Since launching Appboy just over five years ago, we have accomplished a great deal. Appboy is well capitalized, having secured our Series C funding led by Battery Ventures earlier this year. We’ve grown to 120+ talented employees in New York, San Francisco, and London. Today, Appboy manages user profiles for nearly 700 million monthly active users, and is used to power more than 10 billion personalized messages each and every month across multiple channels and devices. And, the industry is taking notice. Our product has received awards from Forbes and Digiday in addition to being named a “best bet” by Venture Beat. Some of the leading brands in mobile, including jet.com, Delivery Hero, Dots, and SoundCloud use our technology to manage their lifecycle marketing, and traditional global enterprises, including 1-800-Flowers.com, Capital One, Domino’s, Microsoft, and Urban Outfitters are adding our powerful platform to their technology stack.

Appboy has grown tremendously thanks to our customers, the people, and the culture that we have built. We will always stay true to our roots, even as the industry and our company continue to evolve in our rapidly growing space.

As we head into the new year, it’s time for the next chapter in our story. Product vision and product-driven leadership are more important than ever before, and it will determine our future successes. For this reason, I’m proud to announce that my friend, cofounder and current CTO, Bill Magnuson, will be assuming the role of CEO effective January 1, 2017. Bill has extraordinary product vision and is an incredible leader. He has been here for every step of our growth and will continue to be surrounded by a fantastic Executive team. In addition, current Chief Revenue Officer, Myles Kleeger, who has led us to seven consecutive quarters of record bookings since joining Appboy, will add President to his responsibilities. Additionally, cofounder and current CIO, Jon Hyman, will be assuming the role of CTO and taking on additional engineering leadership responsibilities.

With these changes, I’ll be moving into the role of Executive Chairman where I will continue to work closely with the Executive team, our customers, partners, and investors on a daily basis. In addition, I will remain a member of the Board of Directors. Client satisfaction has always been a core part of how Appboy operates as a business, and I’m really looking forward to continuing to help Appboy clients build great relationships with their customers.

As we bring together our unique skillsets to lead Appboy into the next chapter, I’m more bullish about our future than ever and I can’t wait to see what we accomplish next.

—Mark Ghermezian

Photo credit: Charles Aydlett Photography for Appboy

Left to right: Mark Ghermezian, Bill Magnuson, Myles Kleeger