If you follow us on social media, you probably heard that Bandalier recently celebrated our third anniversary! After all the fun of our socially distanced birthday bash, we wanted to reflect on our journey as a company.
Bandalier began in July of 2017 with our CEO and founder, Jeremy Ruch, working alone in a small office suite in the Southern Tier Incubator. He found spectacular salespeople in and around Binghamton, and quickly connected them with sales opportunities in major cities.
Once he got the ball rolling, it didn’t stop. In less than a year, Bandalier had outgrown its initial office space. In June of 2018, we held our ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate our new space in the Incubator’s High Bay. By the time of our first anniversary in July 2018, Bandalier had a team of thirteen people! We celebrated at Cole Park, and our current head of office, Matt Scanlon, won our first ever kaizen award, which celebrates a team member who exemplifies our core value of kaizen.
Over the course of the next year, our team more than doubled. By the time we were celebrating our second anniversary, our team had grown to thirty-seven people in total. Courtney Simmons, one of our ASMs, won the kaizen award for the year!
Throughout the fall of 2019, our client base was expanding, and our clients were looking for more help with a diverse array of outreach. At the start of 2020, we were thinking about how we could work to expand our outsourced inside sales offerings and connect our clients with a larger pool of talented individuals.
In March of 2020, our plans had to change. As COVID hit New York in full force, our team had to adapt to remote work and the new normal of daily life. We were fortunate to have a creative, compassionate team working together to keep things moving, and produced two great initiatives early on. As part of the Corona Companions project, our team members volunteered to connect with folks who were feeling the impacts of isolation. During the same period, we launched our Talent as a Service program, which allows our clients to choose sales reps and launch programs within the course of just a few days. Thanks to these two launches, we were making more connections than ever, in spite of our social distance.
That brings us up to the present day! With a team of forty-eight employees working remotely, it can be hard for us to all catch up. Fortunately, we had the chance to safely assemble our team for our recent birthday celebration at Cole Park. (We also held a digital event for the folks who couldn’t make it in person.) Alex Boucard won our 2020 kaizen award, and will be taking a well-earned weekend getaway to celebrate.
We’re excited to keep growing!
