Whatever your experience in the year 2020, we can all agree it was a year filled with change. COVID-19 has changed the way we live, learn, work, and play—and things will never be quite the same again. We now workout virtually, and our kids are learning online. We drive up to Target and order curbside pick-up from our favorite burger joint. The specifics may be different, but we’ve all had to adapt to a sudden new reality.

Here’s the thing: change is uncomfortable. It’s also really hard work. Overnight, Gravy became a 100% remote workforce. Team meetings (and happy hours) moved to Zoom. We scrapped a lot of plans; shifting our target markets and messaging, adjusting our product roadmaps, and rethinking our hiring needs. It hasn’t always been fun, and we’ve had our share of growing pains in the process. 

But change also ushers in opportunity, and good data is the fuel for business recovery. To make more of our data readily available to more people, we published our free COVID-19 economic activity dashboards online. We launched our first APIs, the initial step in making our foot traffic data available to more companies, in more industries. We released dashboard analytics for sports teams, FanVue. We continued to build out our team… and we’re still hiring! (If you know someone great, be sure to send them our way.) 

Along the way, we landed at #93 on this year’s Inc. 5000 list, and at #50 on the Deloitte Fast 500. With increased demand for data to inform business strategies, new business is up an incredible 80% compared to 2019. Where we go and what we do in the real world—while dramatically different—still has the power to inform and influence, perhaps more than ever.

Even as COVID has changed our world, the ways that our customers and partners are putting our data to valuable work has changed. Some are using it for predictive analytics and using “the past as prologue” to foresee what comes next and be better prepared. Others are using our data to discover where people are moving to, the best way for sports teams to welcome fans back into stadiums, and what the shift to delivery really means for the economy. Through our Data for Social Good program, we’re learning how it can be used to predict the rate of COVID transmission and to optimize local healthcare services.

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, businesses large and small have transformed digitally, becoming more innovative and adapting to this new reality. Many more changes await us ahead as we enter promising new markets, grow our customer base, and continue to scale our business operations. It’s been an unbelievable journey so far, and we’re stronger and more resilient for having traveled the path.

To our customers and partners: thank you for taking this journey with us. It is a privilege to work with each of you. We aim to earn your business all over again, every day.

To my team: thank you for bringing your best to Gravy, and for having the fortitude to do the tough stuff. I am so fortunate to count every one of you among our Gravy family.

May this coming year bring change for the better. Cheers to 2021.

-Jeff