From MarchingOrder to Tassel: Modernizing Graduation for the Next Generation

When I stepped into the CEO role at MarchingOrder a year ago, I saw an incredible opportunity. Graduation isn’t just another academic exercise–it’s one of the biggest milestones in a student’s life. Yet, for many, the way we celebrate this moment hasn’t changed in decades. Combined with the student’s stress of ensuring they have ticked all the boxes for registration, regalia, tickets, and more, it can end up feeling more like a chore rather than a celebration.

Think about your own graduation-was it really any different from what the previous generations experienced? The reality is that the commencement industry has been dominated by century-old incumbents who keep it that way. They are steeped in antiquated models and fragmented software, peddling unnecessary trinkets to students instead of investing in features that could increase the number of students crossing the stage. This stifles innovation, unfairly inflates costs for students, and ultimately harms institutions by reducing graduation participation rates. Our research shows the lower a school’s participation rate at graduation, the lower their alumni engagement and future donations will be as well.

As a former educator myself and having spent my entire career at the intersection of software and education, I knew we could build something better. Today’s digital-first Gen Z students expect modern, seamless digital experiences for every aspect of their education, and their graduation should be no exception. With tuition costs soaring by 1,513% over the last 50 years, they deserve a commencement experience that reflects the value of their investment. And staff deserve improvements to the manual work in their jobs as well.

That’s why I joined MarchingOrder–to shake up the status quo. For over 20 years, MarchingOrder has been the trusted partner of hundreds of schools and universities, supporting millions of students as they walk across the stage. This legacy of reliability and excellence is the foundation we’re building on as we evolve. Over the past year we began a transformation from a niche stage-crossing software into a robust “graduation-in-a-box” platform, connecting all the dots for a truly seamless experience. To reflect and embrace this evolution, we’re rebranding as Tassel.

Why Tassel? The tassel’s symbolic move from one side of the cap to the other represents the universal moment of graduation. It’s about completion, achievement, and the start of something new. That’s what Tassel embodies: moving forward, innovating, and bringing graduations into the modern age.

Tassel offers tools for every stakeholder: students, families, and administrators. With software that enables planning and ticketing, AI-powered name pronunciation, e-commerce for caps and gowns, stage crossing displays, photography, and post-ceremony tools like analytics and surveys, we’re making graduation easier to plan, execute, and remember.

And we’re just getting started. These changes bring much-needed transparency, visibility, and cost-savings to the commencement industry, making graduations more inclusive, accessible and memorable for the millions of students worldwide who come through our platform every year while reducing the manual burden on staff.

I’m excited for this next chapter and hope you’ll join us on this journey. Check out our roadmap, follow us on LinkedIn, subscribe to our podcast, or sign up to receive updates from our blog as we transform how the world celebrates graduations.