Koan

Koan was a software company that developed an organizational alignment platform to help teams collaboratively manage goals and track status, which was ultimately acquired by Quantive in February 2022. The company was founded in 2016 by Matt Tucker.

The founder's journey is rooted in his prior experience as the co-founder of Jive Software in 2001, an early entrant in the enterprise social collaboration space that went public in 2011. Tucker, a computer science graduate from the University of Iowa, identified a common challenge during his time at Jive: individuals are often promoted to management roles based on technical skill without adequate training or tools to succeed in their new leadership positions. This observation led to the creation of Koan, which was designed to assist managers and their teams by embedding the principles of effective management and goal alignment into a software-based solution.

The company's primary offering was a cloud-based platform centered on the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework. It provided tools for goal management, progress tracking, weekly reflections, and feedback, fostering transparency and communication within organizations. The platform was designed for businesses of all sizes and facilitated strategic alignment by giving visibility into both individual and team contributions. Key features included dashboards, confidence level indicators, KPI management, and integrations with other workplace tools like Slack and Jira. Revenue was generated through a subscription-based model, which included free and paid tiers with progressively advanced features.

Koan secured a total of $6 million in funding over three seed rounds, with a notable $5 million round in October 2019. The acquisition by Quantive, a major player in the OKR software market, was a strategic move to complement Quantive's enterprise-level offerings with Koan's strength in serving small to medium-sized businesses and individual teams.

Keywords: Koan, Quantive, Matt Tucker, OKR software, goal management, team alignment, status tracking, performance management, Jive Software, collaborative software, strategic planning, business productivity, enterprise collaboration, SaaS, HR Tech, employee engagement, weekly reflections, progress tracking, KPI management, strategic execution