Are you ready to plan Alpaca's next chapter?
Retreat is Here: Here's what you need to get ready! | Team Letter | October 10, 2025
October 10, 2025
Happy Retreat Time, Alpaca!'
Next week, we’ll spend a couple of days together thinking BIG about Alpaca and our future. Since a few of us are new (or recently returned!), I thought I’d offer a sneak peek of what we’ll be talking about, how to prepare, and how to build a GREAT experience for yourself. (And if you aren’t coming but you read team letter and you’re an investor/ friend/ supporter — hey! Here’s what we’re thinking about as a company right now!)
First, THANK YOU for your input. In my 1:1s with each one of you last week, I heard so much about what you want to learn, talk about, and understand better at retreat. It’s a tall order, because we have a short time! Here’s the game plan:
What We’ll Be Working On: Alpaca’s Next Chapter
My goal in Q4 is to end the year strong and clear, with cadence and focus. For me, that means:
1. We achieve our 2025 revenue goal
2. We have happy, engaged customers
3. We know what the next chapter looks like for Alpaca, and have 2026 goals set
4. We have put into place the practices, work experiences, and team to achieve those goals
That’s how I want to end the year, so that we can hit the ground running on January 1 with some new goals in place! But in order to do that, we’ll need to spend Q4 doing two things: staying incredibly focused on ending the year with great success, and putting time, thought, and work into defining our next chapter. And it starts at retreat!
We’ll be focusing some discussion, ideation, and strategy sessions on how we build a company that’s bigger and more successful than we could imagine, focusing primarily on what’s possible with our software product and how we’ll position and sell that product.
But in addition to envisioning Alpaca’s next chapter, we’ll also focus some time and discussion on how we can each build habits and practices that make our success scalable, reliable, and repeatable. What are the practices that you would like to be habits in our company? Give it a little thought or use it as a topic for your car ride down!
How to Make Retreat GREAT
We each have a role to play in making retreat a great experience for everyone! Here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Ideas over Roles: In these conversations, you are not constrained by the work you do today, but are asked to think about our company as one effort forward. Bring your BEST ideas, feedback, dreams, and willingness to do work for any part of the company — that’s how we build something extraordinary.
2. Bring your “we” mindset: We’re building this company together. Yes, I personally will come with updates, plans, vision, and strategies. But we need each person to bring your best ideas, feedback, and thoughts to this table. If any of us come into retreat with thoughts like “you all in sales should consider doing _____” or “you all building the product could evolve to accomplish ____”, we miss an opportunity to be us. Everything you suggest or comment on or commit to is something we each own a little bit — bring a one-team mindset, and our discussions will go far!
3. Build experiences together: I will NEVER forget cheering Kaitlynn on to get her first bullseye with a bow and arrow in Wisconsin two years ago. I would never have chosen that activity, but she invited me and now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Retreat is a GREAT moment to get to know someone a little better. Say yes to trying something new, going for a walk, getting a bit uncomfortable, having a new conversation, connecting with anyone/everyone on the team. When we’re connected we can create great things. Shared experiences are the #1 reason we do retreats!
4. Practice gratitude! We are so lucky to get to spend a day or two together. I’m grateful for your families, your willingness to give up an evening, your excitement and thoughtfulness, all of it. Let’s remember to write thank you notes, show gratitude for our customers, and consider where we can build moments of gratitude and joy around us. It’s our top value and what we’re here to do, and I can’t wait to see how we bring that gratitude forward next week.
Oh and one more thing…
Lightning Talks Are Back!
(Read this one — there’s homework!)
“Do I need to prepare anything?” Thank you for asking!
On Monday night, we will be having our second annual Lightning Talks Happy Hour. The goal here is to simply to get to know each other a little bit, have some fun, and kick off our time together.
So...please prepare a 3 minute talk on the topic of your choosing. Yes, any topic!
Here are the rules:
It can be any topic, professional or personal.
You may use slides but they are not required.
The 3 minute rule will be strictly enforced (but with a cute bell or something!)
You may involve the audience in any way you wish but again, 3 minutes.
DO NOT overthink this. (In fact last year, everyone had less than 24 hours to prepare!)
Questions? Thoughts? Ideas? Requests? Hit me up! I will be in Alaska at the Principals Conference Friday and Saturday, traveling home on Sunday with LOTS of airplane time. I’d love to hear from you.
Let’s go, Alpaca — see you at retreat!
KB