Looking back at 2019

2019 was another year of incredible growth at Studio Science. While we’ve seen many periods of change throughout our 20-year history, 2019 will be remembered as a major milestone of transformation—and a banner year for our entire team.

As we move into the new year, here are some of my thoughts on our business, our team, and the work we delivered to our clients in 2019.

In March, Studio Science underwent a management buy-out and welcomed a new ownership team—myself included. With this change, we set out to define what we wanted Studio Science to be and become in the years ahead. 

“What is going to ‘move the needle’ for our company?” we asked ourselves. More importantly, “what is going to be the most valuable in helping to ‘move the needle’ for our clients?”

It was vital to me that we preserve the 20-year legacy that had been established by our founder Kristian Andersen. Kristian’s contribution to the business has been foundational, and his spirit of positive problem-solving is still ever-present in the many continuing relationships that undergird the past and future success of Studio Science.

On a personal level, I will be forever grateful for the opportunity Kristian provided me when I arrived in Indianapolis as a fresh transplant from Australia.

Throughout the year, we continued to create work I’m proud of, delivering transformative brands, products, and services to organizations with the desire and appetite for fast growth and true digital transformation. Our client list grew considerably in 2019 as we added a formidable roster of enterprise clients and high-growth tech companies. We also extended partnerships with long-standing existing clients.

By my count, we worked in 15 cities throughout the United States in 2019, as well as Puerto Rico. I’m thrilled to see our business continue to extend beyond Indianapolis into cities like Austin, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Scottsdale, and Washington DC.

A decade ago, Studio Science lead the brand strategy and design for email marketing provider, ExactTarget. Continuing on as an official design partner, we worked alongside them from $10M in ARR, through IPO, and into their eventual $2.5B acquisition in 2013, where they became an anchor of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

I’m proud to say that our relationship with Salesforce continues to grow and today, Studio Science serves Salesforce across several distinct clouds and business units throughtout the United States.

We delivered brand and digital work for a number of enterprise companies, including Genesys, Shentel, Intersystems, ZIX, Angie’s List, and Stericycle. While contractual limitations keep me from sharing the name of every enterprise client we served, it’s a growing list. 

For our existing high-growth technology clients like SalesLoft and Cherwell, we continued to deliver thoughtful and deliberate work that continues to add value.

Studio Science also continued to serve many of the heroes of B2B SaaS, including 6sense, Integrate, Unqork, and Armory, while also supporting the many Venture Capital and Private Equity groups that invest heavily in their success.

Our work remains world-class, a fact confirmed by our clients’ willingness to refer business to Studio Science from across the country. For 2019, the majority of our bookings came from existing customers and customer referrals.

If it sounds like I’m bragging, I am. I’m deeply appreciative of the work we are able to do and the clients we are able to do it for. And I’m proud to be a member of this team.

The Studio Science team has grown in accordance with our client list. In 2019, we welcomed nine new faces across each of our practice areas: Research and Strategy, Brand, and Digital Product. We also established a new practice area—I’ll be sharing more about that in the months ahead. I’m continually impressed by our dynamic employees and their ability to solve big problems and deliver great solutions to our clients.

As we move into 2020, I’m personally (and somewhat selfishly) excited about our growing investment in sales and marketing. Our business continues to grow and evolve, and our marketing efforts will evolve as well. In fact, the sales and marketing team will double in size in 2020, through internal promotions and the addition of new faces. 

Thank you to all who made 2019 such a memorable year for Studio Science and for me personally. And thank you for allowing me a moment to brag—I’m confident 2020 will be even better!