Slack, makers of the popular team collaboration tool used by more than two million people each day, recently held a press event in which it essentially announced a huge investment in itself (and that's not a bad thing).

The headlining announcement is the launch of the Slack App Directory, a one-stop shop for third-party applications designed to boost the capabilities of the base platform. The directory launched with more than 160 apps sorted by category, popularity and staff picks.

While a significant achievement, Slack is fully aware of the fact that app stores are a dime a dozen these days and simply having one doesn't guarantee much of anything. What you really need to give your app store - and ultimately, the entire platform - the best shot at sustained success is motivated developers.

Attracting quality developers is tough as there are several other established platforms they could choose to code for. To get those sort of developers interested in your platform, you must speak the language we all understand - money. That's exactly what Slack has done with the creation of a new developer fund.

The company has partnered with six of its investors - Accel, Andreessen-Horowitz, Index Ventures, KPCB, Spark and Social+Capital - to create an $80 million fund to help persuade devs to code for its platform. Slack said the fund will be used to fund both Slack-first apps as well as B2B and enterprise tools that make Slack integrations a core part of their effort.