How we made 2014 so fly

How we made 2014 so fly

Dusty Davidson's Layout avatar

With 2014 coming to a close, we thought it might be fun to take a look back at the progress we’ve made these past 365 days. It’s pretty incredible to think about just how far we’ve come in a rather short amount of time.

From team growth (we went from four team members to 18!) to product launches to working with some amazing new customers, 2014 was by all accounts a pretty amazing year. Here’s a glimpse into a few of the things that stand out as particularly memorable:

1. We launched new features.

We were busy this year. Our team grew (a lot), and we were able to focus on building new features into our product, such as:

  • Bulk pricing: We released what was easily our most requested feature. Now you can buy lots and lots of sites on Flywheel at a discount.
  • Chat support: Stop by the website anytime and ask questions about anything and everything Flywheel-related to get a quick answer. Or, you know, just say “hi” to Dan or T-Rave.
  • PayPal integration: You don’t have to use a credit card to purchase a site from Flywheel anymore! You still can, but now you’ve got more options.
  • Staging sites (beta): Now you can develop and make changes on a copy of your site without affecting production on your live site.
  • A new migration form: We’re continuing to enhance and simplify one of the best features of Flywheel: our free migrations.
  • A brand new website: We launched a shinier, deeper website so you can easily find all of these new goodies in this list.

2. We raised a seed round.

Earlier this summer we closed on our seed round of funding, which we announced this fall. It’s fueled a lot of this year’s growth and has enabled us to do some pretty fun things!

3. We hired.

This year we brought on 11 new employees, along with three interns. It’s been a whirlwind of an experience, but we’re pretty excited to have so many people around to hang with.

4. We got new digs.

After sharing a space while we got our feet under us, Flywheel now has its own headquarters. We’ve moved into a historic downtown Omaha building (that just so happens to be above an awesome bar and restaurant). We’re taking our time customizing our new place to make it feel very “us.” Look for the open house sometime in the not-so-distant future!

5. We WordCamped.

Over the course of the year, we flew or drove to nine WordCamps (and one Prestige). We loved the opportunity to sponsor a lot of them, and we were stoked to get to know the people who make the WordPress community such a welcoming place. We can’t wait to get on the road again in 2015 and see old faces and make new friends!

6. We launched The Layout.

This year we launched The Layout, Flywheel’s very own online design publication. This has been in the works for a long time, and we were all pretty excited to get it out into the world. Check it out for tips on design, WordPress, running a freelance business, and more.

7. We jammed.

There was no shortage of tuneage in the Flywheel office. We constantly have music playing to keep things upbeat and fun. We’ve made some awesome playlists (the “Utterly amazing late nineties and early aughts megamix,” anyone?) and tried our best to create the perfect office playlist (jury’s still out on that one). You can see what we’re usually listening to on Rdio, but for now, here are our top five tunes for 2014:

  1. Marathon Runner by Yellow Ostrich
  2. Amor Fati by Washed Out
  3. Obvious Bicycle by Vampire Weekend
  4. Awake by Tycho
  5. Steve McQueen by M83

8. We had a lot of fun.

From baseball game outings to ice bucket challenges to holiday parties, we had an awful lot of fun together. We all feel pretty lucky to be a part of such an amazing team, and it’s been a fun year hanging out and getting to know each other more.

And last but certainly never ever least, thanks to our team, our customers, our investors, our friends, and our families for making 2014 such an amazing year for Flywheel. We can’t wait to see what 2015 brings! Rock on.