By: Shaun Ritchie, CEO & Co-Founder of Teem

Today is an amazing day. Today we announced that one of the most incredible startups in the world, WeWork, has acquired Teem. Together with WeWork, we are combining software, data and analytics with a physical, office-building platform to literally build the best workplaces in the world, and provide an unparalleled workplace offering for the entire community in that space.

Together we are building the future of workplace experience.

When we founded Teem five years ago, we did so with the mission to build toward the future of the workplace. We knew that technology would be a driving component for the workplace experience, and that if leveraged the right way, could enhance the time teams spent together in the workplace. We knew that we could help many companies achieve a better state for their workplace by leveraging the right technology.

Along the way, we refined our business model, our product and our longer term vision for what the workplace could be. We were fortunate to get a few early breaks: several prominent Bay Area tech startups adopted our earliest product right away, which helped drive adoption into many other influential organizations. These early evangelists also gave us unprecedented insight into how we could iterate and create an even better product. They advocated for some of our most impactful features, for our technology partnerships, and for us to build an enterprise-grade product. Five years later, we’re fortunate to still have them onboard as partners, as well as many new and large organizations that also believe in the future as we do.

It’s all about the team

We certainly would not be in the position we are today if it weren’t for our earliest employees, advisors, investors, board members and especially our customers who helped guide our vision and drive our execution. I want to thank each and every one of you for your belief in us as we’ve undertaken this journey. We’ve failed plenty of times, but have always taken a what we call a “refreshingly friendly” approach to overcome them, knowing that our success was only possible if our customers achieved success. As we continue to build this team, we will need players who are going to demand success from each other. We each have a critical role to play in our future and we are each dependent on each other for our success. Simply put, we only win as a team.

When founders choose to raise capital from outside investors, those investors are drafted onto your team. They become trusted advisors and mentors for the next several years as you grind, struggle, and fail, and accompany you on the journey toward some wins, and hopefully a few amazing successes. The team you choose to assemble is the one you will win or lose with. We have had a super supportive board and investor base, as we’ve shared bad news and great news, they have been behind us the entire way.

Yesterday, when I contacted every one of our shareholders to congratulate them and thank them for their belief in us when they could have easily passed on the opportunity, they repeatedly told me, yes, thank you for the investment return, but more importantly, you’ve found an incredible team in WeWork. It’s a natural fit. I’m excited for you to continue to grow the company, extend the the vision and build the future.

It’s also about the community

Being based in downtown Salt Lake, we have a unique opportunity to build the Silicon Slopes ecosystem in an urban environment, in addition to other major hubs like Lehi and Provo. I completely believe that by building the best community, we will thrive together.

This is another reason why I’m so excited to join WeWork. Adam Neumann has said that WeWork is a “community company.” As I’ve gotten to know him and the organization he’s building, he truly believes in building a mission-driven company that has massive positive impacts on its community. We are completely aligned in that mission.

As our co-founder, Zach Holmquist is fond of saying, “the future is amazing.” I’m looking forward to getting on the field together and building this future with the team at WeWork, and with the team at Teem (it never gets old!). We’ve done an incredible job so far. And we have so much yet to build! Our playing field just got bigger.

-– Shaun

Read: Press Release