Best Instant Messaging Apps for Enterprise Businesses
Slack is one of the most popular team messaging platforms in the world, widely adopted for its ease of use, powerful integrations, and ability to streamline internal communication. It offers features like real-time messaging, file sharing, app integrations, voice and video calls, and customizable workflows, making it a strong tool for productivity and collaboration within teams. However, despite its popularity, Slack is not built for secure client communication or use in regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, or legal services. While it provides basic encryption for data in transit and at rest, it lacks end-to-end encryption and does not offer HIPAA compliance out of the box—this requires upgrading to the Enterprise Grid plan and undergoing a lengthy approval process. Additionally, Slack does not include features like secure client portals, audit-level access control, or structured messaging environments designed for compliance with standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or FINRA. As a result, while Slack is excellent for internal team chats, it is not a secure or compliant choice for organizations that handle sensitive client information or operate in tightly regulated sectors.
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How startup leaders are navigating the new normal of remote and hybrid work
Remote work may be here to stay, but that doesn't mean startup leaders have figured it all out. One session at the 2025 Builders Conference tackled the question of how startups can balance the flexibility of remote work with the need for culture-building and engagement. Titled 'Remote vs. Hybrid for Startups: Recruiting & Ecosystem Engagement,' the session featured Raymond Magee of BloomCatch, Jake Stein of Common Paper and Dan Winston of BalancedWork, with Tally Wolff of Arlington Economic Development moderating. With a mix of fully remote, hybrid and in-person experiences among them, the panelists offered candid insights about what's working — and what isn't — in this evolving era of work. 'There are things we got for free in person that we didn't appreciate until they were gone,' Stein said. 'Bumping into each other, building rapport so you give someone the benefit of the doubt on an ambiguous Slack.' One key theme was how founders engage with their local startup ecosystems. Magee pointed to the conference itself as a powerful example: In-person gatherings offer value that remote work can't replicate, but the fact that sessions are recorded makes them more accessible to founders who can't make the trip. 'If you can't physically drive … three hours to get this knowledge firsthand and in person, the ability to watch the recording is key,' Magee said. 'Hybrid and remote work have changed how we engage in conferences and with the local community.' Winston's company, BalancedWork, helps organizations make data-informed decisions about when to meet in person or remotely using calendar data to analyze meetings. The tech then recommends which setup is best suited for the situation. He also noted that local innovation groups like incubators have become less about daily coworking and more about regular, intentional meetups. 'The day-to-day 'we're just sitting next to each other' isn't happening as much,' Winston said. 'Something is different — maybe lost. Whether that matters varies case by case.' Designing new norms, not chasing old ones Though the founders praised the benefits of flexibility, including being able to hire specialized talent from across the country, they were candid about the downsides of distributed teams. But Stein from Common Paper is finding ways to remotely recreate experiences that often take place in person. 'Junior folks learn by eavesdropping; remote loses that,' Stein said. To fill that gap, Common Paper has implemented recurring 'scheduled unscheduled' Zoom calls — intentionally agenda-less spaces where employees can talk about anything from dogs to deal flows. Magee said he regularly meets with his junior team members, often daily, for their first few months and starts every meeting with 5 to 10 minutes of personal small talk because it deepens relationships. 'Once they see you invest in them on their terms,' he said, 'they'll work hard for you.' Leadership behavior sets the tone, Winston noted, and actions matter more than words. 'People sense how a leader feels,' he explained. Ultimately, each panelist stressed that remote and hybrid work can be effective — but only with intention. 'Remote work is a privilege, not a right,' Magee said. 'It's on both the employer and the employee to make it work.' Asked whether they would recommend a remote job to a recent college graduate, the panelists agreed that in-person experience offers value early in a career. 'Take an in‐person one,' Winston said. 'We humans absorb more than screens can show.'
Listly
6 days ago
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Best Instant Messaging Apps for Enterprise Businesses
Slack is one of the most popular team messaging platforms in the world, widely adopted for its ease of use, powerful integrations, and ability to streamline internal communication. It offers features like real-time messaging, file sharing, app integrations, voice and video calls, and customizable workflows, making it a strong tool for productivity and collaboration within teams. However, despite its popularity, Slack is not built for secure client communication or use in regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, or legal services. While it provides basic encryption for data in transit and at rest, it lacks end-to-end encryption and does not offer HIPAA compliance out of the box—this requires upgrading to the Enterprise Grid plan and undergoing a lengthy approval process. Additionally, Slack does not include features like secure client portals, audit-level access control, or structured messaging environments designed for compliance with standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or FINRA. As a result, while Slack is excellent for internal team chats, it is not a secure or compliant choice for organizations that handle sensitive client information or operate in tightly regulated sectors.
Technical.ly
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Philly Startup Leaders rebrands and pivots strategy, after years of declining revenue
A longtime startup resource organization in Philly is changing its name, while pivoting to expand outside of the city and swapping in-person programming for virtual resources. Philly Startup Leaders rebranded to Startup Leaders earlier this month and announced a slate of programming that expands its reach outside of Philadelphia. This change was a long time coming, CEO Isabelle Kent told The org had long wanted to create a single place for founders to access everything they need — not necessarily by providing it all directly — while also making the organization more sustainable, she said. 'The goal for us is not to be the primary organizer,' Kent said. 'But rather spread our support around to organizations that can contribute to different aspects of the founder lifecycle, but still be tethered to this anchor of Startup Leaders.' The effort to strengthen the org in the long term comes at a time when Startup Leaders faces its lowest revenue yet. The total amount of money brought in by the org dropped dramatically in recent years, only making $105,000 in 2023, compared to $630,000 in 2019, according to the nonprofit's tax filings. The nonprofit is prioritizing virtual programming with the rebrand, while pointing founders to other orgs for in-person events. Startup Leaders' shift to digital events began during the pandemic, and its model eventually became a mix of both in-person and online events. For example, the org continued to host its monthly founder meetup, Welcome Wagon, until very recently. The newly launched venture studio United Effects Ventures told earlier this week it would be taking over the event series. Startup Leaders has been rethinking its programming for the last few years, according to Kent. It wanted to create more structured, self-paced programming so founders could have access to resources outside of events and accelerator cycles. PSL hasn't conducted its Founded in Philly accelerator since 2022. Instead, the org has been partnering with and supporting Founder Institute's Keystone Chapter accelerator program, Kent said, rather than hosting its own. With the rebrand, Startup Leaders will now launch a 'digital accelerator' program, according to Kent. It will be a database to direct new founders to other support orgs in their region, in-person events, investors and educational materials, as opposed to a traditional in-person accelerator. It also wants to offer an expert library, a job board, a new Slack channel and ecosystem maps. The new format will be a tiered membership structure ranging from $50 to $120 per month, but Philly founders will receive a discount. It is also developing a proprietary mentor matching tool and a chatbot that will act like a digital startup coach. 'Utilize Startup Leaders as a jumping off point,' Kent said, ' as you try to navigate which resources are available [and] what you should be doing at each stage of your growth as a founder.' A rebrand after years of financial struggle Startup Leaders is just one of several entrepreneur support organizations in Philly, all on different tracks. The Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT) shifted more of its focus to supporting startups in the city, expanding from the suburbs. 1Philadelphia, an initiative of tech education org Coded By, launched in 2020 with the goal of bringing equity to the tech industry in Philly. Unlike Startup Leaders, both of these organizations saw revenue growth over the last few years. While previously Startup Leaders was making most of its money from events and accelerators, the org's financial dip really began in 2020 when the pandemic forced a change in format, according to Kent. 'Post-pandemic … it became pretty obvious to us that we needed to start reconsidering what the future structure of our organization was in order to create a pretty different channel of revenue for the organization,' Kent said. Still, in other regions, local entrepreneur support organizations are also seeing an uptick in support. While Baltimore and Pittsburgh, for example, have vastly different ecosystems, each city's main ESO has generally increased revenue over time. Startup Leaders will still be a Philly org Startup Leaders launched in 2008, solidifying itself as a gathering and educational space for Philly founders over the years. The nonprofit celebrated its 15th anniversary at the end of 2023. However, the organization faced challenges over the years. In addition to revenue hurdles in the years following the pandemic, Startup Leaders faced criticism in 2017 for a lack of diversity, eventually leading to Yuval Yarden, executive director at the time, stepping down. While Startup Leaders is moving away from its place-based identity, supporting Philadelphia's startup community is still top of mind, Kent said. 'This is not us leaving or abandoning Philadelphia,' she said. 'This is truly an expansion of our capabilities. And the goal for this is to really go out there and bring knowledge and resources back to the Philadelphia community and help it connect with the world at large.' Despite Kent's motivation to reach a wider audience with a virtual focus, she also said that Startup Leaders will be a part of creating more physical spaces for tech leaders in Philly to gather. Physical space is one of the elements that Philadelphia needs for a strong startup ecosystem, she said. Over the years, many physical spaces have shifted focus to just life sciences or have shut down. Startup Leaders has been working with other orgs for over a year to create an emerging technology incubator. It's piloting an in-person space and plans to raise funding to build a new physical meeting place for tech founders that hosts collaborative programming between stakeholders, Kent said. 'All of this will really serve as us helping unite and inform a vision for Philadelphia's innovation ecosystem,' Kent said. 'That all the organizations, whether those are legacy orgs or whether they're newcomers, can work towards.' Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
