User:AdamKershner/sandbox

Kahana is an online platform that provides infrastructure for content creation, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and subscription revenue. It allows users to curate content into hubs that they can share and monetize. Founded in 2019, Kahana is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

History
Kahana was founded in 2019 by Jonathan Gans and Adam Kershner. Jonathan Gans and Adam Kershner operate as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Product Officer (Head of Product), respectively, as of July 2019.

Gans and Kershner originally met at Duke University in 2014, where they were 1st-year roommates. In spring 2020, Gans and Kershner met Eugene Kaminksy, a developer, through CoFoundersLab.com. Kaminsky then became the technical cofounder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kahana. The original inspiration and idea for Kahana came, in part, from GitHub, and how it allowed developers to discover and collaborate with like-minded developers, fork off of each other's work, and avoid duplication. Kahana's founding team wanted to solve a similar problem inherent to the process of collaboration and content creation across the Internet, specifically for creators.

The first prototype of the Kahana platform was released in June 2020 and included a split-screen hub interface, with a text editing space on the right, a file viewing space on the left, and the ability to create links between text on the right and files on the left.

Following the release of the first prototype, Kahana added a browser extension plug-in for "clipping" content from webpages, available on the Google Chrome Web Store.

In 2021, Kahana expanded its user base by partnering with multiple organizations, including National Novel Writing Month. At this time, Kahana released a new feature called Flow Streak, which was inspired by Duolingo's streak feature. Since then, numerous users have achieved a Flow Streak of over 50 days.

The second version of Kahana was released in late 2021 and included an enhanced user interface and user experience design. The second version of Kahana also included additional functionality for embedding YouTube videos within a hub, adding tags (metadata) at the file and hub levels, and creating user profiles.

On January 28th, 2022, Gans was featured in an interview with ValiantCEO, where he discussed Kahana's goals of encouraging creators to write consistently, build portfolios, and create content.

In March 2022, Kahana attended the American Bar Association (ABA) Techshow in Chicago.

At the same time, Kahana partnered with the Grant Professionals Association (GPA), the National Association of Legal Professionals (NALS), and the American Association of Medical Writers (AMWA).

In May 2022, Kahana released a collaborative real-time editor functionality, allowing hubs to be used by multiple users simultaneously. It also released a "forking" functionality, analogous to the ability to fork a repository using GitHub.

In June 2022, Kahana released an update that allowed hubs to be embedded into Notion workspaces.

In August 2022, Kahana was listed as one of the most promising collaboration startups in the United States.

Users
Kahana users include YouTubers, TikTok creators, LinkedIn creators, experts, consultants, students, freelancers and content creators, knowledge workers, and other gig workers. Among the high-profile creators to have used the platform is the YouTube channels, Coby Explanes, and Fantasy Flock Network, as well as the TikTok creator Kathreen.

It allows content creators, in particular, to curate information and research into hubs across the content creation process while simultaneously charging to access the hubs.

Kahana also has users at companies such as Deloitte and Dun & Bradstreet.

Software
Kahana is a collaborative software (web application) that integrates content management and knowledge management. It is an all-in-one environment for content creation, organization, and knowledge sharing. It is a file management platform offering a unified workspace, allowing users to comment on hubs, participate in discussions, and receive feedback. It can be accessed by most web browsers, including Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

Kahana allows users to create dynamic knowledge repositories, known as "hubs," which can store and link multiple types of files. It includes a web saver browser extension plug-in, available for installation on the Chrome Web Store, for "clipping" content from webpages. It has a collaborative real-time editor, which works with Grammarly.

It can be used for mass collaboration and knowledge transfer.

It can be used as a personal wiki, knowledge base, knowledge management software, and integrated collaboration environment.

Kahana hubs can be embedded and unfurl within Notion workspaces, using the hub link.

Business model
Kahana uses a Freemium Subscription business model. As of 2021, the fee for a premium subscription was $9.99/month or $99.99/year. Users can have a limited number of hubs for free, and they can upgrade to unlock unlimited hubs. In August 2022, Kahana announced through its help center that it will be releasing monetization functionality using Stripe as a payment service provider, allowing users to charge subscription access to their hubs in a customer to customer capacity.