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Catalin Voss

Catalin is on a mission to eradicate childhood illiteracy by leveraging artificial intelligence. As a co-terminal Computer Science student at Stanford, Catalin developed learning aids for children with autism. Here, he also met his eventual co-founder Tom Sayer (MA Education + MBA ‘14). Catalin’s journey exemplifies the intersection of technology and social good, driven by his desire to democratize learning opportunities.

What triggered your interest in education innovation and entrepreneurship? How did your experiences at Stanford influence your approach to entrepreneurship in education? 

Being at Stanford felt like both a privilege and a responsibility. I’ve always wanted to find ways to apply technology, particularly AI, for social good. I started freshman year with a learning aide for Autistic kids inspired by my cousin’s experiences, which turned into an NIH-funded research program at the med school. Now, I’m taking an ambitious shot at fighting illiteracy with Ello.

Stanford was the perfect place to build a strong technical foundation and develop an interdisciplinary network. I connected with incredible advisors including Terry Winograd and Nick McKeown in CS, Dennis Wall in Biomedical Data Science, Carl Feinstein in Child Psychiatry, Nick Haber in Mathematics and now Education. I also met Tom Sayer,  an education entrepreneur in the GSB/GSE program, with whom I’ve now co-founded two edtech companies. 

What inspired you to start Ello? What challenge were you trying to solve? 

The inspiration for Ello came from my co-founder Dr. Elizabeth Adams, a child behavioral psychologist. Her 5-year-old struggled to learn to read during the pandemic, and we realized that her struggle mirrored 65% of 4th graders in the US who are behind grade level in reading. 1:1 teaching is the best intervention, but only available to the most privileged kids. We thought that advancements in AI and speech recognition had finally made it possible to replicate the magic of 1:1 reading instruction through an app. Our goal with Ello is to make high-quality, personalized reading instruction accessible and affordable for all kids.

Catalin speaking about Ello. Photo: Catalin Voss.

What were your career steps to becoming Co-Founder and CTO of Ello?  

I’ve spent my career building products that make the world a better place in one way or another, largely using machine learning as the main tool at our disposal. I started two companies, one during my freshman year with my current co-founder Tom Sayer, and another based in Kenya. There, we created a point-of-sale system for small shops in Africa that weren’t connected to the international banking system; our technology used computer vision to recognize products without barcodes. I returned to Stanford for my PhD exploring a few wild ideas before going back to my roots in working on the principle challenge of child development with Tom Sayer and Elizabeth Adams at Ello.

What surprised you the most about the founder’s journey? 

It’s incredibly lonely at the beginning, but also incredibly rewarding. People say that the highs are high, and the lows are low, but it’s hard to really describe what that feels like until you’re doing it. I didn’t think it was possible to build a team as good as we have at Ello, and I’m honestly amazed at the passion and talent that people bring to this work every day. I think our mission is an incredible competitive advantage and has enabled us to build a team of unmatched caliber.

Catalin (L) with Ello co-founders Dr. Elizabeth Adams and Tom Sayer (R). Photo: Catalin Voss.

How do you see the future of education evolving? 

Up until maybe a year ago, we have largely lacked the tools to replicate human-level learning experiences at scale. We have known for decades that 1:1 instruction is the most effective form of education, but edtech thus far has failed to deliver this holy grail. I think that the maturation of multimodal models and tools like speech perception now set us up to build a version of the world where every child grows up with their personal learning companion. I hope that one day, when children turn five years old, that’s when people will start asking, “When are you going to get your Ello?”

What class at Stanford prepared you to think about social impact applications of technology?

Terry Winograd taught an intro seminar my freshman year called “Technology in the Open Society,” which went through the construction of the internet and how it has changed the world and society. That course was incredibly inspiring, and more importantly, I ended up becoming close with Terry. He has always set me up to think about the social impact applications of technology, and he has been a mentor and advisor on all of my projects from that point. He was instrumental in helping me get the Autism Glass project off the ground, he was chair of the board of my company in Kenya, and now he’s an Ello advisor. 

What advice would you give to Stanford students interested in education entrepreneurship? 

  1. Get ready for a hard journey. This isn’t a super easy industry, and you’re going to feel like the grass is greener on the other side at times, but the opportunity to work on such a fundamentally important mission is unparalleled and well worth it.
  2. Try to find a diverse group of co-founders with both subject matter expertise in education and technical chops. If you’re technical, recognize that the best ideas probably won’t come from you, but from people who work with students day-to-day. 
  3. Try to get the parts of your life outside of work in order, so that you are ready to take big risks in your work. Find whatever your support structure is going to be–your exercise routine, your mentorship network, your family, your partner, whatever that is to you.