Introducing Rainbow Amis: our new LGBTQIA+ ARG 

A quick primer: you'll see us refer to teammates and Customer.io employees as "Amis" throughout this piece. "Ami" is the root word for "friend" in many languages, and it's a small word that says a lot about how we think about the people we work with.

Rainbow Amis began the way a lot of good things at Customer.io do: informally. A few Amis, among them Stefano, Inigo, and Flor, started gathering for LGBTQIA+ meetups and the occasional Pride celebration, and over a few years those gatherings turned into a real community. This June, it became official. Rainbow Amis is now an Ami Resource Group (ARG) at Customer.io!

Stefano, a Senior Customer Success Manager, has been part of the group since those early meetups, and for him making it official was less a decision than a recognition of something already there. "Launching Rainbow Amis as an official Ami Resource Group feels like the natural next step," he says.

The reason he cares is personal. Stefano has spent four years at Customer.io able to bring his whole self to work, and he knows that isn't a given everywhere.

Inigo, another of the group's founding members, came to it from a similar place. Customer.io is "the first place I've been naturally and organically out at work," he says, and having queer leadership and colleagues made that easy. It also made him realize that kind of ease can't be taken for granted. As Customer.io grows bigger and more global, he wanted to be a comforting presence for other Amis, and help build a community where everyone can be themselves.

Flor brought years of perspective to the effort. She's been out and part of the queer community for almost 18 years, and she's been in ERGs before, spaces that gave her a real sense of community and visibility that can be hard to find at work. That history is a big part of why making Rainbow Amis official mattered to her.

Becoming an official ARG gives Rainbow Amis a standing platform instead of a string of one-off meetups, and the goal is to use it across the whole year, not only in June. Stefano frames it as a chance to celebrate, educate, build community, and "make an impact throughout the year, not just during Pride Month."

It's also open to everyone. LGBTQIA+ Amis, allies, and anyone who wants to help build a more inclusive workplace are all welcome. As Stefano puts it, "the strongest communities are built together."

The early plans match that ambition. The group is mapping out regular coffee chats, member-led sessions on LGBTQIA+ history and culture, resources to help allies show up well, and a book club to keep the conversation going between events. And when members were asked how they want the group to feel, the same words kept coming back: authentic, safe, inclusive, empowering, and celebrated. That's the bar Rainbow Amis is setting for itself.

Flor is clear that there's no single right way to take part. She hopes people join in whatever way feels comfortable, whether that's sharing openly, quietly listening, asking questions, coming to events, or simply knowing the community is there. She also wants Rainbow Amis to be a place for learning and queer joy, where LGBTQIA+ Amis celebrate who they are and allies get better at showing up: listening more closely, advocating year-round, and supporting inclusion well past June. And from the start, the group has been meant to be shared.

The appetite is already there. Being more visible at work was new for Inigo, but the response to the group, and to a casual launch party, settled any hesitation right away. "It was the best decision I've made here," he says.

For Flor, it comes down to safety. Customer.io is a global company, and its LGBTQIA+ Amis and allies come from many countries, identities, and comfort levels. In the current political and social climate, not everyone has the same freedom to be fully themselves, and being able to show up openly, Flor points out, is its own kind of privilege. That's exactly why building spaces where people feel genuinely safe, seen, and supported matters so much. After the kickoff, the two words that stayed with her were the ones that surfaced most from the group: safe and authentic.

Underneath all of it is a simple belief: when people can be themselves at work, they do better work. It's why Kelsi, our Director of Learning, Growth, and Development, said yes to being executive sponsor right away. For her, the group is personal before it's professional. Several of the people who matter most in her life are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and authenticity sits at the top of how she thinks about leadership.

What she wants the group to be is a place where showing up as yourself is never a question. "We want this to be a group where people find each other, build real community, and feel seen," she says, "where you don't have to think twice about showing up as yourself. And where that's true not just during Pride month but on any day of the year."

She also has a clear way to measure whether it's working: whether LGBTQIA+ Amis and allies walk away from everything the group does feeling like Customer.io was built with them in mind.

That's the whole idea, and Rainbow Amis is just getting started. If building a workplace where everyone belongs sounds like somewhere you'd want to work, we're hiring.