Frizzle

What do they actually do

Frizzle is an AI grader for K–12 math that lets teachers upload or photograph student worksheets (handwritten or typed) and get per‑problem grades plus student‑friendly, step‑by‑step feedback. Teachers also see a class view of results to spot where students struggled Frizzle homepage | YC profile.

Today it supports recognizing handwritten and typed solutions and grading multiple correct approaches. It’s sold via a Free plan (up to 50 assignments/month), a Pro subscription, and an Institution tier; class analytics and LMS integrations (Google Classroom, Canvas) are listed as coming or reserved for higher tiers rather than broadly available now Frizzle homepage | Pricing.

The company reports early teacher usage (thousands of worksheets graded) and time saved; these are company‑reported signals, not independently verified YC profile.

Who are their target customer(s)

• K–12 classroom math teacher: Spends many hours grading handwritten work and needs same‑day, step‑by‑step feedback students can act on; wants a simple upload/photo workflow that returns instant, student‑facing explanations Frizzle homepage | YC profile.
• Math department lead or small‑team coordinator: Needs consistent grading across teachers and quick class‑level views to compare understanding, but lacks easy tools for standardizing feedback and spotting common gaps Pricing – Institution features | Frizzle homepage.
• Interventionist / special‑education teacher: Must give precise, stepwise guidance and track progress for struggling students, yet has limited time to write individualized feedback for each assignment Frizzle homepage | Founder interview.
• School/district instructional leader (curriculum or assessment): Wants district‑wide analytics and LMS integrations to measure learning trends and scale tools, but current solutions are siloed and slow to deploy Pricing | Frizzle homepage.
• Tech‑forward pilot teacher / early adopter: Wants a low‑friction way to try AI grading (freemium, quick setup) and verify accuracy/time savings before recommending broader adoption Pricing | YC profile.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Invite local early‑adopter teachers and friends‑of‑founders, grant free Pro access, and provide white‑glove onboarding; capture screenshots and short testimonials from real graded worksheets as first case studies Frizzle homepage | Pricing | YC profile.
• First 50: Run targeted demos in teacher communities and share short “grade a worksheet in 2 minutes” videos; offer referral bonuses (extended Pro) and use the freemium plan to lower friction while collecting before/after grading‑time data to support conversion Pricing | Frizzle homepage.
• First 100: Convert clusters of users into department/school pilots via short paid agreements for math leads and interventionists; publish school‑level case studies and upsell Institution contracts with analytics and LMS integrations as they come online Pricing | Frizzle homepage | YC profile.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

A simple TAM proxy is U.S. K–12 teachers multiplied by Frizzle’s per‑teacher Pro price NCES Fast Facts | Pricing.

Bottom-up calculation:

$16.67/month ≈ $200/year per teacher × ~3.7M U.S. K–12 teachers ≈ $740M/year TAM Pricing | NCES Fast Facts.

Assumptions:

• All K–12 teachers are addressable for math‑grading use cases.
• Every buyer pays the Pro list price with no discounts or free usage.
• District/institution contracts and non‑U.S. markets are excluded from this TAM.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Gradescope: Grading platform for scanned/photographed work with reusable rubrics and annotation tools; overlaps on the “scan → grade” flow but centers on instructor rubrics and semi‑automated/manual grading rather than fully automatic student‑facing steps Gradescope guide.
• Photomath: Consumer app that lets users photograph math problems to get immediate, step‑by‑step solutions; overlaps on worked explanations from images but is primarily student‑facing, not a teacher grading workflow Photomath homepage | Overview.
• Mathspace: K–12 math platform with step‑level feedback, adaptive hints, and a teacher dashboard with class reports; competes on feedback and analytics at scale but is a broader curriculum/practice product Mathspace Educators | Teacher Dashboard.
• Carnegie Learning (MATHia): Enterprise math system offering just‑in‑time step‑level feedback and rich teacher/admin reports; closer on actionable feedback and district analytics, but a full curriculum/tutoring solution rather than a lightweight worksheet grader MATHia product page.
• ASSISTments: Online homework platform providing immediate student feedback and real‑time class reports; overlaps on feedback and analytics, but students enter answers into the platform—no grading of photographed handwritten work Evidence & reports | Data Reports.