The Year’s Appenings at 3Advance!

At the start of every year, we replace our usual What’s Appening newsletter with a letter from our CEOlow inflation. So here we go. We’ll be back with the memes next week. Happy New Year!

A Chara ☘️

It’s finally 2024, and I personally love the restart - drawing a line under the previous year, and moving on to the next one with what feels like a clean slate. This year it means even more. Like almost everyone in the tech space, 2023 was a whirlwind - a constant flurry of excitement mixed with uncertainty, and a dose of reality. The boom times of low inflation and easy credit are over (for now at least). With the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, the SBF/FTX fiasco and Elon Musk’s erratic, eh, everything, what can we really expect? Startups have struggled to raise money as valuations dropped, and many closed down for good. Along with most other agencies like ours, we made some tough decisions this year too. We rode the storm, and we’re moving with intention in this new economy.

The Obstacle is the Way 🧭 🪨

Truthfully, when I founded 3Advance in 2010, I didn’t fully appreciate what I was getting myself in for. When Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s hyper successful CEO, was asked recently if he’d do it all again, he replied curtly, “no one in their right mind would”. It was a refreshing admission. Whether you start a $1TN company like NVIDIA or even a boutique agency like 3Advance, tough times are ahead. It also brings to mind some founder traits that are imperative to any degree of success. The first is optimism (with a hint of ignorance). Others will look at why something shouldn’t be done, and there are many good reasons, but entrepreneurs see something better and share a deep belief they can make it happen. The second trait is resilience. This one is non-negotiable. The wonderful Carla Bricenco (CEO of Bixel) recently reminded me “the obstacle is the way”, and I couldn’t agree more. The economy is uncertain and the impact of AI is unclear, but it reminds me of the birth of 3Advance - the world was still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis, which happened the same year the App Store opened… Sound familiar? Well, there were a lot of game-changing mobile startups that emerged from the ashes in 2008. My bet is we’ll see that again, but this time it will be AI-driven, and there’s no doubt 3Advance will be deep in the midst of this.

Adventures & Predictions 🤖🎢

As for 2023, I’ll look back on this year as remarkable because it forced us to change in ways that will pay off for many years. Someone once told me, “it’s amazing what you can do when you’ve got no choice”. Last year, hard decisions were made because they were needed, and I am proud of what’s become of them. We’ve seen growth in our team like never before. We’re stronger and more flexible than we’ve ever been, and that’s allowed us to push our capabilities far further: Experimenting with AI, then quickly and safely implementing it across the board from our development operations to the applications we create. It’s truly mind-blowing what’s possible. There is a second wave of digital transformation happening. In the same way that almost every enterprise is now a tech company, every company must now also become an AI company. We’re on the verge of another user experience revolution. Where there were forms, there will be conversations. Dynamic personalization, customization, translation and guidance will radically shift how every task will be done, and how workers’ time is spent will change forever. We’ll have no choice but to embrace these changes. Frankly, we’ve got to use it or lose it… Feel free to ask me how.

Entrepreneurs at Heart 🕺💕

I can say without a doubt that our tech has moved forward leaps and bounds, but our greatest advance this past year may be in “process”. Thankfully there are those who are much better at this part of the puzzle than I am, and the pace at which we’re moving right now is staggering. It’s a reminder: Find the right drivers, and appreciate taking the passenger seat. In the past year (two years really), we hired and trained some incredible new talent, but what I’m most proud of is that we’ve provided the environment for these folks to grow. And grow they have. Darren and I have always thought like entrepreneurs even before we realized it was our path. Entrepreneurs are not satisfied with the status quo (yes, that’s one more trait!) and this is exactly how our Product Managers think. The future is bright - for 3Advance, and I will not-so-humbly say, for anyone lucky enough to work with this team.

Highlights from 2️⃣ 0️⃣ 2️⃣ 3️⃣ 🎉

Our favorite moments? Well, DC Startup Week was a wonderful experience, and the highlight was definitely our Generative AI workshop. Getting our team together is always special. This year we met up in Chicago, Austin and more than a few times in DC… But for a dev team like 3A, there’s nothing that brings us together like the release of a new product. It can be tough but nothing is quite so rewarding. Here are the major new projects we launched this year:

Brightn is an AI-powered wellness app for young people. The inspirational Jeff Johnston is tackling America’s mental health crisis head on, believing that prevention is much better than cure. Brightn empowers adolescents, helping GenZ’ers to focus on three pillars of mental wellness - health, wealth and purpose.

Boaturu is an SaaS platform that streamlines boat rentals for marinas, allowing marina owners to accept online and in-person orders, manage inventory and schedules, and ultimately run a more profitable business. Having gone down the low-code route initially, Boaturu’s Team knew they needed a custom platform so called on us to develop the beautiful web experience - for customer ordering and for marina management.

Béné Tipping is a digital tipping platform for large hotel and hospitality groups. With an MVP gaining serious traction, Béné returned to 3Advance for the development of entirely new scalable infrastructure and improved user experience. Our launch highlight of this year involved the seamless transition of the entire system with zero downtime for Béné customers or their tipping guests.

No Weigh is a beautiful behavioral analysis-driven app for self-improvement and weight loss. It includes a personalized program that treats weight loss as one part of a person’s life, interconnected with everything else that person values.

Fun fact: We mentioned all of these as ‘coming soon’ in last year’s newsletter. Missing from the list, of course, are long-term clients that we continue to support, including Curbside Kitchen, NNEDV, AARP Foundation and more. Also of course, we launched our own brand new website last Summer too! 😅

Coming up in 2️⃣ 0️⃣ 2️⃣ 4️⃣ 👀

This year, we’re excited to welcome back a couple of past clients who have reappeared. This means the world to me! Next, our first free product workshop is scheduled for this month. If you’re interested in getting in on this for your startup or with your team at a larger organization, apply here and tell us why.

Finally, there are two things we’re working on right now, and we can’t wait to share more! Both involve Generative AI, both already have incredible content and reach, and both, well, I can’t wait to use for myself.

🐶 Stealth Mode Doggie App: This is one of the most delightful apps we’ve ever worked on and it’s edging closer and closer to launch. The beautifully produced videos look stunning in this cross-platform app we’re building. I simply can’t wait for this one to drop… Until it’s time to unveil, I’ll stick to sharing some of the pets of 3Advance who right now are the stars of the show as we build these apps around their furry faces.

📰 Today’s Front Pages: We’ve been managing Freedom Forum’s flagship mobile app for many years - the hugely popular digital version showing newspaper front pages from around the world. We were recently rehired to re-develop the entire platform - infrastructure and a brand new website due to launch in Q1.

I hope you enjoyed this recap. If you’ve made it this far, I owe you a drink, so feel free to claim that whenever you’re ready. ;) I’m also happy to talk AI or anything else tech related, and provide whatever help I can to get your vision off the ground - advice, connections or of course the. Till then, I hope you continue to enjoy our What’s Appening newsletter, video series and our (experimental!) fully automated AI-generated podcast. We’ll be back to our regular tech news and memes next Tuesday!

Till next time… Sláinte,

Paul, Darren and Team 3Advance.

PS If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can watch Kate and I reveal our highlights of 2023 in our final What’s Appening video of the year.

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