10 years...

We turn 10 today 🎉 🎈 🎊

Well yesterday but yesterday was also my birthday so I was off.

(Slightly confusing isn't it?!)

Sharing a birthday with the company you co-founded is a blessing and a curse. I assume it’s a bit like how twins feel?!

12 years ago

Although the company was formed in 2014 we had a couple of years before testing the product in our previous company 4Ps.

There is a saying in tech that if you are not embarrassed by v1 of your product you launched too late. As you can see from below we did not launch too late.

Here are a few reflections and shout-outs from the last 10 years…

👉 We needed to survive before we could thrive

I’m just happy we made it this far. Anyone who has run a business since 2019 knows how brutal it has been. The pandemic, wars & inflation to name a few.

During the "unprecedented times" of the pandemic we almost ran out of cash. We were in a weird situation where our product was in high demand but cash was not flowing through the system. Text book bad situation.

So we had to survive so we could thrive today.

We’ve grown well commercially and although at times we would have liked for it to be faster it’s still been a huge achievement for everyone involved.

If you are advising organisations but you have not run a business yourself since 2019 just be aware the world has changed. Try it if you don't believe me.

I am happy we are still standing and stronger for it.

👉 People laughed at us (a lot)

So many people laughed at us when we said we wanted to start a “Happiness Business”.

10 years ago subjects like mental health happiness and well-being were still seen as the soft stuff.

People still laugh at the crazy idea that if you look after your people the organisation performs better but there are less and less of them (see the FT this week as an example).

👉 Team

I am thankful to our team, past and present.

I’m sure everyone thinks this about their organisation but person for person I believe in my heart we have the best team in the world.

Our team is small but mighty and I am blessed to work with them every single day.

👉 Customers

Customers who signed contracts with us then and now. I will always be grateful for your belief and putting your money where your purpose is.

Without your faith we would not exist as a business.

👉Our SAAS platform

Customers tell us that our Employee Engagement platform changes lives. One of our customers said to me at our conference that we;

"give a voice to voiceless".

I try to remind myself of stuff like this in the dark moments.

Oh and before I forget;

if I did not at this point drop a link to demo our platform in this article, my commercial team would not speak to me for a month.

Please let them know I sent you

👉 Our angels

We’ve got hundreds of angel investors.

They all rock and they have been our biggest cheerleaders through good times and bad.

We didn’t take the VC route for various reasons and I’m thankful for that decision on a daily basis.

Yes our investors want growth and a return but they all understand two fundamental truths;

A) The bigger picture of what we are trying to achieve

B) Growth is not linear

👉 Our partners

We are currently expanding globally and this would not have been possible without some amazing partners. I won't name them all but you know who you are.

If I had one bit of advice on partnerships it would be;

The right technical partnership is unlikely to work unless values align. Check values before technical and strategic fit or the 2nd two will be a waste of time.

👉 My Co-Founders

My co-founders for letting me be me.

I know so many people who can't be themselves at work and I am forever thankful that Tony and Chris let me be me for all my strengths and many many weaknesses.

👉 Freedom to be Human

Last but not least our vision Freedom to be Human.

It is the number 1 reason I choose to work at The Happiness Index

It means I don’t need to make a choice between being a Dad and a Co-CEO.

👉 You lot

I almost forgot you lot.

The people that we have sometimes not met on platforms like this.

The people that like our content and share our stories. You have been a huge part of our story over the last 10 years.

We salute you.

And that concludes my reflections on the last 10 years.

Did I miss anything?

Thanks for reading;