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From Idea to MVP: How We Built a Slack App in 30 Days

When we started The Polyglot Lab, we promised ourselves one thing — build real tools, not just talk about them.
So in early 2025, we challenged ourselves: Can we launch a production-ready Slack app in 30 days?

That’s how Escalation Ninja was born — a workflow assistant that helps Customer Success and Technical Account Managers handle critical incidents faster, with less chaos.

🧠 Week 1 – The Problem

We didn’t start with a “cool idea.”
We started with pain — the kind you feel when you’re pinged at 11 PM about an escalation with zero context.
We knew that TAMs and CSMs spend too much time firefighting instead of focusing on customers. So we mapped the bottlenecks, and one word kept coming up: context.

Our first hypothesis:

If Slack is where the chaos happens, it should also be where clarity begins.

🛠️ Week 2 – The Build

Tech stack:

  • Backend: Go (Golang)
  • Frontend: React + TypeScript
  • Database: PostgreSQL
  • Infrastructure: AWS + Render
  • Integrations: Slack API, Jira API, Stripe for subscriptions

We kept it lean.
No unnecessary frameworks. No over-engineered pipelines.
Just enough architecture to deliver value — fast.

We built our Slack bot with a clear command syntax:

/ninjaescal case: client: invite:@user1 @user2

It automatically:

  • Creates a dedicated Slack channel
  • Invites the right people
  • Posts a structured escalation summary

That’s it — zero friction, zero guessing.

⚡️ Week 3 – The First Deploy

We deployed on Render (Hobby Tier) to avoid costs early on.
When it went live, our first channel spun up within seconds — that moment was pure dopamine.

We iterated daily:

  • Added user invitations via Slack API’s users.list
  • Created onboarding screens with Slack Home Tabs
  • Introduced admin vs non-admin logic
  • Moved database to AWS RDS for production reliability

🚀 Week 4 – Launch & Lessons

We launched publicly under the name Escalation Ninja Pro.
Our Slack App Directory submission required:

  • A privacy policy
  • A YouTube demo
  • At least 10 active workspaces

We treated that as validation — not friction.

What we learned:

  1. Constraints create focus.
  2. Shipping > polishing.
  3. Marketing matters as much as code.

☕️ Final Thoughts

Building Escalation Ninja in 30 days wasn’t luck.
It was the result of tight feedback loops, caffeine, and a “done is better than perfect” mindset.

If you’re sitting on an idea, ship your first version before it’s ready.
You’ll thank yourself later.

👉 Try Escalation Ninja