Onsites and Remote Life: Swimming Together While We Work Apart

At Bigeye, we talk a lot about swimming together.

It’s our shorthand for how we want work to feel: people moving in the same direction, looking out for each other, and pulling toward a central goal.

You can see it in the values we come back to all the time: adapting quickly, communicating with grace, investing wisely, and staying close to customers. Those aren’t abstract ideas for us. They show up in how we give feedback, how we make decisions, and how we show up for each other when things are busy or uncertain.

And we do all of that as a fully remote team.

Most days, “the office” is a patchwork of kitchen tables, home offices, and co-working spaces across the U.S. We rely on written communication, thoughtful documentation, and a healthy amount of Slack emojis. We hire people who are comfortable owning outcomes rather than being measured by how often they walk past a manager’s desk.

So where do onsites fit into that?

Twice a year, we bring everyone together in person—most recently in Miami Beach, and in earlier years in places like Puerto Rico and Napa. Those days aren’t a break from our culture; they’re a way to double down on it. They give us time to deepen trust, reset alignment, and remember that behind every avatar is a real human being we’re building with.

Here’s how our team describes what that feels like.

Remote-first works because…

The starting point for all of this is simple: remote work actually works here.

There is no “mothership” office where the real decisions happen. There’s no quiet split between people who are “in the room” and those who are dialing in. As senior engineer Matt Halverson puts it:

“Remote work works here because everyone is remote. There is no divide between the in-person and remote employees; we're all on equal footing.”

That equality shows up in little details: meeting norms that assume people are distributed, leadership updates shared in writing, and decisions made in places everyone can see. It also shows up in how we accommodate real lives.

Matt again:

“I've had two kids during my time at Bigeye, and both times, Bigeye was very supportive in being flexible around working hours, which was immensely helpful for me to support my partner and be involved as a parent myself.”

Flexibility is not a perk; it’s part of how the work gets done.

Our VP of Engineering, Mohamed Alimi, connects it directly to who we hire and how we expect people to operate:

“Remote work works here because we're mostly high-agency people who take ownership, move things forward, solve problems, and create clarity instead of getting blocked by ambiguity, communicate clearly, and stay outcome focused.”

That combination of clear expectations, high agency, and genuine flexibility makes remote sustainable for us. And it sets the stage for why it’s worth flying everyone into the same place a couple of times a year.

Alignment + momentum

If remote is humming along, why bother with onsites at all?

For Mohamed, the answer is straightforward:

“They compress months of alignment into a few days. They build trust, speed up decisions, and strengthen cross functional relationships that make remote work more effective afterward.”

When you’re remote, it’s easy for teams to drift a few degrees apart—marketing heading slightly this way, product and engineering slightly that way, customer success fighting a different fire. No one is “wrong,” but without regular recalibration, you lose speed.

Onsites are where we zoom out together.

In Miami, that looked like leaders framing the story of the past year and the road ahead, then teams breaking down what that actually means for their work. Riley Gercak, on the marketing team, sees it play out this way:

“The in person meetings give us a chance to discuss the successes and missed opportunities of the previous quarters, and how to best move into the next. The marketing team uses the on-sites to plan and delegate tasks. After the on-sites I know what my next tasks are and how to best support my team members.”

That clarity isn’t just for people who’ve been here a while. For newer teammates, the onsite often flips a switch. Ashley Santos shares:

“After spending time with my team, I am better able to work on the right projects and clearly outline our goals for the quarter. It is also helpful to have my questions answered in real time while we are together. Also, learning about ongoing projects across other teams is very insightful, especially since that visibility can be limited in a remote environment.”

You can feel the difference when everyone flies home. Projects move faster not because we added more meetings, but because more people are pulling in the same direction, with context that actually makes sense.

Inclusion + different work styles

Of course, “bring everyone together” can mean very different things for different people.

Some folks get energized by non-stop social time. Others need quiet corners and breaks to recharge. Parents are thinking about childcare logistics. New hires are wondering who to sit with at dinner. If you ignore all of that, an onsite can end up being great for a few loud voices and draining for everyone else.

We try to design the experience so more people can show up as themselves.

Diane Worthington, points to the way choice is baked into the schedule:

“I think we do a great job of supporting different personalities/work styles by incorporating a ton of flexibility into these events. We ha options to spend a few hours to touring an art museum or go to a wine happy hour. Offering workout classes and group runs in the morning for anyone who wants to attend. It makes sure everyone feels included.”

Morning might mean a beach run with teammates, a HIIT workout, or a leisurely breakfast with coffee and one-on-one conversations. Afternoon might mean a museum trip with smaller groups or a quieter wine hour where you can have longer conversations. The point isn’t to optimize for one “ideal” personality type. It’s to create multiple, genuine ways to connect.

Mohamed describes the philosophy behind that:

“Not forcing one style on everyone. We create room for people who think out loud, people who process quietly, new hires who need context, and parents who need flexibility.”

That work starts before people even reach the onsite. Ashley remembers her first weeks at Bigeye this way:

“During my new hire process, I was told to set meetings with a bunch of employees from different departments. This gave me a contact in case I had questions and a chance to introduce myself to my new company… I really appreciate that the teams are intentional about making new hires feel included, starting with a thoughtful onboarding guide that supports you through your first days with the company.”

When you layer that kind of intentional inclusion on top of an in-person gathering, the offsite becomes less about “performing” and more about actually belonging.

Connection + belonging

There’s also the softer side of onsites—the part you can’t capture in a slide deck.

Skailar Hage talks about the emotional reset:

“Off-sites give a sense of instant recharge, after being in person for 4 days with fellow Bigeye's. It is a great boost of energy, focus, and excitement about what we have in front of us to accomplish. We seem to strike the perfect balance of in-person collaboration/remote (in my opinion of course). It's great to have off-sites every few months to hone in on strategy, re-energize ourselves, and build relationships with our colleagues in sessions and team bonding time.”

That “boost” comes from seeing colleagues in three dimensions: realizing someone you collaborate with every week shares your taste in music, or that another teammate is quietly hilarious when they’re not on mute.

For Diane, that sense of togetherness lingers long after the flights home:

“After an offsite, I am always even more energized, refreshed and excited about what we’re building together. Getting the entire company together in person and having the ability to bond with people in other departments helps strengthen us as a team and makes me feel like we are truly all swimming together.”

We don’t rely only on the twice-a-year gatherings to create that feeling. There are small rituals built into our remote life that aim at the same thing. Matt loves one in particular:

“The program of ‘you have randomly been paired with coworker X for a coffee date’. It's a great way to simulate water-cooler conversations where you bump into someone new and get to meet them.”

Ashley sees a similar thread in the culture committee and cross-team projects:

“As a remote employee, I love being able to find points of connection. Whether that is through the culture committee or working closely alongside teammates, there is always an effort to create shared connection.”

Onsites are where all those threads knot together. People recognize faces from coffee chats, Slack channels, and project docs. The next time they need to ask a hard question or give candid feedback, it’s a little easier, because they’ve already shared a walk, a meal, or a puzzle in a scavenger hunt.

Leadership philosophy: designing moments, not just meetings

Underneath all this is a lot of intention from leadership about how these days are designed.

Eleanor Treharne-Jones, our CEO, has been running team gatherings for years. Her view has shifted over time:

“A Company Kick Off isn’t a sequence of presentations. It’s a story about where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, and where we’re going next. It should create clarity, energy and alignment—in that order. And the agenda should serve that story. Not the other way around.”

That means fewer long, one-way presentations and more space where people are actively contributing. Workshops, Q&A, hackathons, and small group discussions show up on the agenda just as often as “all hands” sessions.

Eleanor again:

“If we’re flying people across time zones to sit in rows and watch slides, we’ve missed the point. The most valuable moments in Miami weren’t scripted—they were the workshops, the hackathon, the conversations that carried on after sessions ended.”

She also thinks in terms of energy, not just time. Some sessions are intense and focused; others are deliberately lighter, giving people time to process what they’ve heard or simply enjoy being together.

From Mohamed’s side, in-person time is about unlocking a different kind of collaboration:

“Meeting in person gives us higher bandwidth communication. I resolve ambiguity faster, build trust more naturally, and have the side conversations that often unblock the real work. Focused work sessions during the offsite to solve specific pressing problems were especially valuable and impactful. Whiteboarding, live discussion, and collaborative design on complex issues are simply hard to replicate remotely.”

When people go back to their desks at home, this shows up in small but powerful ways: pull requests get reviewed more smoothly, cross-functional decisions happen faster, and “wait, what are we doing here?” moments turn into “I know exactly who to ping about this.”

A favorite tradition: thank you notes

One of my personal favorite Bigeye traditions happens at the very end of every offsite.

We sit down, grab a stack of cards, and write thank you notes to each other. Shout-outs, specific things you appreciate, little moments you noticed during the week. At the end, you get your own stack.

I love that it makes you slow down and notice the people around you. To really see them, the work they do, the way they show up for their teams, and then put it down in writing.

In a remote company, appreciation can easily live in a Slack channel and scroll away. A handwritten note lands differently. Those stacks travel home in backpacks and carry-ons. Weeks or months later, when someone is debugging a hard problem or taking on a new challenge, there’s a small pile of evidence on their desk: you’re seen, and you matter here.

Remote-first, together on purpose

Most of the year, we’re dots on a map, connected by fiber and Wi-Fi and an ever-growing list of Slack channels. Twice a year, we’re in one place, on purpose.

We don’t see that as a contradiction. It’s a loop.

Remote work gives us focus, flexibility, and access to great people wherever they live. Onsites give us alignment, momentum, and connection that make the remote days better. Leadership sets the narrative and designs the experience. The team fills it with energy, honesty, and a lot of joy.

As Diane said, after an offsite it feels like we’re “truly all swimming together.” That’s the goal—not just for one week in Miami, but for all the weeks that follow.