How 2020 Became Our Strongest Year Ever

I won’t be alone in revealing that 2020 has tested our personal and collective mettle at BreezoMeter in a number of ways. However, as the great Albert Einstein said, “in the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity.”

I’d like to share some of the ways our committed Breezo workers managed to come together and turn 2020 into a record-breaking year for the company, in spite of the challenges we experienced along the way.

Responding to Sudden Market Uncertainty

Like many other industries and companies, we had to adapt our strategy early in the year to respond to the reality of COVID-19.

As manufacturing industries and supply chains slowed, we decided to refocus our efforts on the business area where we knew we could make the most difference: Healthcare.

Adjusting to the New Work from Home Reality

Prior to COVID-19, BreezoMeter was very much an in person and face to face type of company culture — which we relied upon heavily for creative planning.

We faced a challenge in translating our usual working culture to one that was more distant and online. In the end, we adjusted well to our new reality by:

• Ensuring we kept important in-person traditions going — like our informal weekly toast of ‘celebrations’.
• Setup a dedicated task-force dedicated to problem-solving the biggest logistical and personal challenges presented by working from home.
• We offered both flexibility & guidelines to staff members for communicating effectively across the channels we have available to us.

COVID-19 Hackathons & Knowledge Sharing

We knew we couldn’t solve the global COVID-19 crisis, but we wanted to help where we could.

• At the start of the year, we held an internal hackathon to explore ways we could directly respond to the global pandemic. Eventually we decided to offer our air pollution data for free to research projects exploring the links between air pollution exposure & COVID-19. Thanks to our partnership with AWS, at least 46 research groups have so far signed up to use our environmental intelligence.
• Together with our indoor air partners Delos, we organized and held a webinar dedicated to healthy indoor living in the time of COVID-19. This was our most popular webinar to date & generated a considerable amount of interest from businesses and individuals alike.
• We won sought after funding & endorsement from the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation program. As part of this project, we’ve teamed up with leading institutes around the world to advance the future of air quality reporting.

Prioritizing Our Customers

In times of crisis, it’s important to take stock and do everything you can to protect the important relationships you already have.

This year we’ve done our best to listen closely to our customers’ needs and offer help wherever possible — by offering flexibility, collaborating on joint-marketing, exchanging ideas for product and strategic innovation, conducting scientific research & more.

Building Stronger Products

The events of 2020 meant we had to be 150% sure our products would be suitable for a wide range of healthcare scenarios.

As a result, we prioritized a number of product updates this year, including:

Communicating the Importance of Accuracy

Given the continuing links found between COVID-19 and poor air quality exposure, we made market education a priority this year. We needed to ensure businesses and individuals were aware of the differences between air quality providers when it comes to real-time health-based decision-making:

Highlighting What Partners are Doing with Air Quality Data

By integrating BreezoMeter’s intelligence, it’s our corporate partners who really make the difference when it comes to impacting the lives of millions of people.

In 2020, we made it a priority to communicate the innovative ways our partners are putting air quality & pollen data to use:

• We showcased the collaboration between BreezoMeter & Bosch Sensortec at the Startup Autobahn Expo 8.
• Held interviews with DailyBreath & my mhealth to explore the value of using air quality intelligence for patient engagement.
• Announced cooperation with Siemens Smart Infrastructure & shared their plans for improving indoor air quality.
• How Propeller Health’s connected inhaler solution improves COPD & asthma management: 58% increase in treatment adherence & 79% fewer asthma attacks.

The Outcome: A Record-Breaking Year for Growth

Hard work, strong company culture & the right strategy pay off! I’m happy to share that despite the challenges of 2020, BreezoMeter experienced its best-ever year for growth!

Our success has been down to the combined hard-working efforts of all of our team and I couldn’t be prouder of the fact that we’ve come out of 2020 stronger than we started!

Originally published at https://blog.breezometer.com on December 24, 2020.