Remote work is not a brand new subject, as a lot of the world has now been doing it for a 12 months or extra due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Companies — huge and small — have needed to react in myriad methods. Many of the preliminary challenges have centered on workflow, productiveness and the like. But one facet of the entire distant work shift that isn’t getting as a lot consideration is the tradition angle.
A 100% distant startup that was tackling the problem manner earlier than COVID-19 was even round is now seeing an enormous surge in demand for its providing that goals to assist corporations tackle the “people” problem of distant work. It began its life with the identify Icebreaker to mirror the intention of “breaking the ice” with folks with whom you’re employed.
“We designed the initial version of our product as a way to connect people who’d never met, kind of virtual speed dating,” says co-founder and CEO Perry Rosenstein. “But we realized that people were using it for far more than that.” 
So over time, its providing has developed to incorporate an even bigger purpose of serving to folks get collectively past an preliminary encounter –– therefore its new identify: Gatheround.
“For remote companies, a big challenge or problem that is now bordering on a crisis is how to build connection, trust and empathy between people that aren’t sharing a physical space,” says co-founder and COO Lisa Conn. “There’s no five-minute conversations after meetings, no shared meals, no cafeterias — this is where connection organically builds.”
Organizations must be involved, Gatheround maintains, that as we transfer extra distant, that work will grow to be extra transactional and folks will grow to be extra remoted. They can’t ignore that people are largely social creatures, Conn stated.
The startup goals to carry folks collectively on-line by real-time occasions comparable to a spread of chats, movies and one-on-one and group conversations. The startup additionally supplies templates to facilitate cultural rituals and studying & improvement (L&D) actions, comparable to all-hands conferences and workshops on range, fairness and inclusion. 
Gatheround’s video conversations intention to be a refreshing complement to Slack conversations, which regardless of serving the perform of communication, nonetheless don’t carry customers face-to-face.
Image Credits: Gatheround
Since its inception, Gatheround has quietly constructed up a formidable buyer base, together with 28 Fortune 500s, 11 of the 15 greatest U.S. tech corporations, 26 of the highest 30 universities and greater than 700 academic establishments. Specifically, these customers embrace Asana, Coinbase, Fiverr, Westfield and DigitalOcean. Universities, educational facilities and nonprofits, together with Georgetown’s Institute of Politics and Public Service and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, are additionally prospects. To date, Gatheround has had about 260,000 customers maintain 570,000 conversations on its SaaS-based, video platform.
All its development to date has been natural, principally referrals and phrase of mouth. Now, armed with $3.5 million in seed funding that builds upon a earlier $500,000 raised, Gatheround is able to aggressively go to market and construct upon the momentum it’s seeing.
Venture companies Homebrew and Bloomberg Beta co-led the corporate’s newest elevate, which included participation from angel traders comparable to Stripe COO Claire Hughes Johnson, Meetup co-founder Scott Heiferman, Li Jin and Lenny Rachitsky. 
Co-founders Rosenstein, Conn and Alexander McCormmach describe themselves as “experienced community builders,” having beforehand labored on President Obama’s campaigns in addition to at corporations like Facebook, Change.org and Hustle. 
The trio emphasize that Gatheround can be very completely different from Zoom and video conferencing apps in that its platform offers folks prompts and arranged methods to get to know and find out about one another in addition to the pliability to customise occasions.
“We’re fundamentally a connection platform, here to help organizations connect their people via real-time events that are not just really fun, but meaningful,” Conn stated.
Homebrew Partner Hunter Walk says his agency was interested in the corporate’s founder-market match.
“They’re a really interesting combination of founders with all this experience community building on the political activism side, combined with really great product, design and operational skills,” he advised TechSwitch. “It was kind of unique that they didn’t come out of an enterprise product background or pure social background.”
He was additionally drawn to the personalised nature of Gatheround’s platform, contemplating that it has grow to be clear over the previous 12 months that the software program powering the way forward for work “needs emotional intelligence.”
“Many companies in 2020 have focused on making remote work more productive. But what people desire more than ever is a way to deeply and meaningfully connect with their colleagues,” Walk stated. “Gatheround does that better than any platform out there. I’ve never seen people come together virtually like they do on Gatheround, asking questions, sharing stories and learning as a group.” 
James Cham, accomplice at Bloomberg Beta, agrees with Walk that the founding workforce’s information of behavioral psychology, group dynamics and group constructing offers them an edge.
“More than anything, though, they care about helping the world unite and feel connected, and have spent their entire careers building organizations to make that happen,” he stated in a written assertion. “So it was a no-brainer to back Gatheround, and I can’t wait to see the impact they have on society.”
The 14-person workforce will seemingly broaden with the brand new capital, which can even go towards serving to including extra performance and particulars to the Gatheround product.
“Even before the pandemic, remote work was accelerating faster than other forms of work,” Conn stated. “Now that’s intensified even more.”
Gatheround shouldn’t be the one firm trying to sort out this house. Ireland-based Workvivo final 12 months raised $16 million and earlier this 12 months, Microsoft  launched Viva, its new “employee experience platform.”