Welcome to the 2022 LunarLab annual Launch Report! We are big believers in transparency, and when we launched LunarLab, we knew that we always wanted to release an annual report. The goal of this report is to publicly hold ourselves accountable to our values of being inclusive, empathetic, collaborative, ethical, and empowering.
Read on for information about our work, our DEI commitments, our work in the community, and how we’re upholding our values.
A core component of UX and Product Strategy is identifying metrics and ensuring that your work allows those metrics to grow. So we’ll start with some numbers that reflect our growth over the past year.
We were excited to complete 28 projects this year with 18 unique clients. You might have noticed that the number of clients is lower than the number of projects: that’s because we currently have a repeat client rate of 38%. We’ve even had some clients come back up to 5 times! This is one of our favorite metrics to track because it reflects that our clients are happy – which makes us happy.
Our revenue over the past year also grew by 263% over the previous year. This number is special for us because the more revenue we bring in, the more we can provide volunteer and pro-bono mentoring hours within the community, and the more we can continue to make charitable contributions. It also means that we can bring on senior-level team members with a high level of expertise in their fields. It’s a win for us, but also for our clients and our community!
Some of the most important goals we’ve had at LunarLab since day 1 have been to lift up the tech ecosystem in Birmingham, and to create a more inclusive tech community overall.
To work towards those goals, this year we provided over $9,625 in pro-bono mentoring hours, primarily for women founders and founders of color based in Birmingham. We do this work at no charge to the founders because we know that sharing resources and industry knowledge can help with the economic advancement of founders who have historically been excluded from tech.
Mentoring is important, but so is financial support. This year, we donated to Feed Buffalo, Tech Equals, and Magic City Acceptance Academy.
At LunarLab, we are passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion for everyone. These are more than just words – they’re the guiding principles that are woven into the DNA of our company culture.
While we continued our commitment to make every product we work on more inclusive, we also did some work in the community this year to promote those values. In November, we hosted a lunch & learn with the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services to train our local tech community on how to make software more inclusive to people with disabilities.
We also learned through Tech Equity Collaborative’s Contract Worker Disparity Project how the tech industry disproportionately causes economic harm to women and people of color who work as contractors. Based on the project’s findings, LunarLab made a number of changes within our company to ensure that contractors are treated fairly and that we are promoting economic advantages to our team. Click here to read TechEquity Collaborative’s case study about LunarLab!
Birmingham is of course our home, and it’s where most of our team and clients are located. 41% of our clients are in Birmingham, and we are thrilled to support our tech ecosystem in the Magic City.
However, this year we continued to expand into new locations! We have multiple clients in Tennessee and South Carolina, as well as New York and Delaware. Our team has grown as well, with team members in New York, Florida, and Georgia.
Something we frequently say at LunarLab is, “If you can name an industry, we’ve probably worked on an app in that space”. This year was no exception! From startups to publicly-traded corporations, this year we had some unique opportunities.
Here are just a few of the industries we worked in this year:
- Fintech
- Non-partisan politics
- Technology services
- Logistics
- Leadership Training
- Automotive
- Healthcare
- Children & Maternity
- Event planning
- Accelerators & Incubators
- Fashion
- Music
- Sports
- Education
- HR & Hiring
- Marketing
As we’ve grown, we’ve also had a lot of big news this year! A few highlights of our year were:
- LunarLab moved to Innovation Depot
- CEO Elizabeth Anderson delivered the keynote at DevOpsDays Birmimgham
- LunarLab was recognized as a 2022 Alabama Inno Fire Award Winner
- Elizabeth Anderson was named as one of Birmingham’s Women to Watch
- Elizabeth Anderson was recognized as finalist in Birmingham CEO Awards
One of the most fulfilling parts of running a business is seeing our clients succeed. We always keep an eye on the news to cheer our clients on as they meet their goals! We’re so proud of each and every one of our clients, and we want to highlight a few of their successes.
That’s all for now, but let’s stay in touch! We plan to have an even bigger year in 2023 than we did in 2022. You can find us on social media at the links below. Here’s to an amazing year next year!
- LunarLab LinkedIn
- LunarLab Twitter
- LunarLab Dribbble
- LunarLab Instagram
- Elizabeth Anderson LinkedIn (LunarLab CEO)
- Kelli Lucas LinkedIn (LunarLab Chief Design Officer)
