This article is the first in a special series celebrating ETR’s 15th anniversary on September 9. Each piece will highlight a different part of our journey, from the people and products to the milestones that shaped who we are today. We begin with the heart of it all: the ETR Community of technology leaders.

How It All Began

In the early days, recruiting survey participants was a scrappy effort. The founders spent hours on LinkedIn, scouring company websites, and sending cold emails to technology leaders one at a time to convince them to take part. Those first surveys drew only a few hundred responses. But they set the foundation for something much larger: a living, growing community of enterprise technology decision makers.

Chief Strategist Erik Bradley recalls, “The Community was step zero for ETR. There was no company without it. At first it was just grueling work, hour by hour, reaching out and explaining what we were trying to build”.

What Makes Our Community Different

Many research firms rely on generic survey panels, but ETR chose a different path. We built our own, and we have maintained strict vetting processes from the start. Every participant’s identity and role is verified through LinkedIn, company websites, and direct review of survey responses to ensure that the insights we collect come from real decision makers.

As Nick Lane, Head of Community, explains, “Our Community has essentially been the backbone of what we do since ETR began. Without our Community members who participate in our surveys, we would not be where we are today”.

From a few hundred survey participants in the early 2010s, the ETR Community has now surpassed 9,000 members and is quickly tracking toward 10,000. More than 60 percent come from large enterprises across industries ranging from healthcare to financial services to industrials and many more.

CEO Brad LaScolea calls this scale transformative. “When I joined, our surveys had 200 or 300 respondents. Now we are tracking toward over 25,000 survey completes in a year. It is incredible to see the Community grow to this scale”.

This scale is important, but what matters most is the quality. Our members are not only C-suite executives but also IT practitioners, security analysts, and engineers. Their perspectives often provide the clearest view into real-world adoption and usage.

Looking Ahead

The future of the ETR Community is growth with purpose. “We want to continue expanding, but also find more ways to help our members in their day-to-day and long-term challenges by being another resource they can trust,” Nick explains.

ETR has grown into a trusted partner for investors, IT executives, and technology companies. But behind every chart, every trendline, and every forecast is the same foundation we started with: a community of real people, making real decisions, and sharing them with us.

To our Community: Thank you! You are the reason ETR has thrived for 15 years, and the reason we are so excited about the next 15.

Follow the Series

This is the first in our 15th Anniversary Blog Series. In the weeks ahead, we will highlight the innovations, milestones, and people that shaped ETR. Visit our Anniversary Page to follow along as we count down to September 9.