- Surprisingly, in the USA, there are mathematics competitions for schoolchildren annually attracting 300 thousand participants. This seems like a lot until we realize that there are 33 million schoolchildren of the corresponding age in the USA.
- But what if we set an ambitious goal to involve millions of schoolchildren in such competitions? Then it will be possible to build a billion-dollar company on this đ
- This is the goal pursued by this startup currently going through Y Combinator. And while it’s still very small, its platform can be copied and further developed:
Project Essence
Mathdash hosts online math competitions for students from the 5th grade.
The competitions are held very frequently – almost every day. To participate in a competition, you need to log in to the platform at a specific time and solve the problems presented during the competition within the given time frame.
Each competition is intended for students of a certain level – based on the grade they are in and their ranking on the platform.
Ratings and points are awarded for participation in real competitions. However, some competitions are announced in advance as training ones – participants can join them to get accustomed to the competition environment.
Additionally, platform users can solve problems from past competitions. These results are also not counted officially, but the user will be listed as having solved the problem “unofficially” rather than “during the competition.”
In addition to ratings and points, competition winners receive cash prizes. Above is a picture of a typical competition consisting of 10 questions, with the top 2 places receiving prizes of $20 and $15, respectively.
By registering for the competition, participants agree not to use outside assistance or the internet to solve the presented problems during the competition.
Mathdash is currently going through Y Combinator, from which it received the deserved $500,000 investment. The startup announced the launch of its platform three days ago.
However, the platform had already been operating in pilot mode, during which 200 “mathletes” (mathematical athletes, mathletes) participated in competitions, collectively solving 400,000 problems.
What’s Interesting
In the USA, there are regularly over a dozen mathematical competitions for schoolchildren. One of the most popular is the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC), which attracts over 300,000 students annually.
Nevertheless, Mathdash believes that “competitive learning” has not reached everyone it could. The startup believes that the number of competition participants could be even higher because “people love to learn and love to compete with each other.”
The most common barriers to participating in competitions in school subjects are “the tasks are very difficult there,” “registering for these competitions is too complicated,” “I don’t want to look foolish compared to others,” “there is no time for it.”
Mathdash’s goal is to make mathematical competitions accessible to everyone. To achieve this, they:
Expand the range of task difficulty – starting from regular tasks of slightly increased difficulty to genuinely challenging tasks. Competitions are held among participants of the same level, and the main goal is not to win but to earn points by solving tasks at their level. To register for a competition, participants simply need to press a button on their phone screen. Competitions take place every day, and they are very fast – one match in an online arena takes only 2 minutes.
Mathdash’s plans to potentially expand the audience for competitions are well-founded. In 2021, there were approximately 34 million students in grades 5-12 in the USA. Yet, the most popular math competition in the USA currently attracts “only” 300,000 students out of these 34 million!
Moreover, I believe that sooner or later Mathdash will want to expand the range of school subjects for which they hold competitions if their experiment with mathematics is successful.
However, the startup still needs to find a business model that allows them to earn money. However, this model may depend on how many students they manage to reach. If they can reach millions of students, then it is quite possible to try to earn money from advertising.
Above, I used the term “competitive learning.” It turns out that “Competition-Based Learning” is a real teaching method. Its essence really lies in students competing with each other to see who knows the subject better and can solve problems.
This is fundamentally different from the currently popular method of “cooperative learning” – when students are supposed to help each other learn subjects and solve problems.
By the way, it is important not to confuse competitive learning with “gamification.” The traditional essence of gamification lies in rewarding personal achievements – not in winning over others, as in competitive learning.
Competitive teaching methods receive a fair amount of criticism because they can lead to anxiety, stress, and disappointments. In one online article, it even says that competitive learning is a “capitalist relic” that is entirely built on competition đ
But on the other hand – where can you hide from competition in adult life now? So perhaps children need to be accustomed to this competition as early as possible?
Where to Go
But why only children? đ Some adults are also not particularly accustomed to competition and believe that their success depends only on what they themselves do â not on what others do. Like any persistent effort should somehow pay off and be rewarded in the end â although this is far from true âšī¸
So, the general direction of movement is the creation of platforms that support the methodology of competitive learning in different fields and for students of different ages.
It is worth noting that modern competitive learning should intersect heavily with the principles of “microlearning” â competitions, like lessons in microlearning, should be made as short as possible, but held as often as possible. Mathdash realized this point and implemented it.
A ready-made option is to create a platform for competitions in school subjects, which can be taken and copied directly from today’s Mathdash, and then developed further.
But it’s interesting â in what field and in what form can it take off for adults?
Especially since there is already at least one worthy example â it’s the popular Kaggle community, which took off precisely by holding competitions in data analysis and machine learning.
However, their topic and competitions are quite intricate đ Can something simpler and more mass-market be done in this or another field? In which one? How?
About the Company
Mathdash
Website: mathdash.live
Last Round: $500K, 01.12.2024
Total Investments: $500K, Rounds: 1