Reaching 30,000 community members!
A journey through bitgrit’s past.
Introduction.
We’re very happy to announce that our community has reached over 30,000 members!
After all, back in 2017, when bitgrit was first established, we were just a small office with a handful of staff, very aware that of the 305 million startups established every year, 90% ultimately end up failing¹. It was a daunting prospect, but we were confident that we had found a niche; there was a gap between the compensation data scientists receive for their innovation and effort, and the profits that companies make using the solutions they create (think Facebook, Google, etc).
These extremely valuable algorithms were also being kept internally, giving these large corporations a huge advantage over businesses that haven’t got the same level of resources. This is where we wanted to step in, to give data scientists a way to be paid fairly and give companies the opportunity to stay competitive.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy, especially as we were a small start-up in the highly competitive tech industry.
Starting out.
Undeterred, we got to work coming up with a business plan. Our proposal was to connect companies and data scientists together through a platform that hosts competitions and lists work opportunities on a job board. We also wanted to create an AI marketplace for algorithms to be put on sale and a forum where users could collaborate on projects. Development started on these ideas, and by 2019 we had released working versions of the website, competition platform and the job board.
We also started to build our community, hosting various events to reach out to data scientists worldwide, including travelling to India to host the first World Data Science forum in 2018. (We eventually opened an office there to be closer to the world’s 2nd largest hub for data science.)²
During these early stages of bitgrit, research into blockchain made us realise that it could be used as a method of recording activity on our platform and allow us to track contributions to projects.
Progress.
As time went by, we managed to find partnerships with more and more companies, including SoftBank, Atrae (for their business matching application Yenta) and CTRL-F.
We began the development of BGR, a utility token built on Ethereum, as well as setting up a worldwide campus ambassador program to provide data science students a way to network, host events and get more involved with their universities.
Our team also grew, hiring more data scientists, marketing staff, graphic designers and programmers from across a range of countries, including the UK, New Zealand, India, Portugal, America and Chile.
Moving forward.
Throughout the years we’ve managed to make great strides in bringing our vision to life but there’s still plenty more to be done. The AI Marketplace is still in the early stages of development but will bring some incredible features to the platform once finished. We completed the creation of BGR and are currently working to expand its utility and function until it becomes fully integrated into the platform.
In the closer future, our website will be getting a makeover, with heavy overhauls to its layout and content (more details will be released in the coming months).
Thank you for taking the time to read through this article!
The team here at bitgrit would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for the support and hope you continue to stay with us!
Find out more.
We aim to regularly publish new and interesting articles, so please make sure to follow us to keep updated!
Follow bitgrit’s socials 📱 to stay updated on talks and upcoming competitions!
¹ https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/040915/how-many-startups-fail-and-why.asp
