It's a fact, 2020 is a year all of us will remember eternally, probably as the absurdest one. Beyond all the crazy and sad things happening around the world, affecting each and all of us, we're fortunate to say we still made it through the year and are finishing it as proud and happy as we never thought.

The Pandemic brought uncertainty and changed all of our plans, but with all this craziness still came new opportunities, challenges, and hope.

When it all Started

The first days of March COVID-19 seemed like a mysterious thing happening in China and Italy. Not many days later, it was all over the place, and we decided to confront our first challenge: remote work. On March 15, we all went home after the office without knowing when we would come back.

Remote Work

In the first place, I would like to highlight the AMAZING work everyone on the team has done. Even though working from home isn't easy at all, everyone was able to stay focused, productive, and friendly with co-workers. All I want to say is thank you, to each one of you, teammates, for giving your best during the whole year.

And also... Thanks to online Pictionary, show and tell, and "week's fun facts" for keeping alive the cheerful vibe the team has!

Helping is Fulfilling

In March, the circumstances were pretty obscure, and we knew we wanted to contribute our grain of sand. We spotted thousands of problems, but as entrepreneurs, we felt particularly empathetic to other entrepreneurs who had their businesses shut down, had low or even null sales, and still had to confront huge costs with no back-up.

After mulling over this, we came up with a good idea: as businesses can't produce or sell, but still need money to cover their fixed costs... what about a marketplace where people can buy with discounts products and services to consume later?

We thought about it, validated the idea, and after four days of intense designing and coding, it was ready. In two weeks, we had +50 offers on the webpage. The initiative was published in some of the most relevant newspapers in the country, and lots of people and influencers shared it on their social media. Most importantly, we helped businesses cover their costs and maintain liquidity in this challenging moment, and it's very satisfying to know we lent our hand to entrepreneurs like us. As a plus, consumers didn't only collaborate, they also saved money because of the discounts.

Onboarding new Teammates From Home!

Despite the situation, we're happy to say our team grew, and five collaborators joined Light-it in 2020. Nico, Uri, Walter, Maxi and Santi... We're so thrilled about having you on our team!

VR/AR: An Exciting Challenge

For a while, we've been interested in and training our skills in VR/AR. Perhaps the Pandemic was the push we needed to start formally working on it! When staying at home, virtual and augmented reality turned out to be more valuable than ever. We had two exciting AR/VR projects we hope we can talk to you about very soon!

Design Sprints

Design Sprints were also something we've been keeping a close eye on for a while, but it wasn't until this year that we started working with it. This methodology adds lots of value to our clients by discovering how they should address their problems and innovate. We ran three exciting 5-day Desing Sprints this year and are looking forward to continuing to carry workshops out next year.

Missed Opportunities Proposed New Opportunities

It's true that some of our plans for this year couldn't be fulfilled, such as attending conferences, meetups, events, and business meetings abroad. Still, the Pandemic brought thousands of opportunities, too!

We attended some very cool virtual conferences like Collision or Laracon and virtually went to networking events and met people we would never have met. We gave virtual talks at events and still could host design sprints and design thinking workshops... everything thanks to tech!

Thankful for Technology

This year reassured us how vital and democratizing technology can be. It was what allowed us to stay connected with our loved ones, enabled people to work, and kept the economy flowing and users informed; it permitted people to learn, do sports, and have fun.

It's very gratifying to realize that our work is collaborating to make this possible and that we're unmistakably on the right path with tech. Knowing this motivates us to keep on innovating and creating amazing products that literally make people's lives better.

2021, bring it on; we're ready for your challenges!