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American company with a fully remote team opening an office in Belgrade? This just feels like such a waste of money. Kagi only has ~61k members, I have a feeli

by KomoD 11mo ago

American company with a fully remote team opening an office in Belgrade? This just feels like such a waste of money. Kagi only has ~61k members, I have a feeling this won't get used much, most probably won't ever visit Serbia.

sensanaty 11mo ago
If they even had any Serb users to begin with I'd genuinely be amazed. Also (I'm a Serb, I'm allowed to hate on my own country don't worry) who the fuck visits Serbia, much less to visit some random search engine's office?
- prmoustache 11mo ago
  They mention their founder is Serb and they have employees in Belgrade. Maybe they know some of their employees are already renting a coworking space in Belgrade and would be happy to work together in the same space. It can be seen as a combination of benefits given to employees (motivation boost) + marketing.
- heeton 11mo ago
  Random data point: I'm in the UK and have visited Serbia twice for Skiing and time in Belgrade. It was a cool place.
- barbazoo 11mo ago
  I’ve visited Serbia and also Belgrade and I had a great time there. Lovely people, great food.
- dccoolgai 11mo ago
  Can't keep Slivovitz a secret forever and Kala Megdan is one of the most amazing experiences in Europe.
  - freediver 11mo ago
    You know what you are talking about :)
- b__d 11mo ago
  It's great for motorcycling :)
IgorPartola 11mo ago
I mean imagine if Google opens a free coworking space in NYC. Well maybe not free but do $10/month. How big do you think it would need to be? The point here is that it is far away from where it is likely to see huge demand because if it was not the fact that this is selling dollar bills for a cent would bite them immediately. It is a marketing and publicity thing, and maybe a recruitment thing: friends of employees can now come hang out. Or look at it as if Google or Microsoft or whoever sponsored a random hackerspace.
gilrain 11mo ago
I think the founder just misses Belgrade and wants to hang out there. Vlad gets odd passions and just does stuff.
z64 11mo ago
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.

by KomoD 11mo ago

sensanaty 11mo ago

If they even had any Serb users to begin with I'd genuinely be amazed. Also (I'm a Serb, I'm allowed to hate on my own country don't worry) who the fuck visits Serbia, much less to visit some random search engine's office?

prmoustache 11mo ago
They mention their founder is Serb and they have employees in Belgrade. Maybe they know some of their employees are already renting a coworking space in Belgrade and would be happy to work together in the same space. It can be seen as a combination of benefits given to employees (motivation boost) + marketing.
heeton 11mo ago
Random data point: I'm in the UK and have visited Serbia twice for Skiing and time in Belgrade. It was a cool place.
barbazoo 11mo ago
I’ve visited Serbia and also Belgrade and I had a great time there. Lovely people, great food.
dccoolgai 11mo ago
Can't keep Slivovitz a secret forever and Kala Megdan is one of the most amazing experiences in Europe.
- freediver 11mo ago
  You know what you are talking about :)
b__d 11mo ago
It's great for motorcycling :)

IgorPartola 11mo ago

I mean imagine if Google opens a free coworking space in NYC. Well maybe not free but do $10/month. How big do you think it would need to be? The point here is that it is far away from where it is likely to see huge demand because if it was not the fact that this is selling dollar bills for a cent would bite them immediately. It is a marketing and publicity thing, and maybe a recruitment thing: friends of employees can now come hang out. Or look at it as if Google or Microsoft or whoever sponsored a random hackerspace.

gilrain 11mo ago

I think the founder just misses Belgrade and wants to hang out there. Vlad gets odd passions and just does stuff.

z64 11mo ago

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.