When Bram Greijmans talks about Sendcloud’s leadership offsites, he doesn’t start with the venue or the itinerary. He starts with the question the whole trip is built to answer. As Chief of Staff at the Netherlands-based shipping platform, Bram has spent three and a half years turning twice-yearly executive retreats into one of the company’s sharpest decision-making tools, and along the way, into something the thirteen-person leadership team genuinely looks forward to.
From Customer Service Rep to Chief of Staff
Bram joined Sendcloud in 2017 as a part-time customer service rep while still in university, back when the company was a 30 to 40 person operation. Years of working across nearly every department eventually led to a Chief of Staff role: an extra pair of hands for the CEO, covering everything from company strategy and budget cycles to hiring decisions and, about a year ago, the addition of leading Sendcloud’s HR and talent function.
“I’ve worked in and with so many departments… we can really get a lot of topics covered and switch context quickly that really helps our collaboration.”
It’s a role with unusual range and unusual freedom, and one that has put Bram in charge of a task most Chiefs of Staff eventually inherit: making sure the leadership team’s time together actually produces something.
Retreats as Part of the Culture, Not an Afterthought
Sendcloud’s appetite for bringing people together goes well beyond the leadership team. Every employee gets roughly €500 a year in team-building budget for workations, dinners, or activities with their immediate group, on top of company-wide events like a New Year’s kickoff, a summer party paired with a hackathon, and seasonal celebrations.
Leadership offsites, though, are a different tradition entirely, and one that predates Bram’s time as Chief of Staff. Twice a year, Sendcloud’s full C-suite and VP level, now thirteen people in total, take three to four days away together: a spring offsite focused on how the year is tracking, and a fall offsite focused on where the company needs to go next.
Inside the Mallorca Offsite
Sendcloud’s most recent leadership offsite took the group to Hotel Victoria Gran Meliá in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. The choice of location tracks with how the year is going. After a strong year, the team allowed itself to go a little further and celebrate a little more.
“If it’s going well… we also allow ourselves to celebrate that a bit.”
The days split roughly in half: working sessions on strategy and company initiatives in a booked meeting room, and team activities built around a central theme of pushing people slightly outside their comfort zone. This time, that meant coasteering, cliff jumps included, with the highest jump landing around seven or eight meters.
But Bram is just as quick to point to the unscheduled time as the moments booked into the agenda.
“We never spent this much time together… It’s really a good time to learn about each other.”
Dinner conversation drifts from the World Cup to a specific team’s performance and back again, without an agenda forcing it. It’s in that in-between space, Bram says, where a lot of the real relationship-building and problem-solving actually happens.
Choosing a Venue That Removes Friction
Location decisions sit mainly with Bram, Sendcloud’s CEO, and the executive assistant who handles logistics. Practical constraints matter: driving distance, who needs to be there for only part of the trip, and whether the team has already been somewhere before.
“You don’t want to go to an Airbnb where the first two hours are spent on grocery shopping.”
With thirteen executives in the room, Bram says the math is simple: a hotel with strong meeting facilities and a full breakfast spread costs less, in time and focus, than saving money on accommodations. Proximity to an airport and a city center is close to non-negotiable, so the group loses as little time as possible to logistics.
Where Direct Feedback Lives
Sendcloud’s culture runs on three core values: no bullshit, grow and win, and have fun. Bram says the offsite is where those values are tested most directly, especially when the conversation turns to what isn’t working.
“We know when topics we will discuss are more spicier than others… it’s always pointed at the topic, not at the person.”
That distinction between critique and personal attack is something Bram and the CEO actively reinforce. Big egos aren’t welcome at Sendcloud, and the offsite is where that expectation gets put into practice under real pressure.
Measuring Success Before the Trip Even Starts
Every Sendcloud offsite begins with a clear answer to one question, decided well before anyone books a flight: what is the purpose of this trip?
“This is what we’re going to do. This is basically the whole purpose of this specific offsite.”
Bram Greijmans
For the Mallorca retreat, the biggest topic wasn’t a budget shortfall or a looming problem. Sendcloud was having a strong year, so the conversation centered on Sendcloud’s “strategic bets,” including finishing the infrastructure work behind a global expansion push, and deciding which initiatives were ready to shift into business-as-usual mode so the team could pick up new ones.
Every offsite closes the same way it opens: with a recap of what was decided and what happens next, so nothing is left to fade out on the flight home.
Advice for a First Time Offsite Planner
Asked what he’d tell a leader planning their first executive retreat, Bram’s answer is refreshingly unglamorous.
“Ask for help. Ask other companies, other founders, other people: hey, what do you do there?”
Bram is candid that Sendcloud’s very first offsite wasn’t planned as intentionally as it should have been; a few days before departure, the CEO asked him who was actually running the sessions. It worked out, but not as effectively as it could have. Since then, the rule has been simple: know your purpose first, whether that’s making hard decisions or simply celebrating a good year, and then design the logistics around it.
What is Next for Sendcloud?
The fall offsite is already taking shape, this time centered on drafting next year’s budget and commercial plans heading into Sendcloud’s peak e-commerce season. The format won’t change: clear goals going in, a mix of hard conversations and genuine fun, and a recap that turns a few days away into a plan the whole company can act on.
“How can we set ourselves up for a really successful year?”
About Bram Greijmans
Bram Greijmans is Chief of Staff at Sendcloud, a Netherlands-based shipping and fulfillment platform. He joined the company in 2017 and has since worked across customer service, operations, and leadership, helping shape how Sendcloud’s executive team plans, decides, and grows together.
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