A year-end reflection

There's one question that has followed me through this entire journey.
Is what I'm building actually making someone's life better?

Not as a nice reflection, but as a constant doubt.

From 2022 until the middle of 2025, moving Makana forward meant living with uncertainty. Plenty of times I didn't know whether people would adopt it, whether companies would be willing to buy it, or whether the impact we were after would exist beyond the intention.

Part of that uncertainty came from something very concrete: we were building something that, as far as we know, nobody had done before anywhere in the world. There was no case in Europe, in the United States, or in any other market to look at and say “this is how it works” or “these are the results it produces”.

Starting a company like that is starting on hard mode.

It's selling without references.
It's explaining a conviction without being able to show outside proof yet.

The underlying idea was always clear: healthier people are better business. Everyone believes it. It sounds logical.

But believing it is one thing, and proving it, measuring it, and working it in practice is a very different one. Turning that conviction into something observable, repeatable, and defensible with data.

That's still the challenge.

But this year, for the first time, it started to make sense.

A year of real growth

This year, growth started playing a different role for me.
Not as a target hit, but as small signals that helped me work on that question I'd been carrying around for a long time. Each step forward didn't answer everything, but it kept adding information and, with it, some confidence in what we were building.

Makana grew more than 8x in revenue. More than a number, it was a first validation: more companies willing to join in, to trust, and to back a conviction that was still being built.

Then came something even more concrete.

This year we added up more than 155,000 minutes of care.

Real minutes.
Actual use.
People who came back, who repeated, who found value in the service.

To put it in perspective: if a single person were using Makana 24/7, that comes out to 108 days straight. When we saw it that way, the thought was unavoidable: ok, that's a lot.

And sure, read like that, it can sound intense.

If you're a manager, this number probably scares you a little, haha.

But it isn't wasted time.

It's time people invest in feeling better.
And, more and more clearly, time that does pay off.

That's where another important part of the question started to get answered:
this doesn't just get bought. It gets used. And it gets valued.

But maybe what made the most sense to me was watching the team grow.

This year 6 new people joined Makana. And for me, that carries a different weight. It isn't just operational growth: it's people who decided to bet on building something nobody has done before in the world. Joining that uncertainty isn't easy, especially when you're looking for stability or taking an important step in your career.

Even more so considering we brought in top-tier talent. People who came from large, established companies, where competing for that talent is not trivial. Makana isn't a loud startup, or a “trendy” company raising millions, or a giant corporation. And still, they chose to come.

Seeing that was a powerful signal.

More people believing.
More people rowing in the same direction.
More reasons to keep pushing.

Each of these steps doesn't answer everything, but it keeps building confidence.

From the data to real life

As all of this moved forward, there was one doubt that still needed an answer:
Was this really improving people's lives and, at the same time, genuinely moving the business?

That's where the research was key. Not only because it helped commercially, but because for the first time we had statistical evidence of the impact we were looking for.

For someone as deeply data driven as I am, that was a turning point.

It wasn't just intuition anymore.
It wasn't “it feels like it works” anymore.

The data started to show something very concrete: people who use Makana are absent 17.5% less.

Less sick leave.
Fewer forced stops.
More continuity in their work and in their daily life.

That's where the numbers stopped being cold.

Because behind that 17.5% there are real people. People who show up with discomfort and who, over time, stop having to stop. People who sleep better, who feel less loaded, and who manage to get through their day with less pain.

And that's when it all connects.

Hearing María Aynol, a worker at Mowi, say “it's changed my life a lot” stops being just a moving line. It starts to have context. It starts to have backing (Click here to watch María's testimonial).

It isn't just a nice story.

It's the human face of what the data was already showing.
An experience that repeats, that can be measured, and that is starting to be explained with evidence.

For me, that intersection —between research, impact, and real people— was one of the most important moments of this journey. Because it confirms something we'd been sensing from the start:
when people are better, the business works better too.

The challenges ahead

If one thing is clear to me after this year, it's that the challenge is still proving the conviction.

Because believing it is one thing, and proving it, measuring it, and working it in practice is a very different one. Turning that conviction into something observable, repeatable, and defensible with data is still hard. And it probably will be for a good while.

The difference is that today the challenge no longer starts from zero.

This year, for the first time, it started to make sense. Not because it's solved, but because clear signals started appearing that we're heading in the right direction. And when that happens, the questions inevitably change.

How do we scale without losing what got us here?
How do we keep a close relationship with our clients as the volume grows?
How do we install dozens —or hundreds— of modules in a short time, without losing quality or experience?
How do we keep caring about the details when it's time to, say, set up 100 modules in one week?

And maybe the most important question:
How do we keep making good decisions when the margin for error gets smaller?

Growing brings complexity.

More processes.
More people.
More expectations.

The focus today isn't only on growing faster, but on growing well.

Keep measuring.
Keep listening.
Keep adjusting.

We don't have all the answers.

But we have something we didn't before: enough signals to keep moving forward with conviction, even knowing the challenge is still there.

And with that, we keep pushing.