London-based workplace communications startup Slashwork has emerged from stealth with a $3.5 million round led by 20VC, as the company positions a new communication platform built for distributed teams and an AI-shaped workplace. The company said the round included participation from senior operators and founders across Facebook, Slack, Intercom, Dropbox, and Microsoft, among others. Angel investors named by the company include Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners; Sheryl Sandberg; Cal Henderson; AJ Tennant; Carolyn Everson; David Fischer; Des Traynor; Will Shu; Soleio; Philip Su; Blaise DiPersia; and Olivia Calvert.
Slashwork was founded by Jackson Gabbard, David Miller, and Josh Watzman, who, the company said, previously helped build and scale multiple core Facebook products, including work on Workplace from Meta. The company said it has been incubated with support from Julien Codorniou, and is currently beta testing with a small group of design partners.
In its announcement dated February 4, 2026, Slashwork described its product as a communications platform designed to support both synchronous and asynchronous work, reduce noise, preserve shared context over time, and help teams stay aligned without constantly monitoring channels and threads. The company said the platform will launch in the first half of 2026, with a wider rollout targeted for later in 2026 as it continues working with early partners to refine the product.
Slashwork frames AI as central to enabling a different communication model, arguing that AI should reduce cognitive load and help teams coordinate work and follow up with clarity, rather than amplifying message volume or adding automation on top of legacy tooling. The company is targeting fast-moving, tech-first organizations that want workplace communication to support focus and momentum, and it is positioning its approach as a new foundation for modern team operations as work becomes more distributed and increasingly shaped by AI.
KEY QUOTES
“We didn’t leave Facebook thinking we’d build another communication tool,” said Jackson Gabbard, CEO and co-founder of Slashwork. “But, we found teams are doing enormous amounts of busy work just to feel aligned – checking umpteen channels and threads, worrying about what they’d missed. That isn’t a people problem. It’s a software-defaults-define-your-culture problem.”
“AI shouldn’t mean faster noise or more automation layered onto broken tools. Used properly, it can remove the cognitive load that gets in the way of good judgment – helping teams coordinate work, follow up, and act with clarity, without losing human ownership.”
Jackson Gabbard, CEO and co-founder, Slashwork
“Very few teams understand workplace communication at scale from the inside. This group has lived it; what worked, what broke, and why Slashwork reflects a hard-won point of view about how teams need to operate now, not how tools were designed a decade ago.”
Julien Codorniou, General Partner, 20VC
“Slashwork effectively solves the complexity of multilingual and asynchronous communication. It’s the tool we need to foster a strong community and ensure critical information reaches everyone at Vibe.co, instantly.”
Franck Tezlaff, Cofounder, Vibe.co
“The teams that build communication systems at scale see things most people never do, not just how tools work, but how they quietly shape culture, trust and decision-making. This founding team understands that deeply. Slashwork isn’t trying to recreate the past; it reflects everything they learned about what worked, what broke, and what modern organizations now need.”
Carolyn Everson (Permira, Disney, Facebook)
“The next generation of work tools won’t be about more messages or more activity, they’ll be about helping people understand what matters, when it matters. Slashwork is taking an AI-native, opinionated approach to human-and-agent collaboration that reduces noise instead of accelerating it.”
AJ Tennant (Slack GTM Lead, Glean, Facebook)
