Welcome to Day One at LaunchSquad

My grandfather was an eternal optimist. Throughout his life he saw and experienced so much. An outdoorsman, forest service advocate. He was strong, kind and massively optimistic. He would always say, “today is the greatest day to be alive.” This spirit of context, presence and belief impacted me greatly as a kid and it has fueled my whole life and work.

In January 2000, we opened our doors at the Squad for business in a little shared space before shared spaces were a thing. We proudly had black clamshell Macbooks, flip phones and a few desks. We rocked Banana Republic flat front khakis, blue button downs and square toed Kenneth Cole shoes, the San Francisco uniform of the time. We were three people who loved innovation, storytelling and doing great work together—eternal optimists. We sought to tell stories that hadn’t been told, do work we’d be proud to show to our toughest critics and have fun. We wrote values that spoke to who we were. We communicated openly, honestly and often. 

In these two decades, we’ve had the privilege of helping change-the-world companies shape their stories, grow their companies, lose their companies, fail, succeed, and evolve. And along the way, we’ve witnessed the birth of things like cloud computing, smart phones, social media, streaming media, self driving cars, direct to consumer brands. Technology has moved from technology used by a few companies to a world where technology is baked into every aspect of our lives: Our health, our homes, our cars, our education, our entertainment, our energy.

And the song remains the same. Tell stories. Love our work and therefore do great work. Do it together. Change the world. See each day as the greatest day.

I feel so grateful. We’re now a community of more than 110 spread out all over the world. We’re working with companies in just about every industry. And we’re making an important impact on their stories and our collective present and future. 

Today is Day One. Every day builds on the previous day to shape an ever advancing society. It’s so easy to see challenges, darkness and disunity. But if you really look closely at just about every aspect of our global community, we are moving forward. We are healthier, more educated, more connected, wealthier and open. And the things that seem dark are really moments of growth forward, a process of shedding the old, solving problems and ushering in new possibilities. I see it all around me. I see it in my kids and how they view the world. I see it in the way people are understanding their health, their spirituality, their interconnectedness and their understanding that we are all part of one global community. We are moving to a global world, a world where everyone is recognized, valued and doing beautiful and hard things.

As we launch our beautiful new colors, visual identity and digital presence, I am reflecting on one word: love. I love what I do and love being part of a family of amazing people all part of this two decade long experiment called LaunchSquad. I had no idea exactly what we’d become when we started the company. But I knew I wanted to love it. Little did I know how the love would grow.

Today is the greatest day to be alive.