Your math abilities are likely influenced by your educational experience. Were you primarily taught to memorise mathematical concepts, such as multiplication tables, or were you encouraged to develop a deep understanding of mathematical principles? Did you like math? If you scored poorly, probably not. 

But a Ukrainian-founded startup, Brighterly, is here to change all that for the next generations of math learners. 

Brighterly is an online math tutoring platform that provides US kids and teens from 1st to 12th grade with qualified math tutors. 

I spoke to Eugene Kashuk, Brighterly’s founder and CEO to find out more. 

A perfect storm for math tutors

Brighterly is the Kyiv-based founder’s third startup. My first question was, why focus on the US?

 He explained:

“We realised that the problem in US mathematics education in K to 12 segments is vast.

In the last twenty years, math skills have been at their lowest. On average, kids fall behind their school program by two years.”

While COVID-19 is partly to blame, the problem is exacerbated by a huge deficit in the teacher workforce. 

Kashuk explained:

“The US education system is so decentralised. They don’t have a central ministry of education. They have school districts that make their own decisions, meaning that while there is a recommended syllabus, there are no standard math curricula across states, with only half using a common core curriculum. 

Kids fall prey to poor education due to the disarray.”

Further, in the US, math tutors are traditionally twice as expensive as Brighterly and lack the tutor screening and personalised curriculum. 

So Brighterly saw a huge market due to the lack of knowledge, resources and teachers, with 50 million school-aged children and young adults needing to learn math in the US.

Kashuk’s former experience as founder of marketplace DexDigital gave him the experience and the knowledge to create a platform that connects students and tutors. 

He also notes, “It’s pretty easy to market math learning and understand the pain points of customers, so we decided to go for it.”

The disruption of war

The company launched three months before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, reaching pre-MVP in a matter of weeks. 

Then, the war happened. 

The startup had to halt its operations to evacuate the team from Kyiv  “because it wasn’t clear what would happen. But after a month or so of chaos, we got our spirits back and started fighting for our future and our startup.”

The completely distributed company now has a team of around 60 people, including sales and customer success agents, with staff in Ukraine, Poland, the UK, South Africa, and more,

The company originally started with a team of Ukrainian math tutors but  Kashuk realised “it was pretty hard to run lessons with air raid sirens, and blackouts.”

The company looked global and now has a large cohort of tutors, especially from places like the Philippines and India which complement US time zones. 

Brighterly’s online math tutors use a curriculum that adapts to each student’s requirements. The platform utilises a game-based approach to learning to keep students engaged and motivated, encompassing over 700+ curated lessons and 250 tutors.

Personalised learning, personalised tutors

Let’s face it, being good at math doesn’t mean you should teach it. 

As a result, Brighterly has an extensive recruitment process which includes testing, training, and mock lessons “where one of our team does a mock lesson playing the part of a really nasty child, and the tutor candidate has to handle it and try and teach them.”

Following that, tutors enter probation mode, with their lessons carefully monitored and evaluated. They are provided with feedback and training workshops with really skilled tutors to boost their skills. 

Brighterly has a sophisticated rating system to encourage great teaching.If you perform really well, you can attract more students. 

The company develops its own curriculum and teaches tutors to lesson plan and cater the classes to personalised teaching. 

Further, the tutors get full-time work opportunities. “This is not a side gig for them because we spend a lot of resources vetting, training, and resourcing them.”

Students encompass both those in need of remedial maths who are struggling to catch up and grasp concepts and those with parents pushing for more advanced learning for their kids, wanting them to perform their peers out and learn concepts a grade ahead. 

“We believe that math is a journey. It’s not something you can learn in a month or so. Everything is built around crafting long-term math learning” and most students stay between 6 to 12 months.”

I wondered about cheating like using online calculators and generative AI to provide answers. Kashuk asserts that the engaging nature of Brighterly classes prevents cheating.

“Our tutors use a lot of movement and gestures to keep students engaged. Younger students use their fingers to count, and they talk about math while working. 

Children are not bored, and they don’t feel sad about learning math kike they do at school.”

Brighterly assessments are objective, offering dynamic reporting of student progress to understand how they can be best optimised and refined. 

What’s next for Brighterly? Demand for good math tutoring shows no sign of abating. The company is also considering expanding its offering into reading and literacy —  literacy challenges are prevalent in many parts of the US, and there is a growing demand for effective literacy support programs.

Brighterly offers a solution to the widespread challenges faced by students and teachers alike by providing personalised instruction, engaging lessons, and skilled tutors. It’s a great example of a high-impact startup changing lives for the better.

Lead image: Brighterly. Photo: uncredited.