(Zulip committer here) Definitely agree that user onboarding could use some work, feel free to send feedback.
hn-username @zulip.org , or https://groups.google.com/group/zulip-devel
hn-username @zulip.org , or https://groups.google.com/group/zulip-devel
At the end of the day, Slack is really useful, but I just don't see its use getting expanded much. At least for us. There's lots of stuff that just shouldn't get communicated across there. Coordination across the sides of the business that don't use Slack wasn't an issue in the first place, it was never really even considered afaik.