Nestoria UK Blog

Fellow Nestorianers,

we’ve once again reached that time in which it is natural to look back and reflect on the year that has passed. What went well, what have we accomplished, but also what could be done better in the future and what challenges lie ahead (hint: many). In the coming weeks we’ll be dashing off a few blog posts reflecting publicly on 2008, but last week was a chance for the team to step aside from the day to day pleasure of vertical search engine building and clear our heads for the year ahead.

In what has become a company tradition we headed down to the Basque country for a few days of celebration and contemplation. On the festive side of things, you will no doubt be glad to know that we managed to find several opportunities to sample the local cuisine, the wine, the culture and the nightlife.

Lokku hits the beach

Nevertheless, as always at Nestoria, the emphasis remains on hard work, and like in past years the highlight of the trip was a refreshing dip in the Bay of Biscay to focus on the challenges ahead. Few things channel concentration on the essentials like stepping into a roaring ice cold sea.

COLD!

It’s hard to believe this was already our third annual company Christmas trip to Bilbao. Time flies, and as one of the company founders I was equally pleased by both the rousing speeches of the new team members that joined us over the past year, and by the attendance at our team dinner of a Lokku alumni; one of our past interns was able to join us (as an aside we remain continually on the lookout for engineering interns). Our team has grown a bit this year, but so too has the size of Nestoria, both in the UK and internationally – more on this in our next post.

The future will, like 2008, be very much about doing more with less, be it the scalability of our systems or to continue building and intensifying partnerships with like-minded companies and organisations. On the note, I’d like to explicitly thank all of our valued business partners (especially those that worked with us first, when we started with nothing – rest assured that we have not forgotten your bet on our tiny start up).

In this spirit, we wish all Nestoria blog readers and, most of all, all Nestoria users a happy and festive holiday season wherever these words may find you. Many thanks for your continual feedback and support. With your help we look forward to a fantastic 2009.