We are building a global network of telescopes which will be available to both professional scientists and the science curious public. Our telescope network will be a homogeneous group, evenly spaced in northern and southern hemispheres for maximum night sky coverage. As well as undertaking a massive engineering endeavour, Las Cumbres Observatory is also a research institute specialising in time-domain astronomy, particularly exoplanet, supernova, and solar system research. Education and public outreach is also extremely important to our mission, with a large fraction of the total telescope time dedicated to EPO. During 2012 we launched our first citizen science project, Agent Exoplanet and deployed our first 1-m telescopes. Our aim of ‘keeping you in the dark’ is now becoming a reality.