Kids who love learning often struggle to have their learning needs supported. When I was in kindergarten, a teacher accused my mother of academically pushing me and told her I would commit suicide by the time I was a teenager.

That teacher was wrong. Instead, those opportunities to accelerate and challenge myself allowed me to take calculus in middle school, get perfect scores on my SATs, get into every college I applied to (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, Caltech…). More importantly, those opportunities fostered a lifelong love of learning that I’ve come to rely on during the ups and the downs of both my professional career and my personal life.

Before Mentava, I spent most of my career in gaming. The work was fascinating but I was never a gamer myself. I wasn’t building a product that I was passionate about, and eventually I started to feel like a digital drug dealer.

What I did care about was education. I had an amazing public school education, but over the years, I’d seen all the programs that I benefited from get cut or even banned.

When I was in elementary school, I spent my math classes from 3rd-6th grade doing independent study, until I rejoined group classes in 7th grade for precalculus. Independent study worked great for me: I got to learn as fast as I wanted and I never had any homework. 

But today, independent study is hard. The path isn’t clear, the tools aren’t good, and it’s not well-supported by schools. But for a high-achieving student whose learning needs aren’t being supported, independent study can be a lifeline to finally learning as fast as they want.

Our mission with Mentava is to throw a lifeline to those kids who are bored and stifled in their current educational environment, and show the world how fast children are capable of learning.