I have some big news to share with you.

As many of you know, three and a half years ago, Rand began to shift his role at Moz. He transitioned from CEO into a product architect role where he could focus his passion and have hands-on impact in evolving our tools. Now, over the next 6 to 9 months he will transition into a supporting role as a Moz Associate. He will continue to be a passionate speaker and evangelist, and you'll still see his enthusiastic face in Whiteboard Fridays, on the Moz Blog, and on various conference stages. And of course, he is one of our largest shareholders and will remain Chairman of the Board.

This is hard. Rand started Moz (formerly seomoz.org) over 16 years ago as a blog to record what he was learning about this new field. He and his co-founder Gillian Muessig created a marketing agency that focused on helping websites get found in search. They launched their first SAAS software product in February 2007, and I joined the company nine months later as the 8th employee. We've come a long way. Today, we have over 36,000 customers, 160 team members, a strong values-based culture, great investors, over $42 million in annual revenue last year, and a large and growing community of marketers. So many people have helped us reach this point.

What else is next for Rand? We're excited to find out. His book about the last 16 years at Moz comes out next year.

When you see Rand, please show him gratitude and support. He is an incredibly talented, passionate, and productive individual with a commitment to helping others. I know he's going to continue to make marketing better and spread TAGFEE in all his future roles.