Even if work messaging company Slack totally blows it, the company will still be many times larger than it is today, CEO Stewart Butterfield said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

"We think we're a small percentage of the way penetrated into the big opportunity, so it would be foolish. With terrible execution, we will still be many times larger than we are today and a massive success," Butterfield said in the interview, which was published Wednesday, when asked about selling the company.

With "good execution," the company could grow anywhere from 10 to 100 times, he said. That, and "it's also more fun" to stay private and avoid a sale, Butterfield said.

The company sells enterprise access to the popular business messaging app and is valued at more than $7 billion after a recent funding round in August. Butterfield told the Journal that much of the company's raised capital is still in the bank.

Read the full interview at WSJ.com.