The Power of In-Person

For the better part of the past three years, there’s been a debate about the importance of working in-person. At the height of Covid, many voices were proclaiming that the office was dead and remote-only was the future of work. Today, many are arguing (just as loudly) that real companies need to be in-person, all-the-time.

I personally think that the reality is somewhere in the middle. At the end of the day, many connections can only be made in-person and the best companies — remote, hybrid or traditional — need to prioritize making that happen with some amount of regularity. That’s why twice each year, the entire team at Panache Ventures gets together for a week of in-person strategy meetings, team-building activities and connectivity building.

Panache Ventures team dinner!

Last week, the Panache Ventures team from across Canada descended on New York for our semi-annual team retreat. We plan our retreats months in advance, in order to make the most of our time together. Our agendas aren’t all that different from what a startup retreat might look like, and typically include the following:

• Weekly activities that are normally done remotely (e.g. our weekly investment committee meeting)

• In-person training sessions (new expense tracking system! 🎉)

• Educational sessions (e.g. fireside chats with other VCs and subject-matter experts)

• Team dinners and fun activities

We even did a VC “hackathon”, working in small teams on prototypes that we can develop to further support the founders we invest in (stay tuned 👀).

“Team Red” hard at work

But these team retreats aren’t just about getting our team together. We believe that it’s important for Canadian VCs to get out of Canada, so we intentionally hold our semi-annual retreats in leading U.S. ecosystems — one each year in San Francisco, and another elsewhere in the U.S. Taking our entire team – from partner to junior analyst – to the leading U.S. startup hubs immerses everyone in the competitive energy of the world’s biggest tech ecosystems while enabling them to build connections with investors, founders, and ecosystem players across the U.S.

On this trip, NYC-based angel investor Jerry Neumann (aka my brother-from-another-mother), shared lessons and learnings from his upcoming book, Founder vs. Investor, while our friends at First Mark Capital hosted us at Data Driven NYC, their quarterly showcase of leading companies and practitioners of data, machine learning and AI in New York City.

Data Driven NYC, hosted by First Mark’s Matt Turck

Each time we hold a team retreat, we also take the opportunity to host an event for local VCs and angel investors to talk about the opportunities in Canada and all of the great things Canadian startups are doing. In New York, we held an investor-only event at Rise by Barclays, the city’s preeminent fintech hub, in partnership with BMO, Telus Ventures, Fasken and the Government of Canada.

The Consul General of Canada in New York, Tom Clark, speaks to a packed house about Canada’s role in the emergence of AI

At the end of the day, there’s simply no replacement for being together, in-person. Whether you’re a small startup or a high-growth company, prioritizing bringing your entire team together in an intentional way can deliver countless long-term benefits, while providing opportunities to promote your brand and strategic priorities.

Thanks New York! Next up, San Francisco in September ☀️.