5 Years in Review — a Letter from Our New CEO

Tiffany Chu

CEO & Co-founder, Remix

Remix’s four co-founders five years ago at the Code for America office. (L-R) Dan Getelman, Sam Hashemi, Tiffany Chu, Danny Whalen.

Dear Remix customers,

As we wrap up 2019 and enter an era with new Remix leadership, we feel overwhelming gratitude for our customers who believed in us early and have continued to help us learn, grow, and enrich our technology. During this holiday season, I’d like to celebrate our five years with five customer stories that made a huge impact on us.

2015: Turning an idea into a company. When Oregon DOT saw what we built at Code for America and came onboard as our very first customer, it was the sign we needed to dream bigger. Through ODOT, we’ve had the unique privilege of working with all 30+ transit agencies across the state — from Tri-Met in Portland (the pioneers of GTFS) to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Since our partnership with Oregon, we’ve continued to promote open data standards, like GTFS-ride for ridership data, MDS for mobility data, GBFS for bikeshare data — all of which power the Remix platform today. Special shout-out to Matthew Barnes, ODOT’s Transit Network Manager for giving me a call five years ago.

king county metro
King County Metro: Metro Connects

2016: Consensus building and creativity. We were constantly amazed to discover the wide breadth of projects that our early customers were using Remix for, including:

  • King County Metro built consensus among 39 municipalities in the Seattle region for their 2040 Long Range Plan in 9 months instead of the projected 2 years. Metro staff expedited this process by eschewing traditional meeting materials (stacks of paper, static and hard-to-read maps) for simply a laptop, a projector, and Remix (see maps of access here featuring Jane, our favorite travel time isochrone).
  • Before hurricane season pummeled Tampa and the Florida coast, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) had the foresight to update their evacuation routes. We were proud to hear that Remix enabled them to do this for the first time in years.
  • Burlington Transit in Ontario taught a ninth grade geography class and challenged students to create three routes in Remix with a budget of $3M and the highest population coverage. By framing the game with the goal of serving the most people, the students intrinsically learned the point of transit planning: helping more people get to more places.
remix platform screenshot

Helsinki's transport authority, HSL, shares a plan in Remix for public feedback.

2017: Going international. We opened our Europe office in Amsterdam and welcomed our first international customers across Iceland, Finland, Ireland, Australia, and more. We love seeing Remix maps in different languages shared with communities around the globe — for example, Helsinki’s transport authority shared their 2019–2020 plans via Remix for public outreach and consultation.

2018: Launching a new product. With learnings from building the first planning platform for transit, we kicked off a new way to redesign streets — with data. We heard from over 150 planners around the world, conducted 50+ research interviews, and launched Remix Streets and Mobility.

Left: Collaborating on early designs with data on how streets are being used can help you get closer to project implementation, faster. Right: A picture of Montgomery County's beautiful protected intersection.

Since then, it’s been inspiring to see how our customers have prioritized our most vulnerable street users — pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders. Congrats to Montgomery County DOT in Maryland for building out the Silver Spring bike network, launching a dockless mobility program, and recently opening the first protected intersection on the east coast. (If you’re interested in learning more about Remix Streets and Mobility, let us know!)

remix platform screenshot
Remix serves as the common language between transit agencies and city departments.

2019: Deeper collaboration. Our work this year plays a special role in informing what’s next. Working with hundreds of customers across 17 countries, we see a critical need not only to break down silos within organizations but also across organizations. As we work with both the City of Minneapolis and Metro Transit to build out a 10-corridor BRT network in Remix, cross-agency collaboration has proved to be vital for mobility options to truly benefit the region.

Reflecting on the past five years, I’m honored to take the helm as the new CEO of Remix. We’re thrilled at what our 325+ customers have accomplished so far, and I’m so excited to continue our work and build more livable cities with you in 2020 and beyond.

With gratitude,
Tiffany Chu
CEO and Co-Founder, Remix