Kagi Hub Belgrade
blog.kagi.com
blog.kagi.com
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.
> The process from here involves setting up a business entity in Germany, so we can import the t-shirts, store them in a warehouse, connect inventory logistics and ship them all over the world. This includes building a website and connecting it to a back-end database. So, we basically ended up owning a merch production operation end-to-end, just so that we could ensure premium quality of these t-shirts!
> allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts?
That's a lot of their money just to give out some t-shirts but I get that it's marketing in a way.
That said, this isn't as crazy of an idea as it sounds from the headline. Kagi says they are "remote-first", so the main beneficiary of this real estate is meant to be Kagi and their employees. The idea to open up some of the office space for Kagi customers to reserve is novel but not completely ridiculous either. I can see it working out well as a marketing tool.
It is basically marketing. I am not sure everyone would call that a distraction if it gives kagi more visibility and thus, customers and revenues to spend on r&d.
Belgrade is a good place to test if that marketing works. It is a tech hub, which means higher probability to get new kagi subsribers, and it is not too expensive as a place to do an experiment. If they realize the ratio between money spent on this coworking space vs customer gained in that area in a year is not in their favor they can easily not renew their rent and shut it off.
Fleeing as in seeking asylum? Or fleeing as in sanctions? If the latter, besides the Slavic nations, I'd have thought Germany, the UAE, Israel, and Canada to be more popular?
Most popular places to move I guess are Georgia(365 daya visa-free, easy to reach), Serbia, UAE, Cyprus, Poland.
At least Kagi already has multiple decently useful products (Kagi search, Assistant, Orion).
They gave away some t shirts to paying customers. It probably had decent returns on both marketing and loyalty.
> The process from here involves setting up a business entity in Germany, so we can import the t-shirts, store them in a warehouse, connect inventory logistics and ship them all over the world. This includes building a website and connecting it to a back-end database. So, we basically ended up owning a merch production operation end-to-end, just so that we could ensure premium quality of these t-shirts!
> Now, you may ask, why did we go through all this trouble and allocate nearly a third of our investor-raised funds to produce and freely distribute 20,000 t-shirts?
Marketing.
I never understood how this very simple position flies over certain heads.
Now, if the company dies because of genuine financial mismanagement, I will be pissed. I rely on Kagi's search and AI offerings. For now, those core offerings keep getting better even with these side quests. For example, their Ki research assistant just left beta:
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.
I actually don’t think there’s a search engine or browser to switch to with the same values. That’s why I and others get dismayed when the best, the only, option for paid search wastes its time and talent on boondoggles.
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.
It doesn't come with those benefits, you're paying more to get them. It's just banking + random subscriptions bundles basically.
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.Honestly, I agree that this is a strange thing to focus on for them, but might be an interesting experience for me.
Interesting choice for sure though, would be far from my first choice (as a Serb myself)
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)
Unclear how all the random side projects align with this goal tbh.
Especially if he simultaneously claims it's hardly used and only represents 2% of costs. If it's so infrequently used, why so resistant to offering a toggle?
Kagi only has ~61k members, I have a feeling this won't get used much, most probably won't ever visit Serbia.
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?
It can be seen as a combination of benefits given to employees (motivation boost) + marketing.
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.
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.