As we embark on not only a new year but also a new decade, we must reflect on a tremendous 2019 and some exciting announcements for 2020.
The Facts (pretty impressive stuff…)
We realized growth in some pretty important areas of our business in 2019. The very nucleus of Kahuna is the people who carry out the day-to-day operations and the customers we serve. With an expansion in those areas came growth in revenue and continued customer satisfaction.
Series A Funding
Partnering with Houston Ventures was the foundation for our tremendous success in 2019. Houston Ventures deeply understands our mission and has been a very supportive partner.
European Expansion with 5 Major Customer Wins/Go-Lives
Geographic growth is very exciting as it validates the scalability of the Kahuna platform and demonstrates our ability to support major global initiatives. It also provides unique and interesting opportunities for our employees to experience new cultures. I had a particularly rewarding trip to Europe in late summer where I was able to spend time with customers such as Equinor, AkerBP, and Shell. In a 10-day period, I took 6 planes, several trains, a few automobiles, and even a boat! Certainly, one of the most rewarding parts of my job is to visit the people who use our platform and see it in action in these operational environments.
Healthcare
Recognizing the product-market fit for Kahuna in healthcare was very exciting, and the reception at ANPD and ANCC (two of the largest national nursing conferences) validated this in spades. However, the most significant development is our partnership with Intermountain Healthcare as both a customer and a go-to-market partner providing a world-class nursing competency framework. We are looking to revolutionize the nurse orientation and staffing processes through the application of leading-edge technology. With the reception we have had so far, this is well within our reach!
Platform
We added a lot of capability into the platform in 2019, but the area I would like to highlight is integration. Integration is obviously a big part of our story as our customers look more and more to the data that already exists in their operational environments to inform competency/proficiency. Further, customers are looking to do more with the competency data that exists in Kahuna such as scheduling employees or informing promotion decisions. Therefore, inputs and outputs become increasingly important. Our API library grew immensely in 2019 with many customers opting for Web Service integration over standard flat files and a very significant bi-directional integration with Workday.
Company Achievements
None of this is possible without our outstanding people and 2019 saw tremendous growth for Kahuna. Beyond more than doubling our headcount, some of the highlights for me were the following:
- Achieving our SOC2 Type 2 Certification – While only a crazy person would celebrate an audit, this was actually quite rewarding. Our team put in a lot of work to prepare for our first SOC2 testing period and I was really impressed with the maturity of our processes and the ease in which the team responded to testing requests. Ultimately, this exercise served as further validation of the quality in which Kahuna conducts its business both internally and externally.
- San Diego Offsite – By far the highlight of my year was our company offsite in San Diego. Relationships are the key to our success and San Diego was a chance to strengthen existing ones and form new ones. We took the opportunity to explore the dynamic nature of our company culture and document what is important to us in our core values.
- We are moving! – Having outgrown our Rice Village office location in Houston, TX, we are moving to a new office in January 2020. We look forward to hosting our customers and prospects in our new, modern space in the Upper Kirby area of Houston, TX where we have acquired space that will accommodate our growth for several years. The Houston market is very important to us and we look forward to being an integral part of the Houston community for years to come.
The Kahuna team is looking forward to an exciting 2020. Thank you to everyone that made 2019 a huge success!
