What an amazing year it has been! 2015 felt like a few days, rather than a full year. May be, we were so engrossed in what we were doing, that when we looked up, we discovered months have passed in what seemed like days.
The year had a lot of peaks and troughs. We learned many a thing the hard way. We tasted both success and failure. Success made me realize that, as an entrepreneur I must be politely persistent, and this is an ultramarathon and not a sprint, and there is a long, long way to go. Failure made me realize, that it’s ok to fail, and there is no penalty for failing. At least we have a feeling of satisfaction that we tried.
We had the opportunity to meet and work with some amazing people and awesome projects.
This is how our action packed 2015 go by at Appiness.
The new year dawned on us with Storm Festival at Coorg, where we were the digital partners. What a way to start!
Creative Gaga Magazine kicked off their year with an issue that asked the important question; is it the web that’s leading the brands or is it the other way around? And we give an expert opinion of the same and their cover was done by us. http://bit.ly/1JGrJdE
We unleashed our product WOW.JOBS at the Construkt Festival. A much awaited portal from our end, which taught us many things about building a product. Learnings everywhere.
We turned 3 on the fool’s day and had a fun filled day outing that ended with an amazing Superhero themed party. Up, up and away!
Befound was born, a sister concern completely focused on Search Marketing. With the Internet continuously evolving, BeFound headed by our search maestro Harikumar KM, strive to ensure that human centric SEO keeps our clients’ market smart & approachable. The team constitutes of some awesome guys with great experience in SEO. It's all hard work, dedication & effective communication.
The best innovation comes from the heart not from the head - It’s all about keeping your team (h)appy
We did springle some appiness in Hong Kong too. We were chosen as a alpha startup at the RISE Conference and we went there to spread some alpha cheers! .
We were chosen as one of " The 20 Most Valuable Mobile Application Solutions Providers in India", rated by Insight Success Magazine.
We introduced a concept called DIVE IN, to find the next set of leaders within our team, and give fair chances for the people who are joining us. We wanted to know who is capable of what. This turned out to be amazing, as we discovered a lot of hidden talent within our team.
Okay, what is dive in? DIVE IN is all about going and giving a presentation, performing some art, conducting a workshop/event and more; if you do a good job everyone will remember you and if you don't no one will. So what's the problem? Go for it.
Remember we not making it to Ireland for Web Summit due to the hefty bank balance we had and the visa problems? Ah, that was back in 2013.You know we ain’t the type to give up, so it was a proud moment for us to host Paddy Cosgrave, the CEO of Web Summit to launch SURGE in India. Yeah, the same guy who organises some of world’s largest tech conferences, including Web Summit( Ireland), Rise Conf (Hong Kong), Collision Conf(USA) and Money conf(Spain). All the hard work of bootstrapping, plowing back the monies and building our brand helped us in achieving this feat..
In our continuous endeavour to spread the spirit of building great products, we conducted some great workshops and gave some talks in few educational institutions. We love sharing our knowledge and spreading the passion. In 2016 we are planning to visit a lot more educational institutions and conduct a lot of workshops on Product Building, UX, Radical Thinking and so on. After all, giving back is such a happy feeling.
We grew from a 50 people team to a 70 people team. Yes, we hired some immensely talented people. We love and enjoy working together, it’s a tightly knit family. Below is a video done by our fresh hires:
We always had a very healthy team who worked hard and played harder. And by play we mean sports andgames. We did take part in some corporate tournaments. We claimed to have an amazing Cricket team, captained by FED boss, Arunraj. Our team went for a tournament and that was a real eye opener. :) You win some and lose some. So we went on to win a few in football.
We love giving back to the society. We engaged as a Digital partner with MAPSAS, a community-oriented Not For Profit Trust, which works towards preserving the lakes in Bangalore. With our regular team charity activities, apart from visiting few old age homes and orphanages, we also sponsored education for few kids. We believe the best gift you can give to anyone is education; we intent to increase the quantum of these activities in the coming year as well.
In true Appiness tradition, we did have some amazing celebration for all special days. Republic day, Onam, Diwali, Women’s day, Men’s day, Birthdays of team, you name it, we celebrated them in style.
2015 I celebrated my dad’s 70th and mom’s 60th birthday. Few of my teammates, clients and friends got married, got blessed with newborns. So, as a whole 2015 has been amazing and eventful.
I realize, none of this would’ve been possible without the support of our beloved families, friends, team and clients. Thanks for being there and supporting us. Looking forward to 2016. The journey just started.
Here is we Appiness family wishing you all an Appy New Year. Love you all.
Few points I would like to highlight on:
Be persistent. Be goal-oriented. Read more. Stay curious.
Work hard, because nothing good comes from being lazy.
Start today, because tomorrow may be too late.
Last but not the least, stop looking at YourStory, and start concentrating on your idea. Forget who is getting funded and who is not, funds will come your way if you are good. There is probably way more funding on balding and viagra than on malaria and Ebola these days.
Wishing you an amazing 2016. Make this a year to cherish.
