Guru Gathering 2024: From Porto with… Port

Team Guru gathered in front of a pool in Porto.

I spent a large part of my third week at Resource Guru sharing my take on the company strategy with its co-founders. And I’m just a content writer. How? With the help of our annual employee retreat—the Guru Gathering.

What’s a Guru Gathering? 

If you’d prefer a TL;DR, here are the highlights:

The Resource Guru team is distributed far and wide. If you take the two teammates furthest from each other and calculate the distance between their desks, it’s roughly 1,900 miles. 

The Guru Gathering is a special opportunity for us to see each other, off-screen. 

Our universally adored Talent and People Manager, Meredith, orchestrates the whole thing, with support from our co-founders. This year they chose to host it in Porto, Portugal. 

A photobooth snap of Resource Guru co-founders and talent and people manager in feather boas.

Leadership, talent and design taking “business casual” to the next level.

What we do at Guru Gatherings 

We work. But that’s not the point. At least, not the only one. 

We seek alignment

The Guru Gathering is more than just a milestone on our social calendars. It’s where our leadership team shares their vision and strategy for the next 12 months. That said, they don’t prescribe it. 

Resource Guru co-founder, Andrew, giving a presentation at Guru Gathering 2024.

Next slide, please.

That’s part of what makes having everyone in the room so powerful. Resource Guru prides itself on being open and inclusive.  

No discussion, as long as it’s respectful and constructive, is off-limits. Even big-picture ones. At the Gathering, we share feedback with the co-founders on the strategy. Then, we return home confident about what we’re about to execute. 

We get to know each other better

When’s the last time you asked your manager how to make a Negroni? Or the CTO about whether or not Metallica are really a “metal” band? 

At the Guru Gathering, we get a refreshing opportunity to have conversations like this. They help us connect in a way that makes us more open with each other, ultimately leading to more productive collaboration. 

We don’t do formal “team building” at these events. Trust exercises aren’t needed when you build trust through daily actions like practicing Radical Candor, as we do. 

Instead, at these Gatherings, we hang out, because we think that’s important. We believe time is the most valuable commodity, so we choose to spend it in ways we enjoy.  

We get stuff done

We have to do that annoying thing where you take your laptop out and put it in the little tray at the airport, but for good reason. 

Sure, we accomplish a lot the other 250+ working days in the year when we’re not physically together, but it’s nice to do it together. 

The real-time, real-life interactions let us dedicate not just focused 30-minute stints together, but focused days steering the company towards success. 

What did the Porto agenda look like? 

Day 1: Sardines and salutations

A lucky few of us landed early flights and set off on a food tour of Porto city center.

Some of the Resource Guru team at the Mercado do Bolhão enjoying local delicacies.

This was the day we learned about “breakfast” wine.

Once everyone had safely arrived, we returned to the hotel for a glass of bubbly and a bathtub of gift bags. No, that’s not a weird metaphor.

A bathtub stuffed with 20+ white and gold gift bags, with even more around it.

Actually, it was even more than the bathtub could take.

From there we were collected by tuk tuks and brought to a stunning viewing point where we could take in Porto in all its glory.

Alt: A view of Porto from a height at twilight. The Douro river is in view with the city lit up in the background.

Not pictured: all of us staring in silence at this gorgeous view.

Then came a surprise. 

Djamel from Team Guru enjoying a pour from the biggest bottle of port you've ever seen.

Our colleague, Djamel, wondering if the waiter would leave the bottle.

We had a four-course meal serenaded by a concert violinist who knew a lot of Abba’s back catalog. In the glamorous cellar of a legacy port company. 

Team Guru sat for dinner serenaded by a violinist.

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme intensifies.

It felt like a blissful fever dream, but we weren’t even tired afterwards. We had two more days to go, after all.

Day 2: Presentations and more port 

We got down to business on day two, with team leads and founders presenting their accomplishments and lessons learned in the last year. 

Resource Guru Co-Founder, Percy, presenting to the team in a conference room.

Co-Founder, Percy, setting the agenda.

Once we wrapped up, we had another scrumptious meal, more port, and a well-deserved 9pm bedtime. Though an inside source tells me some were spotted at the hotel bar. 

Day 3: Workshops and wheels

Guided by co-founder Andrew, we gathered for a highly anticipated reveal of the company strategy for 2025—and beyond. 

You’ll have to wait and see what’s next for Resource Guru, but I welcome you to get your hopes up, based on what we discussed. 

Resource Guru co-founder, Andrew, preparing to present the 2025 company strategy.

He didn’t present his Spotify playlist. The plans are just currently top secret. 🤫

While we all collaborate on overall strategy and business direction, our individual departments still have their own responsibilities. 

After the all-hands session, marketing and engineering split into separate rooms for workshops. 

Members of Team Guru brainstorming with sticky notes.

Ran out of wall space before we ran out of ideas.

Sticky notes flew, code was crunched, and we then reconvened to drive fast(ish) cars. Specifically, we went go-karting by the sea. 

Stuart from Team Guru with his first-place go karting trophy.

Stuart, our marketing lead, won.

Next, it was cruise time. Featuring a saxophonist. Because, why not? 

A saxophonist playing for Team Guru on a boat traveling down the Douro river.

He could also play Abba.

As quickly as the sun set, Guru Gathering 2024 came to a close. The next morning, the majority of us headed home, though a few of us opted for an extended stay. 

While we should have been exhausted by all the above, the general consensus was that we were leaving energized and optimistic for a winning 2025. So, all-in-all, you could say the trip was a success. 

Isn’t an in-person meet-up for a fully remote company a contradiction? 

Remote working’s growing to be somewhat controversial. Take the coverage on Amazon’s decision to return to the office 5 days a week, for example.  

We believe it’s a force for good, and the data backs us up. 

Buffer’s State of Remote Working report tells us 98% of people would recommend remote working. Pew Research on remote work shows the majority (56%) believe it positively impacts their ability to meet deadlines and get work done. 

We believe work—and excellent work at that—happens async. We keep meetings to a minimum, even when we’re collaborating online-only. In the words of our company handbook, this lets us “get stuff done with less interruption and with higher efficiency.”

This is our default. However, we acknowledge that seeing each other in person adds another layer to our ability to work as a team. That said, we think an official work trip once a year works

We encourage—and have a dedicated budget—for team members who want to spend more time in-person. These are “unofficial” gatherings. Our most recent meet-up took place in Prague

This set up offers us the best of both worlds when combined with an internal commitment to prioritizing employee welfare while working remotely.

Our overall opinion on this is that meeting in person works for fully remote teams—when done well. 

What’s culture got to do with it? 

The most visible injection of culture at Guru Gathering 2024 was the presence of the two live musicians, but it goes quite a bit deeper. 

When we come together, we get a first-hand glimpse into how our colleagues embody our company values. Here are just a few examples I noticed over the three days:  

We dare to be different

This thought occurred to me beforehand, but an “all expenses paid trip to Portugal” seemed a bit extravagant. 

But, just because it’s not the “normal” way to do a company catch up doesn’t mean it’s incorrect. After all, we don’t have all the traditional overheads like offices and all that goes into them. Therefore, we can reallocate what we would be spending there on Guru Gatherings. 

We value speed

Yes, we physically raced each other at go karting. However, the day two presentations showing all the team had achieved in the past year brought this value home even more. 

When I think about the sheer volume of launches, it really reiterates that this team does move fast. And hardly ever break things. 

We obsess over delighting customers

Our customer success and engineering teams graciously handed over a few hours of their Guru Gathering to handle a customer request. No grumbling involved. 

We’re open and inclusive

I mentioned this, but we get face-to-face time with folks from every department. Without the usual pressures of taking up their valuable time, the forum opens up to asking anyone anything. 

I probably took advantage of this the most in Porto, since I’m a newbie. What took me aback was how everyone went the extra mile with their answers. 

Everyone offered added context, insight and—crucially—kindness. 

We strive to be masters of our craft

On the flip side, it takes vulnerability to get in a single room and welcome anyone from any department to critique your performance from the previous year.

But, at Resource Guru, it just serves to encourage us, because we’re always eager to get better. And better. And better. 

What’s next? 

We plan to do it all again next year. 

Location ideas are already floating around but, for now, it’s business as usual. If a bit atypical. We’ll continue to break the mold by charging ahead async, away from each other, and quickly.

The way we dare to be different works for us. 

Our latest employee survey showed that 100% of employees agree that Resource Guru creates a workplace that supports a healthy balance between work and their personal lives. 100% also agreed that the company invests in and supports learning and development. 

I’ve been told that I haven’t drank the company Kool Aid yet—I’ve never been a fan in general, though. 

Regardless, the main takeaway of the Guru Gathering for me was that this company makes you feel like anything but just the content writer. 

It’s a true level playing field where people get on with their work and do their best at it. I’d say that’s a solid indication of a quality culture. And I certainly don’t plan on going anywhere any time soon. 

To learn more about what the team makes when we’re not at the Guru Gathering, you can check out Resource Guru (the software) here: 

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