Math Legacy

Globally, +1B students (10-19 years old) don’t grasp basic math.

In 2017, a report to UNESCO revealed that 50% of students failed to achieve basic math proficiency.

Fast forward to today, exacerbated by the challenges of the pandemic, the situation has taken a dire turn. According to the latest findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), just 26% of eighth graders showed proficiency in math, down from 34% in 2019.

The root causes of this crisis are twofold:

1. Lack of Immediate Feedback: Math education often lacks timely feedback, leaving students in the dark until they've completed an exercise. Imagine journeying through a maze blindfolded, only to discover your errors at the end without understanding where you went wrong along the way.
2. Missing Building Blocks: Mathematics is a cohesive tapestry; each concept builds upon the last. Failure to grasp one fundamental concept creates a cascade effect, impeding understanding of subsequent topics. It's like constructing a skyscraper without a solid foundation—eventually, it's bound to collapse.

The consequences of this mathematical crisis extend far beyond the classroom. Students experience what psychologists term "math anxiety," a pervasive fear that they'll never comprehend the subject, labeling themselves as "not math people." According to the [American Psychological Association](https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/10/preventing-math-anxiety#:~:text=The prevalence varies from study,And it persists into adulthood.) (APA), between 20% and 25% of children deal with moderate to high levels of math anxiety, a burden that often persists into adulthood.

But the repercussions don't end there. Averse to STEM careers, students miss out on opportunities to innovate and contribute to society's technological advancement. Moreover, diminished critical thinking and problem-solving skills hinder their ability to navigate the complexities of everyday life.

Imagine a world where learning mathematics is as simple and fun as playing your favorite video game.

This is the world we are building. How? Let's delve into the key components:

1. Constant Feedback:

Our game leverages the power of AI, Game Design, and Learning Science to transform traditional math exercises into captivating game mechanics.

The game generates a never-ending range of exercises, continually challenging students with fresh stimuli. But what truly sets us apart is the immediate feedback mechanism. Students can write out each step, just like they would on paper, and receive instant validation of their correctness.

If they feel lost, Maffy, the essence of mathematics in our Universe, is there to guide them, merging theory and practice to show and explain the next steps.

Video → https://youtu.be/rTWWXQu2Mu4

2. Customized Learning Pathway:

No two students are alike. Our game recognizes and celebrates that diversity, tailoring itself to each student's unique strengths and weaknesses, and ensuring a personalized learning experience that maximizes potential and fosters growth.

3. Fun Storytelling and Multiplayer Gameplay:

Students embark on an epic journey as the Math Guardians, tasked with protecting Maffy, the essence of mathematics, from the clutches of the Dark Knights — ancient evil beings seeking to harness her power for their nefarious purposes.

It's not just about solving equations; it's about protecting knowledge, joining forces with fellow students and educators in thrilling multiplayer battles, and ultimately saving the Universe.

Video → https://youtu.be/HnXS1JKUC18

But our game isn't just for students — it's a powerful tool for educators as well. With comprehensive analytics, test creation capabilities, and pathway customization options, educators gain invaluable insights into student progress, enabling them to provide targeted support and guidance.

K-12 students and teachers all around the world.

It helps students increase their self-confidence, making them believe that math is not some useless, anxiety-generating, and nerds-only subject, but it is instead the wonderful language at the root of our Universe and everyone has the tools to learn it.

With Math Legacy, students understand that they can learn math and that they have always had the skill to do that. Our goal is to transform frustration and anxiety into a deep love for the subject and its application.

It serves educators by making them save time and helping them in the difficult job of understanding what each student needs so that they can focus on the most important thing: sharing their love with students and guiding them in the vast world of mathematics.

All the team members had problems with math, back in school.

Fausto, COO & Co-Founder, even before Math Legacy, decided to dedicate his life to coaching and mentoring young students (10-25 years old) dealing with math and physics, developing a 10-year deep knowledge about the roots of the problem.

Christian, CEO & Co-Founder, instead, was climbing the mountain on another side; he, before Math Legacy, had been creating learning games and engaging young audiences on YouTube, merging nerd topics with science.

The team is currently made of 10 people (developers, artists, marketers, and designers), and supported by teachers, principals, and pedagogists, who constantly deal with the problem.

Every design choice is dictated by constant UX tests in schools, observing hundreds of students and talking with dozens of teachers.

At the moment, we have built:

1. the v1.0 of the game, which comprehends some of the most important Grade 6 topics (elementary operations, powers, fractions, and expressions), with randomly generated exercises and immediate feedback on step-by-step solutions;
2. the Dark Knights Attack, the first multiplayer mechanic, in which students and educators join forces to fight one of the Dark Knights's lieutenants.

The game has been tested in 25 middle schools around Italy and played by +2.5k students, who increased their performances by 22.6% in just one month.

During the past year, we have observed more than 2k students live, one classroom at a time. There, we demonstrated that just 20 minutes of gameplay makes students feel 33% more self-confident and love math 65% more.

The multiplayer mechanic has been tested in one school, with more than 100 students and 10 educators. As shown in the video (https://youtu.be/HnXS1JKUC18), it was able to completely break all barriers between students and teachers, making them have fun together in the amazing world of mathematics.

Helping 1B K-12 students learn and love math is a huge mountain to climb. But no mountain is impossible with the help of sherpas and with good company.

This is why we are applying to Solve: we would love to join your network and be part of the program because we are sure meeting you and sharing ideas could have a huge impact on our project.

To finally solve the problem, we must reach millions of students and educators, help them, and learn from them. But we can’t do this alone. Students have been waiting for too long; it’s time to join forces and finally make them fall in love with mathematics... and with the beauty of our Universe.

We challenge a huge problem that, as such, has been addressed by many others over the years.

Many approaches have appeared during the years:

• e-learning platforms with quizzes and simple Gamification,
• mini-game aggregators,
• web platforms focused on Gamification and/or competition,
• and video games with sporadic quizzes.

No solution, however, has ever been able to hit the mark. Such solutions, although they may effect a change in the context in which math is learned, do not solve the problem in the medium to long term.

Solving this problem requires a solution that lies in the perfect center between two markets/solution types: Education and Gaming.

By doing so, it is possible to leverage the strengths of both.

Solutions belonging to the Education world are often more related to extrinsic motivations (coming from outside). The student uses them because parents or teachers tell him to use them.

Solutions belonging to the world of Gaming, on the other hand, see their typical user motivated by intrinsic factors (which come from within). The kid plays because he wants to: there are many reasons for this. For example, he feels part of something bigger than himself (he is the only one who can save the princess from the evil dragon), he feels part of a group (social mechanisms), or he can't wait to upgrade his character to show everyone how hard he has worked.

Positioning Math Legacy at the perfect center of these two types of solutions means creating a motivational loop in which students are constantly motivated to learn: when extrinsic factors fail, intrinsic factors intervene (and vice versa).

Once motivated, students find themselves in a customized experience in which they have constant feedback, feel guided, and have fun. This, over time, translates into deep long-term learning.

Students develop a strong math anxiety because the subject is abstract and lacks feedback. More, everything in math is interconnected, so losing one single element could lead a student to not have the tools needed to understand subsequent topics.

Our solution addresses all of these points by:

• giving immediate feedback on step-by-step solutions
• guiding students when they feel lost
• giving real examples, so that students can understand how a certain topic is needed in real life
• understanding what each student's strengths and weaknesses are and helping them recover.

This already helps students feel more self-confident and improve their skills.

We had the awesome opportunity to observe more than 2k students live and have sessions in which each one of them had an initial survey, gameplay, and a final survey. The final one demonstrated students not only love math 65% more but also feel 33% more self-confident, in just 20 minutes of gameplay.

Moreover, aggregated data coming from last month's tests demonstrated that students’ performances increased by 22.6% in just one month.

We are working on 3 main SDGs:

1. Goal 3.4: Mental Well-being
2. Goal 4: Quality Education → Each exercise completed in the game gives students a score. This score depends on the number of errors and execution time; aggregating data on each topic at each specific difficulty level can help us understand how much we are helping students improve their math skills (at the moment, 22.6%).
3. Goal 5: Gender Equality → Math anxiety is usually even stronger in girls. Creating a personalized experience that adapts based on each student/player, can help girls finally believe in themselves: math is not a “male thing”.

To better understand how much impact we are having in students’ lives, the game will have monthly quizzes in which we ask them to share:

• how self-confident they feel in doing math and what they think of themselves when approaching the subject
• how their school grade has changed.

Everything is made with Unity, a game engine that helps us create an extraordinary experience for whatever platform - from Android to iOS, to Web, to PlayStation and Xbox if we want to.

In building Math Legacy, we are creating a strong AI too, which generates and validates exercises and adapts them based on each student’s skill.

The team is currently made of 10 people:

• 2 co-founders (full-time)
• 2 senior game developers (full-time)
• 1 UI/UX Designer (part-time)
• 1 Narrative Designer and Schools Account Manager (full-time)
• 2 Marketers (part-time)
• 1 Art Director (part-time)
• 1 UI Artist and Graphic Designer (part-time).

Moreover, the team is advised by teachers, principals, and pedagogists.

2 years. Fausto and Christian started in June 2022 by validating the core idea through an Italian online incubator. Development started in September ‘22.

After many iterations, came the first play-tests in schools, in April ‘23, which were very successful. This made both Christian and Fausto go full-time on the project and expand the team, creating “the Avengers”.

In July ‘23 the team was formed by 8 people, working in a SAFE-like WFE; in December, the team expanded to 10 people and the two senior devs decided to go full-time.

Students/parents can buy B2C subscriptions that give access to the full game or parts of it and IAPs (like avatar customization elements), which are provided through Play Store, App Store, and Web (mathlegacy.it/game).

Schools buy bundles of basic licenses for all their students and educators, educators training, and live events.

Companies can sponsor a series of Live Events in specific areas (roadshows), benefiting from SDG Reports and brand awareness. Moreover, as the number of active users increases, collaborations with companies that aim at reaching very young people will be possible; like Fortnite, we could create in-game events with characters from cartoons and movies, increasing their brand awareness in our audience.

Our initial focus is on schools. We reach them mainly through cold calling, of which:

• 15% of the total becomes an appointment with one of the founders
• 30% of appointments become free trials
• we aim at having +50% of schools who activate the free trial buy an annual license (we still don’t have this data, since schools have activated free trials until June ‘24).

Considering a monthly cost for the team of €35k and an annual license price for schools of €1500/year, this means that the business will become sustainable by selling to just 26 schools per month, without considering every other business line (like B2C subscriptions and sponsored events/roadshows).

To reach this goal, we consider 3 full-time salespeople who make 500 cold calls per month (about 25 per day). This would lead to:

• 1500 cold calls
• 225 appointments
• 67 free trials
• 33 annual licenses sold
• €49.5k per month