2019 — Bandwagon’s Year in Review
Hey folks!
As the year (AND decade) was coming to an end, I saw lots of think pieces on social media that reflected on the best movies, songs, and tweets of the last 10 years. I also saw friends, peers, and mentors share memories of their 2019 and the last decade. Seeing all of this inspired me to take some time to reflect on the Bandwagon journey and where we’ve been. Before I jump in, I want to take a moment to #shoutout a few people.
To my wife, Tiffany, and my son, Carter — you are my everything. All that I do is to create opportunities for our family and I thank you for trusting me even when I had no job and we were expecting baby Uno in January 2016 or when I asked you to pack up everything and move halfway across the country to Austin, Texas this summer. Your support keeps me going.
To Greg Smith — what can I say about you that I haven’t already told you (and shouted from the rooftops to anyone that would listen). Thank you so much for believing in me and being our first “yes”. You have been a great mentor, advisor, and friend. I respect what you’ve done professionally and how you’ve given to your family and civic organizations. I appreciate you.
To Sammie, Susan, La-Vaughnda, Hao, Nick, Marina, Kim, and Arshad — how crazy were we to give this thing a shot?! This all started with an idea that I had to create better communities at live events — originally just college football — and now, here more than 4 years later, we have customers, employees, and we are delivering our solution in places like South Africa and Estonia! Thank you for your time, your talents, energy, and enthusiasm.
To Hampton, Brittany, and Joe — we’re doing it! As the saying goes, “you could be anywhere in the world but you’re here with me and I appreciate that.” I’m *SO* excited about what we’re going to do in 2020. I’m honored to have you all with me on this journey and I’m especially thankful to Hampton for his leadership.
To Marie Rocha — you were the FIRST investor to reach out to us to invest! I still remember getting your DM after our episode of the Pitch. It was an extremely humbling experience because as an entrepreneur, you often see these VCs and investors that you believe would be a good partner but for some reason, they don’t see it the same way and they pass. But you and Tricia reached out to us, asked thoughtful questions, spent time, and decided to back us without asking “who else is in”. That was a shot of confidence that we needed.
To Clarence, Denise, Sheena, Kylie, Daniel, Sterling, and my YEB — my circle. My mentors. My therapists. My cheerleaders. I appreciate y’all so much, man. You answer my calls/texts. You offer me a listening ear or hard feedback when I need it. The startup journey is so tough and it can be extremely lonely — especially as a solo founder — but having you all in my circle makes this whole thing so much better. I do my best to give back to entrepreneurs as much as possible largely due to the culture of helping that we’ve created together. Keep lifting. I’m rooting for all of y’all.
To the 330 Republic investors — You are teachers. You are electricians. You are call-center reps. You are police officers. You are friends from college, old coworkers, and people that have never met me in real life. You invested $100, $1,000… $10,000! For the majority of you, I’m your first-ever investment and that means the world to me. Thank you for believing in me. Thanks for believing in us.
There are so many people that have been an instrumental part of this journey (Arlan, Christie, Kwame, Hayes, Grace, Ashley, Jim, and Robert, to name a few more) and I obviously can’t name everyone but I hope that you’re all able to take away how much this all means to me. As we turn the page to 2020, I want to give a quick highlight of what 2019 was like for us! Cheers to 2020 — and beyond!
Bandwagon selected for the inaugural Columbia | IBM Blockchain Accelerator
In 2017, we made the decision to shut down our B2C fan-facing secondary ticket marketplace and pivot to a B2B SaaS model where our goal was to become the global validator for ticketed live events. As we explored ways to deliver such a solution, Blockchain became more and more obvious for us to educate ourselves on. As we learned, we saw the chaos of the “crypto winter” and cautiously evaluated the technology. Once we did our due diligence, we built our own blockchain in September 2017 and knew that we would want to be validated by third-parties to position ourselves as a leader in the space. In January 2019, we were tapped as one of 10 companies using Blockchain technology by Columbia University and IBM. Not only did the accelerator open doors for us on the business development side but it gave our technology solution credibility which has given our customers and partners confidence to bet on us.
The announcement of our flagship product, Aura, and the “million-dollar” rebrand of Bandwagon
When I created the first Bandwagon logo in 2014, I knew two things: it was intended to be casual, as a representation of our brand tone, and it was going to be orange — paying homage to my dear alma mater. The branding, while eye-catching, didn’t really *fit* next to SaaS companies that we were competing with or hoping to partner with. At that point, we saw an opportunity to not only rebrand the company but to create a standalone brand for our software solution. My good friend Denise, founder and CEO of Partake Foods, recommended a company that they were using and that’s when our work with Family Meal, a New York-based firm, began. Laura and Ryan were fantastic to work with and as La-Vaughnda led us through our branding process, we went through dozens of names, an array of colors, and lots and lots of fonts. In March of 2019, we announced the name and branding of our flagship product — Aura! Not to be upstaged, Bandwagon was rebranded in April 2019, and the feedback has been off the charts!
We landed our first 6-figure deal…and a partnership in Estonia!
In December 2018, I was casually scrolling twitter and one of our investors shared an RFP (request for proposal) from GASC and Enterprise Estonia. This project is a result of the collaborative industrial research and development program established in April 2016 between the Government of the State of South Carolina and the Government of the Republic of Estonia. Our CTO, Dr. Hampton Smith, led our nearly 100-page proposal and it was approved in June 2019. To kick off development, we flew out to Estonia in September to work with our partner, Cybernetica, and spent a week working with their team. We signed a multi-year, 6-figure deal and we’re excited to put our solution on a global scale.
Signed our first Bandwagon Blockchain Platform Partner, GoBeep
At the end of the day, we’re a technology company and with our focus on identity, we see LOTS of opportunities to deliver better experiences. However, as a startup, it’s important for us to focus on what we do best and that’s building a world-class identity platform for others to build upon. That’s why we’re proud AND EXCITED to announce our very first Bandwagon Blockchain Platform Partner, GoBeep! GoBeep, a Greenville, South Carolina based company, is connecting businesses with their customers by providing candid, localized feedback. Naturally, as businesses ask users to share more and more information, data privacy and data protection become a bigger factor — and that’s where Bandwagon comes in! GoBeep’s patent-pending technology solution will leverage the Bandwagon Blockchain Platform to allow users to have both freedom and control over who their data is shared with. We’re excited about the launch of their app in 2020! Be sure to keep up with all they’re doing on social.
The Bandwagon got bigger
Like any great startup, the most important asset is THE TEAM! I’m excited that we’ve been able to build out the team at our HQ in Greenville, SC. Our newly minted CTO, Dr. Hampton Smith, initially joined our team as a contractor to help us build out our blockchain solution. After spending time at Google, we’re excited that he was interested in giving startup life a shot. Since being promoted to CTO in August, Hampton has built out our technical team, hiring Brittany Isenberg, a self-taught software engineer who will lead our UX/UI development as well as Joe Powers, a Georgia Tech grad that left a career as an engineer at GE to pursue software engineering and is a proud recent graduate of the Carolina Code School. In 2020, we’re bringing on a couple more team members, so stay tuned — there is more room on the Bandwagon!
Well, that’s all for this one! Today is our first day in the office for 2020 and we’re excited about what we’re building. We have a long road ahead but I know that we wouldn’t be this far on our journey without the support of so so so many people. Thank you.
Cheers,
Harold
