Harsh Patel, a former Teach for America teacher, created Portfoliyo to address the challenge of communicating with parents, leveraging Twilio Messaging's high open rate and ease of use. The platform allows teachers to manage contacts and text conversations within a simple web application, facilitating two-way communication. By using Portfoliyo, teachers can improve student success by reinforcing homework completion and encouraging classroom participation. After initial slow growth, the product saw a significant surge in usage after its launch at Twilio.org, now sending over 65,000 messages per month, as word spread among busy teachers during the summer break.