Schoolhouse is entering its next phase of growth, and I couldn't be more excited about what's ahead.
Today, I'm sharing that I'm transitioning from my role as COO to join our Board. I'm thrilled that Matt Wu, who has led our Partnerships and Programs to great success, will become Schoolhouse’s new COO.
The momentum we're seeing is extraordinary. This fall marked our fastest growth ever, with our college readiness programs and flagship SAT Bootcamps reaching more students than ever before. Since I co-founded Schoolhouse with Sal Khan, Shishir Mehrotra, and Mariah Olson over 4 years ago, we've helped over 100,000 learners across 190 countries connect through free, human-to-human tutoring. Each learner has their own story, often having their life changed through the tutoring they receive. When we started, many thought it was impossible to build a global community of volunteer tutors at scale. My experiences programming at Khan Academy and teaching high school math, however, opened up my eyes to the potential for a new type of platform. We've now proven the skeptics wrong: When you aspire to a higher ideal and attract the right group of people, anything is possible. We have leveraged all sorts of technology (and yes, even AI!), but people remain at the core of Schoolhouse. And Schoolhouse is now the largest free tutoring platform on the internet.
Matt is exactly the leader Schoolhouse needs for this next chapter as we double down on our product-market-impact fit and grow from 100,000 learners to millions. Matt is uniquely positioned for this. Before Schoolhouse, he built up a strong technical background studying CS at MIT, then spearheaded social impact projects at BCG, and has shaped initiatives across education and nonprofits. At Schoolhouse, he has emerged as a transformative leader these past couple of years: first scaling our SAT Bootcamps and then having tremendous success leading all of Programs and Partnerships. Working alongside Matt, I've seen firsthand his remarkable ability to build and inspire a team while never losing sight of our core mission: connecting the world through learning.
I will continue to help lead Schoolhouse at the Board level. Leading Schoolhouse from early concept to a high-growth nonprofit tech startup has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Knowing when it’s time to transition one’s role is not an easy decision, especially for a founder, but it is one of the most important ones. As Schoolhouse has not only found its footing but is now thriving, I know this is the right move for both me and the organization.
Looking ahead, I will keep pursuing my work at the intersection of education and new technologies. I’m excited to join Anthropic to work on education projects, and I’ll continue to wrestle with many of the same questions of scaling impact in education, but now more squarely from the AI perspective. There is no doubt, however, that humans are still at the core (hence Anthropic’s name). Schoolhouse has taught me that.
With Sal remaining CEO, Matt becoming our new COO, and Mariah’s continued leadership, Schoolhouse is perfectly positioned for its next phase of scale and impact. We have a clear roadmap in place and a strong financial position. Our vision of expanding access to free, high-quality tutoring has never been more important, and our ability to deliver on that vision has never been stronger.
The best is yet to come.
Drew Bent