Our next phase at Remind: Playing an even bigger role in education

To the Remind community:

As another back-to-school season approaches, I’d like to share some changes and big opportunities ahead at Remind.

This month, I’ll be transitioning into the role of Executive Chairman and shifting my focus to supporting the growth of our one-of-a-kind platform in a dramatically evolving education industry.

As part of this transition, I’m excited to announce that Quenton Cook, our current VP of Product, will step into the role of CEO to manage the day-to-day operations at Remind, and that Ray Polanco, our current VP of Sales and Success, will take on a broader operational role in the newly created role of COO.

Why are we making these changes now?

It’s hard to believe that we’re about to celebrate Remind’s 10th anniversary as a company—our 11th back-to-school with you. As I reflect on the five years since taking on the role of CEO from Brett Kopf, Remind’s co-founder, I’m amazed at what we’ve been able to accomplish together.

• As the most widely used two-way communication platform in education, we’ve continued to support a free version of Remind that includes SMS messaging—part of our commitment to enabling equitable access to communication for students and families everywhere.
• We’ve launched an enterprise version of Remind that has become the go-to communication platform for schools, districts, and other organizations that care about enabling meaningful engagement—for over 6 million students to date.
• We’ve opened the Remind platform to enable simple and powerful integrations with more than 35 learning services, including the top SIS and LMS providers, to ensure that educators have an efficient way to share learning content with students and parents.
• We’ve introduced Remind Coaching, our direct-to-student tutoring service, and we’re excited by the opportunities ahead to expand how learning can be delivered directly to students on the Remind platform.
• We’ve deepened the trust that every educator, student, and parent has placed in Remind by maintaining our high delivery standards—even as usage grew and use cases evolved during the Covid-19 pandemic—and continuing to prioritize the safety and security of our users above all else.
• Finally, we’ve created an amazing culture on the strength of one team pursuing our two goals of impact and sustainability as we work toward our vision to give every student the opportunity to succeed. We’ve also further defined our cultural fabric by working to create a sense of belonging for every team member in a workplace that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

Remind is a complex platform that reaches and engages literally every corner of education. As such, we have an immense opportunity to help ensure that equitable access to learning remains central to our education system.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down schools in March 2020, we’ve all witnessed the dramatic changes affecting education. And, as a result, we’ve also seen the learning gap continuing to widen between those who have access to education resources and those who do not.

In this context, I’ve been giving considerable thought to how Remind can best maximize our impact in this changing environment—both in terms of how we’re organized as well as our relationships with key stakeholders across the U.S. education system. During this period, I’ve worked, listened, and learned from all the people who I’m proud to call my colleagues. I’ve also worked closely with our Board to think about Remind’s future success, including how we’ll continue to grow our presence in this space.

As I look out over the next several years, it’s become clear to me that the best use of my time is in ensuring that Remind is top of mind for every district administrator, every education policy leader, and every company connected to the education sector. At the same time, it’s vitally important to maintain the operational continuity and culture we’ve built at Remind.

This is why Quenton and Ray are absolutely the right individuals to lead the day-to-day path forward for Remind. Their skills and capabilities complement each other, and they will partner, as I have for many years, with an extremely capable and committed group of executive team leaders and board members.

What’s next for Remind?

First, I’m not going anywhere. My goal as Executive Chairman is to help Remind play an even bigger role in the education sector as the industry continues to evolve. By turning my focus to a number of new areas, I’ll be working to ensure we’re doing everything we can to help educators build engagement and relationships with the students and parents they serve.

In the coming months, I’m looking forward to:

• Strengthening Remind’s relationship with schools and districts across the country, and specifically with the superintendents and senior administrators in these learning communities.
• Partnering with education and technology companies so that we continue to open our two-way communication platform to new learning services in a way that best supports the needs of educators, students, and parents.
• Bringing Remind into a visible leadership role in the most crucial public policy discussions about education, especially those centered on improving student and parent engagement and ensuring equitable access to education—something I’m personally very excited to advance.

Additionally, I’ll also continue to work directly with Quenton and Ray to support their transitions to their respective roles, support the entire executive team in whatever ways necessary, and serve as a member of the Remind Board. While my focus will shift from day-to-day management to external priorities, there won’t be any other major changes to how Remind operates.

This transition is one of growth, and I have absolute confidence that Quenton, Ray, and our culture of one team, two goals will continue to guide us forward together. Thank you to each Remind team member, past and present, for what you’ve done for this company, and thank you to our community for trusting us to support some of your most important relationships. I’m excited to help bring Remind into the lives of millions of more students in the years ahead!

Best wishes,

Brian Grey