Dear Simbi Community,
Just over 5 years ago, I started Simbi because I believed that the world needed an alternative to the increasingly extractive economic system that we live in. An economic system that built up the rich at the expense of everyone else. An economic system that dehumanized interactions that were previously deeply personal. An economic system that left so many of us feeling helpless, demoralized, and disconnected.
5 years later, the need for a better way has never been greater. Yet as we stand on the brink of what I anticipate will be a major economic restructuring as the current system reaches its breaking point, I’m feeling increasingly hopeful that a more fair and just economy may lie on the other side.
This community has given me that hope. Through you, I’ve witnessed deep compassion, incredible selflessness and generosity, and beautiful expressions of creativity. Of course, like in any community, I’ve also witnessed all of the old ways — greed, fear, apathy. And yet again and again, I saw goodness rise to the surface, people connect in entirely new ways, lifelong friendships form, and needs be met in ways that were never before possible.
All that I have witnessed — combined with my beliefs about the economic and cultural shifts we can expect over the coming decade — makes me very excited about the future of an alternative economy. In order to best facilitate that opportunity for the Simbi platform, it is with both incredible excitement and deep sentimentality that I’m announcing today that Simbi is officially under new ownership: ownership that is best positioned to take this platform and movement forward.
Simbi’s new owners, Heart of Avalon, are deeply mission and vision aligned. They are a public benefit company committed to keeping the core Simbi platform free to use for all who need it, while also exploring options to becoming financially self-sustaining. For their commitment to the values that we are built on, Simbi could not be in better hands.
Simbi will continue to operate normally, and in the coming days, you will hear more from the Heart of Avalon team about what to expect moving forward. And of course, I’m not going anywhere. Please feel free to respond to me with questions — I’ll do my best to answer you all.
It’s been the ultimate honor to do my best to serve this community for the last half-decade. If there’s one thought I’d like leave you with, let it be this: never forget that the future of our planet is ultimately in our hands. How we show up, how we treat one another, the systems that we accept and the ways that we fight back — it all ultimately matters. Here’s to a future where the standard of living is, ultimately, LOVE.
Symbiotically,
KJ
