Why do SaaS companies, such as Slack, continue to lose money as they grow? Why are investors okay with it and even encourage it?

On June 20, 2019, Slack listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WORK. Slack did this through a direct listing versus the traditional initial public offering (IPO). How are the two different?

What is Slack’s true total addressable market, also known as TAM?

Slack mentions calculated billings in its earnings releases. What is it, and how is it different from revenue?

What evidence is there, if any, to show that Office 365 customers will pay for Slack when they have Teams for free?

There is a lot of hoopla around the number of integrations for Slack. Why are integrations so important, and how does Slack compare to Teams in this regard?

Is Microsoft Teams growing faster than Slack?

What is the big deal about shared channels?

A big concern for Slack investors is whether Microsoft Teams has or will slow Slack’s growth. To answer this, we need to understand the product feature set for both. Are Microsoft Teams and Slack in a state of feature parity?