We're live! Today marks the first day Unicorn Train is officially available in both the Slack App Directory and GitHub Marketplace. There are many more integrations to come, but first here's the backstory on getting this far:

Why did we build Unicorn Train?

Working on a remote team has a number of challenges, especially when the team is used to collaborating in person and socializing in an office. The water cooler talks now take place in a quiet Slack channel and team celebrations happen on awkward video calls 😬

Your team is busy working on various projects, but it feels as though no one is talking about it during the day. Staying motivated is a challenge without the energy of your team keeping you focused and cheering you on.

There is no incentive to engage with the team, making it easy to limit online interactions to only peers and direct reports. New hires on remote teams find it particularly difficult to understand the culture and form bonds with people they've never met before.

Sure, there are various HR apps where you can set some goals and provide feedback for your team. But these HR apps feel separate and obscure from where the work actually happens. Your team "high-fives" go into a black hole where no one will ever see them and the majority of feedback only comes from your direct manager 🙏

There are also HR apps that offer "points-based rewards" that can be personally redeemed for small incentives. The problem with accumulating points is that they can be gamed and often turn into a popularity contest. The motivation becomes the reward itself, instead of an opportunity to celebrate wins on the team.

Why is Unicorn Train is the magical solution?

Integrates everywhere work happens

Positive feedback should be shared for your entire team to see. Unicorn Train integrates with your team's favorite apps, allowing your praise to be posted anywhere your team naturally communicates, such as public Slack channels and GitHub comments.

Encourages everyone to celebrate small wins and exceptional contributors

Team members now have a reason to engage with the wider organization. Boost morale by sharing your appreciation for others and join the team in acknowledging great work.

Provides incentives that are fun to receive and fairly awarded

An exciting draw system introduces a new team ritual that awards prizes to top contributors, but also adds a degree of chance to ensure everyone is eligible. Leaderboard results can also be configured, but the innovative raffle-style option disrupts the conventional reward system to promote more inclusive team engagement for everyone.

Recurring prize pools and automated draws put your rewards on rails

Save time and overhead by enabling recurring prizes that are included in every draw, which is also set to recur at your desired frequency (i.e. weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly). You can literally set it and forget it!

Why Unicorn Train?

What makes Unicorn Train fun and creative is the ability to "train" emojis together. First include 🦄 to start a train, followed by any additional emoji you like (even custom Slack emojis). Each emoji will count as an entry in the prize draw, for example:

@Riley thanks for the help in that last meeting 🦄😅⏱🍩

This would count as 4 entries for Riley. An OG Unicorn Train would consist of only unicorns 🦄🦄🦄🦄 - which would also count as 4 entries.

Why Unicorn?

A unicorn employee is a member of the staff who possesses a unique set of qualities that make them extremely rare and valuable, as defined by Ryan Holmes of Hootsuite. 

To be called a unicorn is a compliment for being an exceptional contributor. It's also a great emoji and is fundamental to how Unicorn Train works.

Why?

Because it's fun, silly and keeps things light in the workplace.

With that said, we'd like to extend a special thanks to family and friends for helping us reach this exciting milestone. We're already busy working on additional integrations as well as an incredible fully automated reward system for cash bonuses and gift cards. Unicorn Train is simply the best employee-driven rewards and recognition app, hop on board today and start your free for 30-day trial.