
Show HN: Cardybot, a Slack app that sends signed birthday cards for remote teams - dammyX
https://cardybot.com
======
dammyX
Hello! We've been working on Cardybot for some months and are excited to share
it!

Send fun, personalized, and physical birthday cards to your co-workers with
ease. All organized and mailed automatically through Slack. Great for remote
teams or teams that just want to send birthday cards that co-workers will
cherish forever.

The story: I started my career in a non-remote company where (like many other
teams) we signed birthday cards for co-workers. Unlike most other birthday
perks it was actually fun and personalized. But my last couple of roles have
been on remote teams so it's been impossible to do cards like that. While I
love working remotely, I wish we still did birthday cards and our early
customers agree - that's why Cardybot was created. As a Slack integration, we
take the fun in this for all teams (remote and non-remote) to the next level .

When we started building Cardybot, we (off course) had no idea we would be
launching during a pandemic but I hope this brings some fun and engagement to
your team during this tough time.

We'd love to get some feedback and are happy to answer questions!

~~~
masukomi
it's a cool idea. a) i'd use a handwritten font and semi-randomized angles to
make it look more real. b) PLEASE don't send me yet another thing i have to
sterilize before bringing in my house. Countless (literally can't be counted)
people are involved in the mailing, sorting and delivery of mail and all of
them are potential Covid-19 carriers. Lacking an autoclave i can't really
sterilize paper without getting it wet and that sucks for a birthday card. I'd
read it with gloves on the porch, and then immediately trash it.... and most
folks don't have disposable gloves.

~~~
nicoburns
> most folks don't have disposable gloves.

Why not just read it without gloves, and then wash your hands afterwards?

~~~
markdown
Or just don't touch it until it's been untouched for four days.

------
tssva
I count not having to sign cards as one of the perks of working remote. Please
don't take this from me.

~~~
dammyX
This should reduce friction with that though because unlike someone walking up
to you with a card, it's an app you can choose your level of participation in!

We hope that this will be more natural since people typically send birthday
wishes in Slack anyway

------
IgorPartola
I have been wanting something like this but for my Facebook friends. I am
really bad at keeping up with people's birthdays unless it's someone I talked
to at least once a week. I'd love to automate sending birthday cards like
this. Or hell, even just writing on their wall with one of like 19 preset
messages. Even better: an AI that determines how I talk to this particular
individual (SMS, iMessage, email, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter,
Snapchat, something else), and opens a pre-composed message on their birthday
for me to edit and hit Send on. Obviously I need some way to blacklist certain
contacts from this since I wouldn't want my partner who I live with to get a
generic "Happy Birthday" while we are out to lunch or something, or an ex who
I am still somehow friends with on Facebook or some such but don't actually
want to talk to.

A related problem: who have I not messaged in a while? Scan my messages and
tell me who is due for a "Hey, how are you doing?" message? Again, simple in
principle, hard to make usable especially given that I use different apps to
talk to different people.

~~~
dammyX
Thanks for the feedback! We'll always be evaluating new features.

------
akamaka
My team recently bought a gift for someone who was leaving, and it was
slightly time consuming to figure out who wanted to contribute, and then to
keep track of the cash. I thought a good idea would be to build a Slack app to
split purchasing gift cards, with built in suggestions.

Feel free to steal my idea and add it to your app!

~~~
dammyX
That's an interesting problem. Thanks for the feedback! - we're looking at
ways to integrate gifts.

------
CalumWebb0
Hey there! This looks fantastic, just wanted to let you know someone's now
hunted this on Product Hunt, you may want to mark yourself as the maker there!

~~~
dammyX
Thanks for the feedback and heads up. Looks like someone beat us to it!

------
s_r_n
Great idea! I've wished for something like this, except for personal contacts
because it would help me get on top of sending thank-you letters.

~~~
dammyX
Thanks for the feedback!

------
ziggomat
If I got an automated birthday card via Slack I would be extremely depressed.

~~~
dammyX
Hello there, Cardybot is not just an automated card sender. It collects
personal birthday wishes/sentiments from your co-workers and organizes them in
a card.

------
quickthrower2
Very nice idea. Another thing you can do is work anniversary and of course
leaving cards.

~~~
dammyX
Yes! Other types of cards are coming soon. Birthdays are just the starting
point for Cardybot. Thanks for the feedback.

------
angry_octet
The last thing everyone in the office needs is to know everyone else's
birthday.

~~~
dammyX
Many offices actually do some kind of birthday related recognition. In any
case, Cardybot doesn't even tell you your co-workers birthday. It just tells
you that the birthday is coming up soon so you can sign the card.

------
dammyX
Thanks for all the feedback so far! Cardybot is now on Product Hunt:
[https://www.producthunt.com/posts/cardybot](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/cardybot)

