SMI #015: Build a work alumni chat tool
Opportunity in a Tweet:
A powerful endorsement for any company is when former employees go on to do great things elsewhere. Companies would pay for an alumni network that’s a cross between Discord, Linkedin and Slack. This multi-channel chat tool would support former colleagues in their future endeavors, elevate the company’s brand as a breeding ground for talent, and build trust with future employees.
Description of the Problem:
How many times have you received an email from a departing colleague that sounded something like this:
Dear Colleagues,
After 5 years at Big Plumbing doing soul sucking work, locked in a windowless room, making PowerPoint slides on the sanitation industry’s TAM, it’s with a tinge of both sadness and excitement that I’ve made the decision to pursue an opportunity elsewhere. It’s been real, it’s been fun, but not real fun. Below is my personal email, please keep in touch.
[Insert lyrics from Photograph by Nickleback]
jimmy.slides82@gmail.com
Jimmy
After receiving probably a hundred emails similar to the above, I’ve realized there’s a significant chunk of former colleagues I’ve never spoken to again. And it’s not because I don’t care what they’re working on now. And it’s not because I didn’t like them. It’s because emailing or texting them after they’ve left, if we didn’t share a Chipotle on a Tuesday beforehand, would feel disjointed.
But what about LinkedIn, you ask? Well, LinkedIn is great for infrequent career updates, resume display, and thinly-veiled virtue signaling. But it’s not built for multi-person, asynchronous chat or theme-focused discussions.
In fact, LinkedIn’s chat feature has become a wasteland for pre-canned, generic, clickable responses. It’s a dry, dustbowl of unenthusiastic “Congrats on the promotion!” messages and spray-and-pray recruiters shilling THE WORLD’S MOST QUALIFIED PAYROLL SPECIALIST!
What This Is:
An alumni network for former colleagues
A chat tool for single and multi person discussions
A way to keep employees engaged and thankful for the relationships they built
Invite only
Multi-network - if you’ve worked at three places and all three of your former workplaces join, yippee you can join three networks
What This Isn’t:
A network that crosspollinates both current and former employees - people can only join once they leave to safeguard against disgruntled employees polluting the current employee waters
Not meant for bad leavers - companies sponsoring the network would be the gatekeepers of who gets access
However, the company would not be able to censor chats thereafter
Thesis:
The best advertisement for a company is when it’s employees leave to go do something kick ass
The legacy of great companies will not only be the businesses they build, but what their employees do afterwards using the experience they gained during their tenure
Early Uber employees went on to start scooter businesses, cloud kitchen empires, furniture startups, marijuana businesses, payment infrastructure, and data infrastructure companies
The days of trading 30 years of service for a gold watch + a firm handshake are over
Companies must eventually accept, in the words of Andrew Chen from A16Z:
It’s part of the Silicon Valley lifecycle that tiny, high energy startups eventually grow to be large and unwieldy. And the most entrepreneurial employees go on to spread their know how elsewhere.
-Andrew Chen, The Cold Start Problem
Communication is all about context
Swapping career updates with fellow, former glue factory workers wouldn’t be out of place if it took place amongst a broader audience in topic specific forums. But it would be weird if your significant other caught you texting Jessica from accounting or swapping gmails with Toby from HR at midnight
Back of the Napkin Market Sizing
To Get the Ball Rolling, Sisyphus Says
Focus on getting buy-in from a couple major corporations, as you’ll have to build an atomic network for each company. Starting with larger corporations gives you more potential fish to pull into the boat
Ask employers to include network invites as part of their HR offboarding process
Incentive early users to invite others by connecting other networks they belong to, like LinkedIn
Seed the tool with pre-defined channels (e.g., “What are you working on”, “What do you remember about working at x”, “On this date you probably worked on y”)
Kinda Biased Competitive Landscape
How It Makes Money
Waves This Rides
The rise of “Slack channels” outside of work
Discord, Telegram, Twitch
Colleagues playing infinite, not finite, games
Unsubstantiated fact of the day: The PayPal mafia has a collective net worth eclipsing the GDP of Guatemala
Why This Might Fail
Employees talkin shit
Might devolve into a Reddit crowd for those unshackled from their bad bosses
Building multiple networks is hard
Similar to how an Uber driver in Santa Monica is irrelevant to a rider in Seattle, IBM employees aren’t joining to talk to former EMC employees
Each company needs it’s own network to succeed, which requires seeding the conversations and bringing enough people to the party so others stick around
Amazon is the last remaining company in the world and we all accept our fates in either a dimly lit fulfillment center or heavily air conditioned data warehouse
Probably still on the table
Potentially Reliable Stuff I Read at 3 AM
Irrelevant Post Script No Reputable Business Publication Would Allow
Get Hyped
Get Loud
Get Wise
“Always think with your stick forward”
-Painted onto the side of Amelia Earhart’s cross-Atlantic plane