Unlimited Vacation (+ two weeks where the office is closed)

First Round has over 30 people working to support our community. Because of this, when it comes to our team and how we all work together, we operate more like the companies we partner with than the firms we invest with.

Everything we do is an experiment and our vacation policy is no different. This year we (like some of the companies that we partner with) moved to an unlimited vacation policy. As part of this move, we were concerned that people would actually take less vacation — and this was not our goal. To mitigate this risk, along with the unlimited policy, we also added two weeks where the office would be closed — one over the winter holiday season and one in August. (if you are reading this post as a link from my out of office email, now you know why)

So far I think the experiment has been working really well. I find that people are taking long weekends and coming back as recharged as if they had taken a full week away. Also, the weeks that the office are closed have become somewhat like breaks in college — a shared experience with people planning trips, talking about where they are going/what they have planned and sharing stories afterwards. These shared experiences/sharing of experiences build culture and community at First Round. For me, it is also really nice to be away and know that I don’t need to check in with my team because they are all on vacation too.

It feels good to slow down together, get away from the office on the same tempo as everyone else and look forward to returning recharged and ready for the fall as a team.