I'm joining AoPS to bring kids to the frontiers of science and technology
March 2025 · By Andrew Sutherland
PERSONAL NEWS TIME! I am joining Art of Problem Solving as its new Chief Product Officer. AoPS is an advanced math curriculum company that serves the most ambitious and motivated students in the world. Notably, every member of the United States team at the International Math Olympiad has been trained by AoPS. The company is mostly unknown today, but I’m certain it will be world-renowned in short order. I pop out of bed every morning buzzing with excitement for the task ahead of me.
The frontiers of science and technology are rapidly expanding. Revolutions are under way in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy, among many other fields. We need to bring as many kids as possible to these frontiers, making them capable of shaping the craziness unfolding around them.
How do you bring kids to the frontiers? By helping millions of kids fall in love with math. We’re going to make them so obsessed they wake up at 8 A.M. on a Saturday morning to do math for fun.
AoPS has been quietly at work on this problem for a couple of decades. If you peek behind the curtain at the major AI labs, many of their researchers learned math with AoPS textbooks. For kids in elementary school, we make a comic book-style curriculum called Beast Academy. Now it’s my job to scale up AoPS’s approach to problem solving.
AoPS shows kids hard, interesting problems
I first heard about AoPS from a kid who was obsessed with math. I was teaching a class at MIT, and I had a funny freshman student. In high school, he woke up at 4 A.M. every morning to do three hours of math problems before school. He did this because he loved it, not because his parents asked him to. AoPS was the company that provided the textbooks, the community, and the hard problems that challenged him.
A few years later I met Richard Rusczyk, the founder of AoPS. He shared what he’d built, and I felt a special kinship and respect for him as a leader. As a fellow education company founder, I know what he’s done is really hard to do. I decided I wanted to join up with him.
Our country’s approach to math education has been busted for a long time. We spend too much time on explanations and algorithms. When kids don’t remember those, we remediate them with boring practice problems.
The AoPS approach is quite simple: show kids hard, interesting problems straight away. Nudge them with suggestions when they’re stuck. When they discover how rewarding it is to solve unfamiliar problems, they get hooked. We teach the art of problem solving, y’know?
A new era for AoPS
I am joining in the same moment as Ben Kornell, who is taking the role of CEO. We are partnering to run the company, and we are excellent complements; he brings a deep background in operations and multi-site location management, and I bring a deep background in technology and product development. We share a love for creating great learning experiences.
We both feel deep gratitude and admiration to Richard, who is retiring as CEO and joining the board. I think he has done more for math education than just about anyone. I’m very excited to learn from him, and I will be working closely with him.
A new era for Andrew
After a few years of semi-retirement post-Quizlet, I was bored. I wanted to work on something difficult again. I wanted to put my experience with making learning tools back to work.
AoPS is uniquely set up to create the world’s best learning experience. It has curriculum developers, software engineers, teachers, buildings, classrooms, and direct relationships with parents and students. If we think simple pen-and-paper is the best way to work on a problem, we do that. If we want kids working on a whiteboard together on a hard problem, we do that. If we want kids solving problems adaptively with an AI, we do that.
AoPS today looks and feels a little old-school, but that masks an absolutely awesome learning experience. My job is to bring the product up to the same world-class standards as the curriculum we offer. I feel uniquely suited to lead AoPS in bringing its approach to the world.
We're building the team
AoPS has the magic of a mission-driven company. Having never raised venture capital, it is untainted by Silicon Valley nonsense. Ben and I feel a deep responsibility to retain the company’s sense of purpose while we grow.
I am leading the Engineering, Product, Design, and Marketing teams at AoPS. If you want to work for the world’s best education company, you should reach out. I am starting hiring with a VP of Marketing, two Senior Directors of Product, and a Senior Director of Design. These roles will all report directly to me. I will also be hiring for software engineers, designers, and product managers. Fun times ahead!
Woo yay ok bye for now!