Koan: world-class management practices, made easy
Today is a very special day, and I’m so excited for the world to get to see and experience Koan. It’s software purpose-built to help managers and teams communicate and run better, in a way that works well and is, somehow, actually pretty fun. At WIN, we’ve been using it every week for over a year, and by now it’s hard to imagine running without it.
But first, some backdrop on the company and why I, someone who has never actually managed a team, care deeply about what they’ve built.
8 years ago, I was given an opportunity to do something very few people ever get to do, which was to work with my father (and Michael Neril, who now is running Spider Capital) to start a venture firm. It wasn’t the path I’d imagined for myself, but it was a chance to work with interesting people, and it seemed like a fun way to spend a year or two.
Time passed, and I began to see just how vital and under-appreciated the art of management was, particularly in the tech world. Meetings with Maynard (the aforementioned father) weren’t about big trends or thought pieces. He’d ask founders about their teams, about how they were managing their time. How were their board meetings? Were they building credibility with their direct reports? Did they do what they said they would?
As much as investors like to think in terms of software, automation, and scale, the pulse of companies remains fundamentally human. Humans need attention, validation, direction, and care. They need to feel like they belong, and that the years they’re giving will amount to something.
Consequently, the art of working well with humans hasn’t really changed much. Great managers have clear goals, they hold regular 1:1s, and they care about their employees’ careers and lives. I saw that Maynard had this unique vantage in the startup world, having gone through IBM’s formal management training program back in the 80s, then having applied and modified it for Internet-era companies. It’s not lost on me that the reason we have our Affiliate network is that he has spent decades investing earnestly in people.
Enter Koan.
We’d been looking for years for a company that would build software to make time-honored management practices easier for anyone, and we were thrilled to meet Matt and Arend. Matt was the founding CTO of Jive, which he had been working at for the past fifteen years shortly after college (N.B.: this is not normal). He wanted to create a product that would have helped him be a better operator and leader, and, when he was part of teams, to have been a better colleague. Arend, meanwhile, was a repeat founder (and former Muay Thai enthusiast) and was excited to make it harder for managers to be terrible.
We quickly took to each other, and they spent three months interviewing Maynard and anyone else we thought to be a terrific manager. They learned of many differences in styles, but saw consistent habits that united great managers: they did 1:1s, they asked for weekly statuses, they tracked goals.
So Matt, Arend, and their team got to work. We were their first users, and every week the software became more engaging and fun. Eventually, we looked forward to seeing what all of us had done in the previous week and it became a game to see who would be first and last to submit their statuses. More accurately, second and last, because Maynard has an irritating tendency to submit his weekly status first thing Friday morning.
Over time, the Koan team has added feedback, the ability to track shared initiatives, and, critically, GIFs.
Now that they’ve launched, I sincerely hope companies try and enjoy their product. Whether you’re a manager or just want to think like one, I genuinely believe Koan can help you and your team run better.
Read more about Koan’s launch here.
