13MacPawYears: more than luck, more than a number

It's been 13 years since we've first met and fallen in love with each other! Wow, what a ride! You've helped us bring our wildest projects to life, grow as a company, and we've put all of our passion and care into the products that, hopefully, make your lives better.

What is your first association with 13 as a number? Most probably, there's a mix of negative connotations and superstitions. However, for us, 13 is kind of a lucky number! To prove the point, we've prepared 13 random facts about our customers, team, social projects, products, and company. Before diving into festivities, let's take a brief glance at how lucky we, at MacPaw, are!

1. Back in 2008, we started as a team of 3 enthusiasts with only $3K of savings and a desire to bring a change into the world. 13 years later, we have a great team of extraordinary people that keeps growing, as well as three pets (2 beloved cats and a sarcastic robot). Lucky us? You bet we are!

2. We have over 30 million customers all over the world using our apps. This is more than just a number for us — these are 30 million stories and experiences. We're born under a lucky star to have you as our users! 

3. On MacPaw’s 10th Birthday, we launched #MacPawCares. Our social projects help us bring real change to the world around us and inspire more people and companies to take social responsibility. For our #CleanMyCity initiative, 21 companies joined us to clean our favorite city — Kyiv. After the first three years of #MacPawCares, 285 bags of garbage collected and 25 000 trees planted — we're glad to have more and more companies and institutions taking our side.

4. Speaking of cleaning, every day, CleanMyMac X deletes around 620TB of junk on Macs of users from 182 countries (even in Antarctica!), ensuring these Macs run faster and live longer!

5. Gemini 2 app helped people worldwide find and wipe away 131 petabytes of duplicate files from their Macs. We’re still playing the number 13 game, so hang on!

6. One of the most recent recognitions of MacPaw we're proud of came not from the IT industry, but cinema… and marketing. In 2021, Setapp received a bronze Cannes Lion for the brand campaign 'Don’t Get Sidetracked. Get Setapp' (Snake video). We've created this campaign in cooperation with the world’s well-known creative agency droga5. It airs a new approach to productivity. Think tasks, not apps.

7. Since 2017, MacPaw owns and supports The Unarchiver — one of the top free apps on the Mac App Store. One of the deal’s conditions was that we would treat the app and its cult following with respect and honor. Lucky to have it in our app hall of fame and hope we live up to the promise!

8. Gemini Photos has its own lucky streak — 1.46 billion duplicate photos deleted in just three years! We're glad we can finally eliminate one of the XXI century problems — choosing the right photo from a vacation out of a bazillion similar ones in just a sec! We’re lucky to create products that are useful in so many ways.

9. Last November, we launched the first personalized VPN for users who want privacy, more content, and want all of this with one tap. ClearVPN reinvents the whole VPN technology, offering not server picking but ready-made shortcuts that focus on users’ needs. ClearVPN started with a set of 13 shortcuts on the dashboard, and despite the superstitions, the app is already disrupting the VPN market!

10. The pinnacle of our passion and admiration for Apple products is a vintage Mac collection from Tekserve shop I was lucky enough to acquire at the auction. That is how almost 40 Macs from every generation moved to MacPaw’s headquarters in Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2021, the collection grew from 70 to 323 exhibits when we were lucky to discover that a Polish collector was selling more than 300 vintage Apple pieces! Soon we’ll open doors to a unique and interactive public museum in MacPaw Space in Kyiv. Learn more about the Space.

11. The award for dubious luck goes to four macpawians who stuck in Bali during the spring quarantine of 2020! We're still not sure whether compassion is the correct word to describe what we've all felt. But hey, it's splendid they were together, and they're back and safe!

12. We've already mentioned Antarctica before. Now it's time for an adventure tale! Last January, MacPaw acquired the satellite system from the Amsterdam company Marlink to significantly improve the internet connection for The Ukrainian Antarctic Akademik Vernadsky station located on Galindez Island, Antarctica. The antenna was first transported to Punta Arenas in Chile and through the storm in the Drake Passage, it was delivered to the station. I guess that we needed a hint of luck to safely deliver the satellite to the island. Now our scientists and researchers have the internet connection speed increased eight times!

13. However, the real luck for us is the MacPaw team. People are the most significant value for MacPaw. And we're lucky to have these brightest minds with us!

At the end of the day, these 13 years prove that 13 is a lucky number for us. We are lucky to have you with us, lucky to have passionate people joining MacPaw, companies sharing our values. We're lucky to have the possibility to give, to change, and to care. Thank you for being with us these wonderful 13 years, and get ready for more!