We Built our First SaaS - Sweet Kudos
Tags: javascript, saas, slack, hr
Published: 2024-06-28 17:00:22

The project is called [Sweet Kudos](https://sweetkudos.com/). I wanted to create a Slack bot that helps teams build a culture of recognition, rewards and celebrations. I focused on making it super easy to use and integrate with Slack.

## Motivation

I've always been passionate about building tools that help teams work better, so my co-founder and I started working on this SaaS in mid-November. So, this cute logo was born.

![Recognition bot for Slack](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/63dvfphz4q5jzcgvxcsz.jpg)

With my experience building products with large teams, I noticed that many teams struggle to show appreciation and celebrate each other's achievements. We wanted to create a simple and fun way for teams to do this.

## Short intro

[Sweet Kudos](https://sweetkudos.com/) allows team members to give each other "Kudos" as a gesture of gratitude and appreciation. Each day, team members have a certain number of Kudos to give. The Kudos limit can be customized anytime so that teams can change the daily Kudos limit with our Flexible System.

{% embed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rJojJuAyW4 %}

The Kudos are represented by emojis, which become the currency of fun, team spirit and appreciation. Teams can use the bot to recognize achievements, celebrate milestones, and have fun together.

## Why Slack?

Slack was the perfect choice for this application for several reasons:

- Slack is where teams already communicate and collaborate, so integrating Sweet Kudos into their workflow is seamless.
- Slack has a great bot platform and SDK, making building and deploying bots easy.
- Slack has a large and growing user base, so Sweet Kudos has a big potential market.

## How Did It Go?

Building Sweet Kudos was a challenging but rewarding process. The biggest challenge was ensuring the bot was easy to use and integrate with Slack. 
 
Since we have full-time jobs, we worked on weekends in rented co-working spaces and worked remotely via Trello and Slack. 

We also spent a lot of time testing and iterating on the user experience to ensure it was intuitive and delightful, and we are constantly improving it. 

Another challenge was ensuring the bot was secure and compliant with Slack's privacy requirements and GDPR. We followed Slack's documentation closely to ensure Sweet Kudos met all their standards.

## Extra features

We have implemented some extra features for our users, like:

- [Birthday Bot for Slack](https://sweetkudos.com/slack-birthday-bot-and-work-anniversary-bot/) - we wanted to integrate Birthday celebrations with Kudos ability so users can receive Kudos on their birthdays
- Work anniversary bot - Same as birthday bot, just for work anniversaries :)
- [Rewards in Slack](https://sweetkudos.com/rewards-system/) - users can redeem rewards created by team members - each reward can cost a certain amount of Kudos

## Try It Out

[Sweet Kudos](https://sweetkudos.com/) is available now for a free 30-day trial, with no credit card required. 

**And yup - it is free for up to 10 users. **

## Our Next Steps

After the initial launch, we plan to continue improving and expanding Sweet Kudos based on user feedback. 

**Some of the key priorities are:**

- Adding more customization options for teams to personalize the bot to their needs
- Integrating with Microsoft Teams
- Developing more advanced analytics and reporting to help teams measure the impact of their recognition efforts

## Conclusion

[Sweet Kudos](https://sweetkudos.com/) is designed to help teams build a culture of recognition, rewards and celebrations. We hope it will make it easy and fun to show appreciation.

**[Free trial
](https://sweetkudos.com/)**

I'd love to hear your feedback and ideas for improving the bot.