14: KOYA - The App to Send Joy to Anyone, Anywhere with Cherie Werner

Cherie Werner is the Co-Founder and Chief Kindness Officer at KOYA. KOYA is a social platform and app designed to create meaningful and intentional connections. You can send people a video or audio message along with an optional gift, like some money for coffee. You pick a location where the KOYA will activate, say your friend’s favourite coffee shop. The recipient receives a notification that they have a KOYA to discover, and you can provide them with hints to nudge them in the right direction. In this episode, we explore KOYA, as well as the F.I.E.S.T.A. Meetup group that she hosts in Austin, Texas, and much more on the topic of connections!
Highlights & Takeaways

• How Cherie’s family would intentionally leave keepsakes to show that they were thinking of each other, like self-recorded audiobooks, objects hidden in their suitcase, or a 6-month journal that you can only read one day at a time
• How Gen Z is the most overly connected generation, but also the loneliest
• There is your biological family who brought you up, but also your chosen family that invest into you
• Meeting an executive from Lunchclub on her 100th call, and then having their team over for a home cooked meal while they were visiting Austin
• Why she started the F.I.E.S.T.A. (Founders, Investors, Entrepreneurs, Startups, Techies, and Austin Newcomers) Meetup group
• You're never too old. It's never too late. Do your part in showing up and being intentional with the people in your life.

Resources Mentioned

• Contact Cherie: [email protected] | LinkedIn
• KOYA
• Lunchclub
• F.I.E.S.T.A. Meetup Group
• Belonging: Reconnecting America’s Loneliest Generation
• We’re Not Really Strangers

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Music by Meghan Rennie - Instagram / Soundcloud

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