This was the first year of Group Buddies. One whole year creating web applications, dealing with clients, teaching people and having loads of fun while doing it. At the time of making a balance, I have to say: this was a great year for us. I already wrote about how we got here in "This is our story". Let me now embrace this opportunity to tell you what we've been through in 2013.
Some of the things that we are most proud of bringing to life have happened in the second half of the year. The first project was Creators School, for the reasons that I've already explained here. The second one is this blog. We wanted to create a blog because we love to share what we learn running GB, and this is a great way to do it.
The most important thing that we've been through was becoming a team of seven. There were only four of us (full time) at the beginning of the year, so we almost doubled our numbers. Four fantastic new colleagues joined us, while Fernando left, to pursuit his dream and launch his own venture. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all again, for your unmeasurable dedication.
I think this was also a great year for the team, we worked in amazing projects, went to two amazing conferences, Railsberry and Baruco, started working more on open source projects and even created some of our own. Finally, we created our 'Friday Talks' in which, every 2 weeks, we grab a slice of pizza and listen to some of our team members talking about what they've learned or took an interest in.
We continued to boost the tech scene in Braga, with Minho.rb and Lean Startup Minho Meetup. We sponsored Rails Girls Porto, Semana da LEI 2013 in Braga, JOIN 2013, and other small events.
We even had time to start working on our own projects. We launched inSpaceJobs, a job market for the space industry, in collaboration with VisionSpace, and cohive, a management software for coworking spaces in collaboration with Factory Business Center. Both projects will get a boost in the beginning of 2014. We also joined forces with UPlay to take University Sports to a whole new level. Next year will definitely be the year when we will bet on our own stuff.
Guess what, we still had time to move to a new office, close with our good friends of Gen Design Studio. Here is a raw video of the assembling process.
This has been a fantastic year for us, but 2014 will be even better, with our focus set on three main things: amazing new products, education and transparent consulting.
Happy new year!