Wow, what a year we've had at &frankly! So many fantastic memories to look back on. &frankly has not just grown in the form of customers, partners and employees, but has begun to grow up as a company as well.
2018 was &frankly’s third year as a company and during the year we joked that this is the year when &frankly went from being a dear child to becoming an independent teenager. What a wonderful phase it is!
Today, we are an international team of 30, with people from all corners of the world who have chosen to move to Stockholm in order to contribute their talent to help create workplaces characterised by engagement. Birthday songs, laughter and wild discussions are shared between people from Brazil, Russia, the US, Iran, Ukraine, Sweden, Poland and the Dominican Republic in our somewhat cramped office premises. The teenage phase is really something special, with sufficient wisdom to make good decisions, but at the same time, paving new ground entirely. There is a great desire to test new things and take opportunities. This certainly is a phase we will try to hold on to for a very long time!
The year of excellent feedback
And these people have succeeded in creating something fantastic. Nothing beats receiving feedback such as "A game changer", "completely changed how we communicate in the workplace", "help employers create the best workplaces they possibly can". During the year, I have been impressed by so many of our customers. Many of you are real pioneers and dare to think outside of the box. You are pursuing impressive journeys of change, building cultures, reshaping your organisations and taking your own paths. I am delighted that you see &frankly as a part of your journey. For those who are curious, we have collected some of your stories here.
So many new members in the &frankly family
Our growth has really exceeded all our expectations. We have welcomed over 100 new companies to the &frankly family and we are equally proud of every single one. We are often struck by the fact that so many want to be part of our journey and share our conviction about the power of engaged employees. In total, we are now supporting 85,000 employees and 10,000 managers. Wow! As the teenager we are, we are also starting to build our first relationships outside the Nordic region’s borders and teams in the US, Sri Lanka, the UK, Russia, Poland and Iran have also discovered &frankly.
A product that has become even more relevant
Our conviction that relevance is extremely important to create engagement is increasing with each day that passes. That conviction has grown stronger after all the conversations we've had with HR managers and leaders that confirm our strong belief. During the year we have therefore placed a major focus on making it even simpler to create a relevant experience where the individual company’s and team’s needs, as well as culture and language highly impact how you use &frankly.
We have also opened up the product through our new API to enable others to build further on &frankly. This means customers have greater opportunities to place their data in the context of other business data. It's now simpler than ever to demonstrate on a continuous basis how an engaged employee influences the business as a whole! Isn't that great?
We have also unlocked the potential of completely new groups of users through lots of new languages and telephone login. This lets us reach out to employees who perhaps don’t have a computer as their primary work tool.
Everything we have done during the year has resulted in &frankly being a more relevant product today than ever. Both because the importance of focusing on the employees is more widely acknowledged, but also because all our new functions make it simpler than ever to ask relevant questions to the right target group and obtain relevant insights.
Stronger muscles
During the year we have not just enjoyed strong organic growth, we have also chosen to take in new partners in the form of investors in order to further develop &frankly. Finding new investors and partners was not achieved overnight. We have been fairly picky and searched for someone who was not just able to provide experience and sensible input surrounding business development. We also wanted to have a partner who understood our purpose and who shared our belief in the importance of creating better workplaces. A sustainable partnership in all aspects. Our new investors, Luminar Ventures and Cloud Capital, have solid experience in supporting companies in precisely the phase in which we find ourselves today, and will be valuable allies as we navigate the company forward in 2019.
Even though we are looking back at an eventful 2018, I have to remind myself that &frankly is still a teenager, which means that most things are still to come! With a bit more muscle-strength and even more insights into what managers and employees need, we will ensure that 2019 becomes even more exceptional.
Thank you to everybody who contributed to a fantastic year!
Wishing you a happy new year,
Caroline Fjellner, CEO and founder, &frankly
If you want to be part of our journey going forward, see if one of our job openings could be a good match for you.
