2020 has been a memorable chapter in the story of Lab3, for more reasons than the obvious one. Here’s our roundup of what the year has meant for us.
1. 2020 did not work out as planned (to put it mildly.)
2020 has clearly not been the year many of us hoped it would be. At Lab3, we've been planning to open a UK office in London for the last couple of years, and March 2020 happened to be the date that we chose that to happen. Little did we know…
Instead, Chris was left to face lockdown in London without the expected team by his side, as Nick packed up his life in Christchurch to move back to Nelson, and Jake did the same to Ashburton.
2. However! We launched Lab3 UK
After much convincing that COVID was on the way out, Jake finally made the leap to join Chris in the UK in September, and faced lockdown number two and the “second wave” almost immediately. Working from tiny London flats in amongst lockdowns certainly wasn’t the easiest way to get ourselves established in the UK, but the good news is that team Chris and Jake are now settled into The Brew Eagle House, a great co-working space in the heart of Shoreditch (AKA Silicon Valley UK), and are busy working with some great UK clients (keep an eye on our case studies in 2021!). If you know anyone in the UK who you think we should meet (for either business or beers!), then let us know.
3. We became Lab7*
In response to increasing demand, we made the exciting move of hiring our second full-time employee. Tom has been with us for a year and a half now, and we welcomed the wonderful Kelly Chan to the team at the beginning of the year. We had a lot of interest in the role, but Kelly stood out as a dedicated and motivated developer - and she brings with her a broad range of interests including psychology and a passion for volunteering. We also reached the point where a long-time friend of the business had provided too much help out of generosity, so we formally brought on Sophie Smith as a part-time employee.
*Just to be clear, we’re still Lab3.
4. Our epic client list continues to grow
We’ve worked on another awesome batch of projects this year:
- We’ve continued working on homeAR
- We got the opportunity to make the ‘game brain’ - the software running the quiz - for Whitebait’s Brain Busters
- We continued our fun, messy, hilarious ongoing work with Whitebait on What Now
- We’ve started working on new developments with AimHi - an exciting player in the online education space, based in the UK
- We’ve continued giving Sentro a hand with the great work they do in the insurance industry
- We have worked with OCP to help them provide their services to users with greater speed and ease
- We have developed an app for Kruse to allow them to show off their New Zealand travel commentary securely and easily
There have been a few more projects keeping us busy, which we’ll update you on in 2021!
5. Celebrating 5 years in business
This year was also a big one for Lab3; in August, we reached 5 years of operation! This is an epic milestone for us (as a group of friends who started the business at University!), and we thank everyone for their help and support who got us here - whether you’ve been a client, a friend, or a supportive ear.
Thanks for being part of our story so far! We’re excited to see in which direction our NZ and London sagas head, and would love to hear from anyone you think could benefit from our work.
We might have to write a blog post on the logistics of getting Jake to London… look out for that in 2021.
Ka kite anō au i a koutou!
