The startup world moves fast, whether it’s the start or the end of a startup.
Case in point: Koan.
The team management software startup told customers early last week that it had made the tough decision to shut down. The reason: an inability to raise another funding round “on solid terms,” wrote co-founder and CEO Matt Tucker.
However, by the end of the week the startup’s product had been acquired by another company that, like Koan, works with objectives and key results metrics. The company Gtmhub is taking on the Koan product, so, the tool will not be shutting down in January as previously announced.
The deal came together after Koan started suggesting Gtmhub’s product to customers as a replacement tool, Tucker wrote on the company blog. The two companies actually worked together for some “warm handoffs" of customers and those talks evolved into acquisition talks.
For Koan customers it means the product is not ending. Details are still being worked out, but what is known is outlined on the Koan blog.
As for the Koan team, there is something new on the horizon.
“I end the week feeling intense gratitude for the Koan community and for the fantastic team at Gtmhub,” Tucker wrote. “Before this week, our team had already found a new home at a great company (e.g. an acqui-hire). So, there’s a new adventure planned for us soon that’s not about OKRs. Even so, we’re fully committed to working closely with the Gtmhub team to make this a smooth transition over the coming months.”
Koan was co-founded by Tucker, who was previously the a co-founder and CTO of Jive Software. That company was early in the Portland software wave and was based in the Rose City before moving the headquarters to the Bay Area ahead of that company’s 2011 IPO. That company had kept a large presence in Portland for years until it was sold to Aurea in 2017.
When starting Koan, Tucker came back to Portland to build his next company. Koan raised $6 million from investors and had a team of 13.
