Tandem started with a yes.

In 2008, our founder Elizabeth Mead said yes to a global brand that asked her to freelance after leaving her corporate role. From the outside, it looked like ambition. In reality, it was about finding a way to build meaningful work while still being present at home with her kids.

In 2017, Elizabeth and her husband Chris officially started Tandem together. For seven years, they worked side by side. Chris focused inside the business on team culture, customer experience, and environment. Elizabeth focused outside the business on brand strategy, customer lifecycle, and tactical execution. That balance shaped how Tandem works today.

In 2025, Chris retired from Tandem to pursue a long held goal of working in a brewery, marking the close of one chapter and the beginning of another. Tandem continues forward with the same foundation they built together.

But the true lineage goes back further.

In 1980, Elizabeth’s parents started a small business out of the back of a van. They built it with discipline, a heart of service, and grit, eventually growing it into a successful company and retiring in their forties. Watching that journey up close shaped how Elizabeth approaches every business she builds.

Tandem came fully into focus years later when Maddie, then a recent college graduate, asked Elizabeth to breakfast to talk about her point of view on the creative industry. That conversation marked the beginning of something bigger than a project. It became a shared way of thinking, building, and working together.
That mix of grit, curiosity, and collaboration remains the heartbeat of Tandem.