I like the idea of being more physical, I wonder how it will work in practice. But would love to visit and see.
Great products don’t happen in isolation. They are shaped by the people who use them. That’s what this space is for: a place where Kagi users and our team members can share feedback, ideas, and a cup of coffee in person. Kagi Hub is an extension of our mission to humanize the web, creating an offline space where people who care about a better internet can meet.
I dropped some accessibility suggestions to Kagi couple of years ago. Should try the product again. Don't know if visiting the office is worth it, but visiting Belgrade is in my bucket list and remote working from there might be fun.
Honestly, I agree that this is a strange thing to focus on for them, but might be an interesting experience for me.
Kagi user, personally I don’t care what they spend my subscription money on as long as they provide a good service (which they do). That said, Kagi has to be the poster child for not staying in their lane. I mean that mostly as, they keep going off and trying random things and I worry it will distract them from the core product(s).
This rings of the whole t-shirt factory thing all over again. Get an office, that’s fine I guess if you will use it but the coworking aspect is just odd.
We have about 50 employees distributed across NA, EU, and Asia; maybe about 10 of us are in the US/Canada? 4 of them are actually local to Belgrade and use the Hub regularly, and see occasional visits from the rest of the company - we all meet up 2-3 times a year.
It's also a space that our founder has already been leasing for the better part of 10 years(?), long before Kagi was even a thing. As others have pointed out, this is Serbia, not SF - it's very cheap in relative.
So in perspective,
- a handful of our team just got a nice office for daily use together in person
- it is a "home base" that others in Kagi can freely use as they travel; we're already planning some "jams" to host there in 2026 to get major features over the line in person :)
- our community can engage with us there as well, we love our customers! online engagement is a very suffocated and transactional space
- it really isn't that expensive
It's all net positive to us in terms of investment in our own people and the community.
Kagi sure does keep me on my toes. I love it. I won't be using this at all, but I appreciate it exists. If you opened one on the East Coast I could see myself visiting.
To all those calling this bizarre - I agree, BUT I also think Kagi is in the perfect position to do weird stuff like this. Their products are high impact but, to be blunt, easy to ditch. If the company gets too weird for me I can just effortlessly use a different search engine / browser. So, I encourage them to try weird stuff while they are small and have a small footprint. I love the idea that a company is doing stuff like this.
This is a really cool idea and definitely encourages me to use Kagi, which I’ve never tried before. Belgrade is an awesome city, absolutely worth a trip (while working at their hub.)
The business model reminds me a bit of Revolut, which comes with some various benefits like one day a month at a WeWork. It’s not the primary business but it makes me feel like more of a “member” and less just a bank customer.
The people claiming that Kagi should stay in their lane don’t understand the dynamics of being a niche business with a massively more successful competitor. Technical power users aren’t going to keep you alive, building a club-like feeling while also having a solid product will.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 30.8 ms ] threadHonestly, I agree that this is a strange thing to focus on for them, but might be an interesting experience for me.
This rings of the whole t-shirt factory thing all over again. Get an office, that’s fine I guess if you will use it but the coworking aspect is just odd.
Kagi only has ~61k members, I have a feeling this won't get used much, most probably won't ever visit Serbia.
It's also a space that our founder has already been leasing for the better part of 10 years(?), long before Kagi was even a thing. As others have pointed out, this is Serbia, not SF - it's very cheap in relative.
So in perspective,
- a handful of our team just got a nice office for daily use together in person
- it is a "home base" that others in Kagi can freely use as they travel; we're already planning some "jams" to host there in 2026 to get major features over the line in person :)
- our community can engage with us there as well, we love our customers! online engagement is a very suffocated and transactional space
- it really isn't that expensive
It's all net positive to us in terms of investment in our own people and the community.
Did things change ? I'm not saying the opening of an HQ in Serbia is linked. It's obvious this is linked to the founder's origins and that's OK.
Just wondering if I should reconsider my subscription to this great product.
(Serbia's facing risks of petrol shortage because of Russia's war, just saw this in the news)
To all those calling this bizarre - I agree, BUT I also think Kagi is in the perfect position to do weird stuff like this. Their products are high impact but, to be blunt, easy to ditch. If the company gets too weird for me I can just effortlessly use a different search engine / browser. So, I encourage them to try weird stuff while they are small and have a small footprint. I love the idea that a company is doing stuff like this.
The business model reminds me a bit of Revolut, which comes with some various benefits like one day a month at a WeWork. It’s not the primary business but it makes me feel like more of a “member” and less just a bank customer.
The people claiming that Kagi should stay in their lane don’t understand the dynamics of being a niche business with a massively more successful competitor. Technical power users aren’t going to keep you alive, building a club-like feeling while also having a solid product will.