The math was the easy part

The math was the easy part

Homeschool parent, software engineer, math degree. The adaptive engine was the easy part. Then I became a film director, a social media manager and a performance marketer. Behind the scenes of a solo startup in the age of AI.

November 6, 2026· 4 min read
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That's the new pitch film for AMP, Adaptive Math Pathways. It's the best thing we've ever made, and I still can't quite believe I'm the guy who directed it.

Here's my actual résumé: homeschool parent, software engineer, math degree. I have a 15 year old and a 10 year old who do math at my kitchen table.

So when I set out to build the math program I wanted for my own kids, I figured I knew where the hard part would be. An adaptive engine that tracks a kid in every skill at once? A curriculum running from counting to precalculus? Spaced review? Workbooks generated fresh for one child?

Honestly, that was the easy part. That's just math and software. I could do that all day.

Here's what nobody warned me about.

I am now a film director

I had opinions about music in videos. Now I have rulings. Never duck the music. Never splice a song. Stop zooming for no reason.

This film went through about ten cuts. It's built from real captures of the real product, with a scene file in JavaScript, a narrator voice from ElevenLabs, and three songs laid under the same picture so we could test them.

My editors are AI agents, and here's my favorite detail of the whole project: they can't hear. They mix music by reading level meters and check rhythm from word timings. Then I listen, and we find out.

Sometimes they got too literal. One of my real notes: "Over-correction seems to be a theme now." I fix one shot, and I get a new law of cinema.

Then it finally clicked and we shipped it in wide, square and portrait, with three music mixes each. That's nine final videos. Next come other voices. We could end up with 27 cuts of one film, which is a sentence I never expected to say.

Video editors of Free2Z: you know this craft and I'm a math guy who wandered in. Tell me what's wrong with it. I mean it.

I am now a social media manager

I have 7 followers on Instagram and 2 on TikTok. I'm crushing it.

I've had to learn that "Full disclosure, we make a product..." sounds like a robot wearing a person's skin. I've learned homeschool Facebook groups have rules that deserve real respect, and that the real gold is parents telling each other what their kids hate. They say the same thing over and over: one program is too dry, another is all fluff, and the kid is melting down over a page with too many problems. That's the best product research I've ever seen, and it's free.

Today we posted the same film on X twice in slightly different words, three hours apart. On purpose? No.

I am now a performance marketer

I can now have feelings about Performance Max asset groups. I know what a sitelink is. We figured out that most of the parents we paid to reach were landing on a sign-up form, and 97% of them left. So we built a real home page with the film right on it. Today, every ad we run points there.

Software is deterministic. Ads are weather.

This is what solo looks like now

I'm one person with a lot of AI agents. They cut film, write code, run ad changes, draft posts and read Facebook threads, all at once, and I walk between them giving notes. It's wild. Some days I feel like the head of a studio. Other days I'm arguing with a very talented intern who can't hear about a song.

The thing that amazes me is that a homeschool dad can now do all of this at all. The thing that keeps me honest is that nothing good came out until I looked at it, hated it, and said why. Taste is still the job.

So, about that math program

We're not trying to be a decent option. We're aiming to be the best math education tool of all time. No apologies. Accept no second best. Yes, I think we're better than Math Academy, and I respect Math Academy a lot. Come tell me I'm wrong.

  • One continuum, not a stack of grades. Your kid can be years behind in one thing and years ahead in another. AMP finds where they really are in every area.
  • A complete curriculum, from counting all the way to precalculus. No program to switch to later.
  • Mixed and spicy, not the same problem twenty times. Old ideas come back right when they'd fade.
  • Unlimited personalized printable workbooks, each one different, with an answer key.
  • Nothing to plan. Your kid puts in the time and presses Next.

This is going to skyrocket your kid's math with the least time and frustration. My kids use it every day and we improve it every day.

Try it. Buy it.

amp.corpora.inc

Try it free, or buy it today with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Want to pay with Zcash? We can do that. Tell us.

Free2Z people, here's your deal: if you don't have the funds, message @corpora here or email support@corpora.inc with "free2z" and your email address. We'll grant you a scholarship for being part of this community. All we ask is that you tell us what you think.

Come follow the circus

I'll keep writing these from behind the scenes: what the agents got wrong, what worked, what it costs, and whether any of this sells a single license. Ask me anything in the comments. Especially you, video people.

Tags

#math#AI#startup#homeschool#behind the scenes#video editing

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