Cainkade joins
SOULCYCLE
We are excited to announce that Cainkade has joined SoulCycle. We will be working on a suite of digital experiences that will expand the reach and inclusivity of SoulCycle. Most of our team has moved into SoulCycle HQ in the West Village, with key members of the team in Oakland and Portland maintaining our presence out west.
Cainkade is passionate about using technology to improve and enrich people's lives. SoulCycle gives us a candlelit stage to deliver experiences that delight and empower millions of people.
If you've made it this far, you may be interested in our thought process behind joining SoulCycle. As our clients know, we start many projects by asking Why and by envisioning how we measure success. As we came to this decision, we reflected on the principles behind Cainkade.
Why?
Cainkade started with a few simple principles in mind. We wanted to be an agency that created great products without sacrificing quality of either design or development. We wanted to connect our values as people and parents with our work. We wanted to build experiences that served their audience, but were not in service of technology.
Who?
We were very conscious about building our team and client base. We wanted to work with talented, nice people who trusted each other. This translated into a stable team with opportunities for growth and a safe, compassionate environment that allowed us to produce innovative work for forward-thinking clients for the entire 12-year history of the company.
What?
We pushed hard for projects that inspired us intellectually or as human beings. Some of our proudest work was in the wellness, digital health and education categories. One of our most rewarding projects was a children’s reading app that helped our kids understand what we do for a living.
Over the years, we've worked full-time at companies including Comcast, Brightcove and Code & Theory. Cainkade worked on 319 projects in twelve years, across dozens of clients. We've worked with an incredibly diverse set of companies and have the spidey-sense to know when we are seeing something special. We've dated a few clients seriously over the years and even got to the altar once or twice. After working with SoulCycle as a partner for a few months, the company stood out to us as a winning team for a number of reasons. The Why, Who, and What at the foundation of Cainkade are consistent with the SoulCycle opportunity.
- Why — work on something that connects to our values.
- Who — work with smart, well-intentioned people we care about
- What — work on something that can improve and enrich people's lives
Brand and Customers
We tried hard to think of brands that inspire loyalty, passion and active participation from their customers. Apple, Beats, maybe Nike. Starbucks for some; Dunkin' for others (in New England). Inc. magazine included SoulCycle in a list with Apple, Harley, Star Wars and a few others. The opportunity to help a brand like SoulCycle grow outside its studio walls is incredibly exciting to us.
Team
The SoulCycle team is composed of all-stars from across digital media, publishing, finance, and product development. It's been humbling to get to know brilliant people with deep experience from great companies like Virgin America, Starbucks, McKinsey, Goldman, Etsy, and NBC. We are excited to learn from them and bring Cainkade’s vision, discipline, quality, and speed to the team.
Category
We love the category. Whereas wellness and "fittech" companies often put products before people, SoulCycle always puts the customer experience first. The company was founded on a few simple premises: that fitness could be fun; the experience should be simple; and that it’d offer the best hospitality out there. That spirit allowed the brand to build an amazing community of riders that come back for the experience — it’s inspirational, it’s joyful, it’s musical.
See it through
We've worked with some great business leaders and entrepreneurs at Cainkade. It has been incredibly gratifying to see our partners and their companies grow using the work we did as a catalyst. But the nature of services work prevented us from seeing a product through to market and truly owning the customer relationship. This is the existential tradeoff we had to make. For every project there were two businesses we needed to consider, our client’s and Cainkade’s. Joining SoulCycle is an exciting opportunity. It gives us the chance to see something through with the bulk of our Cainkade team — to empower them on a bigger stage, with a singular focus.
Swag test
Are you proud to wear a hat or t-shirt of your company out in public? SoulCycle passes the swag test with high marks.
Thank you
To our previous and current Cainkade team members — thank you for sharing precious years of your lives with us. You made us a better company and better people.
To our beloved customers, mentors and friends — thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support over the years. We wouldn't be on this incredible journey without you.