At the end of October, the ScanCAD team drove up to Breckenridge for two nights together: Derek Trask, Holly Hammons, Sharon Lujan, Will McLaughlin and Travis Loving. A few family members joined us outside the working sessions, which made it feel even more like what it was meant to be. It was our first gathering like this since we completed our leadership succession at the start of the year, and the timing was deliberate.
Succession is a long road. For ScanCAD, it took years of planning and preparation, and a great deal of care from the people who built this company over more than three decades. With that work behind us, we wanted to step out of the day-to-day and ask a simple, large question together: who are we now, and how do we want to move forward?
Why now?
The things that make ScanCAD worth working with don’t change when a new name goes on the org chart. That includes our deep expertise in software development and systems engineering, the 30+ years of reverse engineering experience, and our relationships with customers in more than 50 countries. That continuity is our foundation. A new chapter is still an invitation, though, and we didn’t want to drift into ours. We wanted to walk into it on purpose, with everyone’s voice in the room.
We kept the company open and built windows into the day for email and calls. Otherwise we kept it simple: a quiet mountain town in shoulder season, a good table, and time. No trust falls, no human knots.
The morning: who we are
We started with people, not plans. Travis opened by tracing the arc that brought ScanCAD here, and by describing how he leads and what kind of ship he wants us to be. Then each of us took a turn, working from questions we’d had a week to think about. Where do you feel most like yourself? What shaped who you are? What do you care about enough to stand up for? What fills you back up when you’re running on empty?
By lunch, we had a much clearer picture of how each of us shows up: our different leadership styles, what gives us energy, and what we bring that others might miss. For a small team, that understanding is essential. It’s how work gets handed off well and how hard problems get solved. It’s also why customers end up dealing with people on our end who know and trust each other.
The afternoon: where we’re headed
After lunch we drove out French Gulch Road and hiked the Sallie Barber Mine Trail together; a steady climb at well over 9,000 feet to an old mining site looking back over town. It was a fitting walk for a company that has spent its life recovering what’s buried inside old hardware.
Back at the condo, we sat down and turned to the future. We started with what we already do well, and what we have no intention of walking away from: robust, flexible inspection systems; reverse engineering systems trusted by defense, aerospace and industry; and a Service Bureau that takes on the boards nobody else can. That work is the foundation.
The question we spent the afternoon on was how to build on it. Artificial intelligence has given a small team like ours a lot more horsepower than we had even a year ago. So we asked ourselves where those tools can make our systems more capable, take routine work off our customers’ plates, and help our Service Bureau deliver deeper, more complete solutions. We didn’t leave with every answer. We left with a shared sense of direction: deepen what we already do, and use the best tools available to do more of it, better.
That evening we shared dinner together in the condo, with no agenda, just good food and good company. It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole trip.
A Note from Travis
This retreat meant a great deal to me. Stepping into the CEO role changes how you see the company. This was the first time I got to sit with the whole team and say out loud how I show up as a leader and what matters to me.
What I value most is holding space for everyone with a stake in ScanCAD: our team, our customers, our partners and our vendors. I want this to be a place where people can be fully themselves and bring as much value into the world as they can while staying true to who they are. That means a healthy balance between work and life. It means giving each person room to say what they want to do, and then finding a way together to help them get there.
Sitting in that room and listening to my teammates talk about what shaped them and what they’d stand up for, I felt a deep gratitude. The next chapter of ScanCAD will be built by these people, and I’m grateful to be walking into it with them.
To everyone who made the trip, thank you. And to our customers and partners, thank you for being part of this story.
