We’re now a month into 2016, and I wanted to share a few reflections on our progress as a company from the last year. It’s been a really busy and exciting time, and it’s always refreshing to pause and look back.
Since most of you don’t know a lot about me, let me say that first and foremost, my passion is building. That’s why I have so much fun running Wrike as a SaaS business: every day we are both building and delivering a great product, and seeing the results of that product for our customers. It’s one of the reasons that 2015 was such an exciting year.
Building the Platform for Everyone
Our goal when we design and build software is to create a flexible platform that fits different industries and types of work, so that all our users can quickly adapt Wrike to their needs. That means that a major focus for us last year was the Dynamic Platform — a set of tools that allows you to customize workflows, data containers, and reporting.
The first piece of this puzzle was the addition of Custom Fields in late 2014. In early 2015, we followed up with Workflows. Since that release, you’ve created thousands of unique workflows for managing projects and tasks, and used these to get faster visibility than ever before.
We further enhanced the Dynamic Platform by releasing Wrike Reports in September. This filled a need for accurate, real-time status reporting that is both easy to produce and simple to consume. So far, we've gotten great feedback on Reports, including success stories, and some thoughtful suggestions for future iterations. We're always grateful for the feedback, and are excited for updates coming to reports in 2016.
In 2015 we also built powerful integrations for teams that use Salesforce.com and Microsoft Office to help workers sync through the apps they use every day. This is a vital part of eliminating duplicate work and helping companies achieve optimal visibility. We’ve also doubled down on our mobile efforts by adding several new developers, and released brand new native apps for both iOS and Android.
On our team, we’ve added key executives who join us from companies like Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn. And with the opening of a new office in Dublin, we have added over 100 new Wrikers globally. I’m very thankful for all the talented people who have joined us, and it’s a joy to work with them every day.
Exciting Times for Work Management
As far as our industry goes, we are in exciting times. The world is going through a transformation in which companies are using digital as a source of innovation, and real-time data is key to finding and exploiting new business opportunities. Knowledge workers need to be as connected to their teams as they are to their devices. The world is beyond the point where Work Management is a convenient addition to your IT stack — it’s now a must-have. And more so than ever, businesses need to consider the cost of being the last company in their field to invest in visibility and collaboration.
This isn’t just our bet. In 2015 we raised more investments from Bain Capital Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and DCM Ventures, all of whom are ready for this market to become mainstream. These investments have allowed us to increase our velocity in delivering a leading product, and our users should expect to see their effects even more in 2016.
Personally, I want to close by thanking everyone who has helped us get to this point, both our gifted staff members, and especially our customers. The letters I get from our Wrike users are truly inspiring, and our whole company feels a lot of love every day from all of you, around the world. I’m very excited for another year of learning and building.
Thank You!
