Five Minutes of Real Talk Before the Agenda Doubles Meeting Outcomes

01 /The Concept

Scribl has built a tool for forging human connections among remote workers – one that integrates naturally into online meetings.

The clever part is its simplicity. Each meeting participant can finger-draw doodles on their phone in the Scribl app, and the host can display those doodles on the shared meeting screen.

For example, a host might open with prompts like "which recent project excited you most?" or "what's the best thing you ate this week?" – and participants respond by drawing something.

The questions don't even have to relate to the meeting agenda. Their job is to help participants connect on a basic human level. The host can write their own prompts or pull from Scribl's built-in catalog.

The drawings can also serve as an ideation tool – each participant sketches their idea alongside their verbal explanation, and the host pins the results on a shared board. This approach activates creative thinking and leaves behind a visual record of the brainstorm.

Any participant can draw at any time – as an illustration of what they're saying or a visual reaction to what they hear. It's something like emoji in chat, except drawings are far more distinctive, expressing personality rather than just emotion.

The app also collects post-session feedback on how participants experienced the drawing and sharing – giving hosts data to refine how they use Scribl for maximum impact.

Despite its simplicity, Scribl has earned enthusiastic reviews from managers at companies like Amazon Web Services and CVS Health. They report that opening a meeting with Scribl warms up participants and makes sessions meaningfully more productive. They also note it makes idea-sharing and feedback loops smoother – and keeps people from mentally checking out.

Pricing scales with the number of hosts who control the question flow and drawing display. One to five hosts runs $49 per host per month; six to twenty-four drops to $39. Beyond that, pricing is negotiated directly with the startup.

Scribl launched last year and has now closed its first $415K funding round.

02 /Why It Matters

On Scribl's LinkedIn page there's a quote worth spotlighting: "The first five minutes of any online meeting – whether a one-on-one, a team call, or a client session – should be devoted to building a human connection." That's exactly the problem Scribl is built to solve.

That framing traces back to a recent piece called "Building Human Relationships in a Remote Work World." A few passages from it are illuminating.

In *Influence*, Robert Cialdini describes an experiment with students from different universities tasked with selling something to each other. Groups told "Time is money – get straight to business" succeeded in about 50% of cases. Groups told "Before you start selling, take a few minutes to find common ground with the buyer" hit a 95% success rate.

In other words, establishing a human connection nearly doubles business effectiveness.

Running an online meeting is a bit like inviting guests to your restaurant. What makes a restaurant work? The atmosphere – the decor, the music, the crowd. The equivalent in virtual meetings is "digital hospitality."

A meeting's success isn't just about hitting its stated goal, just as a restaurant's appeal isn't only the food. Human connection matters enormously. Yes, keep the business objectives in view – but also share personal anecdotes, find moments of levity, support each other, and let each person show a bit of who they are.

This means a host's job is to attend not just to the agenda but to the environment in which the conversation unfolds.

One practical move: let your virtual background say something personal – a piece of art, a souvenir from a recent trip, something tied to a hobby. If another participant notices something they find interesting behind you, a human connection has formed before a single word is spoken.

Even participants with completely different interests will respond warmly to something personal – which can seed goodwill, which can seed a real relationship, which can lead to the outcomes you're after.

So yes, your virtual background deserves deliberate thought – not just a plain wall or a generic gradient.

And if you open a meeting by launching straight into business, you forfeit the opportunity to build the human rapport that shapes how everything else unfolds. The first five minutes should belong to connection. Five minutes is a guideline, not a hard rule – if it runs a little longer and the energy is good, let it.

That said, don't leave it to chance. Someone has to lead it. For example, invite participants to share in thirty seconds the best meal they've had lately, a song they discovered this week, a show they've been enjoying – whatever sparks curiosity and individuality. The ideal outcome is finding a shared interest between at least a few participants.

Only then does the actual agenda begin. But the conversation that follows lands on very different soil – better prepared, more open. Which gives you a real edge toward the outcome you're trying to reach.

Scribl is one practical way to execute the approach described above. It just happens to use drawing as the connection medium – and based on user reviews, that medium genuinely works.

03 /Opportunities

Scribl's LinkedIn recently carried another sharp observation: employee engagement is the product of genuine human relationships. Every meeting or check-in with team members is another opportunity to build and strengthen those relationships.

They cite Gallup research showing that engaged employees don't just feel better – they deliver better results for their employers. And good compensation alone isn't enough to produce that engagement.

Employees need a sense of purpose. They want their individuality seen and encouraged by leadership. They want real human relationships with colleagues and managers – especially relationships that help them grow and achieve their own goals.

Leaders, for their part, need to recognize that the workplace has changed dramatically. Understanding that shift – and acting accordingly – is now a core management competency.

The old metrics employees cared about: how much am I paid, am I satisfied with my work, is my manager good, how am I being evaluated, what weaknesses should I fix. All of that collapsed into "My Job."

The new metrics: why am I doing any of this, how am I growing, my "boss" is now my "mentor," annual reviews have become regular coaching conversations, the hunt for weaknesses has become a search for how to deploy strengths. All of that adds up not to "My Job" – but "My Life."

Those shifts inevitably spawn new startups that build for the new reality – in different ways.

For example, Find Your Grind ([related review](/review/novaja-koncepcija-obrazovanija)) raised $5M in November for a career guidance program for students – one that starts by asking what kind of life they want to live, and only then figures out what work might get them there.

And Japanese startup Allesgood raised $4M for its BaseMe app ([related review](/review/zhirnyj-kusok-s-novymi-prioritetami)) – positioned as "LinkedIn for Gen Z." The key angle: young people use it to find companies whose values align with theirs first, and let everything else follow.

So Scribl might look like a frivolous toy to a certain kind of old-school manager. But the workplace has changed – and working effectively inside it requires new tools built for new principles and new expectations.

In this context, "workforce" almost feels like an outdated term. These are companies' "life force" – and new tools are needed to energize and circulate that force.

One could philosophize on this topic much longer. But the most important point is that these shifts are the defining trend of the moment – and there's enormous room to build within them. Finding your specific angle is what makes this an exciting and well-timed opportunity.