Reflecting on the Early Days of Data Gumbo

As we near the end of 2020, Data Gumbo is wrapping a record year. While experiencing rapid change and growth, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the great distance that we’ve already come.

Four key participants that have all been with the company from its start include Julia Rozenberg, Creative Services and UI Lead; Maxine Aitkenhead, Business Development Director; Meredith Bruce, VP Human Resources; and Renat Abdrakhmanov, Brand Strategist and XD Lead.

Here we dig in to what the early days of the company were like, asking a question of each to look closer at Data Gumbo’s evolution and discuss why the future's so bright. From our team to yours, we wish you a happy holiday season.

Tell us a bit about what Data Gumbo was like when you four started out together.

Maxine: Like some of the most successful tech companies today, Data Gumbo began its journey as a group of enthusiasts. The early days were actually quite similar to the work environment of today; we all worked remotely, and spent a lot of time on the phone, Slack and in video meetings. Additionally, we had weekly in-person lunches and brainstorming sessions. These occasions allowed us to connect and share our enthusiasm through the various emotional stages working at a brand-new startup affords.

Data Gumbo originated as a data aggregation platform, pulling in vendor data to create useful information streams. The company then evolved from a data ecosystem to a commercial blockchain network powers interconnected smart contracts between industrial counterparties. The name is still a great conversation piece.

What has been the most surprising part of the journey?

Julia: The diversity and vast educational expertise of our growing team is a trait that has been visible since our inception. For a small company with now over 50+ employees, our ability to seamlessly integrate new talent spread across a remote, distributed environment has greatly contributed to our sustained progress and drive to succeed.

It’s been an absolute inordinate hiring year for the company. Tell us about what’s ahead.

Meredith: We’ve added over 20+ roles this year including a Chief Commercial Officer, Head of Channels and Alliances, VP of Communications and a VP of Services in Europe and are currently in the process of opening a London office with plans to add follow-on offices in Latin America and the Middle East next year. It’s been a tremendous year of growth and we are looking forward to spinning up and scaling our international operations.

What are you most looking forward to as Data Gumbo grows? Where do you see the company in next year?

Renat: As Data Gumbo evolves, we are empowering companies to do business through automated smart contracts. As our next step, we want to deliver UI that makes the technology widely available to encourage widespread adoption. Radically transforming commercial transactions for industry has been our vision from day one and we look forward to achieving the network effect, adding companies and customers to our network to achieve critical mass while delivering real business value.