<hl>Against all odds, we turned 2020 into a year of adventures and discovery - data discovery.<hl> Read the full story below of how we built a community of 130,000 data owners in one crazy year.

Our 2019 started with a dream to help people use the internet without worrying about what will happen to their personal data. For years, privacy was about putting fences around us, keeping us from sharing our personal data with others. But by doing so, we miss out on all the fun.

We don’t believe in burying our heads in the sand when it comes to your personal data, this is why the ostrich is Mine’s official buddy. Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Instead of thinking about data privacy, we thought about data ownership. We wanted to give people access and choice about their data, allowing them to live without fences and enjoy the internet feeling safe and secure.

After a lot of research, many hours of coding and shaping the product, we finally came to the birth of Mine - A smart data assistant that helps you discover where your data is (in 30 seconds!) and allows you to keep it only where you want it.  

In January 2020, the exciting day finally came when we broke out of our shell and said hello to the world. We jumped right out of our nest and into our first launch on Product Hunt, which was very exciting for such a young bird like us.

It was even more exciting to see that people loved our product, and we got 20K signups in no time which helped us win #1 Product of the Day, Week, and #2 of the Month!

But like in the wild, hurdles are everywhere for young startups, but this one no one saw coming: COVID-19.

Less than three months after launching our product in Europe, the world went into lockdown, and we quickly had to learn how to adapt to the new situation because keeping our heads in the sand was no option for this ostrich!

With our amazing team working together remotely, we managed to pull through and get the most out of the situation. We discovered that as people were moving their lives online, their digital footprint increased by 55%. This means that data ownership became more important than ever, so this was our time to shine!

It was our first test in this wild nature, but we pulled through and managed to raise $9.5M in funding from amazing investors all through Zoom!

This allowed us to build a bigger and stronger nest to achieve our mission of data ownership.

We doubled the size of our team -not including the adorable babies and pets that were welcomed to the world this year- and grew our team in all departments, from Engineering to Design, building ourselves a dream team!

We’re proud of the first year of this ostrich that keeps his head high and out of the sand. We discovered that when you build a safe and strong nest, others will believe in you and put their trust in you.

One minor app crash, 263 version updates, and 47 redesigns later, here we are, leading the new future of data ownership.

To everyone who made this amazing year possible, thank you, we can’t wait for 2021!

We wish you a happy and healthy new year, full of joy and discoveries.

Team Mine.