ARTICLE / CEO Kalle Ericson
A Lynchburg Carol
2022 is Dead
2022 is dead: dead as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. In the hallowed tradition of dead things, we at Lynchburg would like to eulogize –nay!– celebrate the year that changed everything. But you all know the story, and we have to start with the ghost of fiscal years past before digging into the delectable Christmas ham that was the ghost of Christmas 2022.
In the beginning of 2020, Lynchburg was strong and getting stronger. Our boutique consultancy had 9 engineers with a combined 36 years of experience, illuminating companies across Sweden like so many candles on Lucia’s crown. The future was bright and, fortunately, nothing eventful happened the rest of that year. Or the next. Or the next.
Well, almost. Our group went from 9 to 3 as the pandemic ravaged budgets and uncertainty became status quo. Like Lille Timmy Cratchit, we soldiered on, certain that our core values would see us through the darkest winter’s night. Slowly but surely, we continued to sign extraordinary engineers. By the end of 2021, we had built ourselves back up to 8 consultants with double the combined experience of 2019. The past had been hard, but it taught us to be resilient and to double down on what makes us different.
In 2022, our steadfastness was rewarded. Our team grew from 8 to 12, representing 7 countries across 3 continents and with _well over a century _of combined experience. We gave back by taking away, and made a commitment to become carbon negative. Through a partnership with Removement, a carbon capture marketplace, we removed over 15 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. Our revenue grew as never before and we reinvested it in our team and the skills of our consultants.
The numbers this year have been a gift, but our favorite memories were the things we did together. Afterworks, hackathons and the Grow Together program allowed us to build skills, memories and a unique community of weird and wonderful people. We built dungeon-crawlers in Rust, blockchain carbon registries in Typescript, a time tracker that allows us to sleep at night and blew up sheep (ok, just one sheep) in our DnD group.
2023 is already looking bright as we welcome three incredibly rare talents to the Collective. Our continuing partnership with Removement will suck an estimated 20 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere and we will continue to deepen our partnerships with innovative companies in Sweden and beyond.
We could not have come this far without the irreplaceable contributions of our consultants and the opportunities provided by our partners. With deepest gratitude, we remember fondly the times we have had and are excited for all that is to come.
Kalle Ericson,
CEO