In the first week of this new year, we took a look back on last year to get some perspective on wtf actually happened. Here's what we saw:

2015 was a year of firsts (and thirds, and fourths) for Seed&Spark. We produced our first VR film. For the first time, a film that crowdfunded on Seed&Spark is premiering at Sundance. We ushered our first film through its theatrical release. We released the third and fourth issues of BRIGHT IDEAS magazine, and are poised to print the fifth.

2015 was also a major year for growth. To help illustrate just how rad the last 12 months were, we've compiled some stats below. We think they're kind of impressive.

114 crowdfunding projects successfully raised more than $1.8M from more than 16,000 supporters.

75% of all campaigns on Seed&Spark successfully reached the Green Light. (This world-best number—twice that of the next best platform—held steady even as we doubled the number of campaigns.)

$16k+ was raised on average by each successful campaign. Again, that's more than 2x the other guys, and an indicator that we're attracting the most ambitious filmmakers.

5,000+ filmmakers were reached by the #StayIndieTour across 50+ cities. Also worth mentioning is the fact that filmmakers who crowdfunded on Seed&Spark after taking one of our workshops were successful at a rate of 100%. (No, that's not a typo.)

We introduced an unprecedented opportunity for filmmakers where gathering 500 or more followers unlocks access to Seed&Spark's multi-platform distribution pipeline.

We launched Seed&Spark 2.0—a brand new platform based on feedback from our community over the last 2+ years that gives filmmakers even better tools to build and engage audiences (and looks really slick, to boot).

6 new Seed&Sparkers joined the crew, bolstering our crowdfunding, original content, marketing, distribution and product teams. That's 60% growth for anyone keeping track, and we're expecting to keep that momentum going through 2016.

Lastly, we celebrated birthday number 3. Given the survival rates of the average startup, it may be the most remarkable number in the list!

Looking ahead to 2016, we're expecting more firsts, bests, and most importantly, a continually expanding and engaged community that is ready and willing to help us develop this ecosystem where being a filmmaker requires you to have 0 additional careers.