The Small Giants Community Summit is an annual gathering of founders and leaders who’ve chosen to build businesses where values aren’t just nice words in a slide in a deck. Instead, they directly influence how decisions get made. What also makes the summit so special is that it’s centered around honest conversations about what’s working, what failed, and why, instead of polished keynotes from people who haven’t run a business in years.
We’ve been part of this community for a while now. Jean Moncrieff, a long-time partner and friend of ours, first brought Andrei in, and it stuck. This year, we went a step further: STOICA was a sponsor of the Summit, and we helped create the visual identity for this year’s theme.
That theme was Navigate – how to lead with intention when the world is changing faster than you can plan for. How to stay true to what you stand for while still moving forward.
While Andrei attended the event for the third time, for Diana it was a first: the summit, the US, and her first in-person meeting with her Small Giants Leadership Academy cohort.
What business feels like when it’s done right
The summit took place over three days, and it was split into two separate tracks – one for founders and CEOs, and one for next-generation leaders. All in all, we had three days full of events, workshops, and valuable conversations that inevitably happen when you put so many hard-working and honest people together.
Out of all the talks, two stood out the most:
Richard J. Bryan knows what it means to navigate leadership when the stakes are real. At 28, he stepped into a fourth-generation, 100-year-old family business with $120M in revenue and $3.5M in annual losses. With the help of a mentor, he led a turnaround, scaled the company, and eventually navigated a successful exit. His session brought that lived experience into the room: what it actually takes to inherit responsibility, make the hard calls, and build something worth leading (and worth leaving).
Scott Jeffrey Miller, co-founder of Gray Miller Agency, ran an interactive workshop on what great mentorship actually looks like in practice. Managers today aren’t just expected to oversee performance; they’re asked to mentor, guide, and develop the next generation. Scott explored how leadership and mentorship work together to unlock engagement and long-term growth. His own story of overcoming a stutter to become a sought-after speaker and author made the whole thing land differently.
The Small Giants Community organizers put it well after the event:
“Navigate wasn’t about having all the answers. It was about the willingness to keep moving forward. Together.”
A few things that stuck with us
Andrei’s takeaways weren’t a framework or a to-do list. They were more like reminders.
That culture isn’t built once; it’s built through constant effort, and it always pays off. That stories we tell ourselves about what’s possible can be just as limiting as any external constraint. That community isn’t a bonus on top of the work; it’s what makes the work sustainable.
“You leave knowing you don’t have to figure it all out alone,” he wrote after the Summit. That’s probably the most honest summary of what this event does.
For Diana, it was her first Summit but not her first Small Giants experience; she’s been part of the Leadership Academy, a program for next-generation leaders in purpose-driven businesses. Meeting her cohort in person for the first time, after months of working together remotely, was its own kind of milestone.
Why do we keep going back?
We don’t think marketing should be treated as a cost center, and we definitely don’t think that business should come at the expense of people. The companies that actually grow are the ones that invest in relationships, in their teams, and in doing the work properly.
The Small Giants community is full of people who think the same way. That’s why Andrei keeps going back. That’s why we sent Diana. And that’s why we’re already thinking about next year.
A special thank you to Jean Moncrieff, Kathryn Sowa, Bridget Larson, and Courtney Moncrieff for everything they do to make this community what it is.
