Being Stewart Butterfield didn't do much when he lost a bunch of money making an online game.

This is the second failed game that he's been a part of that spawned a successful startup.

Step 2: Make a consumer web app.

I'll modify that slightly,

Step 2: Take your internal messaging app and make it a commercial product.

Isnt there a Step 1.5 - Make your own internal messaging app then?

Step 3: Charge a couple of bucks per month for it and lose money for the first year but that's okay as long as we break even we will make money eventually right? I mean that's what investors want us to do right?

Step 2, make a failed game, pivot, succeed wildly :)

It's worked twice already!