At some companies, missions are little more than a slogan. That’s not the case when you work in edtech.
Just ask Anne Marie Imperiale at ReUp Education, where she uses data to help adult learners reach their goals as a learner success analyst.
“Our mission comes to life through ReUp’s continually evolving approach to supporting adult learners,” Imperiale said. “Our model blends technology, data and authentic human connection to help learners return, persist and succeed.”
For Blake Garrett, the CEO at mobile edtech platform Aceable, the mission comes to life when he hears stories about the impact his company’s technology has on users’ lives.
“We hear about a single mom starting a new career in real estate, or a first-generation college student navigating licensing to support their family,” Garrett said. “... It’s a reminder that we’re not just shipping features, we’re shaping futures.”
Built In spoke with Imperiale and Garrett to learn more about how the two edtech companies stay connected to the mission, and the impact this line of work has on their people.
Aceable is a mobile education platform, focused on creating affordable, engaging, and convenient educational content.
In one sentence, why does the mission matter to your team — and what decision did it guide recently?
At Aceable, our mission isn’t just words on a wall but a filter for every decision we make. We exist to empower people to achieve their life goals through licensing education that’s not only convenient, but truly transformative. That lens recently guided a major shift in how we build our platform: investing in adaptive learning infrastructure that helps every student succeed on their own terms. It's not the easiest path, but it's the one that delivers on our promise to help learners move forward with clarity, confidence and momentum (instead of just clicking “next” a lot faster).
Which community or customer initiative best demonstrates your mission — and how is it measured?
A great example is our “Create a Lovable Student Experience” initiative, which is our collective refusal to build the educational equivalent of stale toast. Instead, we’re making learning that feels personal, mastery-based and (dare we say) actually enjoyable. It’s a company-wide mandate to evolve from being functional to being indispensable. We’re tracking progress through completion rates, satisfaction scores and most importantly, whether students feel they’re genuinely mastering the material. Because passing a test is one thing, being prepared for what comes next is another.
Do employees believe the mission is real? Share a moment or ritual that proves it.
Yes, but not just because we say it in our all-hands. Belief in our mission is visible and personal. We regularly share student spotlights, real stories from a learner who used Aceable to take a meaningful step in their life. We hear about a single mom starting a new career in real estate, or a first-generation college student navigating licensing to support their family. And we highlight the team members who made their journey smoother. It’s a reminder that we’re not just shipping features, we’re shaping futures.
ReUp Education is an organization that focuses on helping colleges and universities engage and re-enroll the more than 40 million U.S. residents who have "stopped out" and support them until graduation, through technology-enabled service.
In one sentence, why does the mission matter to your team — and what decision did it guide recently?
Our mission matters because the work we do directly shapes how adult learners and institutions unlock opportunity. It recently guided our decision to expand our investment in better understanding and supporting our audiences, deepening the research and insights that fuel meaningful change and measurable success for ReUp learners and our institution and state partners.
Which community or customer initiative best demonstrates your mission — and how is it measured?
Our mission comes to life through ReUp’s continually evolving approach to supporting adult learners. Our model blends technology, data and authentic human connection to help learners return, persist and succeed. We measure our impact through improved learner re-enrollment and completion outcomes, along with the institutional and state-level policy improvements that follow.
Do employees believe the mission is real? Share a moment or ritual that proves it.
Absolutely. Having been in roles across learner services as a success coach and managing the implementation and operations team and now on the insights team within data analytics at ReUp, I’ve seen how deeply ReUp invests in cross-functional collaboration to keep learner success at the center of every decision. It’s a company-wide practice that proves our mission isn’t just a statement, but a daily operating principle that shapes how we show up for learners and each other.
