Mathos

What do they actually do

Mathos runs an AI math tutor/solver available on the web and mobile. Students can type a problem, take a photo, speak it, or upload a PDF and circle a question; the app returns step‑by‑step solutions, graphs, and can generate related practice (flashcards, quizzes, short explainers). The live product is accessible via the marketing site and web app, with published iOS/Android apps showing photo‑to‑solution and step‑by‑step features (site, web app, App Store).

For teachers and schools, Mathos advertises automated grading, progress summaries, and knowledge‑graph style reports to identify weak spots. These school features and accuracy benchmarks (they claim ~20% better than general LLMs on math) are company‑reported and still evolving; the app and site also caution that answers can be wrong and should be checked (site, YC profile, App Store).

Who are their target customer(s)

• High‑school and middle‑school students: They get stuck on homework and need clear, step‑by‑step help on demand. They want to snap a photo or type a problem and see worked solutions, hints, and graphs to finish practice outside class (web app, App Store).
• College STEM students: They face harder notation and multi‑step problems and often work from PDFs. They need support for formulas, graphing, and multi‑page uploads to get detailed solutions and visualizations (web app, site).
• Parents helping children learn: They lack time or subject expertise to coach every problem and want reliable explanations plus a way to see progress. They value stepwise solutions, flashcards, and a saved learning history they can review (site).
• Classroom teachers and school/district admins: Grading and spotting class‑level gaps are time‑consuming, and personalizing practice is hard to scale. They want automated grading, progress summaries, and knowledge‑graph style reports to reduce workload and target weak areas (site, YC profile).
• Tutoring centers and after‑school programs: They need to scale individualized practice and create lesson materials quickly. They value auto‑generated practice questions, quizzes, and short explainers to standardize and speed prep (web app, site).

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

• First 10: Run high‑touch pilots with ~10 local teachers or small tutoring centers, offering a free 30–60 day trial with onboarding and weekly check‑ins; capture usage logs, artifacts, and testimonials to validate outcomes.
• First 50: Convert early champions into advocates with referrals and short case studies; conduct targeted outreach to district/math leads using those proofs and offer a discounted first‑term package for early adopters.
• First 100: Standardize the motion (pilot contract, onboarding checklist, one‑page results deck) and scale outreach via teacher networks, regional tutoring chains, and paid social aimed at parents/tutors; add referral incentives for educators.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Large, recurring demand exists for homework help and grading automation across K–12 and college, with established competitors demonstrating consumer willingness to pay for math help and step‑by‑step solvers (Photomath, Symbolab, Chegg Study).

Bottom-up calculation:

If Mathos converts 2 million students to a paid plan at ~$30/year (mix of school licenses and consumer), that implies a ~$60M annual TAM; scaling to 10 million paying students would imply ~$300M+.

Assumptions:

• Pricing averages ~$2–$5 per student per month consumer, or ~$10–$20 per student per year for schools.
• Paying users are a subset of active users; near‑term focus is middle/high school and college STEM.
• School budgets and consumer willingness to pay remain stable across academic years.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Photomath: Mobile‑first photo‑to‑solution app with step‑by‑step answers and visual tutorials; strong for quick K–12 homework help and camera input, primarily consumer/mobile focused.
• Symbolab: Online and app‑based symbolic solver with graphing and step‑by‑step walkthroughs; widely used to verify algebra–calculus work and as a practice tool.
• Wolfram|Alpha (Pro): Powerful computation engine with formal step‑by‑step math and an API; strong in college/STEM cases requiring rigorous symbolic computation and custom calculators.
• Chegg Study (and Mathway): Paid student‑help platform combining algorithmic solvers, large textbook/solution libraries, and human Q&A/tutoring; popular with college students seeking worked solutions and tutoring support.
• Socratic (Google): Free homework helper that accepts photos and returns curated explanations and videos; optimized for instant explanations and Google ecosystem integration rather than teacher analytics.