2021 – That Was Quite a Ride!

In the previous yearly wrap-up, I mentioned that I was looking forward to the opportunities and prospects of 2021. Little did I know that 2021 will open a bottomless well of opportunities and set the speed that, frankly, not everyone was prepared for. To name 2021 a busy year would be the same as calling Ever Given a boat.?

2021 was dynamic and sometimes even fierce for businesses, societies, and whole industries. Things were stalled for a while in 2020, though soon after 2021 stepped in, the IT world woke up and turned into a vibrant space that it’s always been, only this time with renewed vigor. All that could not but affect how we operated and developed as a business and as a team this year.??

We had an incredibly eventful year. After opening a new office in Gdansk in 2021, we continued growing our team in both locations.?

Minsk office welcomed many new talented people, including engineers, researchers, sales, and HR specialists. We have successfully switched to flexible hybrid work to allow our teams to meet and work side-by-side more often all the while keeping a strong focus on people’s safety and wellbeing.?

Polish office grew 7 times since the beginning of 2021 and set up entirely new departments across sales, engineering, recruiting, and administration. By the time we celebrated the first birthday of our branch in Gdansk, we had more than 15 people on board working from different corners of Poland. Here’s a quick roundup that gives a glimpse of what a great job our guys and gals did in 2021.?

We tried many things for the first time this year, and one of the most exciting experiences was laying the ground for new collaborations across new domains and geographies. In 2021, we kicked off a few novel projects across sports, agtech, and AI automation. And we added a new timezone to our working schedule when we joined a tech team of a large analytics company from Australia.??

And of course, I couldn’t be more proud of our teams working on the long-standing projects for Printique, Diaceutics, Oxford Languages, Lodgify, ThinkDonate, and many more future-oriented companies and industry leaders. Together with our valued clients, we celebrated a few significant launches and awards, applauded their achievements, and supported their rapid growth in 2021.?

As an IT company, we have also topped up our awards bank. Only half a year after our Polish branch was officially opened, Clutch listed Digiteum among Top 100 Poland and recognized our contribution among Top B2B Companies in Belarus in 2021. Later the same year, The Manifest featured Digiteum in several leader boards as one of the Top Dot NET Developers in Poland and Top 100 Web Development Companies in Belarus.?

All this wouldn’t have been possible if not for the tremendous effort, dedication and devotion of every single person who works at and with Digiteum, my trusted business partner, Katherine Lazarevich, and of course our dear clients and friends.?

Just a few months ago, I had a chance to recognize it once again when I was talking about starting Digiteum, growing our brand, and running our business?in an interview for Starter Story. It was an interesting experience to stroll down memory lane and go through the key events of the last 11 years. I’m sure our story will motivate and encourage those who make their first steps in this field.?

It’s hard to make predictions for next year, now more than ever. What we can do, however, is to develop and stick to a positive and forward-looking attitude towards the opportunities, and perhaps even more so, challenges of the upcoming year.?

On this uplifting note, I would like to wish everyone a fantastic and memorable holiday season and share my hopes for a successful and rewarding 2022 year.?