2022 Wrapped: Pausing, Recognizing & Celebrating the Wins in a Challenging Year

2022 was a roller coaster year with lots of ups and downs. At the macro level, with the economic downturn and recession, rising inflation, major reduction in force in most industries, the Russia-Ukraine war, and one of the largest uprisings in history by Iranian women, there was no lack of daunting global challenges many of us experienced and were impacted by on a daily basis.?

As year-end approaches and things have slowed down, I had a chance to reflect. Despite all the challenges and emotional turbulence that this year held, I will treasure these top three? memories and wins of 2022:

1) The opportunity of working with an extraordinary team where no challenge is too big: Without a doubt, 2022 was a tumultuous year for most businesses and a notorious year for the tech industry as a whole. With over 150K tech workers losing their jobs, the cost of capital significantly increasing, and a lot of uncertainty and volatility ahead, change has been the only constant companies, leaders, and employees have faced.

In lieu of all that, I’ve continued to be in awe of our Cleo team for their adaptability, drive, and deep passion for our mission. No matter what the macro and micro challenges, they appeared every day at work with determination, empathy, and accountability. Our “Cleople” always found solutions no matter what sets of problems we posed to them, and with their can-do-attitude, they have delivered great business and member outcomes. It’s truly my honor to be leading our extraordinary team and to be working alongside my Cleo colleagues toward a mission that’s so important to the future of businesses.

2) Meeting & beating our product & business OKRs: As a startup, we have ambitious goals and OKRs. I’m truly proud of our team for meaningfully moving the needle and in many instances exceeding our OKRs and/or achieving record-high results.?

In 2022, we introduced two new product lines, Teens and Caregiving (support for aging loved ones). Those of you who have launched new product lines before can relate to the amount of effort involved.? More than 50% of our existing clients expanded into those product lines, which is a huge testament to the gaps in the health system and in the caregiving industry that our solutions address. Cleo is the first and only global solution providing end-to-end support to working families from the family planning stage all the way to parenting of kids and teens as well as caregiving for an elderly loved one. We have over 140 clients -- Salesforce, Pepsi, Pinterest, and Redbull to name a few -- and serve members in 60 countries.??

We had significant member growth in 2022 and hit our record high activation rate in Q4 of this year, thanks to various product enhancements we’ve implemented and the effective marketing strategies we’ve applied.?

With the high engagement of our product and services and the introduction of new concepts and frameworks such as the Family Health Index, we’ve been able to identify high-risk members, serve them, and deliver better outcomes. Not only have we expanded the breadth of our products, but we also continued to enhance the depth of our offerings and expand our product feature capabilities. As an example, our Neurodivergent program that was launched earlier this year had over 350% growth in six months, with 100% of families reporting a reduction in the stress of managing their situations.??

3) Winning Cleo’s Executive Award of the year: At Cleo, we have a tradition that many of us keep close to our hearts. At the end of each year, we hold an Academy Awards-style event and recognize those who have gone above and beyond to help our business hit milestones and thrive. Just like the Oscars, we have different categories and colleagues' votes determine the winners.?

Throughout my life, I’ve been privileged enough to win various awards and recognitions, but I truly treasured being recognized by my peers and colleagues as the winner of the Executive of the Year Award. Having the respect, trust, and vote of confidence of my team, peers, and colleagues is an invaluable asset to me as a leader.? These types of notes from my team are what drives me every day to be a better leader and teammate.???

I am excited about 2023! Wishing a warm holiday season and a year filled with success, prosperity, and peace for everyone.

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