Yen Tan

Yen Tan Yen Tan is an influencer

Co-Founder, Kona | Leadership Coach, Educator, and SXSW Speaker | Featured in Entrepreneur, The Guardian, TechCrunch, Fortune

Los Angeles, California, United States
15K followers 500+ connections

About

🐶 Co-Founder at Kona – Building AI for manager enablement. Built for Slack and meetings (Zoom/Google Meet). Because everyone deserves to work for their best manager ever. As seen in The Guardian, Fortune, Yahoo, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, Harvard Business School, Forbes, and more.

🎓 Leadership Coach - Coaching dozens of managers, VPs, and CXOs to identify leadership blindspots and lead with empathy and accountability. Worked with managers at Zipline, XWP, Oyster, Buffer, and more. Leading the Remote Manager Accelerator, a 30-day accelerator for managers who want to up-level their management style.

📚 Training Facilitator - Ran manager workshops at Circle, Buffer, Linktree, Postscript, Mercury, Happy Money, and more. Designing online courses on remote management, advising Fortune 10 companies on remote strategy, and writing thought pieces. Ask me about our People Leader Book Club!

🌎 Future of Work Speaker - Invited to speak at SXSW, Google, MailChimp, GitLab Commit, and other remote work conferences about the future of work, building successful remote-first organizations, and AI.

👋 Non-Technical – Majored in English and Creative Writing. Obsessed with storytelling, sales, and customer joy. Ask me about breaking into tech!

🏳️‍🌈 Queer as heck - Sixth-generation Chinese American, trans nonbinary, and hella queer. Protect trans youth! Please refer to me by they/them pronouns:)

Articles by Yen

Contributions

Activity

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Experience

  • Kona Graphic

    Co-Founder

    Kona

    - Present 5 years 8 months

    Remote

    Kona is the AI-powered sidekick for remote managers. Built for Slack and meetings (Zoom/Google Meet).

    Kona joins your meetings in Zoom/Google Meet, and gives you notes, action items, and feedback on your meeting in a Slack right after. That real-time feedback can be personalized to your company's leadership philosophy and manager training content.

    Kona uses the context it builds over time to help managers prepare for 1:1s, draft performance reviews, run effective meetings…

    Kona is the AI-powered sidekick for remote managers. Built for Slack and meetings (Zoom/Google Meet).

    Kona joins your meetings in Zoom/Google Meet, and gives you notes, action items, and feedback on your meeting in a Slack right after. That real-time feedback can be personalized to your company's leadership philosophy and manager training content.

    Kona uses the context it builds over time to help managers prepare for 1:1s, draft performance reviews, run effective meetings, navigate difficult conversations, and more.

    Provide your managers with 24/7 enablement and support without leaving Slack. Visit our website to get started for free! https://heykona.com

    We're a remote-first startup building a happier, kinder future of work. Learn more at heykona.com

  • Leadership Coach, Speaker, Training Facilitator

    Self-employed

    - Present 3 years 10 months

    Coaching managers to identify blindspots and lead with both empathy and accountability. Led dozens of managers, VPs, and CXOs through a one-to-one Remote Manager Accelerator, a 30-day accelerator for managers who want to up-level their management style. https://www.heykona.com/the-remote-manager-accelerator

    Led company workshops on remote management, feedback, wellbeing, and emotional intelligence at Circle, Buffer, Linktree, Postscript, Mercury, Happy Money, and more.

    Leading…

    Coaching managers to identify blindspots and lead with both empathy and accountability. Led dozens of managers, VPs, and CXOs through a one-to-one Remote Manager Accelerator, a 30-day accelerator for managers who want to up-level their management style. https://www.heykona.com/the-remote-manager-accelerator

    Led company workshops on remote management, feedback, wellbeing, and emotional intelligence at Circle, Buffer, Linktree, Postscript, Mercury, Happy Money, and more.

    Leading People Leader Book Club, a community of learners tackling leadership books and meeting popular authors. Built in partnership with Penguin Random House. Previous authors include Kim Scott, Amy Edmondson, Julie Zhuo, Katy Milkman, Bob Burg, and more.

    Invited to speak at SXSW, Google, MailChimp, GitLab Commit, and other remote work conferences.

  • Accel Employment Services, Inc. Graphic

    Marketing Coordinator

    Accel Employment Services, Inc.

    - 2 years 10 months

    Alameda, CA

    I worked closely with the VP of Talent Requisition to develop marketing campaign strategies that promoted lead generation. I learned the importance of hiring fit, career checklists, and company culture.

    Successes include:
    • Responded to Request for Proposals totaling over $10 million in proposed projects
    • Designed and launched digital marketing campaigns to prospective clients
    • Conducted market sizing and analysis on industry players, trends, and key events

Education

  • UCLA Graphic

    University of California, Los Angeles

    Bachelor of Arts - BA English with concentration in Creative Writing, Minor in Entrepreneurship

    Activities and Societies: Sike AI, LA Hacks, Sigma Tau Delta, the Writer’s Den at UCLA, Film and Photography Society (FPS) at UCLA

    B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a Minor in Entrepreneurship. Summa Cum Laude, on Dean's Honor's List, and Highest Honors for the Department of English.

  • UCLA Undergraduate Minor in Entrepreneurship Graphic

    UCLA Undergraduate Minor in Entrepreneurship

    Bachelor's degree Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Studies

    Through a carefully developed curriculum by UCLA Anderson professors and an integrative capstone experience, students in the minor obtain both breadth and depth in their understanding of the concepts, frameworks, and practical implications of entrepreneurship.

Volunteer Experience

  • L&D SHAKERS Graphic

    Hub Lead: Greater Los Angeles

    L&D SHAKERS

    - Present 2 months

    Education

    The L&D SHAKERS is an international community for Learning & Development professionals that meet, share, learn and accelerate their careers.

  • TreePeople Graphic

    Volunteer

    TreePeople

    - Present 2 months

    Environment

Skills

Courses

  • Entrepreneurship and Venture Initiation

    MGMT 160

  • Short Story Workshop with Angela Flournoy

    ENG 138

  • Short Story Workshop with Juliana Xuan Wang

    ENG 137

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