To date, the total amount that Math Academy has spent on advertisement is…

by Justin Skycak on

I get this question from time to time: “Why is there so much Math Academy in my X/Twitter feed? Are these paid posts?”

The answer:

To date, the total amount that Math Academy has spent on paid posts, or any form of advertisement in general, is a flat \$0.

Word of mouth, baby!

We are fortunate to have a growing community of highly engaged, highly supportive students.

One thing I’ve learned recently is that

  • when you put an outsized amount of work into solving a problem for some people,
  • and you check in and engage with those people because you actually care that their problem is being solved,
  • they are often appreciative enough to reciprocate the level of engagement and support.

I never expected this community to emerge so naturally, and I am so thankful that we’re able to grow on the basis of genuinely caring about our students.

I’ve already said this several times before, but it’s true, it comes from the bottom of my heart, and I don’t know how to say it any better:

We care deeply about our students because we know how big an impact that has on their success – and to feel students noticing/appreciating this and caring for us in a similar way, well, it has just as big an impact on us.

There was a long period of time, many many years, where all our work on building the system was fueled

  • 100% by frustration with the state of math education and hope for a better solution, and
  • 0% by positive feedback and feeling appreciated.

Now, it’s like both of these levers are cranked up to 100%.

These levers are not two extremes of a single tradeoff – they’re two independent levers that are now cranked up to the max.

It’s one thing to wake up and work on building a thing that you hope will make a difference in people’s lives in the future.

It’s a whole other thing when that thing is actually making a difference in people’s lives right now, right in the moment as you’re working on making it better.

I’m still completely frustrated by the state of math education – in fact, I’m quite resentful of it on the basis of my own experience – and that is still a phenomenal source of motivation.

But I’m really enjoying this new positive side of the equation.