Podcast with Andrew Zhou, Co-Founder of Kona

On Season 5 Episode 2 of Think Like A Founder, SNP Co-Founder and CEO, Maureen Taylor, interviews Andrew Zhou, Co-Founder of Kona.

Kona helps remote teams  fight burnout, build connections, and promote psychological safety with daily mental health checks. Andrew got a degree in Computer Science at UCLA, interned at Apple, and participated in the Techstars LA ‘20 cohort. Andrew and his cofounders recently raised $4 million in funding for Kona. 

Podcast with Andrew Zhou, Co-Founder of Kona

“When we were pre, pre seed we would try to form as many of these solution hypotheses as possible and try to disprove them as best as we possibly could. We would go to people. We would play devil’s advocate. We asked things like, ‘Is this really useful for you? Are you actually willing to pay for this.

If they push back on us, when we ask those questions, then we know we’re onto something. We want to try to disprove these hypotheses because when we fail, we learn the most. When we fail, we can then iterate and improve.”

Andrew Zhou

On this episode of Think Like a Founder, Maureen gets Andrew Zhou’s thoughts on…

  • The distinction between remote work and working from home
  • The importance of giving candid feedback
  • How failure, actually, is a gift

Check out more from Andrew Zhou on LinkedIn. Learn more about Kona on their company website.

Missed the last episode? Find Think Like A Founder Season 5 Episode 1 here.

Think Like A Founder is produced by SNP Communications in San Francisco, California. Visit the Think Like A Founder website to learn more about the podcast and curriculum or connect with Maureen Taylor on LinkedIn to continue the conversation there. 

Series Producer: Mike Sullivan

Sound Design: Marc Ream 

Content and Scripting: Catherine Hardy and Jaselin Drown

Production Coordinator: Natasha Thomas

Thanks also to Róisín Hunt, Selena Persiani-Shell, Jordan Bailey, Matt Johnson, Eli Shell, John Hughes, and Renn Vara.

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