A Toast to 12 Years

This is the most recent picture of the full Trend Hunter team. It's become increasingly more challenging to fit us all in a group shot and while we're missing a few new faces and sadly had to say goodbye to a few old ones that are onto exciting new opportunities, this is roughly the team today. If a fortuneteller would have told me in 2009 when I first joined on to write for what was then a blog that our team would grow from 4 to nearly 80, have 15 annual events with thousands of the world's top brands including Google, Adidas and Disney, I'm not sure I'd be 100% bought in. I remember when we were celebrating 100 million views like it was a big deal (we're over 3.3 billion views now).

Here's what the team looked like in 2013 when we had 20 FT employees and our internship program:

What we looked like in 2014 when we hosted the first client event in-office. This would be the catalyst we needed to start Future Festival.

This is us in 2015 when we published a NYT bestseller and hosted our first-ever branded Future Festival event (with less than 2 months to plan it):

And just the ladies in 2020 (rough to get team photos after this because we went virtual just a week after this was taken due to the pandemic):

I think it's probably hard for many people at the age of 33 to say they've done anything for 12 years let alone worked at the same place for that long, but that's how long I've been at Trend Hunter. I recognize that while many great things are still on the horizon for the business and the many talented people who work there, it's time for me to take on a new challenge. The organization has taken several steps to innovate during the pandemic and scale the businesses effectively, which included some new senior hires who have brought a greatly valued and fresh perspective to the business and big shifts within various teams. I know Trend Hunter will continue to grow and shine without me and now I'm ready to embrace a new type of challenge: parenthood. I'm due this June to have my first child (a girl!) and I could not be more excited. While I feel grossly underqualified for this new position, I have a great partner to take it all on with and have been furiously reading all the books I can -- sleep training tips welcomed.

Looking back at the past decade, I have mixed feelings. I'm sad to leave behind what has essentially been my home for so long but grateful to have been a part of building a company from scratch. I'm proud of what we've accomplished together, and appreciative of the many different versions of the Trend Hunter team I've worked with these past years.

If I've worked with you in the past in any facet, stay in touch! While I'll be pretty wrapped up in moving into a new place next month and changing diapers in a couple of months, I'm pumped to see the economy strengthen, put the pandemic behind us, and hop back into the workforce wholeheartedly to take on my next adventure. Stay tuned...