How Hype uses offsites to align and engage their remote team

Hype empowers content creators with tools that allow them to build custom platforms and monetize their content. They’ve recently launched the Hype Card, an NFC business card powered by their software.With the help of BoomPop’s event experts, they planned an in-person team offsite.

We spoke with Hype’s Head of Operations, Addy Mendoza, to learn more about her team’s experience working with an external planner for the first time.

Bringing teams together for pivotal moments

Hype is a fast-growing startup based in New York City. Though they have a physical office in the city, most of their team is fully remote—and widely distributed across the globe.

Addy Mendoza has been at Hype for three years, and her role has evolved over time; as Head of Operations, she’s played a role in everything from accounting, to hiring, to sales. Her responsibilities also include planning Hype’s twice-annual team offsites, called Team Weeks, which often punctuate major moments in the company’s growth.

For Hype’s latest Team Week, the team wanted to have a gathering to rally around the company’s recent rebrand and get everyone excited about the company’s new era.

In the past, Mendoza was able to plan these events mostly on her own with support from other teammates. However, this situation was a bit different—for one, the only week available for everyone was only about a month away, and two, they were working with a tighter budget than usual. “We were trying to use our money wisely and plan the event quickly,” she explained. “That’s why it was helpful to have BoomPop involved.”

Creating a custom experience on short notice

After Mendoza connected with BoomPop’s event experts, the process of putting together Hype’s Team Week was off to the races.

“The most invaluable part by far was the pure number of hours that were put into the research, plus BoomPop’s existing knowledge base and vendor relationships” she said. “I told them what we needed, like a conference room, walkability, and a nice, big team dinner one night. Based on the information I gave, they presented options, and they were all super, super great—and at a variety of price points.”

All those hours of research and putting together custom proposals made Hype’s Team Week possible despite its fast-approaching deadline. “I wouldn't have had enough hours in the day to have gotten all those things done in the amount of time they needed to get done,” Mendoza said.

When it came time to gather in-person, all of the work putting together the event paid off in spades. “Everyone really appreciated the time together and having the space and energy to focus on things that mattered,” she said. “We got to focus on our camaraderie and teamwork and projects, and not worry about any of the event logistics or details.”

A streamlined future for event planning

When it comes to the future of planning events for Hype, Mendoza was excited to dive deeper into using a centralized platform like BoomPop’s dashboard to manage the process.

“Even though our planning process was so fast that we didn’t get to make use of it thoroughly, this process definitely changed my perspective on using a software empowered platform to manage events,” she said. “I can see so much value in how BoomPop’s dashboard can take the place of all of our messy spreadsheets and folders of information, so I'm excited to utilize that in the future.”

When it comes to planning events, though, every experience is unique—and a strong partnership with a planner who understands your team is often the most valuable asset. “Having a platform is one thing, but what takes it above and beyond is the human service behind BoomPop—having someone there who’s considering your needs, coming back to you with research, and helping get discounts where you didn't even know it was possible,” Mendoza said. “It really does feel like having an extra person be part of your team.”

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