Dear Kahana,

What a year it’s been right?

You’ve challenged me to my core, stretched my skillset, triggered my imposter syndrome, pushed me to have tough reflective conversations with myself

You threw me in the deep end damn near laughed at me as I struggled to stay afloat

But

You believed I could swim

Especially in the moments when I felt I was drowning, a glimmer of hope was all I needed.

Kahana,

We journeyed to countries near and far flung

Half the time we didn’t even know how we got there, but somehow we did

I met amazing strangers and talked about you in quaint cafe’s on the streets of Birkenstrasse in Berlin

I gave demo’s of you 15 floors above the bustling streets Toronomon Hills in Tokyo

I shared my experiences with you in a conference hall 6000 miles from home in Mauritius

Crazy

I pitched you to almost 700 people this year

Most of those moments were nerve-racking, but I needed to tell the world about you, about the positive impact you can make on peoples lives

Most didn’t care

But the few who did, the few who see the world the way we do, those Explorers?

They have no idea how exciting the future is with you in it.

Kahana,

We’ve had so many incredible people support us, give us time their time, be generous with their connections, advise us, encourage us, hold us accountable

We built our amazing team, who we’re so lucky to be working with, can you believe we got to 7 people this year?

Isn’t crazy that our community is almost 500 people around the world?

Angel investors and advisers helping us navigate the next stage of our journey?

Friends and family who have supported us in ways we can’t even begin to thank them for?

It feels like yesterday it was just you and I in my room for like a year, trying to figure out how to make this crazy idea work

Time flies fr.

Kahana,

We’ve grown a lot this year haven’t we?

But there’s still a lot of work to be done, a lot more challenges to navigate

I feel like I could have done more for you this year

We defo need to get you in better shape, you have to stop crashing on me when I’m trying to show you off lol!

Next year, 100x more people will know about you

I know we’ve seen so may companies shut down, founders step back, investors pull funds and talk about how bleak the world is.

It’s easy to be pessimistic

But we’re not going to do that are we?

No point taking paracetamol for someone else’s headache

One of our superpowers is optimism, and in a world (and city) that’s seemingly dark and gloomy, sunshine is even more important.

So Kahana,

As we wind down for the year, take the much needed r&r, spend time with family and friends and try to stop thinking about you for a couple of weeks

I’m writing all this to say I’m grateful for you

One of the reasons I left my comfy cooperate career to build you was to see what I'm capable of on my own

I’ve been doing a lot of work to make sure I have what it takes to take us to where we have the potential to go

And I look forward to taking you to even bigger heights in 2024, we’re going to do more amazing things together

I hope you’re ready.

Happy Holidays everyone!