Five years of Nestoria!
Fellow Nestorites!
Last week we celebrated a massive milestone here at Nestoria HQ - our little property search engine turned 5 years old! Given that most start-ups don't live to see their first birthday, let alone their fifth, you'll understand that we're a bit chuffed at having made it this far. We've come a long way from our humble one room office in Soho in the sweltering summer of 2006.
Thank you to all the Nestoria users who are always sending us feedback and to our partners - especially those of you who bet on us really; we never forget!.
A lot has changed in the last five years. When we first launched we had only a few thousand listings in London. Today we serve up many millions of listings across eight countries in four different continents to millions of users every month.
It hasn't been just us who have changed, but also the internet in general. Trends like twitter (if you don't yet follow us, please do) and facebook (if you don't yet like us, please do) were just getting started. Tools like Google Analytics were revolutionary rather than standard operating procedure. The pace of technical innovation has been relentless. Many thanks to all the developers who create the free software Nestoria relies on every day. I'm pleased that we're now in a financial position such that we can give a bit back by regularly sponsoring events. As one example of many in two weeks several team members will be speaking at State of the Map Europe in Vienna. Regularly readers will know that we also now run the #geomob London events to encourage innovation in geo and mobile services in London. I hope to see you at the next event on 15 September.
One common response to celebrating anniversaries is to ponder what the future holds. Besides continued geographic expansion we're hard at work on all sorts of things here in Clerkenwell (and at our new office in Madrid). Expect a few updates in the coming weeks and months. But rest assured all new projects will continue to have one goal in mind: making it as fast and simple as possible to find your next home.
The team and alumni celebrating in front of the the John Snow near our original office
And so in closing, let me especially thank all the team members who made it all happen the last five years. As a founder one of the things that gives me the most pride is watching team members grow. Growth is hard. It requires pushing yourself outside of your areas of comfort. It requires making mistakes and then learning from those mistakes. It has been an honor to watch not just a few, but many, team members go down this path. We've worked hard and we've learned a lot.
Some of this year's crop of summer interns!
Many thanks everyone, it's been a great five years - I look forward to the next five! BTW don't worry if you missed out on the fun of our first five years - we're hiring.
Come join us.
