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Viewing profile — alexsouthmayd

alexsouthmayd

HN member
Joined
Fri, Feb 06, 2026, 5:45 AM UTC
HN karma
81
Public activity
36 items

About alexsouthmayd

Founder of Bloomy (YC S26): AI-powered mastery learning for K-12 Reach me at alex@bloomylearning.com

Recent public activity

  1. comment
    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…

  2. comment
    Comment #49002322

    Great points! Agreed on the distinctions. With enough data we should be able to identify lots of cool things about mastery.

  3. comment
    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…

  4. job
    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…

  5. comment
    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 …

  6. comment
    Comment #48992275

    Thanks, that's very helpful feedback! We'll improve this.

  7. comment
    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…

  8. comment
    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…

  9. comment
    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

  10. comment
    Comment #48985575

    I'll check them out, thank you for your suggestions!

  11. comment
    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…

  12. comment
    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…

  13. comment
    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…

  14. comment
    Comment #48983713

    Thanks! I’ll have a read. Appreciate your taking the time to source and share these.

  15. comment
    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…

  16. comment
    Comment #48983547

    This is interesting, can you say more?

  17. comment
    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…

  18. comment
    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…

  19. comment
    Comment #48983003

    Yes—and the whole hypothesis here is that teaching could be more efficient than it currently is!

  20. comment
    Comment #48982957

    I've been extremely inconsistent in my dashes today as I flip between different devices :)

  21. comment
    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…

  22. comment
    Comment #48982732

    I misread this -- yep I agree with the original statement!

  23. comment
    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…

  24. comment
    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…

  25. comment
    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…