Ever felt the sun on your skin after a week of overcast days? After the 2025 Guru Gathering this October, I can tell you that’s exactly how it feels to see all your colleagues after a year apart. The temperature in Madrid in mid-autumn also helps.
This year, our Guru Gathering took place in sunny Spain, gathering all of our colleagues for four days of collaboration and catching up. Here’s how it went down.
In this article 📖
What’s a Guru Gathering?
Some context to start. Resource Guru is a fully remote company with colleagues spread over 10 geographies. Naturally, that means we don’t get to see each other in person a whole bunch. Sure, we have unofficial work meet-ups, but getting everyone in the same room is a rare delight. That’s where the Gathering comes in.
Once a year, organized by our similarly delightful People Ops Lead, Meredith, we all come together to reflect, plan, and—most importantly—connect.
What happened at the Guru Gathering in Madrid?
In short, a lot. The agenda’s always action-packed for Guru Gatherings, containing a mix of productive collaboration time and well-earned recreation time. Here’s a day-by-day rundown of what the Madrid edition involved:
Day 1: Arrivals, assemble
Between all of us, we clocked over 2,000 minutes of travel time just to get to the Gathering. So, naturally, once we got there, we… got on a bus.
Very cultured teammates delighted to learn Madrid has the world’s biggest Primark.
Thankfully, the fun kind.
Some of us who landed earliest took a guided tour of the main streets of Madrid, learning factoids about everything from the city’s love for The Lion King (or El Rey Leon, if we’re being particular) to how many bedrooms and bathrooms the palace has.
Landing back to our hotel rooms afterwards, we were surprised with a care package full of Spanish—and branded—treats.
Our lead designer, Mike, hand-painted the postcard pic. Just sayin’.
Once everyone had gotten settled, we regrouped for a rooftop toast featuring a heartfelt address from our founders celebrating team members’ life milestones, from engagements to house moves.
Showing off the 2025 edition t-shirts, part of the aforementioned swag.
After a touch more cava, we moved to a private dining experience at (another) rooftop restaurant with stunning views of the city.
With full bellies and bright smiles, we settled in for the night, ready for the work part of our adventure to start the next morning.
Day 2: The marketplace of ideas, and food
We usually kick off the first full day of the Gathering with presentations. Our founders go first, outlining the strategic motions we’re going to take over the next year.
Then, each department gets a chance to share wins and learnings from the last 12 months. Design and Product even included a trivia game.
While I can’t very well share trade secrets, you can see some of our plans that are in flight—and submit requests—over on our product portal:
Explore our product portal to see what’s planned next and what we’ve already added. Vote on which features are most important to you and submit new ideas to have your say!What’s next for Resource Guru?
After the final “next slide please” was spoken, we indulged in some downtime. And snacks.
Yet another perk of working with a multi-cultural team is exposure to local treats. Everyone came to the Gathering armed with local delicacies and we spent some time hearing about their origin stories and, of course, taste testing.
Can’t personally recommend the Swedish salted liquorice, but to each their own.
But, since we didn’t want cavities to be one of our lasting memories from the trip, we then went on to grab some more substantial sustenance. Dinner on day 2 was a “choose your own adventure” experience. We went to Mercado San Miguel—a 100-year-old food market packed with tastes from every corner of Spain.
Viva chorizo.
Then, we all rested up. Some folks even opted for a very early night, ahead of a very early start the next day.
Day 3: Hot air. The good kind.
Not Photoshopped, not AI, and not a bad way to advertise.
Before dawn even had a chance to crack, most of us took off to Segovia for a hot air balloon ride. Aboard, Team Guru soared above historic sites, rolling countryside, and stunning mountains.
Yours truly wasn’t present, but our Senior Content Marketer, Kat, had this to say about the experience:
“When I first said ‘yes’ to joining the balloon ride, I hadn’t put much thought into it. But, on the morning of the excursion, you could tell adrenaline was running high since it started to dawn on us that we were about to float 1,000 feet into the air… in a basket.
The first 10 minutes were terrifying but, as we settled in, we took in the beautiful views of Segovia at sunrise, and the neighbouring balloons in the distance. As we touched down, we toasted to bravery (a.k.a. surviving) and an incredible bucket-list-worthy experience.”
Meanwhile those of us with a fear of heights (or early wake up times) got a well-earned lie in. In the early afternoon, with coffee cups in slightly shaky hands, we all came together again to hear about a very special initiative we undertake at Resource Guru: exploration day.
Setting a course for future features.
What is exploration day?
Twice a year or so, we set aside a full working day to try out ideas we’re excited for, but can’t quite find time to slot in with all our usual priorities. The core purpose is to collaborate with colleagues, and scratch those itches that sit outside of the day-to-day work.
Folks presented their findings and shared whether their ideas were due to be parked, planned, or shipped. These presentations sparked lively discussions between departments full of excitement for what’s to come, and suggestions for taking prototypes to the next level. Which, as you can imagine, made us work up quite the appetite.
And we only set the CORRECT things on fire!
For our final dinner in Madrid, we headed to a local cookery school to try our hand at making some Spanish classics.
If you’ve read past recaps about Guru Gatherings, you’d know they’re full of surprises. Often in the form of live musicians that seem to appear out of thin air.
This year, we were serenaded by a guitarist who not only provided the perfect ambiance for our self-made meals, he also learned a Guru-ific theme song. Here, for your listening pleasure:
Afterwards, absolutely no one went to the night club. What happens in España stays in España. The end.
Day 4: Departures and determination
No matter how early we had to get up the next morning to catch planes and trains, there was a definite sense of the team leaving Madrid rejuvenated. Which brings me nicely to some closing thoughts about the trip as a whole:
What’s the value of Guru Gatherings?
Ironically enough, one of the values is… living our values. The events of the Guru Gathering exemplify how we operate and remind us of why we do what we do the way we do it. Here are some examples, day-by-day:
We’re open and inclusive
On day 1 we had a co-founder not only recall but celebrate real-life milestones of people on the team—an in-person reminder that we’re invested in each other’s success, be that professional or personal.
That ties back to one of our core values. In the words of our company handbook: “We’re open and inclusive: We default to transparent conversations, we share things about ourselves, and we actively reach out to others.”
We value speed
Day 2’s year-in-review from each department showcases the fact that we value speed. A quick glance at our blog will show you all the product updates our team has released this year.
Seeing the team present them in quick succession really hammered home how committed they are to this.
We don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good
Day 3’s exploration day recap brings this value to mind: “We don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.” That’s not to say we’re in the habit of releasing half-baked features—quite the opposite actually. “Good” is main thing here.
Quality is key, but obsessing over the ideal version of something at the expense of progress is not. We focus on releases that provide value, and iterate thereafter so we can get that value to customers quickly, and often.
We also experienced an example of its sister value: “We strive to be masters of our craft.” You’ll see that open approach to giving (and actively seeking) feedback in the aftermath of those presentations.
We obsess over our customers
Even though day 4 mostly involved travel and fond farewells, one small detail reminded me of one of our final values: We obsess over our customers.
Even mid-trip back, our team chat lit up with messages about new ideas, inspired suggestions for where our organization can go next, and supportive responses from fellow teammates—all with the aim of making the customer experience as delightful as it can be.
All in all, we dare to be different. When the world zigs, we zag. While some might look at a trip like this and see it as extravagant, we understand it to be one of the most valuable ways we can stay connected, and keep the team’s spirits high so the momentum stays up throughout the following year.
Plus, we don’t have an office. And this is a pretty cool way to reinvest funds that would be allotted there otherwise.
What’s next after the Madrid Guru Gathering?
Basically, we get back to work. But we do so with full batteries. It’s been a couple weeks now and everyone remains energized, encouraged, and eager to head into Q4.
If our adventures in Madrid made you green with envy, keep an eye on our careers page for opportunities to join Team Guru, and our 2026 edition of the Gathering.
If you’d like to see the result of our day jobs, a free trial’s the best way to get familiar with the software from the people at Resource Guru:
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