A year ago yesterday, Kane and I sat in our home office with a cake, some party poppers and balloons. Although we were ecstatic to have finished our first year in business, there was a sense of anticlimax as we finished our slice of cake and got back to working our 15 hour day. It wouldn’t be long before we would grow to a point where we could no longer fulfill every duty that Giraffe required, and so the next year became the year of building our team…
A year on, we are now a large part of a creative office space in the heart of entrepreneurial Southsea, and have a team of fantastic people who share our passion and enthusiasm for Giraffe. Where we find ourselves is a product of endless hard work, tireless ambition and non-stop determination. The team we have built over the past 12 months share these traits and have each put their own stamp on the Giraffe DNA.
We thought it’d be nice to share some stand-out points of the past 12 months, so if you’re interested – get your scroll on. Not interested? Thanks for reading up to this point, enjoy your day. So, here we go…
July 2013
We employed our first staff members; Becky Storey and Katie Holloway began work as part-time Social Media Managers. Katie and Becky both played a pivotal role in developing our Social Media Managers systems and protocols.
September 2013
September was a big month for Giraffe, as we were invited out to China to discuss a partnership with multi-million pound company Global Primo. Kane and I flew out to give presentations to Global Primo’s teams and to a collection of high level business executives, including members of the Alibaba team. It was a fantastic week, where we cemented a partnership, made some great new friends and shared our passion for Social Media.
October 2013
October was arguably our most eventful month of the past year. In the same month, we moved into our new office space in Southsea and employed our first full-time member of staff, Matthew Barker. It was two huge steps that were quite daunting at the time, but they have paid off massively. Our office is full of brilliant characters and the diversity of talent and knowledge forms the perfect creative environment for Giraffe to exist within. Matthew is a great asset to the team both in ability and in personality. His background is in journalism which is why he heads up our content marketing.
February 2014
In February 2014, Ben Hanvey joined the team. We already had a working relationship with Ben from his previous employment, so we knew his immense ability. We heard that he was looking for a new challenge upon leaving his previous employment – so we organised a meeting. Ben joined the team the next week. The effect Ben has had on our company and team is hard to explain. He is constant improvement personified, providing a steady stream of ideas to fine tune our systems and create new business.
April 2014
Due to rapid growth in the first few months of 2014, we needed to find another full-time Social Media Manager. We looked within at the brilliant work that Naomi Couper was doing, and decided to offer her a full-time position. Naomi has proven our trust was deserved, as she has gone on to perform at the highest of levels. She always has great relationships with her clients and continues to impress every month.
June 2014
As you know, June is the month of our birthday. We are celebrating a brilliant year and we are mightily excited and enthusiastic about what the next year is going to bring.
– Phil Treagus, managing director
