Keyhubs – Our Evolving Blueprint

Pollen recently wrote an exceptionally hip article about Keyhubs.

Unlike many business publications, Pollen is an incredibly cool, artistic and creative medium for fostering community. I had been tracking their feature stories for some time and greatly admired how they integrated visuals and story telling to put together remarkably engaging content.

When they reached out to me about doing a feature I was deeply honored. There have been some good articles written about Keyhubs over the years, but I knew the Pollen one was going to be like no other.

They didn’t disappoint.

I love how they told my story – the Keyhubs story – elegantly weaving in colorful photos, illustrations and quotes to highlight important aspects of the journey.

Pollen painted an intriguing and accurate picture of our brief history. And, because one article cannot possibly capture all facets of a story, I wanted to use it as a springboard to share how Keyhubs is evolving and growing.

Yes, Keyhubs was founded on the premise of human connection in the workplace. Understanding work through the lens of interpersonal connectivity provides insights that surprise, enlighten and transform. Beyond the top-down hierarchy, there is a “hidden” informal dynamic whose energy and power can be harnessed to take organizations to new heights.

This is what we do.

Human Connection Beyond the Office – An Engine for Opportunity and Sublime Satisfaction

As we embarked on this journey, we also learned the power of human connection and networks outside the workplace. Through connection and relationship, things happen, ideas come to life and people flourish.

Our business grows through the power of human connection. We don’t “sell” our products and services. We joyfully connect with other human beings for the pure magic of connecting. Through this, our business naturally progresses and grows.

By seeking out and making new, meaningful connections (and nurturing existing ones), we create opportunity for ourselves and others.

The Pollen article was no exception. In some sense, the way in which we “landed” it is just as interesting as the article itself:

I connected with all of these individuals with no real end goal in mind. I just wanted to meet and get-to-know other human beings. That simple act inevitably leads to new and enlarged opportunities.

Entrepreneurship and Creative Self-Expression

As our business progressed and grew, we realized something else: entrepreneurship is a priceless journey. Especially when it is done with purpose and passion.

We experienced first hand the pillars of human motivation and saw that entrepreneurship is one of the best vehicles to enjoy autonomy, mastery and purpose.

We saw the potency of creative self-expression, “hobbification” and weaving the growing network together through some form of creating and sharing – in our case, blogging. When we create and share, magic happens.

This is the essence of entrepreneurship and the basis of a more fulfilling life. We are all creative spirits, born to share and socialize our priceless uniqueness. We don’t want to just create new jobs, we want to inspire creativity, self-expression and entrepreneurship. We want to breed purpose-driven entrepreneurs.

And we do that too.

The Human Spirit

Paramount to all of this is something else we “stumbled-upon” – our greatest Gift – the human Spirit. This changed everything – the Truth that I am, we are, endowed with an indomitable Spirit, whose essence is love. Yes, the Spirit is real and through it all things are possible.

We want to make this Spirit the central organizing principle of everything we do. Love, joy, compassion – these are the fruits of the Spirit and we want them to be integral to our work and culture. It is what we get to take with us after all is said and done. Come what may, we are renewed and reaffirmed by our priceless human Spirit.

And so, we spend time feeding It.

Giving Back

A big part of feeding this Spirit of love is sharing It – by giving back. Love grows when we share it – when we set it free. What is the point of that Spirit if we do not help and inspire others to bring forth the same?

Keyhubs is growing, yet we are not satisfied until we also grow in altruism and unselfish service, especially for those that are at a resource-disadvantage. We want others to enjoy the Gifts that we have and have been given.

And so we give. Freely and generously.

We give away free trees. 10% of our profits (at a minimum) go to social ventures and other charitable causes. We donate our time and resources to causes that intersect with our own. For example, we have partnered with AMAZE – a local non-profit – to bring our network mapping technology to schools to help identify and prevent bullying activity.

In giving back, we obtain profits that are priceless beyond measure.

In Summary

1) We love human connection. Our journey allows us to revel in it.

2) The purpose of life is creative self-expression. We create and share for the pure joy of creating and sharing. This is the essence of entrepreneurship and nourishment for the soul.

3) We are here to light (y)our Hearts on fire, to bring forth and grow in the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, compassion and generosity.

This is the Keyhubs story and we look forward to sharing more with you as the journey unfolds.

Vikas Narula (@NarulaTweets) is Creator and Co-Founder of Keyhubs (@Keyhubs) – a software and services company specializing in workplace social analytics. He is also Founder of Neighborhood Forest – a social venture dedicated to giving free trees to kids every Earth Day.

Vikas is passionate about purpose-driven entrepreneurship and teaches on the subject at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

Other Recent Blog Posts:

Teaching – How the Students of MCTC Touched My Heart and Soul

Trees, Fashion and The Circle of Life – The Magical Story of EcoJam

Honoring the Spirit – How She Changed Me and My Definition of Success