Onwards & upwards: why 2018 will be a hallmark year for Teamleader

Around this time of the year, I usually take time to look back at all things past, and tell you what’s coming for Teamleader. This time I won’t dwell on that for too long, though. If you’d like to get up to speed on all our challenges and successes in 2017, be sure to read my article about our November Fast50 victory. And if you’re craving for some behind-the-scenes insights on Teamleader’s product vision for the future, check out this blog article.

Today, I’d like to share some things we discussed in our yearly Fold-up meeting - which is when we kick off the year with the entire company in Ghent. Always a highlight of the Teamleader year for me, and this time was no exception.

A story both long and short

So much has happened in the six years since Mathias, Willem and I founded this company, that it almost feels like a century. And yet there’s more to come. Today, we’re about 180 people strong, catering to over 8000 European customers. Incredible.

So when all of us gathered in Ghent last month, there was plenty of looking back and forth to be done. We’ve enjoyed some unforgettable moments together: launching our Marketplace as a first step towards building a real Teamleader community, expanding to other European countries, raising $15 million in funding through three investment rounds. Not to mention winning Deloitte’s Fast50 Award in November, and subsequently being crowned the 53rd fastest-growing tech company in all of Europe.

If all that sounds boastful, do remember that those milestones were hard earned. Everyone who was there during my presentation knows this. Some of them were around from the very beginning, like Benny, Lieven, Ellen and Mathias. They now have the super official “5 Years at Teamleader Award” to show for it. Yes, we had an award show. It was a blast.

And while it’s pretty easy for me to take pride in Teamleader, it would be naive to assume everyone feels the same. Yet the buzz in the room the entire Friday seemed to confirm that Teamleader is a story written together, where everyone’s invested, so everyone’s excited. And each of us understands: Teamleader is not a chore, but it is hard work.

Shifting gears (with the product) in 2018

I’ll be honest about this too: in 2016, some customers told us our product seemed to have come to a standstill. We vowed to change that. So product-wise a lot has changed last year, albeit mostly under the bonnet.

A large part of the code on which Teamleader was built has been rewritten and we launched a brand new API, which will help us build and launch new features much faster in 2018. And since you need manpower for all that, we expanded our product and development team from 13 to 36 people. Product-wise, 2017 was the year we laid the foundation for many years to come.

At the NY Fold-up, our product and development team gave us a sneak preview of their roadmap for 2018. And everything they’re working on is well worth the wait. First of all, we will gradually launch the new design of the application, aiming for a better user experience, convenience and intuitivity altogether.

We’re also in the process of launching an all-new navigation menu, which will greatly improve the usability to you, as a user. What else we’re working on? A new calendar, a mobile app - and that’s still not the end of our list for 2018. Stay tuned.

Open and transparent dialogue with customers

For the afternoon program, we invited six customers from six countries: Josep María Gris, Joost Vervoorn, Gert Asselman, Andreas Koeninger, Alex Roggero and Tara & Jean-Luc Bernard. We held an on-stage debate with all Teamleaders present.

Well, we mostly listened - to the people behind the businesses. To learn how they use our application. What pain our product solves. And what they’d like to see improved.

We discussed the good, the bad and the ugly, and learned a thing or two. We received positive feedback about our integration with Exact Online. Heard your comments that our Marketplace could be even more local. Learned that our simplicity and ease-of-use truly separate us from our competitors, and got the suggestion to transform our product usage data into workable insights for a next generation of users.

It truly was a sight to behold: customer support meeting people whose issues they’ve helped solve, developers humorously jabbing back and forth with power users (and sharing drinks afterwards): seeing the people who make Teamleader engage with the people who use Teamleader was educational, and great fun. I like to think that’s a great combo.

The key message here is that we won’t stop listening to you as a customer. As a business, we aim to create an honest, open dialogue about where we’re heading. We have one goal in mind: offering the best possible software European SMEs could wish for. The valuable feedback of the growing Teamleader community will become ever more important in 2018 to reach that goal. The customers on stage believe that too: the morning after the debate, one of them had already made a non-official Teamleader user group on LinkedIn. Along with a picture of him wearing our brand new Teamleader socks (socks I said, not stocks). Kudos to you, JM Gris!

Always on the lookout for new talent

In 2018 and beyond, our mission remains unchanged: becoming the absolute European market leader to SMEs, and delivering exceptional customer experience. Next Stop: our Work Smarter event series around Europe, with the first one in Belgium on May 15th.

We’ll continue to build an open and transparent organisation, driving that culture of commitment, learning and intrapreneurship. We’re always on the lookout for fresh recruits - both young and more seasoned professionals - to help us in our quest for European market domination.

So: if you’re up for the challenge of a lifetime - one you’ll be telling your grandchildren about - while joining a vibrant and absolutely fun team in the process, be sure to have a look at our vacancy page.

Thank you!

PS After dinner, 11 Teamleaders got on stage to perform a banging international set of party medleys, in front of a wild crowd of Teamleader groupies. Work hard, rock hard!

PPS For your next office party, have a silent disco. It’s hilarious.