Meet Karthy Chandra, Founder, and CEO at Goalden Hour, a productivity-driven tool that empowers people to bring their goals and good habits to the forefront of their planning process.
Karthy founded Goalden Hour in college as a part of her class project while she was a bioengineering student at Cornell University. It was born out of her frustration of fragmented planning experience where she employed different apps and journals to track her goals. As she found it difficult to follow-through on her goals, she realized she wasn’t alone. This prepared the groundwork for Goalden Hour. The platform takes off the burden of planning from the user’s shoulders and ensures productivity. It allows people to manage their lives and empowers them to prioritize and plan for the things that truly matter.
However, Karthy didn’t pursue Goalden Hour full time right after graduation as she felt she wasn’t quite ready yet. She joined product management at a healthcare tech company in Boston. In her 4 years at the company, she learned about the working of tech companies and businesses, and the different functions of a business. She was involved in team culture to gain knowledge of leadership qualities, work engagement, how to build camaraderie with fellow teammates, and work together as an organization.
With the experience and knowledge gained from the job, in 2019, Karthy decided to go full time with Goalden Hour. She moved back to Portland, where she is currently working on the business of growing the team and building the product with support from her parents. The platform “combines the realms of scheduling, task management, and self-improvement to enable users to manage their whole lives in one place and consciously prioritize the things that matter most”. It encourages them to try out and learn new things. The application is an innovative combination of passion and purpose. Being in its initial stage, Goalden Hour is focused on students and is helping them grow in school, professionally whilst building a healthy lifestyle. Presently, Karthy now manages a 17 person team. They launched the alpha for the product and are planning to introduce the beta version by mid-year. This year, their focus will be on seeking investments and raising funds for the company along with developing a cohesive marketing strategy.
Although the pandemic was difficult for many businesses, it came as a blessing in disguise for Goalden Hour. The company was able to bring on new talents and retain them. They offered multiple internships to the students from the local coding schools as Junior developers. As many professionals and students lost their jobs/internships due to COVID, Golden Hour provided them an opportunity to find employment again. College students stayed on with the team for equity and experience. This also made her realize that the company works well remotely.
Talking about her vision for the company, Karthy says, “A part of the core mission of our product is to help people live their best lives, but with the ultimate goal of elevating humanity as a whole. Our goals are not just to help people to get fit, or stay organized or manage stress, we really are aiming to radically alter the trajectory of humankind by helping people take steps towards being healthier, more eco-conscious, and more compassionate to each other. One of our core values at Goalden Hour is personal development as a means for collective growth. We believe that when we take time to replenish our spirit and improve our individual lives. We naturally move towards helping to serve others and acting in alignment with the greater good”.