Friday evening I walked into Jeremiah’s Tavern and made eye contact with the group at the bar.  There were shouts of “Hey Mike!”, smiles and hugs all around.  It had been almost 2 years since the last time we saw each other like this.  Too long, but we picked up like it was yesterday, just as we always had and will again.

We spent several wonderful hours catching up on kids.  “Wow!  Adrianna won the championship in Soul, Korea?” and “How is “Maddy doing with her Division I basketball?”  We inquired about the spouses and others that we had hoped would make it tonight.

This may sound and awful lot like a reunion high school or college friend, but it wasn’t.  We all had the joy and privilege of working for a start-up that most of us will consider the best little company we ever worked for.

Besides having a team that loved to work together, the business was also highly successful.  Founded by 2 brothers and a friend, humble beginnings and sacrificial dedication through the “Five guys and a Coffee pot” phase lead to flourishing organic growth and a respectable 35 man, $6 million revenue start-up.  The company would go on to obtain 3 rounds of Venture Capital funding, the last of which was the single largest round issued by any VC firm that year.  Then there were mergers and rebranding, and the boom and bust of the telecom bubble.  But I digress and get ahead of myself.

The reunion reminded me that this company did corporate culture right.

In this multi-part series I will share about practices that just beg to be emulated.  I will cover how this company thrived by building a team with great and passionate people and having fun together.

This was an enviable place where:

• colleagues were friends
• work was a fun adventure, and
• authenticity, trust, loyalty, productivity, innovation, and growth reigned

The series will wrap up with lessons learned.  I will include thoughts about why and how our little slice of corporate heaven came to an end and what you can do to gain what we unfortunately lost.

Come back soon to see the next part in this multi-part series.

Have early thoughts on this post?  Leave a comment.

Filed under: Corporate Culture, Leadership, Startup