In 2005, four co-founders started Text-Em-All with a simple belief: doing what’s right for people - teammates, customers, and the community - would also be good for business. In the early years, the team created its own “Formula” for how to work together, a “Manifesto” to guide collaboration, and eventually a Leadership Team to help provide structure as the company grew.
By 2017, the company was growing, but cracks were starting to show. New people were joining, and not everyone had the same understanding of what mattered most. Conversations about decisions often circled back to the two remaining active founders, and the culture that once felt natural was harder to explain. Leaders realized that if they wanted the company to keep growing without losing what made it special, they needed something more—a clear set of core values that everyone could believe in and live every day.
2017 - Defining values together
To begin the values clarification process, the two founders met in a mountain cabin together with a Trebuchet Group advisor to help them clarify the intersection of their own personal values with what the company was living out. They wanted to make sure they were completely bought into what was most important for the company.
Rather than the typical “top-down” exercise, these leaders wanted the entire team involved to refine and build on their values. With help from Trebuchet Group, the company gathered in Austin, Texas for a weekend retreat.
At this retreat, Trebuchet Group led a process that encouraged personal storytelling and real vulnerability. Team members shared where they came from, what mattered to them, and why this work was important. By the end of the retreat, everyone had stacked hands on a set of core values that were backed by real examples. Those values became the heartbeat of the culture and gave the company a shared foundation for growth.
2022 - Strengthening culture
Through the pandemic, Text-Em-All almost doubled in size, and more than half of the company had been there less than two years. The culture that had taken over 15 years to build was hard for new people to grasp, and buy-in wasn’t automatic. Without it, the high-functioning team that had been so carefully nurtured was at risk. It started showing up in small ways: people avoiding tough conversations, bitterness that lingered after disagreements, the breakdown of the ‘Formula’ that once kept everyone aligned, and a growing sense of mistrust. The company needed help connecting individuals into a larger, shared perspective before those cracks got bigger. So the company partnered with Trebuchet Group again for a retreat in Fort Collins, Colorado.
This time, the focus was on understanding conflict styles and learning to embrace healthy conflict. Trebuchet Group helped the team see how different personalities approach tension and how to turn disagreements into productive conversations. The result was a stronger, more connected culture where both new and long-tenured employees felt ownership.
A partner at key moments
Over the last decade, Text-Em-All has continued to grow and evolve. The team has shaped a 10-year vision, imagined becoming a 100-year company, and even transitioned to employee ownership. Trebuchet Group wasn’t in the room for every milestone, yet their impact showed up in the company’s ability to meet these big moments with trust, clarity, and unity.
Both the Austin and Fort Collins retreats were vital to Text-Em-All’s success. At each of these key inflection points, Trebuchet Group helped the team slow down, connect on a deeper level, and walk away with stronger alignment.
When asked, one leader summed up the joint work like this: “Trebuchet Group has been more than a facilitator. They’ve been a trusted partner who helped the company grow through change, strengthen culture when it mattered most, and build a business designed to last for generations.”
Today and beyond
Today, Text-Em-All thrives as a team-led company, guided by values that everyone helped create. The culture is alive in daily practices like open Scoreboard meetings, TEA Talks, and regular recognition rituals. Most of all, it lives in the trust employees have in one another. That trust is what gives the team confidence they can keep growing without losing who they are, and it’s what makes them believe they really can build an employee-owned company that lasts 100 years.
Building trust from within takes more than hiring a good facilitator or coach. It requires a trusted partner who can help your company grow through change, strengthen culture when it matters most, and support the people within the business to build something extraordinary, designed to last for generations.
