I'm spending $170,000 to take my startup to Hawaii for the week. It's worth it.

"Pylon was started by myself and my two cofounders, Robert Eng and Advith Chelikani. We went through Y Combinator with a very half-baked idea. Three months later, we raised our $3.2 million seed round from General Catalyst. A year later, we raised a $17 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz. We just announced our Series B last month. The team now is around 55 people. At the start of the year, we were 20, so we've more than doubled."

"Around a year and a half into the company, we went to Seoul, South Korea. It was a nine-day trip, and we rented an Airbnb that we could all be in, which was really fun. We had people sharing rooms. During the days, we would be working. We set some very ambitious work goals while we were there. During the evenings, we would go get food and try to have fun. One night we went to karaoke. We visited the North Korean border."

"Pylon CEO Marty Kausas said the company spent $42,000 on a Seoul trip, and will spend some $170,000. "If you're well-funded, then you can definitely afford it and the money's well worth it," Kausas told Business Insider. The CEO said the off-sites help recruit talent, reward hard workers, and differentiate from a big company. We can celebrate our wins in more expensive ways than bigger companies can. At the time, we had just hit a revenue milestone and raised some more money."

Marty Kausas co-founded Pylon and led rapid fundraising and growth, raising a $3.2 million seed, a $17 million Series A, and announcing a Series B after raising $51 million total. The team grew from about 20 to roughly 55 employees. The company funds international off-site retreats to align work goals and build team cohesion, exemplified by a nine-day Seoul trip for 14 people costing $42,000 that covered flights, lodging, activities, and food. Leadership views these retreats as recruitment and retention tools that celebrate revenue milestones and differentiate Pylon from larger firms, with a more expensive Hawaii trip planned.

Read at Business Insider