Troops

Troops (Troops.ai; legal name Troops, Inc.) was a New York-based software company that built a bot-based integration layer connecting CRM systems of record, principally Salesforce, with messaging systems of engagement, principally Slack. The product let sales and other customer-facing teams search and retrieve CRM records, update and create records, schedule automated reports, and receive real-time notifications about deals, leads and account activity without leaving Slack. Early versions also pulled contact data from Google Apps.

Salesforce characterized Troops as a provider of a "revenue communications" solution used to improve sales velocity, forecasting, visibility and collaboration across teams. Secondary profiles describe the product as automating routine sales-management administrative work, improving CRM data quality and increasing deal visibility, with customizable workflows, task reminders and follow-ups, mobile access, and reporting. Named customers cited in one profile include Envoy, WeWork and HubSpot.

Salesforce announced a definitive agreement to acquire Troops on May 10, 2022 and completed the acquisition on July 15, 2022, folding the team into Slack. The troops.ai domain today serves Salesforce/Slack product marketing rather than a standalone Troops product.

Founding story

According to TechCrunch, Troops was founded in 2016 by Dan Reich, Scott Britton and Greg Ratner to streamline pushing and pulling Salesforce CRM data using Slack as a conduit. Reich had co-founded the social analytics service Spinback, Britton had worked at the business management platform SinglePlatform, and Ratner had been director of technology at the creative agency Deep Focus. A separate company profile gives a founding date of 2015 and lists Reich as CEO, Ratner as CTO and Britton as head of growth.

Business model

Troops sold a software subscription layered on top of customers' existing CRM and messaging systems. At launch in 2016 most of the platform and bot were made available for free, with paid features planned for later; a later third-party profile describes several hundred monthly paying subscribers, including Envoy, WeWork and HubSpot. A directory listing states pricing was not published and required contacting the company.

Subscription software; a third-party profile refers to several hundred monthly paying subscribers, and pricing was quote-based (contact for pricing). The initial 2016 release of most of the platform and bot was free.

Traction

At the time of the September 2016 launch the product was newly public and free. A later company profile reports 21-40 employees and several hundred monthly paying subscribers including Envoy, WeWork and HubSpot. Salesforce said in 2022 that the team had spent more than seven years building tools connecting Salesforce to Slack and that customers included fast-growing companies.

Latest developments

Salesforce completed its acquisition of Troops.ai on July 15, 2022, and Troops became part of Slack. The troops.ai domain now hosts Salesforce/Slack content describing Slack as an AI-powered work platform with Salesforce integrations rather than a standalone Troops offering.