2020 has finally come to an end, and what a year it was!

Despite all the challenges we went through and continue dealing with on a personal and global scale, I am feeling more gratitude than ever for my aytm family being there for each other and thriving as a team.

We experienced tremendous growth, both in terms of significantly increasing profitability and expanding the team to 115! We’ve strengthened our relationships with clients, supporting them in this unprecedented time. 

We’ve taken on one of the toughest industry problems of automatic data quality assurance, further developed our platform, and invented new functionality along the way. 

We’ve matured as a company, developed new skills, formed new tribes, figured out how to be more efficient as a growing group while celebrating the humanistic nature of our creativity and collaboration.

We haven’t done everything we wanted, had to temper some of our goals and aspirations for the sake of stability and mental health, but we have accomplished a lot! We seem to have been uniquely equipped to weather the storm and stay on our course.

As I reflect on these fantastic milestones, I can’t help to think about so many less fortunate people and those who struggled to stay afloat. It feels wrong not to share some of our good fortune with the world around us. 

On Jan 1st, the new year began, but the world did not cease to be in a pandemic; families have not stopped being hungry, and those unemployed have not immediately found work. The reality of this is something aytm Co-founder David Handel, COO Shanon Adams, and I feel compelled to face together as a team.

As a start, on December 22nd, we donated $50,000 to Feeding America in the name of our aytm family. For those who may not be familiar, Feeding America is a 40-year old non-profit organization with a US network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other community-based agencies. 

aytm’s donation helped put food on tables that desperately needed it during the holiday season and beyond. In fact, thanks to the economy of scale and agreements they have, our donation provided 500,000 meals! 

We are not stopping there… 

In 2021 we have earmarked funds for charitable giving quarterly. 

We will be engaging with each of our employees to help coordinate efforts and select organizations that need us most. 

All of this is made possible by our hardworking and dedicated team, as well as our loyal and loving clients, as we maintain the profitability that enables us to continue to do good and share with others.  

I can't wait to see what we will accomplish in the new year – for the world to come to its new normal, for safe travel to resume and for us to see each other face to face.