The Honor of My Life - And What Is To Come

The following is the full text of an email I sent to Noom's employees on the morning of July 18, 2023:

When people hear that I have been leading Noom for sixteen years, their reaction is often something like “aren’t you tired of startup life?” While sixteen years seems like a long time to me too, the time has gone by in a flash – and it was worth it. I am still as excited about Noom’s mission and potential today as I was on the day we founded this incredible organization.

Helping people live healthier lives through behavior change is a lofty mission, yet one that is deeply a part of who I am. Noom is my life’s calling, and I consider myself lucky to be able to devote myself to the pursuit of improving people’s health, relationships, longevity and enjoyment of life.

The nature of startup life, and of Noom in particular as an organization steeped in science, is ongoing experimentation, improvement and evolution. At an organization where change is the only constant, and where opportunities and challenges are around every corner, I am likewise lucky to have felt as though I have had a new job every day, every quarter, and every year. Noom has truly pushed me out of my comfort zone and taken me to places I could never imagine personally and professionally.

It is in the spirit of this dynamism that, after years of consideration and careful planning, I am handing the reins of Noom to another. After experiencing explosive growth and becoming one of the world’s most trusted consumer healthcare brands, I took considerable time to reflect on how I could continue to contribute to Noom’s mission and help it become an organization that would stand the test of time. At Noom, we ask a lot of our people – including that they adjust their ways of working, push boundaries, and grow alongside our organization as we evolve to serve our customers better. With the consultation and support of my co-Founder Artem Petakov, Noom’s Board of Directors, and my mentors and trusted friends, I came to understand that the agility and open-mindedness we ask of our people was required by me as well.

Noom’s management team and Board of Directors has been diligently and thoughtfully looking for the right person to build on Noom’s incredible foundation and take us to the next level. We have often joked that we were looking for a “unicorn”– someone who had deep business experience, was aligned with our mission and values, and who was also kind and caring. Geoff Cook is that unicorn.

Geoff’s qualifications are second to none, having built incredible success in his eighteen years leading The Meet Group and building and transforming a portfolio of well-known brands. More than his business acumen, though, is Geoff’s deep motivation to design technology with the intent to foster human flourishing, and his natural alignment with Noom’s mission. His thoughtfulness, eagerness to learn, and genuine kindness and care for others are the merits I had hoped to find in Noom’s next leader, and we are so excited to invite Geoff to lead Noom into its next chapter so that we may help as many people live better lives as we can.

It is with the sincerest gratitude to all of Noom’s people, my co-Founder and friend Artem Petakov, our Board of Directors, investors, and Noom’s customers, for your continued support. I will never stop dedicating myself to Noom’s mission, and in my role as Executive Chairman, I will continue to help this incredible organization grow and evolve.

It has been the honor of a lifetime to be your leader – Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

Saeju Jeong