Everyone can build.
Few can break out.
Refract helps companies build identities strong enough to survive the moments that test them.
Because the right angle changes everything.
“The internal clarity was the breakthrough moment for me: watching the team immediately adopt the new language and narrative, as if someone had turned the lights back on.”
JONATHAN WIDAWSKI, CEO & FOUNDER
When growth outpaces clarity, everything slows down
Messages drift
Identity splinters
Priorities compete
Culture fractures
And with AI erasing technical moats overnight, the best product is no longer enough. Your biggest advantage is how the world sees you and how your people embrace it.
What’s missing isn’t a better deck.
It’s a shared identity everyone can move from.
The Shared Identity System
We align purpose, story, and practice, so your entire organization moves as one.
The core of who you are: your mission, positioning, and strategic vision.
PURPOSE
The narratives that carry your identity outward: industry POV, product story, audience messaging, voice.
STORIES
The rituals and tools that make it real: onboarding, kickoffs, pitch decks, launch playbooks.
PRACTICES
“We had a much stronger point of view on who we are and what problem we’re solving—and, just as importantly, what we are trying not to be.”
MARCIO ARNECKE, CMO
Three disciplines, one team
Most consultancies bring one lens — brand, or comms, or people strategy. Refract brings all three, because identity only works when it lives across messaging, culture, and operations.
That's how we make it stick.
MATT HICKS, COMMUNICATIONS
A communications and marketing leader who built and led teams at Zendesk, Celonis, and Facebook, he's closely advised CEOs and execs through IPOs, billion-dollar funding rounds, rebrands, global crises, and market pivots.
Two decades defining the narratives that turn emerging technologies into market categories.
Tiffany Apczynski, People
Helped lead cultural evolution at Zendesk and Alteryx during pivotal growth stages, embedding a clear organizational identity across global teams.
Focused on building the infrastructure that turns identity into alignment, momentum, and measurable impact.
Matthew Latkiewicz, Brand
A founding member of Zendesk's creative team, he helped shape the brand voice and key narratives through its IPO — including contributing to the S-1.
15+ years of brand strategy, creative direction, and production across tech and media. IDEO-trained in design thinking and workshop facilitation.
We've worked closely with founders and executives at some of the fastest-growing tech companies.
We’ve taken companies from startups to scale-ups, from SMB to the enterprise, through IPOs and acquisitions, and every identity shift in between.
We meet you in the moment
Most companies aren’t focused on identity.
They’re focused on a deadline, a conference they need to be ready for, a re-org that’s long overdue.
We work inside those moments — and build the clarity that lasts beyond them.
Example engagements
Rally investors around a pitch that's unmistakably yours
Own your user conference with a story the whole company can tell
Navigate a reorg with a narrative that holds
Launch into a new market with positioning that cuts through
Kick off the year with a strategy your teams can carry
We understand that every moment is different—we scope the work to fit yours.
Let’s get started
Tell us what you're facing and we'll scope the work together.