VictimsVoice Year-End Review
Annual Report
Below is a collection of milestones and events that occurred in 2019. We share these with you because so many of you have helped us get this far and were instrumental in our successes.
As we move into 2020, our hope is that you continue your support — think of someone with whom we should meet, donate a card for someone in need, and like, comment, and share our social posts.
Happy New Year!
In 2018, I formed this company with a dream to make a real difference in how victims were seen, heard, and believed. With Hamza Mushtaq (Project Manager) and Marcus Padulchick (Marketing Director) by my side, we dove into planning mode. Over the past year, we have grown a strong team, worked with valuable advisors, launched a product, partnered with organizations, served victims in 60 percent of the US, and even saw a court case use our report. Looking ahead, we have so much work to do, but great work — work that changes lives. As we move into a new decade, we look to ensure Native Americans are also given a legal voice in tribal courts across Sovereign Nations, allow foster children to hold abusive care accountable, provide LGBTQ a safe way to document and report, and ensure any and all who need it are given a legal voice.
JANUARY
TEAM BUILDING
We began the year by adding our co-founder and CTO, Charles Gattsek to the team. He came to us with years of experience in both technology and business ownership.
Next, we added our first intern, Vanessa from Rider University’s Graphic Design program. She helped us prepare for upcoming events and graphics for our mobile app collateral.
FEBRUARY
ON THE ROAD…
Although we had not yet launched a product, we hit the road with our prototype and marketing materials.
Our first event was the Startup Grind Global Conference in Redwood City, CA. David Stengle joined the advisory team and began weekly mentoring Sheri, our CEO. Paula Zimmerman joined our team as H.R. Director.
MARCH
…ON THE ROAD
A key event for us is the National Sexual Violence Law Conference, hosted by the Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC). We were able to meet key stakeholders from all over the country including nonprofits, healthcare professionals, educational representatives, victim advocates, tribal leaders, community leaders, legal professionals, and more.
OUTCOMES
Rutgers University Camden has become a resource that is actively distributing our licenses to students in need.
APRIL
APP DEVELOPMENT
We originally built Apple and Android apps but made the decision to drop the native version and go strictly PWA — Progressive Web Application. This works to better protect victims, as there is nothing to download. It also lowers development costs and allows us to keep all coding in-house.
We began beta-testing to focus groups; professional and victim groups for usability feedback.
MAY
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Sheri won a full scholarship to the Founder Gym Accelerator program, spending six intense weeks perfecting pitch decks, executive summaries, and presentation skills to prepare for the public launch of the VictimsVoice app. Result: Cohort 9 [Pre-Seed] Graduate!
JUNE
LAUNCH!
We launched our VictimsVoice App in style with a party at our 1776 co-working space. Fifty of our close supporters came to be a part of the festivities while even more joined us on Facebook Live.
Thank you to our sponsors who made it all possible:
- McCarter & English
- 1776 Cherry Hill Mall
- Klatzkin
- PJ Zimmerman Advisors
- Intelligent Office of Princeton
JULY
PARTNER PROGRAM
We brought on our first partners — two family law firms in New Jersey.
Lawrence Law and Jeffrey W. Goldblatt, Esq.
PR / COMMUNICATIONS
Ashley Britton joined us as a summer intern to help with PR and Communications. She is majoring in Policy and Communications at Syracuse University and the Newhouse School.
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER
MEDIA
Ashley did such an amazing job of managing our media and the results were outstanding! We were featured in regional and international media outlets including network TV, broadcast radio, newsprint, blog features, podcasts, and digital media.
Heather Glogolich, our Law Enforcement Advisor contributed her time and personal story to some of the interviews.
As a direct result, we started generating enough revenue to pay the monthly expenses.
OCTOBER
BIG WINS
The Nueces County District Attorney’s Office (Corpus Christi, TX) made a solid commitment to their area citizens by purchasing 200 VictimsVoice Activation Cards. These cards will be distributed to county victim advocates and given to any victim that requests one.
Thousands of global applications were submitted in 2019 for Startup of the Year and VictimsVoice was selected as one of the Top 100 Semi-finalists!
NOVEMBER
GIVING BACK
VictimsVoice formally joined Pledge 1% and committed to donating 1% product to victim-serving organizations.
VictimsVoice ran the first “Pay it Forward” promotion to generate sales of donated cards. As a result, there were over 60 cards donated.
DECEMBER
CLOSING THE YEAR
The Mercer County, NJ Prosecutor’s Office joined the VictimsVoice Partner Program and the area PBA committed to funding 100 activation cards for area law enforcement.
VictimsVoice began discussions to include abused spouses of active military personnel living on installations.
We have large aspirations as we move into the new decade, such as launching version 2 of the application in Q1. This will include the introduction of navigating tribal jurisdiction, partner dashboards, a corporate program, and a new design making it more intuitive. We are tackling head-on areas long forgotten or ignored because they are complex problems to solve. We won’t solve these problems, but we will allow victims to be able to take an active and personal role in better outcomes. Our goal is to reach thirty-three thousand people in the New Year, as well as expand our own team. I’d like to express a special thank you to Lieutenant Heather Glogolich and Sylvia Rose Viarrial, two amazing advisors who have shared so much of their expertise and time to help guide us. And to David Stengle my mentor. I am so grateful for you imparting so much of your wisdom and pushing me out of my comfort zones. Thank you!
With dedication and sincere gratitude,
Sheri L Kurdakul, CEO
