San Francisco, (July 23, 2025) – Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) has named Sam Chaudhary, co-founder and CEO of ClassDojo, one of the 2025 Entrepreneur Of The Year® Bay Area Award winners.

Now in its 40th year, Entrepreneur Of The Year is the preeminent competitive award for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. Past winners include industry-defining founders such as Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and Eric Yuan (Zoom). Sam Chaudhary now joins their ranks, recognized for his role in transforming education for tens of millions of families and children around the world.

“From day one, Sam has had a sweeping vision to transform education at scale,” said Hemant Taneja, CEO at General Catalyst, and ClassDojo Board member. “He and the team have stayed resolutely focused on their mission—and in doing so, built a generational, serially compounding business. ClassDojo’s impact and scale are a direct result of Sam’s clarity of purpose about giving every child an education they love. We’re proud to have been early backers and are thrilled to see him recognized with this honor.”

The Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors founders, CEOs, and visionary leaders who demonstrate bold thinking, resilience, and a capacity to build category-defining companies.

Chaudhary co-founded ClassDojo with computer scientist Liam Don, launching what began as a simple communication tool to connect teachers with students and families. Today, ClassDojo reaches 45 million children, across 90% of U.S. elementary schools and in 180 countries, making it one of the largest education platforms in the world.

What sets ClassDojo apart is its pioneering business model: the platform remains free for all, funded by optional extras for families. This makes it accessible for every child in the world. The company has been recognized by Inc., Fast Company, and Forbes for its human-centered approach to technology and its long-term commitment to teachers, children, and families.

About ClassDojo

ClassDojo is on a mission to give every child on earth an education they love. Its flagship app is the #1 communication app for children, teachers, and families globally; they use it to stay connected, sharing through the school day with photos, videos, messages, and activities. ClassDojo serves over 95% of K-8 schools in the U.S. and over 51 million kids in classrooms in 180 countries every month. The company has been recognized by Forbes, Inc. and Fast Company for innovation and is a top 100 Y Combinator company. To learn more, visit classdojo.com, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or read about ClassDojo’s thesis.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year

Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 60 countries globally.

The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November where National finalists and award winners are announced. The overall National winner represents the US at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About EY

EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society and the planet, while building trust in capital markets.

Enabled by data, AI and advanced technology, EY teams help clients shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow.

EY teams work across a full spectrum of services in assurance, consulting, tax, strategy and transactions. Fueled by sector insights, a globally connected, multi-disciplinary network and diverse ecosystem partners, EY teams can provide services in more than 150 countries and territories.

All in to shape the future with confidence.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

Seven years ago, my co-founder Liam and I launched ClassDojo from the studio apartment we shared. Today, ClassDojo serves tens of millions of children in over 180 countries every day, and growing fast. This year, we’re working on sharing a bit more about what ClassDojo is all about.

Kyle Crater is the principal of Amanda E. Stout Elementary in Pennsylvania’s Reading School District. Many of the families in Kyle’s district don’t speak English – which makes it harder for them to be involved in what’s happening in the classroom and school.

It’s a challenge that many teachers and principals face across the U.S. – as well as around the world. Today, more than 15 percent of adults in the U.S. don’t speak English at home. For one in four school-aged students, either they or their parents were not born in the U.S.

We developed Translate over three years ago to help solve this problem. And the idea came from you! (Like all the best ideas do, ha!) But when we created it – in 36 hours no less – we had no idea how impactful it could be. Every week, over 270,000 (yes, a quarter of a million!) messages are translated through ClassDojo in the U.S. Translate may feel like a small thing, but it’s been making a big difference.

Today, we’re introducing ClassDojo Beyond School to our community. It’s our first-ever product just for families, and we’re excited to share more about it!

ClassDojo Beyond School started just like everything we do at ClassDojo – by listening to teachers and families. Over the years, we’ve spoken with thousands of families and we heard a common theme: families want to help their children learn and grow. This became particularly apparent when we released the Big Ideas series on Growth Mindset, Empathy, and Mindfulness. Teachers were sharing these videos home, and families kept emailing us asking for more!

We realized that we think a lot about the formal learning experiences happening inside classrooms, but children spend a significant portion of their day at home, and that time is full of opportunities for small, informal learning experiences. From that, an idea was born: ClassDojo Beyond School. ClassDojo Beyond School helps families turn those opportunities into amazing learning experiences they can share in together.

Did you know that Sunday was National Parents Day? It really should have been a national holiday, but we’ll settle for a congressional resolution.

Hat’s off and hi-fives to all the parents out there doing whatever it takes for their kiddos! The juggle is real.

Any parent will tell you (or shout from the rooftops): a little bit goes a long way. So to celebrate the occasion, we went through our Summer Kindness Series submissions from families to highlight some of the brilliant ways kids are showing their parents a little TLC this summer.

Well, here’s a little something delightful.

It’s end of year time for schools in many countries, and that also means its one of the busiest times at ClassDojo! We’re so lucky we get to interact with this amazing community every day.

One of our favorite things is when we hear directly from you! Emails, posts, pings, likes, shares, shoutouts, and tags – they’re all the best! And we read every single one of the messages we get. From tales of classroom kindness to seeing Mojo mania, the #classdojolove is what keeps our coffee pot warm and our team inspired.

In ClassDojo’s first week in 2011, our founders Sam and Liam were really excited to see 80 teachers use ClassDojo in their classrooms (you know who you are!). Today, we’re humbled to see how our community has grown to millions more in over 180 countries. Teachers, parents, and students everywhere use ClassDojo to build stronger relationships with each other, working together to improve education in their communities. This is the heart of our mission.

These relationships require trust. That’s why every ClassDojo product is designed with privacy and security first; we have a fundamental belief in doing what’s right for you, our community.

Protecting your privacy is fundamental to the trust we need to improve education together, and we work extremely hard every day to earn yours. That’s why we made this Privacy Center to provide even more transparency and peace of mind over how ClassDojo protects your privacy and security, and gives you control over your information. Here are a few highlights from it:

1. Control: we believe your information is yours, so in our privacy policy, we’ve legally committed to never selling or renting it to anyone. We never share any student personal information with advertisers or marketers.

2. 12-month deletion: we protect students with our industry-leading policy. We don’t keep student personal information schools don’t need and we delete students’ feedback points after 12 months.

3. Privacy: ClassDojo is compliant with COPPA, FERPA, is certified by TRUSTe, and will be compliant with GDPR when it goes into effect in Europe on May 25th, 2018. ClassDojo is also a signatory to the Student Privacy Pledge, agreeing to a set of principles intended to safeguard student privacy, including responsible stewardship, protection, and transparent handling of student personal information.

If you ever have questions, please drop us a note any time on privacy@classdojo.com. We’re here to help! 🙂

Thank you for being part of our community – we can’t wait for all that’s to come!

— The ClassDojo Team

What is personal information?
Basically, personal information is information that can be used to identify or contact a particular individual or a particular device. You can see our definition here.

What personal information do you collect about students?
No part of our mission requires sensitive information about students, so we don’t collect any. We ask for the minimum necessary information from students to provide and improve the service and for educational and safety purposes: often just a name. We don’t need or ask for anything else, such as gender, social security number, email, address, or student ID. Please see our privacy policy for more details on information collected directly from students.

How long is student information stored?
We protect students with our industry-leading policy: we don’t keep student personal information schools don’t need and we delete students’ feedback points after 12 months.

Will my information ever be sold or rented to other organizations?
No. On ClassDojo, your personal information is yours. ClassDojo never sells or rents personal information to any third parties, for any reason.

Does ClassDojo share student information with Facebook?
No.

Will ClassDojo ever sell advertising targeted at my child?
No, we will never share student personal information to advertisers or marketers.

ClassDojo is a free app. How does the company make money?
ClassDojo has grown through incredible love and word-of-mouth, and is funded by investors who believe in our mission. We plan to make money through premium features we’re developing that parents and schools can pay for. Everything currently available on ClassDojo will remain free for teachers.

What happens when you work with third parties?
We do not sell or rent any information to third parties. Like every company, we work with selected third-party service providers to help provide our service – for example, we work with a service to help us send emails, instead of building that service ourselves.

Where we work with third parties, we mandate that they comply with our Privacy Policy and have contractual commitments ensuring comprehensive data protection and security protocols that satisfy all our requirements (GDPR, FERPA, COPPA, etc.). Additionally, these service providers will not have the right to use your personal information beyond what is necessary for us to provide the services.

Here is a full list of the third-party services that help us provide you with ClassDojo’s service.

How and where is information stored?
ClassDojo’s servers are in highly secure, military-grade data centers that are access-controlled. ClassDojo uses bank-grade security at the software and network level to ensure all information is transmitted securely.

In Europe, will ClassDojo be in compliance with GDPR when it goes into effect on May 25, 2018?
Yes. ClassDojo is compliant with all applicable privacy laws, is certified under the EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield, and will be in compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when it comes into effect on May 25, 2018. We’ll update you when any changes occur, and they will be reflected in our Privacy Policy.

In the US, how does ClassDojo comply with the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)?
ClassDojo has been granted the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor seal signifying our website and apps have been reviewed and approved for having policies and practices surrounding the collection, use, maintenance and disclosure of personal information from children consistent with the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor program guidelines. For additional information, please see our COPPA consent FAQ for schools and our FAQ for parents.

In the US, how does ClassDojo comply with FERPA?
Although FERPA is a law that applies to schools receiving funding from the Department of Education and does not apply directly to education technology vendors, ClassDojo’s practices fully support a school’s FERPA requirements and ClassDojo has earned a FERPA seal from iKeepSafe, an experienced privacy protection organization. Download our FERPA primer here for a helpful resource!

What about privacy outside the U.S. and Europe?
ClassDojo is used in over 180 countries, so we are always improving how we operate given where teachers are. For example, we comply with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

If you have questions about your specific country, please contact us at privacy@classdojo.com.

Picture a middle school student who we’ll call Ethan. He entered third period today with a scowl on his face. He squirms and fidgets in his chair, unable to focus. When his teacher asks him about last night’s homework, he bristles with annoyance and says he didn’t do the assignment. It’s not clear why Ethan appears angry, and chances are Ethan may be a little unsure himself.

Interview between Janice Walton (Getting Smart) and Stacy Weber (fifth-grade dual language Teacher at Westwood Elementary in Woodstock, Illinois).

Kindness is a relatively easy word to define–according to Google it means “the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.” Easy enough, right? Then why is “kindness” often so hard to put into practice? How do we go about teaching and learning kindness? I recently spoke with Stacy Weber, a fifth-grade teacher in a dual language program in Woodstock, Illinois, to shed some light on this and understand how she’s teaching kindness.

This month, students are making their voices heard, including those in our Dojo community. We all believe our students’ voices will shape our future world – and there’s no better time to support them than right now!

That’s why we asked ClassDojo teachers to share words of encouragement, and to tell us how they help their students find their voices every day.

Here’s what they shared 😀