Letter to team

May 4th, 2016

Hi Everyone,

Following up on the vision overview at company update a few weeks ago and the office hours, I've been documenting the core ideas in video and text and put them here to give us a place to engage .

This is just the beginning. I hope to add to it and refine over time. Please engage on the comments/tips and there will be many future office hours and updates ahead. I want to invest as much as I can on this, because if we are super aligned on mission, vision and values, then we can make better tactical decisions, decentralize decision making generally, and give everyone more ownership.

I know we sometimes finish company update with testimonials and a little blurb from me about the impact of the team on the world, but I sometimes feel that even that doesn't do the team justice. I just wanted to make sure that you all realize the impact that you are each directly having on learners everywhere.

Every improvement impacts millions of students every month. And we are often helping people when they are most academically insecure and vulnerable. Even the student that only comes once in the month probably came when they most needed it and were in danger of losing hope. It is no exaggeration to say that even an incremental performance improvement, new tool, new question item, improvement to the UI, partnership, better recruiting, etc. will lead to more lives being changed. And this is the type of impact that sends lasting, positive domino effects through the planet for a very long time.

And the really exciting thing is that we are at the very beginning. I often say this at company updates, but I want to really emphasize that the world is looking for our small team to do big things. Like really big things. Arguably the biggest thing--help tens or hundreds of millions of human beings (and one day billions) reach their potential. And I can't imagine a better team to do it. I firmly believe that there isn't a group of people on the planet with more talent, intellect and heart .

If we can continue to deliver, the positive consequences for humanity are hard to imagine and we're all going to have a some epic stories to tell our grandchildren about the adventure we had making education a fundamental human right.

Okay. Enough gushing.

Onward!

-Sal