How does a tech company go from startup to being valued at €40 Million?

The world has a crowded cloud market right now, and it's difficult to see how anyone could break into it, let alone make a name for themselves. But that's what we did (and are still doing)!

A question we get a lot is how did you do it? How did you find any success going up against massive Big Tech corporations like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft? How do you manage to attract people from long-established and well-known services like Dropbox and MEGA?

Now every company is different and has its own niche, but looking back on the last couple of years, it's safe to say five things made a massive impact in helping us get to where we are today.

1) Capitalize on new and emerging technologies.

New tech is coming online every day. For us, when we got started in 2020, blockchain was taking off, and peer-to-peer networks were finally up to the task of handling large amounts of data. Our founder and CEO had already been working in cloud storage and thought adapting blockchain tech to the traditional cloud service model made a lot of sense. He moved fast from idea to action, and we became frontrunners in an emerging industry sector almost overnight.

2) Stick to a well-defined and ethical guiding principle.

We are committed to putting users first and are passionate about our zero-trust philosophy. Privacy is a big deal, and we want to preserve it as best we can. Having a company goal outside of "make money" pushes us to develop new ideas while also staying grounded in our principles. We are becoming popular because we provide a service that promotes privacy, and privacy is highly valued. Stepping away from that and not "walking the walk" wouldn't end well. For every new product we create and every big decision we make, we refuse to compromise privacy, security, and our users' best interests.

3) Ride a long-term trend!

People are done handing over their data companies. People want their privacy back. People are angry and catching on to all of Big Tech's shenanigans. Being the good guys in the fight to build a better internet nets us a lot of positive press and word-of-mouth recommendations. There's no trick here. Find a cause to support, believe in, and help make a positive change in the world. You will attract great talent, and your team will find a strong purpose.

4) Keep small and hire experienced, senior team members.

Speaking of incredible talent, beware of growing too fast and throwing too many people into the mix. We purposely took our time finding the right people to fit our technical needs and company culture. Yes, we're often a little busier (because it takes a while to get extra hands), but the work that gets done is exceptionally high quality. Everything in the company simply runs more efficiently, and we never have to worry about things getting done and done well.

5) Go all in!

Just launch already! Nothing will be perfect initially, and your company will slip up or make a mistake. You won't be Apple overnight. Understanding that there will be issues, your products and services won't be their ideal version immediately. Quality takes learning from mistakes and a whole lot of time. We started with very little, and our service was in rough shape in the beginning, but we found solutions and improvements as we progressed. Take the leap and go from there.