2024 Year in Review

What can I say about 2024? It was quite a wild ride. We managed several impactful change processes. A lot of small companies closed this year. I kept seeing them, especially over the summer. There were closing sales. We did not close. But we did hold our breath a lot, and count each sale at times. It was the sort of year where I would look at the month’s total and if it was higher than the last time I looked, I’d just send a quiet “thank you” out into the ether. I know I’m not the only one on our team who did this.

Change can be really tough. It is also the way that things move forwards. If an organization doesn’t adapt and change it cannot grow and flourish in new times and ways. And so we made some big changes this year. These are the ones that stood out to me the most. 

We have made it through 3 major transitions at least this year. 

1. We shifted CEOs from Willow to David. This feels right in a lot of ways, and it was a big change. We are Volante Design, so it’s great that the designer himself is at the wheel. I’m impressed with how he’s sketching out the plan for the company’s future. 
2. We began making things overseas and learned a TON. This has required so many hours of research and testing and millions of emails to new factories to see if they might be a good fit. We did all sorts of ethical certification research and had tons of great conversations about what was “ethical enough.” and what we have the ability to control. We talked about The Good Place a lot. 
3. We began rebuilding the marketing department. Literally, nobody who was in the marketing dept on Jan 1 2024, is there now. And we have 3 new folks who are starting to be a great team. I am grateful to them each for joining us. 

As we head into the unknown of next year, I feel that we know what Volante Design is about. I feel that we have all the parts of the puzzle to make it an exceptional next few years and I feel really grateful that we made it through these big, pivotal changes. I’m grateful to the folks that hold down the Operations and make it look smooth and easy. As always I am profoundly grateful to our community. They are kind and extraordinary, quirky and creative and hopeful and collaborative, and just really cool nerds. 

We do it for them. We are on our way to building a world where people (nerds like us) can feel extraordinary (as they truly are!) 

Stay badass my friends. We are in this together. Thank you for getting us through 2024.