What triggered your interest in education innovation and entrepreneurship? How did your experiences at Stanford as a student influence your approach to entrepreneurship in education?
My interest in ‘reimagining education’ started with the kind of disparities that I saw in Sri Lanka where I grew up. I was raised in a small village called Deraniyagala, but thankfully my mother was determined to bring me to the city to make sure I learned English. That one decision changed my entire life trajectory and I realized that something had to be done. My initial exposure to designing learning experiences happened in rural and urban/low-income spaces and these are the realities that I brought with me to Stanford. My biggest takeaway from the Learning Design and Technology (LDT) program was a toolbox of methods and frameworks that helped me make sense of the messy process of innovation.
What inspired you to start Tilli? What challenge were you trying to solve?
In the developing world, 1 in every 3 children don’t meet critical developmental milestones, particularly around cognition and social-emotional growth. Tilli was designed to bridge this gap by building and measuring 8 of the most foundational social-emotional learning skills like self-awareness and empathy before a child’s 10th birthday. I built Tilli for my 8-year-old self. I think if every child had the tools and habits to process, make sense of, and manage their complex emotions and life experiences it would make for kinder and more empathetic adults.
How did learning science influence the founding and scaling of Tilli?
Tilli was my master’s project at the LDT program. Coming into Stanford I didn’t know the concept of social-emotional learning in depth but I was deeply passionate about issues surrounding childhood trauma and sexual violence. This was the work that I was involved in back in South Asia. My question coming into Stanford was whether there was a piece of this complex issue that a learning intervention could help tackle. Building Tilli through a learning sciences framework allowed me to think carefully and rigorously about the learning outcomes we were driving, how we planned to get there (learning), and how we knew these learning outcomes had been met (measurement)
What were your career steps to becoming the founder and CEO of Tilli?
Something the startup ecosystem doesn’t talk about fully is the personal financial risk of building something on your own. I was the first person in my family to finish college and was supporting my family back home and there was absolutely no way for me to pursue Tilli full-time right out of grad school. Financial security was my first priority then. This meant that for almost 3 years Tilli was my “5 to 12” I worked full-time and my salary became our seed fund until we started making revenue and I was ready to quit. Many of us don’t have the luxury of a “family and friends round” and this means our pathway is often messier, longer, and more exciting.
What surprised you the most about the founder’s journey?
Three things:
1- How every single hour you’re making high-stakes decisions with very limited data and the need to constantly reflect, experiment, and fine-tune your intuition.
2 – How you need to be crystal clear not only about your why but also what your ideal ‘everyday’ should look like. I soon realized that I not only wanted the end to be great but I wanted the process of getting there to be joyful, ethical, and in line with my values.
3 – How humor, apologizing when you mess up, and getting comfortable with rejection is what will sustain you through the marathon.
How do you see the future of education evolving?
In South Asia, there’s a move away from rote learning to ways of learning that are more grounded in curiosity, exploration, problem-solving, and application to everyday life.
I also see a growing movement of schools and learning communities that are more local and intentionally built to not scale – smaller class sizes, personalized learning, more meaningful connections between educators and learners, and a curriculum that is relevant to the everyday realities of the learner. Quality over scale.
What was your favorite class or experience at Stanford?
I loved taking the “Beyond Bits and Atoms” class. The project for the class was to design a learning toy for a 10-year-old. The experience of curating a user research project involving a little one is something I keep going back to even today.
What advice would you give to aspiring founders looking to start their ventures?
Always ask whether you are the best person to solve the issue, particularly when working with communities and in problem spaces where you might not have lived experiences.
And enjoy the process. Founder burnout is real which is why it’s important to build a community of peers and friends that you can lean on for perspective.