Roblox
Teresa Brewer, incoming VP of corporate communications at Roblox
- Teresa Brewer is joining Roblox as its new VP of corporate communications.
- Brewer is most recently of SurveyMonkey, where she helped guide it to IPO. Before that, she had a 12-year stint at Apple that included the launch of the iPhone and App Store.
- Roblox, a gaming platform with 70 million monthly active users, was most recently valued at $2.5 billion in a funding round in September.
- Brewer says she's excited to work with the mostly-younger developers who make games for Roblox.
When Teresa Brewer told her 7-year-old son that she was joining Roblox as its new VP of corporate communications, his reaction was memorable.
"His look was - I'm going to categorize it as 'pride,'" Brewer told Business Insider. "That, in a nutshell, is how I'm feeling about [the new job]."
Brewer is joining Roblox after a two-year stint at SurveyMonkey - the well-known online polling company, which she helped guide towards a blockbuster debut on the public markets in September. Before that, Brewer was at Apple for 12 years, where she was a senior PR manager involved with the launch of the iPhone, and, later, the App Store.
If you're unfamiliar with Roblox, it's likely that you don't have any kids in your life. At last count, Roblox had 70 million active monthly players, many of whom skew on the under-18 side, putting it in a league with juggernauts like "Minecraft" and "Fortnite." In September, Roblox raised a round of funding valuing the company at $2.5 billion.
Roblox
The Playground, the hub area of "MeepCity."
Unlike its peers, however, Roblox is almost entirely created by its users. All 40 million Roblox games, including huge hits like "MeepCity," were made by its base of mostly younger independent developers. If a player chooses to spend the premium virtual Robux currency - which costs real money - in a game, the developer gets a cut. Some of those young developers have become millionaires and moguls in their own right.
Brewer says that it's this element that ultimately drew her towards Roblox. During her time at Apple, she says, she crossed paths with plenty of developers who were energized to be working with its platform. Thanks to the "great growth" of Roblox, she now has a similar opportunity to work with passionate independent developers, she says. Besides, she notes, before she went to Apple, she spent some time in Sony's PlayStation video gaming division.
"It really extends what you get to work on as a communications professional," says Brewer. "I love to see the creativity that you see in developers."
Ultimately, she says, she appreciates that Roblox is mature enough to be an established brand with a seasoned leadership team, but also, at a moment where it's seeing user growth and investor interest. It's an opportunity she likens to the atmosphere at SurveyMonkey when she joined in 2016.
"It's an opportunity to really build something out," says Brewer.
Matt Weinberger/Business Insider "Roblox Murder Mystery 2," a Roblox game.
When Brewer officially starts in the role in early January, she says she already has at least one priority mapped out: Working with parents. She says that her own son loves Roblox so much, it's made him want to code his own iPhone games. In an effort to understand it better, she says she did her own research into Roblox - research that made her more excited about the game. In that same way, she wants to work on spreading the word to more parents.
"As I became educated about [Roblox], I thought, there's a lot of opportunity here," says Brewer.