Can you believe it? Marketfish has survived another year, and we’ve grown too. Last Sunday all of the current and former Marketfish employees got together for a BBQ at one of our investor’s house to commemorate the occasion. The BBQ was complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, and some fine Washington wines.

Ben, our newest developer (an aQuantive hire) was on the BBQ showing off his grilling skills. Jenifer, our top salesperson, brought a few of her award winning pies. And Mark, our esteemed controller, brought his two month old girl, Amelia.

The kids (about 13 in all) enjoyed jumping between the swimming pool to the hot tub for the entire BBQ (almost 6 hours). These transitions were interrupted by brief raids on the dessert table.

We also have a tradition to unveil a limited edition birthday t-shirt. This is the one occasion that Jonathan, our world-class Creative Director, gets to go “off-brand” and produce a creation of his own making. This year, Jonathan was inspired by his trip to Hawaii so the t-shirt has a distinct and beautiful Hawaiian art influence. Good job, Jonathan, for a job well done!

And last, but not least, we presented a birthday cake. Sarah, my fiancée, was feeling the itch to do something creative, so she embarked on creating an ocean-themed birthday cake. While she depicted the blue ocean perfectly well, everyone wondered how edible it would be. Fortunately, the cake was delicious.

As the sun set, we closed down the party and reflected on the years past events. How we weathered through a poor economy, a long depressing winter, a tough fund raising environment, and a tricky technology problem. Despite all of that, we’ve made such amazing progress that we can’t help to think that next year will be even better.