• Pylon CEO Marty Kausas said the company spent $42,000 on a Seoul trip, and will spend some $170,000 to go to Hawaii. • "If you're well-funded, then you can definitely afford it and the money's well worth it," Kausas told Business Insider. • The CEO said the off-sites help recruit talent, reward hard workers, and differentiate from a big company.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Marty Kausas, the 28-year-old CEO of Pylon, which has raised $51 million from Y Combinator, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz. It's been edited for length and clarity.

Pylon was started by myself and my two cofounders, Robert Eng and Advith Chelikani. We went through Y Combinator with a very half-baked idea. Three months later, we raised our $3.2 million seed round from General C

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