ZenQ - The Importance of Appreciation

by Startacus Admin

In any startup, the work of your team will be reflected in the product, and therefore, any results obtained. Here at Startacus we are firm believers in giving kudos where it’s due. That being said, we also know that a little appreciation goes a long way when it comes to work ethic, morale and even just making an employee’s day a little better.

One company, ZenQ, have developed a platform to help people do just that, we talked to Zornista Tomova, to find out a little more.

Hi Zornista! Right away, what exactly is “ZenQ”?

ZenQ is ‘ze way to say thank you’ :) It’s a social mobile app for people interested in staying positive and living a happy life to express their gratitude and appreciation of others.

Imagine browsing through your friends and pointing out their best qualities in just a tap (smart, creative, fun, etc.). You can also go deeper and write a 'thank you' message to someone who made your day. Eventually each of us gets a profile with our key strengths and positive deeds through the eyes of our peers.

So it’s not only a platform to show gratitude, but also a great way to promote our coworkers for their skills! That's genius! What inspired you guys to come up with “ZenQ”?

The idea came to me and my co-founder Mircea one spring afternoon on a park bench in Cluj, Romania. He told me he had this idea of a place where you can get a personality profile built by your friends. You could use it for discovering your strengths, looking for jobs, generating online trust with people who don’t know you.

Suddenly, I remembered of another idea I had, which was about teaching your brain the habit of appreciating the great people around you. I had experienced its magic in building strong relationships with some of the most awesome people in my life and wanted to find a way to use technology to scale it. The ideas just clicked together and “ZenQ” was born.

So there are a lot of factors that affected the development, why not tell us about the applications for “ZenQ”?

We’ve researched so many options in business - building online trust with people you don’t know in sharing economy sites, providing information to HR managers looking to hire for character and build skills after, building a culture of appreciation inside companies and taking into account personality when forming teams and hiring new people etc.

In the end, we chose to pursue the personal development line: building a positive habit, discovering your strengths, keeping in touch with your friends in a positive way. Gratitude is one of the key habits proven by science to make you a happier person, this is where we felt we wanted to make our dent in the universe.

Considering the evident diversity of use that “ZenQ” has, have you had much success with the App?

Our greatest success is the hundreds of wonderful people who are currently using ZenQ. They’ve been giving us so much positive and constructive feedback, supporting us and helping us go forward in all sorts of ways. Currently, we have more than 1000 downloads. In the last few days we’ve also been shortlisted by a couple of great funds and accelerators in Europe, so fingers crossed we manage to secure our first round and make ZenQ a sustainable business.

With all of that, then I just have to ask, what are your plans for “ZenQ”?

We believe that every single human is amazing and should hear it more often. That’s why we want to go global and reach hundreds of millions of people. We plan to start by getting in touch with people from positive psychology and personal development communities in the UK and US and bringing value to more people with their help. In terms of product, we will develop towards being able to send gifts as special signs of appreciation to your friends.

Sounds great! Just have to ask; Where can people get a hold of the App?

ZenQ is currently available in both Google Play and App Store - you can get it from here. We are still in beta and will be really ‘zenqful’ for any feedback or ideas you might have!

If you, like Zornista have a cool idea for an app, business, or product, why not check out our collab space? Full of ideas and inspiration to get your plans on the move!

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• #zenq
• #zornista tomova
• #appreciation
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• #rewards
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• #interview

Published on: 21st October 2014