We’re feeling nostalgic in the GAAPweb offices this month so bear with us as we take you back ten years…
1998 was a key year in the world of technology and the internet. Apple introduced their iMac, Microsoft launched the creatively named Windows 98 and the giant that is Google took its first baby steps.
But all that was to pale in comparison to the activities that were taking place in a house in South London where two talented blokes, Cliff Olsson and Mark Wainwright, had a dream. They dreamt of creating the finest jobs website for finance and accountancy professionals the world had ever seen. After juggling a job each, working nights on the website and kissing goodbye to all their savings, in June 1998, GAAPweb was born.
Admittedly it wasn’t exactly the most impressively designed site to begin with (take a look at original GAAPweb) but everyone has to start somewhere. Still, by the end of the year we had 400 positions on site and by the end of the following year GAAPweb had advertised around 35,000 jobs from just over 70 recruiters. By 2001 we even looked like a real website with pictures and a proper logo! In the last 12 months, as we raced towards our 10th birthday, we advertised 315,188 jobs from over 500 recruiters. Recruitment freeze? What recruitment freeze?
Here’s a quick overview of what we’ve done with the last ten years:
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We’ve made loads of new friends and 80,996 of you now visit us each month
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We email 32,122 of you every day
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14,696 of you have added your CV to our database and made it searchable for recruiters
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We increased our staff and moved out of Cliff’s house to offices in Battersea. We left there last year and are currently residing in sunny West Kensington
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We’ve had over 200 Beer o’ clocks (that’s 4.30pm on Friday to everyone else) and consumed about 3,500 bottles of beer, 1,900 cans of gin and tonic and 850 Bicardi Breezers. And that’s just before we head out
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We can’t back this up but we’ve probably paid for at least 3 Christmas parties for the staff at our Battersea watering hole, San Miguel, and last year’s staff bonus at the Village Fayre in Kensington!
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And we won’t stop there – we’ll keep making GAAPweb bigger and better. In fact, watch this space for our next exciting launch due in August!
Here’s to the next ten years!
