BNB Texas Retreat ðŸ¤
Coding, Games, and... Llamas?
December 20, 2024
Three times each year Brand New Box's fully remote team meets up IRL. Here are some thoughts from the time we secluded ourselves in a massive ranch somewhere in Texas for 3 days.
One of BNB's core values is that we are creative. Not only do we create interesting work for clients from 9 to 5, but we all have interesting side projects as well. Our CTO Will Carey leaned into this when he decided to shape this trip as a hackathon-meets-Big-Brother-meets-Texas party.
Relative to some of our other meetups, this one was pretty unstructured. We loaded up groceries for breakfasts and lunches, and way too many snacks. Will booked dinner reservations. The house had a game room, a movie theater, tons of outdoor activities, llamas, and more than enough room for everyone to spread out or work together. The goal was to work on our personal projects and spend time together.
And it was awesome.
Our individual projects were great: Ted Tash worked on his homeschool curriculum project. Jace Bayless is building a car show app. Vika worked on designs for her family's landscaping business. Matt Kirkland (despite having the most personal projects) worked on BNB's end of the year site. Ashley Weinaug worked on an e-commerce tool for her dad and brother. Ian built a bowling social media app. Will Carey worked on HyperLifter, his high school weight lifting meet software that runs most of the meets in Kansas. And I added some sweet customization features to MD5 Records.
But the best parts were all the things we did together: watching F1, playing putt putt in the back yard, hanging out on the back porch, eating Texas BBQ, watching movies, staying up late to do Advent of Code, cooking breakfast on the grill, navigating a power outage, sharing project updates, playing so many games of pool/air hockey/shuffleboard, helping other folks with their projects, and generally having a great time.
When folks learn how many problems BNB helps solve, and how wildly challenging the problems are, they sometimes wonder: "How?" My take is: a team that is empathetic and competent, a framework that can be quickly leveraged in any situation, and stuff like this that builds relational equity.
Here's to BNB, and your team as well in 2025!
