2015 Round Up From the Team @Brndstr
As we say hello to a new year I wanted to recap on the past 12 months and take a look back at the wins, learnings and happenings at Brndstr HQ. When starting a business and entering the world of a ‘Tech Startup’ no one really tells you when you stop becoming a ‘Startup’ and evolve into an actual business. In October 2015 Brndstr turned 2 years old and in my eyes graduated from Startup mode into a fully fledged Small Business.
We ended the year at 14 staff across 3 countries, 50+ clients and over 1million engagements across all our campaigns. Looking back over the past 12 months however there have been some key moments that stand out. These moments gave us the key learnings and helped shape the business to what it has become today.
Gaining Respect
Since starting Brndstr back in 2013 we have partnered with many brands and agencies. When attending the first meeting for Brndstr we had no past examples or had proved we could deliver. During 2015 we had built up a good track record and were able to close deals with big companies because they believed in us. The biggest achievement of 2015 was partnering with Emirates NBD to integrate Twitter into their banking system for a product called Social Banking.
Building a Team, not a company
At the start of 2015 we had 7 staff, each of whom worked individually alongside each other on projects as and when they happened. We had no team or structure really. In Q1 of 2015 we introduced more streamlined processes that was helped by new team working software such as Slack and Asana to help keep everyone on track. We also created ‘teams’ that worked together and were left to their own devices to create and build amazing products
Air Miles
Being based out of Dubai means we are centrally located geographically so getting to other countries is pretty easy. In 2015 between the team at Brndstr we visited Singapore, London, New York, Toronto, Rome, Zurich, San Francisco, Dublin an Istanbul for either meetings and events. Being able to be in cities for face to face meetings or attend global events is crucial to the growth of the business. Learning from what the rest of the world is up to helped us tweak and shape our products to be worthy of playing on the world class field.
Road Map
At the beginning of 2015 we set out a Road Map of where we wanted to be and what we hoped to achieve. Having now waved goodbye to 2015 it is nice to look back and see that we followed the map tightly and have been able to achieve even greater goals than we initially thought possible. Having this road map helped all the team at Brndstr know where they were heading and what adjustments were needed in order to achieve the goals.
As we open the doors to the office for a new year I am excited for what we have in store and can’t wait to get started. This time next year we will have new team members, new clients and for sure collected many more air miles.
From everyone at Brndstr we wish you a Happy 2016!
—
#Simon / CEO
@Hudson