We are in the grip of some kind of an attractor ... a dream that is pulling us deeper and deeper into the adventure of existential becoming.
— Terence McKenna
I was deeply encouraged by Dario Amodei recently. In a rare act of corporate bravery, Anthropic's CEO is standing up to government pressure regarding mass surveillance. He stands for something. It’s why we built Ren using their models. I’m proud of that alignment (really hope I won’t have to eat those words).
In our corner of the AI world, we wrestle with a version of the same question: Just because we can see the public activity inside your Slack or Teams, what should we actually do with that?
Most platforms play it safe. They serve you something so polished and diplomatic it might as well be a press release. But safe coaching is useless coaching. We took the opposite position. We built Ren to be tough, and a bit salty.
Your private secret weapon (now in Slack)
As of this week, Ren can connect to your Slack workspace. For those of you on Microsoft Teams or other platforms, hang tight—you’re next on our roadmap and we’re moving fast.
Ren reads the room—the dynamics in public channels, the conversations you're avoiding, the patterns you can't see because you're inside them. And then it tells you what it actually thinks.
We call it salty, but really, it’s just the kindest version of the truth—the one people usually keep from you to avoid being uncomfortable.
Democratizing the Kind Truth: It’s for Everyone
For too long, high-level coaching has been a luxury gatekept for the C-suite. We believe everyone, from the intern to the Senior VP, deserves to know exactly where they stand.
That’s why Ren isn't just for managers; it’s for everyone to manage their own growth. It gives an individual contributor the same mirror a CEO gets. This isn't just about self-improvement; it's about having the data to manage up effectively. When you know your own blind spots, you can own the conversation before it even reaches your manager's desk.
While the Slack integration is our big news this week, Ren is a standalone platform, anyone can create an account today to start building their growth profile and accessing their dashboard via the web.
The Salty Guardrails:
We Don't Track DMs: This is vital. Ren only listens to the channels you invite it to. Your private DMs, the place where you vent, joke, and decompress, are none of our business. Ren coaches you based on how you show up in the "arena" of work.
Strictly Private: Your specific coaching moments live between you and Ren. Your boss and HR never see them. They show up in your Morning Briefing and nowhere else.
No Snitching: Your organization gets insights, but only as aggregate themes (e.g., "The team feels the roadmap is unclear"). They’ll never see your words.
What Muscle Looks Like
Instead of the usual "consider scheduling more check-ins," Ren might send a team member something like this:
You’ve seen three chances to speak up about the timeline in that thread today, and you stayed silent. You’re playing it safe, but you're also becoming a bottleneck. What are you actually afraid will happen if you say the truth in the main channel?
Uncomfortable? Yes. But that’s the point. If your workplace is like most, that kind of honesty is extremely rare, because it’s vulnerable to do. Ren is trained to operate that way, and of course, it might get it wrong. That’s the risk we’re willing to take, because the gift of real coaching is worth it. We’d rather push it a little too far than fill your inbox with more accurate-but-generic insights.
How to get started:
Access your account: Sign up via the new homepage. You’ll get your first coaching insight within 60 seconds of finishing onboarding.
Check your Briefing: Look for your private DM from Ren each morning. Use it to prep for your day before the noise starts.
Take Action: Chat with Ren to get help with tough conversations, meeting prep, career development or whatever the most important conversation is today.
The future is pulling us forward. Our money is on a destination that is more relational, more honest, and more human.
— Jonathan
P.S. We’ve also shipped a major visual redesign. You can experience the public version of Ren on our new homepage. It’s just as direct. 🙂