Peak Tech teams up with Marco to connect their 5 distributed offices in one month

Not your typical investment bank: while most employees do go into an office, Peak, who prides themselves on being culturally different, offers the flexibility to work from wherever, whenever, as long as the work produced is excellent.

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About Peak Technology Partners

• Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
• Number of Employees: 30
• Founded: 2016
• Industry: Investment Banking
• Workplace makeup: In-person across 5 distributed offices — San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, and Phoenix.

The Challenge

Peak had never planned a full company retreat before, so the task felt a bit daunting.

The in-house primary planner for the retreat, Dave Kirby, is a Managing Director at Peak. Retreat planning is not necessarily a core competency, and he was eager to find professional help to ensure that the main goal of the retreat—for the entire team to meet, break bread, and have a positive experience—was achieved. A new layer of complexity was that people would be coming from all over, many had never met in person, and personal preferences were somewhat unknown. 

The Solution

Peak quickly determined that bringing in a professional third party would springboard everything to another level—

far beyond what they could do in-house without the event-planning expertise. Dave and the team chose Marco Experiences based on the high level of service offered, the partnerships Marco has with Retreat Destinations across North America, and the custom, best-in-class itinerary planning that Marco could offer.

“Marco was great in terms of pushing enough, being persistent, and ensuring we hit deadlines—but also was understanding that we have a business to run and we might not be totally on top of everything all the time. They made sure it went off without a hitch, and the handoff to the onsite team in Calistoga was seamless.”

The Experience

In June 2022, after just 1 month of planning, the Peak Tech team met in Calistoga—

in the heart of the Napa Valley, CA. They enjoyed a few unforgettable days of hiking, lawn games, private dinners, chill time by the pool, s’mores over campfires, and more.

“Everyone is pretty stretched on the team, so we wanted to give people some downtime. Marco was really great about gently guiding us not to over schedule, to build in some free time—and that was honestly some of the best time. It was organic and relaxing. People weren’t required to come hang by the pool, but everyone showed up. It was very positive.”

The Results

Peak Tech felt like the unmeasurable return was extremely high. Dave articulated it well when we chatted after the retreat:

“The positive culture building aspects are not as quantifiable, but they’re huge. We received countless comments and positive reactions from the entire team, and many new team members were able to build real relationships.

Lastly, a tremendous amount of good will was earned across the team. It was definitely overdue. We feel like it was a fantastic investment.”