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p/eq-remote-managers-2020-reportEmployee wellbeing and people analytics in Slack.
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Justin Mitchell

Kona - Build remote team culture in Slack

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High-performing remote teams use Kona to build trust and culture over Slack. Be there for your remote teammates, become a better manager.

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Siddharth Pandiya
Maker
Hi everyone! I’m Sid, co-founder of Kona. @itscorine, @andrewthezhou, and I started working on this in October 2019 while we were students at UCLA. We love remote work, so we interviewed 500+ remote leaders to learn what makes it so hard. Even with the pandemic, managers always mentioned the difficulty of building trust and relationships. Kona is our response to the isolation and lack of emotional connection on remote teams. We've been lucky to go through Techstars and work with 50+ awesome teams at Asana, Medium, Typeform, Outreach.io, HelpScout, TeamSnap, CoffeeMeetsBagel and more to develop the early versions. It’s been so fulfilling to help managers stay emotionally connected with their teammates, and we’re so excited to launch this! You can sign up on our website to get access. Kona empowers you to lead with empathy without changing your workflow in Slack. With Kona, you can: 💚 Check-in on emotions in Slack. No more mood spreadsheets or distracting surveys. 👏 Build trust and support one another. Talk about your cookie at lunch or that stubbed toe. 🗓 Add crucial context to meetings. Read the room before you enter a Zoom meeting. 🌟 Get a manager sixth sense. Alerts on health trends help you show up as a leader.  📊 Track team health data. Make data-based decisions for your team culture. Sign up to make your remote workplace happier for everyone :) We'd love to know what you think! Cheers, Sid https://twitter.com/pandiyasid
Andrew Zhou
Maker
@itscorine @pandiyasid Thanks Sid, great explanation! Excited to show Kona off to the world :)
Alex Velikanov
This is so sick! Every team needs it in their slack ASAP. Only thing I'd change is that @andrewthezhou should start selling their plushies like Fast hoodies...
Yen Tan
Maker
@andrewthezhou @alec2435 Thanks so much, Alex!! And yes, we couldn't agree more;)
Andrew Zhou
Maker
@alec2435 Thanks Alex, man... you really put me in the roughest of spots huh? ;)
Lynn Tieu
Really love the idea of team health check-ins!
Laurie Tan
@lynn_tieu Yes!! It’s so smart, we really need that for remote teams now
Yen Tan
Maker
@lynn_tieu Thanks, Lynn! It seems small, but we think it'll change the Future of Work for good:)
Sahil Khosla
Congrats on launching Sid, Corine and Andrew! Every manager can benefit getting more visibility into their team's psyche and they should be encouraged to check in with folks on a more human level
Andrew Zhou
Maker
@sahilkhosla14 Thanks Sahil! We 100% agree :)
Yen Tan
Maker
@sahilkhosla14 Thanks so much, Sahil. Empathetic teams are the best teams.
Siddharth Pandiya
Maker
@sahilkhosla14 Thanks a ton Sahil! This is something that has become a core part of keeping your best talent in the 2020s :)
JeanClaude Dorsainvil
Love this team and love Kona! All of the remote manager insights that you all publish are so so helpful.
Andrew Zhou
Maker
@jcdorsainvil Woot woot, thanks JC!
Shane Emmons
We have been using Kona since the summer 2020 and it continues to impress. It is shaping up to be the digital sixth-sense distributed team leaders cannot function without.
Andrew Zhou
Maker
@semmons99 Thanks for the note Shane! & without your feedback, we wouldn't be even close to where we are now. You're the absolute greatest.
Shreyas Prasad Parab
Love the team behind this product, they are extremely great at iterating on feedback !
Siddharth Pandiya
Maker
@shreyas_prasad_parab Thanks Shreyas! We have some awesome friends, customers and partners helping us make (hopefully) the right decisions :)
Alex Rosen
Go Kona!! Such great insights, and love to see the evolution!
Yen Tan
Maker
@lexiro Thanks, Alex! We love you!! 🥺 💖
Andrew Zhou
Maker
@lexiro Thanks Alex :)
Iulia Istrate
great idea and research behind, amazing team developing it
Siddharth Pandiya
Maker
@iulia_istrate Thank you so much Iulia! We appreciate the kind words ❤️
austin pham
loving the rebrand guys !
Yen Tan
Maker
@_austinpham_ Kona is so adorable. It just makes sense. 🐶 👏
Amelia Tan
I love Kona! The design and idea is absolutely incredible!
Yen Tan
Maker
@lauren_tan Thanks so much, Amelia! You're the best!
Katherine Miao
love the idea of using insights to increase empathy! super excited for what kona will do for team culture
Siddharth Pandiya
Maker
@katmiao Thanks so much Katherine! We've seen some great results so far - excited for what's to come :)
Keethu Ramalingam
absolutely love the idea of bringing empathy into the digital workspace!
Siddharth Pandiya
Maker
@keethu_ramalingam Thanks Keethu! We think that working remotely has led to a renewed focus on culture - it's no longer just about having happy hours and ping pong tables at the office. Remote teammates want to feel cared for, and feel like we're part of something!
Andrew Zhou
Maker
Hey all, really really excited to finally introduce our little puppy Kona to the world! Kona is a Slackbot that helps improve team culture with very much a human-first, vulnerability-first approach. It's so hard to build team culture on remote teams — we offer a solution that'll help out. We really hope you like the product, & let us know what you think!
Varun Arora
Congrats on the launch! Excited to see what's in store.
Andrew Zhou
Maker
@itsvarora Thanks Varun! We have a lot more planned down the line, stay tuned :-)
Annie Yan
Maker
@itsvarora Thank you so much Varun! We're excited as well :-)
Ayush Patel
I have known the team for over 2 years, and they have come a long way validating and building out Kona. Excited to see this scale up and make remote work better.
Yen Tan
Maker
@ayush_patel Thanks so much Ayush. It's been such an incredible journey so far! 🔥 We can't wait to build the Future of Work!
Sarah Wilen
Congrats on the launch! Super strong team—can't wait to see Kona grow!
Yen Tan
Maker
@swilen1 Thanks so much, Sarah! We're super excited for this.
Andrew Zhou
Maker
@swilen1 Thanks for the note Sarah!
Hiba Amin
Congrats on the launch!! Can’t wait to see how you grow this awesome platform!!
Yen Tan
Maker
@hiba_amin Thanks so much, Hiba. We absolutely love Soapbox, so your praise means the world! 🚀 🙏
Kevin Zhang
This is super dope! Love to see more empathy oriented products
Yen Tan
Maker
@kevinz917 Thanks so much, Kevin! Empathy = The Future 🚀 💖
Anita Ilango
congrats on the launch!! love the rebrand, excited for what's to come 🌟
Annie Yan
Maker
@anitailango Thank you Anita! We appreciate the support :-)