{"id":691,"date":"2018-12-04T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2018\/12\/04\/big-news-know-your-company-is-now-know-your-team-%f0%9f%8e%89\/"},"modified":"2023-02-09T22:19:03","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T06:19:03","slug":"big-news-know-your-company-is-now-know-your-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2018\/12\/04\/big-news-know-your-company-is-now-know-your-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Big news: Know Your Company is now Know Your Team \ud83c\udf89"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After four years, we\u2019re launching a new product<\/a>, business model, and company name. Here\u2019s why.<\/h2>\n\n\n
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We\u2019ve always been a bit weird.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re a two-person company serving 15,000+ people who use our product in over 25 countries. We\u2019ve generated almost $2MM in revenue to date, have been profitable since Month 1, and every year since. We\u2019ve never raised money from investors,<\/g> or taken out a bank loan. (And, we started out as a tiny prototype that Basecamp spun-off<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we\u2019re doing something weird, again.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re launching a new product, business model, and company name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re now Know Your Team<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 software that helps managers become better leaders<\/strong>. We give you educational guides, tools, and a community of support to help you avoid becoming a bad boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know Your Team costs $30\/month per manager (or $300\/year).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can check out the new Know Your Team here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here\u2019s why we decided to make this change.<\/p>\n

Quick background, first.<\/h3>\n

If we\u2019ve never met before, hello! I\u2019m Claire<\/a>, CEO of Know Your Team<\/a>. It\u2019s nice to meet you, albeit virtually.<\/p>\n

Our original software, Know Your Company, used to be focused on helping business owners with 25 to 75 employees get to know their company better. We charged $100 per person, one-time, for life.<\/p>\n

We generated $1MM in cumulative revenue in a little over two years. We helped tens of thousands of people at companies like Airbnb, Medium, Kickstarter. And not just at tech companies, but law firms, marketing agencies, retail stores, and even a few churches.<\/p>\n

When we surveyed customers, 94% of employees said Know Your Company helped them feel more connected to their coworkers, and 85% of CEOs said Know Your Company positively impacted their company culture.<\/p>\n

Yet as 2017 was winding down, we noticed our sales becoming flat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/h3>\n

I remember thinking this around this same time, last year, in December.<\/p>\n

As I reflected on 2017, I noticed three things:<\/p>\n

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  1. Our online community for leaders took off.<\/strong> We\u2019d launched our Watercooler community in October 2017, to help managers learn from each other. More than 200 people signed up for it in the first month. (Today we have almost 1,000 members.)<\/li>\n
  2. Our writing about leadership took off.<\/strong> The writing I\u2019d been doing on our blog<\/a> increased our organic traffic by 3X in a month\u2019s time. It would go on to increase by 20X over the next six months.<\/li>\n
  3. Our software sales went down<\/em>.<\/strong> Our sales, however, did not increase. Not 20X. Not 3X. In fact, sales were fairly flat in 2017, if not dropping during some months.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Seeing the discrepancy between our audience and our sales, we scratched our heads.<\/p>\n

    Yes, Know Your Company was helpful as a piece of software. But for who<\/em>?<\/p>\n

    When we got started back in 2014, we focused on selling to business owners. But by the end of 2017, our audience had evolved. After some digging, we learned that our 20X increase in traffic were mainly managers<\/em> at companies of all sizes.<\/p>\n

    We had a mismatch. Our audience was managers, but our software was for business owners.<\/p>\n

    Our audience was asking the question, \u201cHow do I become a better leader?\u201d But our software, Know Your Company, wasn\u2019t answering that question.<\/p>\n

    In fact, no on<\/em>e was doing a good job of answering that question, \u201cHow do I become a better leader?\u201d<\/p>\n

    Sure, you can read books, but they lack practical application. Trainings are expensive and one-time. And man, making mistakes and learning trial by fire is awfully painful.<\/p>\n

    I searched high and low for a good answer to, \u201cHow do I become a better leader?\u201d I couldn\u2019t find one. So we decided to build our own.<\/p>\n

    The result is Know Your Team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Introducing Know Your Team: The new product.<\/h3>\n

    To answer this question, \u201cHow do you become a better leader?\u201d we re-imagined our product.<\/p>\n

    We pulled together research from working with 15,000+ people over the past four years, and discovered that the best leaders do three things exceptionally well:<\/p>\n

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