Tu (Tech Recruiter) and Khuong (Lead Designer) - Cofounders of Thankdy
Meet Tu (Tech Recruiter) and Khuong (Lead Designer) - Cofounders of Thankdy, and hear their story about an unique product idea that can connect people together during the pandemic.
We have been working in Japan for many years. Actually, Khuong was a candidate that I worked with more than 2 years ago. People often thought of Japan as a country with a tough working culture, but I think it’s has changed a lot nowadays. Companies are also gradually becoming more open to attracting diverse talents.
Working with Japanese people often requires a high level of attention to details. Completing a project means the effort put in should be 150% - 200% compared to the usual standard back home. Like when I say, “I’ve finished this product” to the client, it means there should be no need to re-test; it should go straight to the market. The process is both long and tiring and sometimes I even don’t have time to catch my breath.
For example, when it comes to the “Terms and Conditions” section, I have to review every single word every time. But thanks to working in a demanding market like Japan, once I’m done with a product, it usually runs smoothly.
Since the pandemic happened, it forced us to work from home for a long time. One day my boss decided to quit his job to move to another company. So we gathered around to discuss what to give him; he had been with us for a long time so we could not let him go without giving him a proper gift.
“How about a bottle of wine? He is French!”, a person said.
“Or give him an expensive pen?” said another.
To be honest, these types of gifts seemed trivial. Then suddenly I thought “why not make a big group card with pictures and everyone’s messages on it?” and everyone thought it was a brilliant idea. Since this requires everyone’s contribution in person, there was a problem as the whole team was working from home. Desperate time called for desperate measures and each of us has to either take the card to the next person to write or we have to send it by post. It took us several weeks to make and fortunately, my boss was very emotional when he received it. People usually appreciate gifts with a lot of thoughts and efforts put into it, way more than typical gifts that you can just buy from the store!
My boss liked it so much that a few months later, he still mentioned it whenever he met us. So I thought of turning the idea into a digital gift at a low price, like a cup of bubble tea. This is like writing messages in the yearbook back when we were in school. Old but gold! After I presented the idea to Khuong, he immediately agreed and jumped on board. So we were officially Co-founders since then.
Right now, our team consists of 4 people; we primarily work in the evenings and during weekends.
Running a start-up gives you all kinds of challenges. But the hardest thing is probably doing marketing, how do we even spread the words to the community?
Our goal is to not only sell the products as we want to help people express their gratefulness and good vibes to others. It might not be a big gift, but it holds a lot of meanings in many way.
Why is it called Thankdy? It’s thank + đi (in Vietnamese)!
Thankdy – The online group card platform is in its final testing phase and is launching very soon (during November). The team hopes fellow Techies will try it and give feedback via info@thankdy.com
All of your comments will help us a lot to improve the product! Check our Thankdy here: www.thankdy.com
