On Turning Four

It’s our 4th birthday. Four. We're feeling like a big kid.

Four-year-olds can run. Okay, they fall down sometimes, but they can move pretty darn quick. And, so can we. We are growing at a faster rate now than ever before. For example, it took 3.5 years to handle our first million conversations--and we're on pace now to do our second million conversations in about 10 months.

Four-year-olds can share & take turns. Our team is bigger now--we're 65+ full time people and over 3k incredible volunteers. Over two dozen of our volunteers have been hired to be full time staff. We’ve promoted from within, and we’ve launched a Coaching program to better support volunteers. We’ve also expanded our work with others, to ensure that our data is shared responsibly and used by decision-makers -- we’ve established over 120 keyword partnerships, with universities, cities/states, and issue-specific organizations.

Four-year-olds can count and stack items. We’ve always been a data driven organization, and over time we’ve been getting smarter about how we collect, store, and analyze data. Instead of "it’s always been done that way,” we’re using data to make decisions. More data = better predictions = best decisions.

Four-year-olds also start to think for themselves: establishing preferences, making decisions, and learning to speak for themselves. We've found our voice too. We’ve developed our brand around innovation and empathy. We're a tech startup that happens to be a mental health organization. We occupy this unique space with pride.

Maybe the best thing about being 4 is dreaming about being 10. There are so many things we dream about here--more volunteers, more products to help us with speed & accuracy, and more learning.

But for today, cake cake cake.

Nancy Lublin

Tech and humanitarian leader. Founder of Dress for Success, a global non-profit that empowers women to achieve economic independence, and CEO of Crisis Text Line: free, 24/7 crisis support via text message.