Donut Watercooler - Connect around the watercooler, anywhere

This sounds incredible! I keep finding how much I miss these small interactions we take for granted when teams aren’t working the same place!

Excited for this... a way to make our new work lives feel a little more like life-life. #proudinvestor

This is cool, I’ve been needing something like this!

We are huge fans of Donut at @gettroops ! Culture is such a big part of success for smaller companies and startups, and it's a lot harder to have it shine through in a remote setting. Donut helps us feel more connected across the company. Very excited for this product as an alternative to "Zoom happy hour" fatigue!

👋hi all! Dan here, one of the cofounders of Donut. In the past seven months since we all went unexpectedly remote, the number of organizations using Donut has doubled. We’ve also seen employees finding more and more creative ways to stay connected. However, we quickly discovered a paradox: while so many of us are feeling isolated, we’re also suffering from Zoom fatigue as we live our entire lives on constant video calls. The obvious solution to one problem only exacerbates the other. After speaking with customers about their challenges, we learned a few key lessons: 1) When working remotely it is most difficult to replicate the daily interactions we take for granted in an office, like saying hello in the morning, 2) There’s an upper limit to the amount of Zooms you can schedule in one day without losing it, and 3) Teams that are distributed across time zones need solutions for forming relationships asynchronously. Introducing Watercooler: @Donut’s newest solution aimed at recreating the serendipitous, random, and fun connections that we used to enjoy in the office IRL. How it works: Watercooler regularly posts topics right in Slack, to break the ice and start genuine conversations with thoughtful, silly, and/or timely topics that may even spark some light-hearted debate. The best part? It’s designed to welcome extroverts, introverst, and everyone in between, to create real connection across global time zones. We’ll be here so let us know if you have any questions, or if there’s anything else we can do to help – and don’t forget to take care of each other. 🙏 Also, if you’re a nonprofit, educational institution, or free Slack-based community, we have special plans for you. Reach out and we'll set you up.

This is great! What an easy way to start the conversation for all types of people. Would love to try this!

Yes, yes, and yes. As someone who’s now permanently remote (even “after corona” as we all have gotten used to saying) I miss office interactions that don’t circle around work topics. Building relationships is so important to a healthy, functional team. Very excited about this!

Such a great idea! Interactions like this are what I miss most about the office.

I just left a meeting about remote work policies and a key area where folks got stuck was employee engagement. This sounds like a great way to maintain and build personal relationships in a work environment where they are becoming strained.

We were part of the Watercooler Beta and my teams loved it. It kept people connecting and sparked so many interesting conversations, personally, I look forward to the question and taking a coffee break to read the full thread just to learn more about everyone.