Writings and learnings on my startup journey

DOcumenting Startup Life

Hi there, I’m TJ.

I’m the founder of Breakthrough Maths. We make Maths easier to learn for students. We teach over 3,000 students a week online. We are scaling the service using software. Our classes will become the most engaging Maths classes that a student will do.

Previously, I worked 4 years in Kerry Group after graduating with a 1st class honors degree in Agricultural Science from UCD.

In this blog, I’ll document the highs and lows of startup life.

Connect with me:

My Startup

Growing Breakthrough Maths to 20,000 students.

How I Started It

I started this business in September 2020. I was working for 4 years in Kerry group at the time, and I was very frustrated. I had more to give and to create. I set up the business in my local hall in Whitechurch, Co Cork. We had 12 students our first week. We were off to the races.

The Problem We Found

Initally, we started to teach students in small classes of 7-8 students on Zoom (Covid times). It was fun. Students liked the engagement. However, many students would look great in class, but they would not perform in tests. We also could never scale beyond 2,000 students as we could not standardize the teaching.

The Idea

So we had to solve the problem of finding a more effective way of teaching Maths at scale. The key to that is testing and data. If we could turn our classes into part live teaching, part students testing themselves, we would have a more engaging, more focussed class. So we built out own platform on AWS, incorporating a Zoom SDK feature. It’s like Peloton – but for Maths!

The Dream

I want to scale the business to 20,000 students per week. Why 20,000 students? It sounded good.

The reality is that Maths is a global problem for many students. And Maths is Maths – it’s the same thing across the globe and it’s binary. Why can’t we do a better job than the Khan Academy?

Breakthrough Maths Journey

My Inspiration

My story began by teaching students locally in my village. One student, in particular, inspired me to look at Maths in a new light.

Fionn McCarthy has autism. He wasn’t meant to go to mainstream school. I started working with him in 1st year in secondary school. We never looked back.

Roll the clock forward 6 years and Fionn ended up receiving 480 points in his Leaving Cert. It was the kick I needed to set up Breakthrough Maths.

Irish Examiner Article

i’ve a face for radio

Media appearances

Ireland AM

We appeared on Ireland AM to talk about all things about Maths. I also did a Maths quiz that caught some headlines!

Ireland AM Interview

2 Johnny’s Podcast

I joined the Tipp lads to discuss our viral growth on Tik Tok and the power of Maths. It was a serious laugh!

2 Johnny’s Podcast

Pat Kenny Newstalk Interview

I joined Pat to discuss Maths anxiety in girls. It was a great interview, 10 mins long.

Pat Kenny Clip (Spotify)

My Interests

Education

Breakthrough Maths is currently at €1.5m revenue. It will scale to +€5m next year, focussed solely on Ireland this year.

Breakthrough Maths

Founder and CEO

Agriculture

I am from a farming background. I studied Dairy Business in UCD, graduating with a 1st class honors degree in 2017. I like to help on the home farm and I follow Ag Tech developments.