Conceived in 2017: MIXED.COMPANY was created because we wanted more opportunities for expansive, enthralling, and open conversations that could only be attained by breaking out of our own social bubbles. In a world where the social norms are don't bother strangers and everyone is always in a hurry, there is never a good time or place to talk about more than just the weather. When we looked into ways to start conversations with strangers in our community with different backgrounds than our own, we found there aren't any good ways to do that. We found we weren't the only ones who felt this way. Many find themselves in a bubble of people with the same beliefs and experiences, and no way to discuss difficult topics outside that circle for fear of offending someone. To help break down barriers for those who want to have expanded conversations, we started organizing events designed to help people get comfortable with strangers from diverse backgrounds of ethnicity, religion, and political views quickly and create the chance to get different perspectives on pressing questions. The MIXED.COMPANY game was developed to help give structure to the the events we planned and wasn't intended to be much more than that. Within a few months of development and play testing, we realized what was special was the game and not the events. We reworked the game to be playable by anyone anywhere and we decided to be a card game company instead of an event hosting company. Our original goal of getting people talking can be accomplished on a much larger scale as a card game anyone can buy. We had to go down the road as an event company first to realize that.