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On the first Monday of 2016, we started our year with a Team Townhall to reflect on the previous year and plan for what is coming next. Looking back, 2015 was an amazing year for us at SocialCops. Here’s why.

1. We built a powerful platform

2015We built an entire data platform to support your decision making in just one year! Our engineers worked pretty hard in 2015.

Decision making is complex. Analytics and visualizations mean nothing if the data powering them is rubbish. We are now one of the only platforms that support you through your entire decision-making process collecting primary data, accessing and searching through a massive repository of secondary data, integrating all your existing data, cleaning and analyzing all of the data you aggregated, and finally visualizing the data through custom dashboards.

2. We saw real scale

2015In 2015, our platform saw some mindblowing scale!

3. We worked with partners who inspire us

20152015 gave us the opportunity to work with some incredibly inspiring partners and teams on problems that we’re proud to have played a role in addressing.

4. We tackled complex problems

11898806_1120937391268830_5947420649570829048_nData-Driven Governance

We partnered with the Tata Trusts, Member of Parliament Mr. Srinivas Kesineni, and the district administration to bring data-driven governance to an entire constituency — 264 villages and one million people.

Maternal Mortality

India has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. The Indian Health Action Trust used our platform to track deliveries in Primary Health Care Centers in UP to understand the root cause for maternal deaths.

Disaster Relief

We worked with Goonj, Bhumi, and Twitter to deploy our data platform during the Nepal Earthquake and Chennai Floods. Our platform helped to facilitate better relief management and logistics.

5. We went mainstream

2015We partnered with AIB’s new comedy show, On Air with AIB, to take data to the masses!

6. We also went international

2015We partnered with Next Billion to enable social enterprises with data in Indonesia and Bangladesh. We also partnered with the world’s largest chemical company BASF for work in Zambia.

7. We are building an awesome team

2015We’ve been expanding! Our team now includes 28 people from different cultures and backgrounds. But we’re driven by the same mission, which we pursue from our new office in Saket.

Some of our new team members are not from India. So far, hiring an international team member in India has taken us an average of 18 documents, 21 internal emails, and 11 external emails. We’ll do whatever it takes to get the best talent to work with us.

2015 also tested us as a team — 4 team members broke their legs at different times of the year, while others went through dengue and a spate of other illnesses. We made it together as a team.

8. We are building a culture we’re proud of

2015We’re building a different kind of company. We’re loosely based on a holacracy, so we don’t have titles or hierarchy.

Our Friday Demos (think Google’s TGIF meets YC Demo Days) are setting examples for ways to manage team feedback and communication.

Our culture hacks got us 4,000 upvotes on Quora and dozens of mentions around the world.

9. We got amazing recognition

2015In 2015, we were on the Forbes 30 under 30 and Fortune 40 under 40 lists. We also met Prime Minister Modi twice. (Shoutout to Nascomm’s 10,000 Startups!)


So what’s next? If 2015 was about building the foundation — a kickass platform, team, and culture — then 2016 will be about scale. Let’s impact a billion people.

Thanks for all the support so far. Wishing you a wonderful 2016 from everyone at SocialCops!

Cheers,
Prukalpa, Varun, and Team SocialCops

2015