glitch, he and his team created an internal communication tool that would become Slack. The platform was launched in 2013 and gained rapid adoption, transforming team communication. Slack was acquired by Salesforce in 2020 for $27.7 billion.
Key Business Strategies
Butterfield's success can be attributed to his ability to pivot from failed ventures and identify market opportunities. His background in philosophy provided him with the critical thinking skills and unique perspective needed to approach problems in novel ways. He emphasizes the importance of building a strong product, customer service, and fostering a positive company culture. Butterfield's philosophy degree has played a part in how he runs his business.
Philanthropy
Butterfield has pledged to share most of his wealth for good causes. He has supported efforts like fighting climate change, helping those in poverty, and promoting education.
