Reflecting on 2019 and looking forward to 2020
Time seems to accelerate when running a startup and this year roared by. We focused not only on building a Hotspot and completing a new physical blockchain, but also on launching what would quickly become the largest public LoRa network in the United States.
As we turn the page on 2019 and push forward into 2020, I feel it’s important to reflect on what happened in the year at Helium and share our focus for the start of this new decade.
Huge thanks
First things first, I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to our Helium employees, customers, and investors.
Thank you for believing in this mission we started in 2013. I’m extremely proud of what the team has accomplished and look forward to continuing this momentum in 2020.
Reflecting on 2019
A common reaction when we first shared our mission with others was: quite an innovative idea, but would people buy into it? Would individuals pay $495 to purchase a Hotspot and help build the network?
Also to achieve our goals, we needed to secure additional funds to grow the team, and accelerate development. Would investors share our belief and be willing to hand over funds to help us execute?
In 2019, we were thrilled that both customers and investors participated in ways that exceeded our expectations.
Raising funds and increasing the team
This year we raised a Series C co-led by Union Square Ventures and Multicoin Capital, with participation from our existing investors Khosla Ventures, FirstMark Capital, GV, and HSB/MunichRE Ventures.
We were fortunate to welcome Nick Grossman, Partner at USV, and Salle Yoo, former GC of Uber, as our newest board members.
Plus, we grew the Helium team by adding key members to engineering, both on the blockchain and firmware side, and sales and marketing.
Spreading the word: events and press
We participated in a number of programs this year, with launch events in San Francisco, New York and Austin (our first launch city). We also took part in partner events and conferences in LA, Santa Clara, Denver, Chicago, Boston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Minneapolis, Miami, and more.
We’re not slowing down and are already deep into planning for 2020. In addition to visiting our community across a number of US cities in Q1, we’re also heading to Austin in March, where Helium will take the SXSW stage for the first time. Sign up for our Block newsletter here to keep up with the latest Helium news and events.
Fast Company, TechCrunch, Forbes, Fortune, VentureBeat, SF Chronicle and many other publications covered the Helium story in 2019. And 19 years after our co-founder Shawn Fanning graced the cover of Time Magazine for founding Napster, Helium received a special mention in Time’s 100 Best Inventions of 2019. Our press coverage can be found here.
The first network of its kind powered by the first blockchain of its kind
After our launch sale and roll out in Austin, and shipping nationwide in mid-October, we learned that once the word got out, people did believe in the network and wanted to participate in building it.
The results speak for themselves: we’ve sold Hotspots in over 745 U.S. cities across every state with the exception of West Virginia (even Puerto Rico is online). As I write this blog, over 2700 Hotspots have been deployed, providing wireless coverage and earning rewards for their owners. To see the network in action, take a look at Helium’s Network Visualizer.
Engaging developers
A network without users is like a 1993 Toyota Supra without gas. To achieve millions of devices transferring billions of packets on the network, we need to inspire and excite developers to build applications for the network. Delivering a secure, ubiquitous, and affordable network alone, unfortunately, is insufficient.
To engage developers, we’re focused on growing network coverage and building developer tools so they can build applications faster without the need to deploy network infrastructure or work around the failures of cellular networks (high cost, short battery life).
With our open-source approach, proprietary licensing fees are eliminated and developers can leverage compatible off-the-shelf commodity hardware.
We released a beta version of Helium SDK that includes tools, documentation, and reference guides so developers can quickly transfer device data across the network.
Looking forward to 2020 and beyond
If 2019 was the year of coverage, 2020 is the year we focus on network usage. Of course, coverage is still necessary, but without users, the network will never live up to its potential.
Developers building applications to use the network is a critical goal for us at the beginning of this decade. We will continue to invest resources to hire additional team members and execute on creating tooling, documentation, and guides.
Our goal is to eliminate friction for developers to quickly go from prototype to production, to solve problems and unlock value for their customers and companies.
We will also continue to focus on selling Hotspots in the United States to achieve nationwide coverage density rivaling that of telcos. If you’re interested in Hotspots and they’re not yet available in your country, sign up to our International waitlist here.
In closing
We continue to believe in the massive opportunity to connect low-power devices to the internet and trust interactions with those devices will have an overall positive impact on shaping our future.
While 2019 was an exciting year for us, we enter 2020 with plenty of momentum from our Hotspot sales and the network coverage we’ve achieved with our community in the US. We will continue to build out density and look forward to expanding the network beyond the borders of the US.
Again a big thanks to the community of Hotspot owners, developers, customers, and investors for believing and joining us on this journey.
And of course, thank you to the Helium team for the long hours, and dedication you continuously bring to your work.
Amir Haleem
CEO, Helium
