Our Story

Company culture thrives when it's formed by its people.

You know that look you can share with a friend? That look when you are both headed out the door, moving onto a new chapter, that seems to say, telepathically,…"are you thinking what I'm thinking?".

We (Steph and Evan), worked together at Rinsed, a start up focused on car wash member management software. A "CRM" if you will. We had a good thing going at that company, employees got along, took interest in each other, and showed up well to their day-to-day responsibilities. Looking to celebrate that culture, and bring a little fun into the workplace in a remote-friendly way, Steph kicked off an internal newsletter. She ran a poll amongst employees, and they named it The Drip.

Evan caught wind of the idea and while watching a singular Steph spread the word about this newsletter across the Slack universe, asked her if she'd like any help. A Co-Editor in Chief. She welcomed the partnership, and the two of us led a monthly publication where employees could sign up to write a sports article, a book review, a gossip corner, a bird of the month column, anything was fair game! We watched as our company's people and its culture filled the pages of this digital newsletter. Our CEO got in on the action in a Letter to the Company column, where they could set the inspiring cultural tone.

The Drip combined a few shared passions for us. The power of writing, and what it does to our minds. Spending any amount of time generating your own text pushes you to think and process and develop connections. The impact of seeing another side of your coworkers. Not everyone was in person, not everyone loves a happy hour, but the Drip gave everyone an opportunity to either contribute or read other's work on their own time. We're all people, who make no mistake are focused and driven professionals, but the Drip allowed us to maintain a reminder of our broader humanity.

At a company retreat, we printed a physical copy of the Drip. A true formatted and curated newspaper. It was a surprise to most of the company, and a much welcomed analog artifact of nearly a year of culture building. Imagine looking out to a conference room full of outstretched hands and open newspapers, everyone enjoying the fruits of their creative labor and laughing next to each other, rejoicing that "our company is the kind of company that does things like this."

We happened to leave Rinsed within a week of each other, and in that shared glance out the door we both knew we weren't ready to leave the Drip behind. After speaking with a few potential customers, we found the idea of a cultural newspaper resonated on so many levels! Companies want togetherness, they want authenticity, they want opportunities for employees to write and develop that skillset. So we set out to build Broadsides, a web app and a program for facilitating company newspapers.

And here we are, loving what we are seeing, hoping to grow our idea and spread the word that company culture is at its best when it's formed by its people.