2022 Retrospective

You took us through a period of substantial growth both from a work perspective and a literal one. You ushered in a new era of home-away-from-home with our brand, spanking new office. More importantly, you taught us that we can successfully grow into a new version of ourselves with the most talented employees we have ever had working in-office, remote, and in hybrid setups.

Here are some highlights from our best year yet.

We’ve grown. And on no small scale. But don’t just take our word for it. We made #11 on San Diego Business Journal’s List of Fastest Growing Companies and were ranked #2446 on Inc. 5000's National List. We also grew our team significantly this year (we’re currently standing at 24 full-time employees) and added a whole new level of director and leadership level roles including Director of Production, Executive Creative Director, UX Director and Design Director. Even more rewarding, is how many of our employees got promoted from within. We had producers scale up to senior producers, Art Directors to associate creative directors, associate creative directors to creative directors and much more. This kind of personal growth is the most important kind to us, and is testament to the caliber of team we have and how much the time we spend together is growing us all.

We truly believe that our success comes from personalizing and optimizing the strength of each team member. Sometimes that might mean changing their position – or, successfully having our leadership work remotely. Seeing various types of Growth is one of our values, and we’re committed to staying flexible so growth can happen in every way.

“One of the most positive aspects of 2022 for me was the growth we saw with individuals on our team. The Metajive crew is talented, committed and continuously learning, and it’s amazing to see that play out in many of them growing into new, more senior roles.”

- April Benton, COO/ Managing Partner

Everyone knows unicorns are awesome, but we have been lucky enough to learn how awesome they are to collaborate with too. Although we can only take credit for helping out in a small area of their success, we’re always thrilled to witness their meteoric rise. This year, we saw our friends at NOMI HEALTH raise a whopping $110 million in Series A funding, Gingko Bioworks (leading platform for cell programming and biosecurity) announce the sale of shares of its Class A common stock for gross proceeds of approximately $100 million to BTIG, LLC, T-Mobile smash its financial records, and Iyuno-SDI Group secure a $160 million investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

“Our partners’ success is our success. Each partner has different needs, from startups that need to be able to scale overnight to long-term players looking to evolve in new directions. Our team has proven it can be there through it all.” – Paige Faller, Director of Production

New year. New office. New era of collaboration. We spent six months building out the office we always wanted – taking the building back to its studs – and created a home away from home for local Metajivers. Sure, we had a few supply chain issues (who needs conference room furniture anyway?), but from phone booth meeting spaces to custom made furniture and stadium seating, now we’ve got it all.

Another big shift for us was settling into a new era of collaboration with hybrid at-home/in-office days, as well as remote team members. While we don’t claim to have perfected this dance – (we openly admit that this is still a challenge to figure out how to fully build and integrate our culture throughout the whole team) – we have definitely worked through a lot of kinks. Most important to us is that no matter where someone is located, they know they are a valuable member of the Metajive team.

“Watching the new office get built out was amazing. The thought that went into every detail really impacted us all, making it feel like a true home away from home on the days we are here.”

– Allison Beaudry, Producer

If you follow along, you’ll know security is a big deal for us at Metajive. We work with major financial institutions and some of the largest corporations in the world, so we leave no stone unturned. 2022 saw us step up to the next level as we work to receive our SOC 2 certification. SOC 2 is a trust service framework that values security, availability, integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

We stepped up our IT game a lot this year. From implementing and automating zero-touch deployments which downloads all our security measures the first time a new employee logs into their computer to enterprise single-sign on integrations. Not only is this important for security, but it makes onboarding easier, which is a reflection of our approach to technology.

“Working towards our SOC 2 certification is a big deal. It’s reassuring to know the biggest companies in the world will be able to trust us with their most sensitive information. Our security measures trickle down to every employee, starting from the moment they first log in with their company email.”

– Dave Benton, Founder

To say we’re proud of the work our team has created this year would be an understatement. But as much as we’re thrilled with the quality of work, the way we work has been evolving as well. This year saw an ever deeper integration with our partners. We had fully embedded teams at Bank of America, mixed teams with T-Mobile and HP, and new collaborations with amazing partners. We know passing the ball can help win more games than always looking to dunk. As evolving work models evolve, we continue to play a role on bigger, more complex – and more important – projects. This approach has led to some of the best work we have ever done and we’re confident we are about to see some bigger impacts for our partners.

2022 was also the year we unveiled our new development company – Pixel Perfect (PXLP) – so we could have the development relationship we always wanted. We’ve not looked back.

“This year was very dynamic for Metajive as we founded and enhanced our partnership with some really amazing clients. Our strategy, UX, design, development and content teams and opportunities grew significantly in both scale capabilities and, most importantly, quality. As a result we were able to deliver work that had a significant impact on the businesses of our partners. The nature of the work spanned a healthy spectrum between highly strategic and highly creative executions which was rewarding for our team and our clients.”

– Todd Purgason, ECD

As we wrap this year up, the wind is still on our back. We have amazing opportunities in the pipeline, we are welcoming new client partners, and continue to grow in all areas. We can only hope to be as lucky in 2023 as we were this year. We can’t wait to make even better experiences for our team, our partners and everyone who interacts with our projects.