How Volt Uses Offsite For Executive Team Retreats (Despite Having An Office-First Culture)

Our Client

Volt allows companies like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Consumer Affairs, and Sysco to shorten sales cycles, increase conversion rates, and build lifelong customer relationships through text.

The Volt texting platform empowers you to connect with customers 1-on-1.Built on compliance and transparency, Volt protects brands and delivers a positive, authentic experience. Their built-in 10DLC checks allow you to increase deliverability and avoid fines with SMS messages.

To learn more about Volt, visit www.textvolt.com

The Role Of Team Retreats For An Office-First Company

Volt is one of the few tech startups to keep an office-first culture and hire locally (or ask new team members relocate) instead of going remote or hybrid.

However, Martin Lien (Co-Founder and CEO of Volt) still sees a need for hosting regular team retreats, especially for his executive team.

According to Martin, “When you see each other in the office every day, community and communications isn’t the biggest issue. The biggest risk is the feeling that everyone is on the same page even when that is not the case.

For us, the offsite was all about working ON the business as opposed to working IN the business.

The change of scenery and the structured offsite agenda left room for us to have the hard conversations instead of simply working with the assumptions that everything was understood.”

For companies like Volt, we recommend having an All-Hands meeting at least once per year, to bring everyone “offsite” to celebrate, skill-build, and/or conduct annual strategic planning sessions.

For executive teams, regardless of whether your company is office-first or remote/hybrid, we recommend quarterly Offsites to ensure your leadership is aligned, work through pressing problems, and reiterate the company’s overall vision.

Allowing The Experts To Assist Volt With Offsite-Planning

According to a December 2021 announcement post regarding Volt’s recent rebrand, the company ended 2021 raising $3.7 million, tripling their headcount, and hiring four new key executives in the span of three months.

Martin came to Offsite asking us to plan a retreat for his executive team with about one month’s notice to kick off 2022.

“It was more important than ever to spend unobstructed time to work on the business direction and goals.

We also wanted to give the leadership team an opportunity to get to know each other better to help bring the teamwork and communication in the office to the next level.”

Our Client Success team ultimately sent Volt to a luxurious cabin resort within driving distance from Tusla, OK where Volt’s offices are located. We took care of their meeting space needs, catering (including hiring a private chef),agenda-planning, and more.

Lasting Benefits Months After The End Of An Offsite

In an interview we did for this case study, Martin explained that the team has executed on the vision and goals well beyond the Offsite.

The executive team was able to bring a new level of excitement and energy back to the full team, and the activities we scheduled during Volt’s Offsite led to “noticeable improvement on communication” which is crucial to avoiding siloed decision-making.