I researched discussions from Slack users on Reddit, SaaS communities, and developer discussions. There are some interesting opportunities for building paid Slack apps that solve recurring business problems, rather than another generic chatbot.
Here are the ideas I’d consider building.
1. Conversation-to-Task Manager
Problem: Important requests and action items get buried in Slack conversations.
A Reddit user described the problem of support and engineering work disappearing inside Slack threads.
What to build:
– Convert any Slack message into a task.
– Automatically detect action items in conversations.
– Assign tasks to team members.
– Add due dates and priorities.
– Track pending, completed and overdue tasks.
– Remind people when tasks aren’t completed.
– Daily summary of outstanding tasks.
Differentiator: Unlike a traditional task manager, users never need to leave Slack.
Monetization: $19–$49/month per workspace.
2. Slack Thread Follow-up Tracker
Problem: People miss important replies and unresolved discussions.
This is a recurring complaint in Slack communities, including discussions about ineffective thread notifications.
Features:
– Track important threads.
– Mark threads as requiring a response.
– Assign thread ownership.
– Detect unanswered questions.
– Remind owners after 2, 6 or 24 hours.
– Escalate unresolved discussions.
– Dashboard of open conversations.
Example:
Someone asks:
“Can we deploy the new version today?”
Your app tracks the conversation until somebody confirms the deployment.
Monetization: $15–$39/month.
3. Slack Notification Manager
Problem: Too many notifications from connected applications.
A user discussing Jira and Slack described receiving excessive notifications after becoming a watcher on hundreds of tickets, with no convenient bulk-unwatch workflow.
Features:
– Group notifications by application.
– Mute repetitive notifications.
– Bulk unsubscribe from notification sources.
– Create notification rules.
– Daily notification digest.
– Only notify users about high-priority events.
– Personal notification analytics.
Monetization: $9–$29/month.
4. Slack Employee Request Manager
Problem: Employees make requests through messages, but managers struggle to track them.
Features:
– Leave requests.
– Work-from-home requests.
– Equipment requests.
– Software access requests.
– Expense approvals.
– Employee onboarding requests.
– Approval and rejection buttons inside Slack.
Example:
An employee types /request-leave.
The manager receives an interactive approval card.
Monetization: $29–$99/month.
5. Slack Customer Support Escalation Manager
Problem: Customer support conversations get lost when teams use Slack to coordinate with engineering.
Features:
– Convert messages into support tickets.
– Assign tickets to developers.
– Track response times.
– Set SLA deadlines.
– Detect unanswered support requests.
– Escalate overdue tickets.
– Integrate with Intercom, Zendesk and Jira.
A similar workflow is discussed by Slack users who use Slack as a helpdesk but struggle with tracking and escalating requests.
Monetization: $49–$149/month.
