Lyubomyr Reverchuk founded Echo in May 2013 and the first 3 employees were hired. With the goal of providing web development services for local Ukrainian clients, the company embarked upon a journey to find its niche.
In December 2014, we decided to focus our efforts on the international market, building relationships with clients from the US, the UK and Europe. This was a shift from our previous focus on Ukrainian businesses.
This year, we built the largest (at that time!) team of 7 people to develop a complicated payment solution for a UK-based company. Additionally, our first mobile app was created and deployed.
We established dedicated teams of software developers for multiple digital agencies and startups from the US, UK, Canada, and Sweden. Over 80% of our projects became ongoing.
At the beginning of the year, 30 people milestone reached. One of our most loyal partners with us for more than 3 years, set of new technologies was added to our expertise and 90% overall employee retention rate achieved.
The number of our long-term clients has grown, reaching 12 and continuing to increase. Consequently, mutual business trips have become more and more often. In the middle of the year, we even crossed the 50 people mark.
This year was particularly challenging. In the first quarter, the company underwent a significant reorganisation. In the fourth quarter, the largest client, which accounted for 40% of our revenue, departed.
COVID dominated in Q1-Q2. Thirty percent of our clients stopped their collaboration with us and cut their teams at Echo. However, in Q3, new opportunities arose and we ended the year quite successfully.
It was a year of stagnation and fierce labor market competition. As a result, we lost many business opportunities. But on the other hand, it gave us a strong push for rebuilding our core HR function to deliver excellent results now.
