When lockdowns were first called, Swish Goswami switched to an all-remote team for his tech company Trufan, a social intelligence platform. With hopes of continued growth during the pandemic, Swish quickly learned the importance of building community remotely and the power of overcommunication in keeping employees engaged.

This month, Swish launched a new product within the Trufan family, Surf. They treated it like a start-up, from concept meetings in March to its launch date. It builds on what Trufan was already offering — ethical data-driven insight for brands from online users who opted in to sharing their browsing data. When users opted-in, they would be entered into winning prizes.

With Surf, Swish wanted to give users more for their data, ensuring that they get their cut of the data economy that for too long only brands have benefitted from. Surf is a browser extension that passively rewards users with points for their everyday browsing. It doesn’t require users to change their browsing habits at all, and they can use these points for gift cards and items or donate them to charity.

Surf was created and launched within eight months, and it’s already close to reaching 10,000 users. Not only did Swish create a new product during the pandemic, but also increased his team from 13-40 people — all within a remote workspace. This is how he learned that overcommunicating works, especially during challenging and uncertain times on both a professional and personal level.

Swish kept his team informed about everything from day one of the pandemic to today. There were no silos; each department knew what other departments were working on and how it contributed to the big picture. They were also encouraged to offer their thoughts and opinions as well.

Through this, Swish learned a lot about building community and how to keep communication channels open while being isolated physically from each other. He leaned on online tools like Slack to encourage all of his team members to “overcommunicate” with each other. This was especially helpful for new team members, brought on remotely, to get to know each other and the team.

Over Slack, Trufan employees are encouraged to share their milestones every week. Every Friday, team members share lessons they learned that week and shout out fellow team members. They also have a hopes and fears session where people can engage on a personal level as well as around where the company is going. It was important to Swish to create a culture where people felt comfortable sharing while working from home.

As a result of this, Swish thinks the company will continue to work remotely. They have an office still and some people have opted to work in-person, but he does not see the company ever going back to the office full-time. Of course, he struggled making the switch to a remote team at first, as many companies did, but now, with the right systems in place — thanks to overcommunication —, he thinks Trufan will have continued success no matter where his employees choose to work.

Swish Goswami has built a multi-hyphenate career. As the the CEO of Trufan, he has worked with clients like Sony Music, Netflix, the NBA, the NFL, as well as several small- to medium-sized businesses. A disruptor, curator, and a builder, Swish shares his philosophies on the entrepreneurial hustle, personal branding, and the trends leading technology and business decisions today, to help individuals and organizations get noticed and engage in our fast-moving economy.

Interested in learning more about Swish and what he can bring to your next event? Email us at [email protected].