What Being Number One Really Means
As a kid I used to watch sports with my grandfather every visit I made to his Portland home. We’d watch any game that might be on — baseball, basketball, or football — and during each telecast he’d sit quietly until that same moment in every telecast. As soon as the camera turned its sights to the crowd and my grandfather got a glimpse of fans excitedly waving their index finger yelling “we’re number one”, he’d lose his cool. “Oh yah,” he’d bark at the television screen, “everyone’s gotta be number one.”
Imagine my poor gramps if he were alive today and had to endure society’s relentless emphasis that everyone strive to be number one at all costs. I thought of my granddad this week when Remind.com reached number one in the iPhone App Store, ahead of amazing consumer apps like YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram. As soon as someone in the office shouted that we had reached the top of the app store rankings, I could hear my grandfather yelling at me and my colleagues to “simmer down!”
But then I realized something that might’ve been hard for my gramps to fully grasp: Sometimes being number one does matter. Being number one — even if for a brief moment — can represent how a string of events, decisions, and persistent effort combines to support people who need help. For Remind, there are a number of important dynamics that have added up over the years to support teachers, students, and parents, and, as a result, came together this week to help us reach number one in the app store.
First, it always starts with an idea. In Remind’s case it was the idea shared by two brothers from Skokie, Illinois to do something important so that teachers could more easily connect to students and parents. By choosing to help teachers versus any number of other things they could have spent the first decade of their post college years pursuing, Brett and David Kopf launched Remind on its first step to become number one.
Nothing reaches number one by being bootstrapped. A commitment from investors along the journey is crucial. Look at the others on the list below Remind in the image below. They all raised capital from supportive investors to get where they are today, and Remind is no different. Support from First Round Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Social Capital, and GSV Accelerate have allowed Remind the time it takes to reach number one.
For sure there’s a seasonal aspect to our ascent. Every August as teachers make their way back to their classrooms, we feel this seasonal push and become energized as a company by how busy we all become. Our climb to the top of the app store list is driven by millions of teachers, students, and parents who see Remind as an integral part of their back-to-school routines. Like teachers setting up their classrooms or students and parents buying school supplies, setting up their Remind app is an important “to do” before that exciting first day of school. If skeptics want to think we “growth hack” our way to the top of the charts, well, then let’s consider “back-to-school” season the new growth hack!
Seasonality though is simply something the calendar dictates. The foundation that has supported Remind’s rise to number one each of the last two Augusts is the product that’s loved and trusted by two million teachers. This teacher trust naturally extends to the 25 million students and parents who in turn rely on Remind every day to deepen the relationship they establish with their teacher and school. The combination of returning users plus new user growth signifies incredible trust in Remind. Whenever a teacher chooses to use Remind again with a new class in a new school year, it means she feels like Remind will help her do a better job making an even bigger impact on her students than the year before. Every time this happens, we get another step closer to achieving our vision to give every student an opportunity to succeed.
Another factor supporting Remind reaching number one is our rapidly expanding effort to deliver value via full districts and school deployments. Through that effort, Remind now supports nearly 800 district and school customers. And these customer roll-outs have have resulted in Remind rostering more than 1 million users onto Remind thanks to our team’s effort to simplify how administrators implement Remind across an entire school or district community.
In parallel with our outreach to district and school customers, we’ve also broadened our reach into the broader education ecosystem. This too contributes to our app store visibility. The work we’ve undertaken over the last year to open Remind’s communication platform to so many important education services like Google Classroom, Quizlet, Newsela, Duolingo, Nearpod, (and many others), has no doubt enhanced our position in app stores. On this front, we’re excited about a future where we continue to connect important learning services with the teachers, students, parents, and administrators who use Remind every day.
Finally, and most importantly, Remind’s rise to number one in each of the last two back-to-school seasons clearly reflects the effort from dozens of people of have worked at the company over these past 7+ years. For me, I’m most humbled and honored by the hard work put forth by the people I’ve had the privilege to lead here these last two years. As we hit number one this year on August 14th, I was most excited for the current Remind team who have embraced our “One Team, Two Goals” approach we apply to everything we do — every day — to build a communication platform where learning happens. #OTTG!
For Remind, reaching the top of the Apple App Store means we’re building a valuable product. For the teachers, students, and parents downloading the app, the value of Remind is embedded in our ability to enable meaningful communication that fosters relationships and therefore learning. However, being number one by itself doesn’t mean much, especially in today’s world where an achievement like this can be precisely orchestrated or bought.
But when reaching number one — even when it’s for a short time during a seasonal peak— is the culmination of several years of effort geared towards a great cause, being “number one” really does matter. Oh, and by the way, it’s pretty cool to see the Remind app sitting above Youtube, Snapchat, and Instagram even if it’s just for a few days when teachers, students, and parents are revving up for a new school year. Don’t forget, being #1 ain’t too shabby when 1.3 million others are looking up at you.
Originally published on Medium on August 19, 2018. This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.