An open letter to Team E9 ❤️

Dear E9 Team

For those of you who know me you may know of my interest in flying. So here's a story I stumbled upon a couple years ago.

In the early 1900s the US war department had assembled every ingredient for success in their pursuit of inventing a flying machine (planes). They pulled together the best minds of the day, a quality dream team of talent and know-how.  With the team they had gathered and ample resources, their success was guaranteed. Or was it? A few hundred miles away, two brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright had a passion to fly so intense that it inspired the enthusiasm and commitment of a dedicated group in their hometown. There was no funding for their venture. No government grants or high-level connections. Not a single person on the team had an advanced degree, not even Wilbur or Orville. But the team banded together in a humble bicycle shop and made their vision real. On December 17, 1903, a small group witnessed a human take flight for the first time in history and there was no press around.

I draw a lot of similarities from this story. It was only May when we were told that we are at least 2 years away from taking on someone like Blueline and here we are in November ready to take our flight. Clients from all over the country have come to support us today. Let me take a moment and say, I am so proud and so gifted to be a part of this team and from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank each and every one of you for doing what you have done over the last 6 months.

I would like to extend a special thank you to the mobile development team. The efforts put over the last few days are exceptional and if someone was to know how hard you actually worked they simply won't believe it. I honestly can't wait for what the future holds!

A special mention to the ladies of this project. Soumya, Akhila, Jo, Christin, Manika, Anjali.  First class software development coupled with thorough project management. With ground breaking features like Cab9 Go, dispatch on mobile, dashboard, driver portal, onboarding portal, overview screens, demand management and now Cab9 Next it's suffice to say "You have simply done a cracking job!" 😄

David, Sajad, Harsh, Ankit, Pratik, Karan and Sharvilak - a simple salute will have to do.

Support team - thank you for buffering so many issues and smashing them at the first line of defence. You guys are amazing!

Finally a huge thank you to the members of the software services team. Building tech at scale is expensive (very fucking expensive) and without the revenues from the services department, we would be nowhere. Now the taxi market in the UK has a viable alternative and on behalf of the entire Cab9 community I would like to thank you once again. 🙏

Its a foggy morning in Newcastle today and I can't see the Tyne bridge but as I watch this dimly lit street through my window, all I feel is excitement and happiness that we made it to the runway. Let's fly this thing around the world 🌎 guys.

Love
TG