Global Collaboration Drives Stronger Products

Today we sat down with TBô co-founder Roy Bernheim to talk about why TBô’s team, like its men’s underwear product line, is so unique and innovative.

At TBô, we take collaboration seriously when it comes to creating the best men’s underwear. Collaboration and a focus on community lie at the heart of every product we co-create with our Tribe: for every voice added to a discussion, the stronger and more innovative the end result will be.

It takes a special team to drive that level of collaboration. TBô’s team hails from all across the globe, from Switzerland to the Philippines, connected by technology and a vision. To learn more about the people and culture behind TBô, we turned to one person who might know best: TBô co-founder Roy Bernheim!

Hi Roy! For those who don’t know you, tell us a bit about yourself.

I grew up in Zurich, Switzerland, and then lived almost all over the world for 10 years. I've always had a passion to go beyond, learn about other cultures, languages and get out of my comfort zone. That's why it came very naturally to me to leave Switzerland at age 15 to go to Rosario, a city in central Argentina, and live there for a year. The moment I heard there was a chance to do this I knew that I wanted to do this. To this day I don't know why but it felt natural. Since then I've lived, studied and worked in many different places around the world, like the US, the UK, Sweden, and Thailand.

As one of the co-founders of TBô, how does it feel to have developed your own brand?

It’s not “my own brand”, or at least I don’t feel that way about it. The brand is shaped and created by so many people from around the world. And that’s a great feeling.

Having technology AND people’s mindsets enable global collaboration more and more, excites me a lot. Just 7 years ago, it wasn’t possible to work collaboratively and simultaneously on the same document. Now it is. Take Google Docs as an example. 

It’s there. Real time. Global. Constructive. This is how TBô thinks of its future development: community-led, tech-enabled and global.

Tell us a bit about the TBô team. What makes them unique?

The mix is truly unique. Among the team, we span 13 time zones across 6 countries on 3 continents. And with different locations, of course, come different cultures and backgrounds. Among the team, we count 7 nationalities and 17 spoken languages.

And even though we mainly sell products for men, we have a 50/50 women-men ratio. [Co-founder] Allan and I actually only realized this after we had hired the team - we definitely didn’t hire because of gender. It’s just a great mix!

What are the biggest strengths of having an international remote team?

We have the luxury of being able to get together with the best people from around the world - no matter where they are based. It’s purely skill, motivation and culture-fit driven. Location does not play a role.

Think of it as the Ocean’s Eleven of the community-led space: each team member has a special skill that everyone else can rely on.

Businesses all over the world are increasingly shifting to remote work setups. Do you think this trend will continue?

It’s difficult to say what other companies will do, but we will definitely nurture our own remote work culture. It gives everyone the flexibility we need to deliver superior results. 

We are all old enough to be able to decide whether one can work efficiently in one vs. another location. Am I as efficient working from my apartment vs. somewhere with lots of distractions, say a nice beach place? Maybe I need an impulse of distractions but it’s up to me to decide whether I can still deliver.

That’s how we treat each other, as adults.

Having said this, we see the value of having hubs where we can get together as a team but also with the Tribe in person too. We’ve set up such a hub in Zurich, Switzerland. Further hubs are in the pipeline in North America.

Many thanks to Roy for sharing his thoughts on building the TBô culture. No matter where we are, we’re connected by our desire to build the most collaborative, welcoming community for the best men’s underwear.

What’s your team setup? Share your story in the comments below.