The Continuing Evolution of DemoHop
A progress update on DemoHop for tech demo days and marketing showcases
Dear DemoHop Enthusiasts (and friends of Sean),
It’s been a while since I last reached out. When I embarked on this venture, the trend of "building in public" (ie., transparently sharing the ups and downs of entrepreneurship) was at its peak so I started this personal newsletter as a way to share my own story with you.
However, here we are one year later and as Thanksgiving approaches, I haven’t shared much. So here’s the latest on DemoHop…
Reflecting on our beginnings, you might recall the original goal:
To establish DemoHop (formerly known as HyThere) as the go-to platform for fostering "weak-ties" in distributed teams.
This academic-sounding concept is, in essence, about creating vibrant company cultures by enabling employee ideas and connections to flourish — despite geographic distances.
That’s the hard part. Multiple offices, distant timezones and endless video meetings aren’t a great way for employees to meet new colleagues. Yet decades of research shows that it’s one’s extended, non-everyday relationships that are necessary for innovation and joy at work.
I felt this myself. As a leader of a team spread across cities and continents, I wanted to be the model leader. I wanted to give my employees time to connect and collaborate with colleagues outside their daily orbit. But I had two unattractive options. Either hold a costly, all-team fly-in which I didn’t have budget for or else schedule yet another giant video call meeting that was inevitably going to be dominated by a few speakers while everyone listened in passively.
But here we are. One year later and we have DemoHop — a solution that truly grows these employee connections. The former gleam in our eye is now a fully-functioning product with satisfied customers!
DemoHop now stands as a proven, trusted and affordable way for leaders to hold employee events that are hands-on and engaging, rather than hierarchical and passive. DemoHop events are generating meaningful connections at scale!
DemoHop is more than an employee meeting and event platform. It's becoming a culture builder. An occasion where conversations and connections, which might never have occurred spontaneously, now spring to life. (Watch last summer’s launch demo to see how.)
This empathetic new way of leadership hasn’t gone unnoticed. Our momentum is growing as DemoHop becomes a standard in one Fortune 500 customer after another. We’ve especially hit our stride among CIOs hosting Tech Demo Days and CMOs for their Marketing Showcases. DemoHop is the premier way to hold these events and get your employees talking and exchanging ideas.
So what’s next? Now that we’ve proven the product, we're amping up our marketing. Over the coming months we’ll be boosting DemoHop’s visibility and positioning as the definitive way for inclusive and progressive leaders to hold all-company and large team events.
In line with this new focus on marketing, we recently launched our updated logo and identity. We’re proud of this new look! You can read about DemoHop’s “hoppy” and “superhero” personality traits in my LinkedIn announcement.
Looking ahead, future updates from me will come from our monthly company newsletter. I’ll add you to that list (or ping me if you prefer not to be added. No biggie.) You can also follow DemoHop on LinkedIn.
I am thankful for your support and encouragement along this journey.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Sean Murphy
CEO and co-founder DemoHop
P.S. Of course, if you’re a part of a large distributed team that could use more engaging tech demo days or marketing showcases, let’s chat about trying DemoHop at your company.