Viewing profile — alexsouthmayd
alexsouthmayd
HN member- Joined
- Fri, Feb 06, 2026, 5:45 AM UTC
- HN karma
- 81
- Public activity
- 36 items
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About alexsouthmayd
Recent public activity
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Comment #49002364
This is a very thoughtful response! Thank you. I'd love to chat with you further, if you'd like to reach out directly to me (just use the demo form on the site). We are launching B…
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Comment #49002322
Great points! Agreed on the distinctions. With enough data we should be able to identify lots of cool things about mastery.
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Comment #49002315
These are really thoughtful points. Thanks for sharing them. I'd love to check out your code. The percentage mastery threshold on Summit may indeed be quite high, but the Summit al…
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Bloomy (YC S26) is hiring a founding engineer
About Bloomy Bloomy is an AI tutor and curriculum for K-12 students. Our student users are learning approximately 2x faster in early pilots, and students and teachers alike love ou…
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Comment #48992376
Thanks for engaging! Let me clear up some inaccuracies lest others misunderstand. First, those are all verbatim quotes from the educators. They were taken directly from letters of …
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Comment #48992275
Thanks, that's very helpful feedback! We'll improve this.
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Comment #48989330
Thanks for engaging! Our passages are a mix of public domain passages and in-house authored material which are specced to a long list of requirements. This allows us to create pass…
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Comment #48988319
Thank you! It's an interesting time for sure. In the face of all the headwinds, there are also some interesting tailwinds and opportunities: -Shrinking budgets forcing reevaluation…
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Comment #48985596
That would be great. Please fill out your information on the below contact form, & I will follow up with you! https://www.bloomylearning.com/#demo
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Comment #48985575
I'll check them out, thank you for your suggestions!
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Comment #48985410
I agree that how we approach the market will be the difference between being successful and failing. At this stage, we’re focused on finding early adopters who have the autonomy to…
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Comment #48985341
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. We’ve actually had a few school districts ask about paper workbooks, so this is already on our radar. Right now, students can move at their own p…
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Comment #48985274
We ran a pilot with roughly 150 students in grades 6–8. Students who used Bloomy for one hour per week averaged 1.8x their expected winter-to-spring growth on NWEA MAP. Our team wa…
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Comment #48983713
Thanks! I’ll have a read. Appreciate your taking the time to source and share these.
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Comment #48983596
There are many problems to solve within education! To say there’s only 1 aspect would be a massive disservice to the ~2 decades the average person spends going through a school sys…
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Comment #48983547
This is interesting, can you say more?
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Comment #48983071
Funny you say that. We actually just released a voice mode that allows students to engage, interrupt, and even switch languages. I'd love to design this to a greater extent through…
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Comment #48983058
Thanks for the support! On motivation: we have something called Bloomy Bucks. Kids earn these for getting questions right, mastering skills, and being consistent. They can then red…
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Comment #48983003
Yes—and the whole hypothesis here is that teaching could be more efficient than it currently is!
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Comment #48982957
I've been extremely inconsistent in my dashes today as I flip between different devices :)
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Comment #48982844
Good questions. I like that you're digging into the mechanics. First principle: BloomyBot does not proactively engage the student unless they make 3 mistakes in a row in "Climb" (t…
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Comment #48982732
I misread this -- yep I agree with the original statement!
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Comment #48982725
I just posted something pretty relevant to this in a different comment. Totally agree with the dangers. 2 important points: 1. Not all AI is the same. I see 2 MECE categories in ed…
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Comment #48982668
I empathize with the screen time concerns - the reality is most kids in classrooms are already on screens, which are doing very little to move educational outcomes (from what I can…
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Comment #48982486
I've personally both had and seen great success with the Anki approach for specific terms (e.g., vocab flash cards). Spaced repetition is built into Bloomy based on similar princip…