Member Article

Digital platform Kossie takes COVID-19 changes in its stride

Founded two years ago by CEO and Founder Karen Chung, Kossie now holds a five-strong, cross-continental team in Hong Kong, London and New York City.

With its main aim always at front-of-mind - to build a strong, emotional connection with readers, helping them to live their best lives - Kossie has been built from the ground up on articles supporting mental health and wellness, a focus on balancing careers, self-care, and with guides on how to manage life itself, professionally and personally.

The business also runs a series of interviews with industry-leading individuals, including well-known ‘power couples’ in the entrepreneurial space. In a milestone moment for Kossie, interviewing an LGBTQ+ couple for its ‘Incredible Two’ series - which asked how it feels to fall in love with same gender in a conservative culture - brought its highest DAU in 2019.

Overcoming Obstacles

In mid-2019, the Kossie website was hacked out of the blue when the team were switching the third-party to host the domain. The third-party tried their best and recover the site, but they ended up losing lost a month’s worth of content in the middle of the transition.

Karen says: “I literally lost it and started screaming my lungs out…I have always been a tech noob and obviously forgot the importance of backing up all the files as a double insurance on our end. Anything related to website maintenance is definitely not my strongest suit, so what I’ve learned from this is, you have to be patient and hire the right company do the right job. Trust your gut feeling! When you feel you have hired the wrong company to do the job, you will constantly feel discomfort.”

Following this technical disaster, combined with the pressures of growing the business, Karen suffered what is now well-known as burnout late last year: “My expectations of our business growth turned out to be a bit slower than I expected. I beat myself up over this on this after a potential investor bailed out at very last-minute,” she continued, “I had a huge burnout; I took it very personally and it was really hard.”

Now, following a period of self-reflection and throwing herself into mindfulness and meditation, Karen keeps a close eye on her own mental health when growing the business to ensure a burnout does not happen again. She also passes on tips and guides to the audience who may also be suffering from something similar.

COVID-19 IMPACT

Since the impact of COVID-19, the traffic to Kossie has hit well over 190% MOM growth rate (avg. MOM growth rate: 46.3%), giving the team at Kossie a little bit of light and pride in the midst of a devastating situation.

The team at Kossie has found that viewing interest has changed since COVID-19. The audience is now continuously looking for coronavirus-related articles, regardless of the fact that previously it was indicated that readers wanted articles on information detoxes or how to stop digital distraction. To that end, the content direction must be as relevant to the audience’s current emotional state as possible.

Sweeping changes include the team making massive cuts on all interview pieces with founders and entrepreneurs since COVID-19. Instead, Kossie are working with Career, Money and Lifestyle Coaches, as well as useful tips and guides to help its audience thrive in the current climate.

Karen says: “This what our audience want to see from us - a holistic approach to ease negative thoughts, emotions and habits, and also, more user-generated content such our Fear Journals which allow our readers to tell us, and others, exactly how they are feeling.”

Karen continued: “I’m lucky that we are are digital business so that we are able to continue to grow. However, one the main concern have is that we just can’t foresee when the global pandemic is going to end.”

To combat and allow for sudden changes, the team at Kossie now works on a two-week schedule, with an ability to change and execute on short notice what is required each week.

Steady Growth At The Right Pace

Strategies Karen recommends to other businesses to have in place to ensure they grow at the right pace are to always reflect on team performance, learn from your mistakes and don’t make the same mistake twice.

For Karen, it is imperative that the vision and goal for the business is clear for the next three to five years, to keep everything measurable and improve team performance week-by-week.

“I think it would be a mistake to put everything on hold because of COVID-19. I have seen some of my start-up founder friends struggling to survive during this time because they thought it would ‘blow over’,” said Karen. “Everything is evolving so quickly and we sometimes get lost but this is why we need a clear direction, with room to pivot the business if necessary.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ella Delancey .