Why Do It: Purpose, Trust, and Building the Future with Team Stemuli

If your dreams aren't big enough, if they don't scare you, they're not big enough. Right now I'm kind of going through a starting over, losing everything. Even in my personal life, I've worked in every part of the education system, in every grade level and every kind of role, research, eval, policy. The way I had to learn was just by doing and failing, right? And like there was not a whole lot of stability or support provided in that space. This is Taylor Shedd, founder and CEO of Stimuli, and you're listening to Big Tech Energy. This show brings together voices from all around the world, including here in Texas and from London to LA in the heartland, to unpack how AI is already rewriting the future of education and work. I've been obsessed with how tech can transform learning since I was a kid. And let me tell you, building a startup takes real big tech energy, the kind rooted in culture, resilience and vision. Each episode we bring that energy through conversations, ideas and insights that keep you sharp and inspired as a world changes in real time. Welcome to Big Tech Energy. Hi everyone, it's Taylor Shedd from the Big Tech Energy podcast and we are recording what will probably be one of my favorite episodes where I get to introduce you to the brilliant minds unlocking greatness for millions of students across the US the team stimuli. So for starters, just so you know, our comms person told us the name of this episode would be like Trust Falls. A team stimuli. I want to call it why Do It? Just like the new Nike slogan. So for those of you that didn't see one of my all time favorite brands, Nike shifted their iconic slogan from just do it to why do it. It's a nod to the next generation. What some people, I'm saying, they call the anxious generation, a generation that also deeply cares about purpose. So the theme of our conversation today is not just to introduce the brilliant mind behind Stimuli to the world, but to ask a bigger question. Why do it? Why do we show up? Why do we build? And what makes this team tick at stimuli, our edge has always been team chemistry. Trust, vulnerability, and the courage should admit fears, yet still move forward. Today we're going to open up about those moments, the doubts, the trust falls, and the breakthroughs that make this team stronger than than any code base or any AI model alone. What's up, Team Stimuli? Yep. Yo. Hello. What's good? Yeah, what's good? I love the Bud Light commercial, you know, from the 90s or like what's. Well, to kick things off, I want to have each of you introduce yourselves. I want you to share your name, your role as stimuli, and one phrase or word that capture how you're feeling about this team right now. Some of you tend to overthink. I don't want you to do that. I just want you to talk to us and tell us what comes to mind. So whoever wants to go first. I'm James Dominguez. I'm head of Product intelligence at Stimuli. And right now I think the word would just be grounded. This is a pretty grounding thing for me in my life. So, okay, let's do like we do in team meetings. You call out one of your friends who's going next. So, Jason Clemente. I'm the head of games. I'm responsible for overseeing the vision and execution of the team on the game product and making sure it's like, technically strong, fun, and also hitting all the goals with our mission in education. So one word I probably would say blessed and sure train. Rebecca. I like that word. You don't have to pick me. I'm Rebecca. Rebecca Clulia Nettie. I'm the head of learning and research. I do a lot of work across the company, particularly trying to make sure that the learning experience for students is high quality and also embedded in their own realities and aspirations. I also do a lot of work on the research side as well. I would say one word for me right now is aligned. I feel like our team particularly has done a lot of work to come into alignment about the kind of work we're doing for students, and I'm really excited about that. So aligned is winner. Awesome. One thing as I was thinking about as I was preparing for this interview with you folks, is that all of you are parents. So I'm going to throw a bonus question in and just curious, like, why are you here? Why are you doing the work that you're doing? I think the main thing that brought me here was my conversation with Taylor. Initially, the job seemed cool or whatever, but once I talked to her and saw the passion she had for the things that I also wanted to do, which is like, impact my community, my family. Right. My country. And so being able to impact kids in a way that changes their life to me is super important, including my daughter. So, yeah, that's cool. Rebecca, why are you here? If you're thinking about you grounded in this idea of motherhood or of having children too, I really believe that. I've always believed this is what's driven me. I've worked in every part of the education system in every Grade level, in every kind of role, research, eval, policy, ta, et cetera. And one thing I've come to know across any of those pieces of work is that our students and our youth have a ridiculous amount of talent, and they have so much that they're bringing from home, from their communities, from their neighborhoods, just from how they walk the world. And I think about my own children, and one of my biggest fears of sending them to school is actually the fear that their brilliance will be muted. And I work really hard as a parent to make sure that they're getting the most out of their educational opportunities, and also they are remaining exactly who they are. So I think, for me, there's just so much opportunity in this space for students to be creators, to create realities that we can't even imagine in our generation, because they're walking a different life than we are. So, yeah, I say that's why I'm here, especially as it relates to my kids. So. Excellent. James, the English major, what you got for us? Yeah, I think I've got my first child just going off to kindergarten for the first time, and it was definitely a different experience than I was expecting because he's going to public school, and his teacher ended up just being this awesome person whose kids both went to his school. And I think parenthood for me has been a lot of being surprised about the things that I'm actually stressed out about, and they're not a lot of times the things I'm expecting. Also, my childhood background is, like, very weird. I didn't go to school a lot when I was a kid, actually. So I think, like, if, like, for me, like, why I'm doing this, like, when I was looking at the questions, the prompts for this before, I was like, well, I'm really doing this because of the people on the team, you know, like, when it really comes down to it, because I believe that the other people who are, like, working towards this goal have, like, the right intentions and all that stuff, you know? So, yeah, I thought that. I don't know, it was just, like, interesting framing within the just do it versus why do it thing. It's like, just do it. Like, those commercials were very, like, individualistic. It was like, one guy running the race, and you just did it. Like, you just did it. You know what I mean? Like, there was no team behind them. Seemingly. They just, like, woke up and, like, did it right. But I think. I think that. I even think that. And I'm kind of ranting now, but I even think in the, like, why do it? Slogan. It's kind of like, I think the adults in the room sometimes are thinking, like, why do kids. What will motivate these people to do something? And I think, at least for me, it's like the, you know, who I'm on a team with. Like, because everything else can fall apart and, like, politics can change and, like, you might not even know the mission, but, like, the person next to you, if you're, like, connected to them and you trust them, that's like a different level of meaning maybe. So, yeah, that also makes me think about, you know, my mom's generation. They were very much like, if a kid asked the parent, like, why I. Why do I do this? It's like, just do it just because. Whereas, you know, at certain point in time, we started asking why and purpose meant a lot into everything we do. We wanted more answers. And I also think what's interesting about that, it kind of can go two different ways. Kids want to find their purpose, and I think a lot of people overlook that. As opposed to just doing math homework. No, they want to know why they do that. And that's a lot of what we're trying to answer. And then when you think about the gaming perspective, same thing. Why do they want to do math? Well, maybe we can motivate them behind their purpose. Maybe we can actually make something that's interesting. James, you said something that is an amazing transition to a conversation I want to talk about with you guys. So I hope you guys be vulnerable and honest here, and I think this is going to be a really cool topic. So what's one fear or doubt you've had while working at stimuli that you didn't expect and how did you push through it? One of the things that I was surprised by was probably strange, but fear of success, I think with that, I think my vision was smaller when I first joined. And I think because of Taylor's awesomeness and the team's awesomeness, that has grown exponentially, you know. And so with that things going well, I think, you know, that also comes more responsibility and expectations growing. And so I didn't think that would be something that I would get to grow through, but I think the team growing bigger, getting the right people on the team, you know, being transparent and giving feedback so people can improve. All those things I think have helped me know that, like, I'm not shouldering this alone. Right? We're all in this, you know, pushing forward together. What I love about what you said is in your interview, I asked you, hey, how do you handle pressure? And as a vet, you said, well, if I'm not being shot at, we're in a pretty good place. So the idea that you got some fear behind success is exactly what the quote says, right? Like, if your dreams aren't big enough, if they don't scare you, they're not big enough. So I'm glad we're scaring you in that regards. Luckily, we're not getting shot at, though. So my fear is that it actually is really aligned to that. I am a person who's constantly in my head just, like, imagining different worlds, different realities, different possibilities, different futures. And I think that in this space, what I've learned is that we need to dream and think and build and design towards those kinds of trajectories. And at the same time, there's this fear that if you go too far down that path, what can you build now? And, like, how much do you need to know to be realistic? But then is being realistic going to limit the vision and the product and what you're doing? And so I think for me, it's this constant back and forth of, like, I need to keep that. That, like, vision and that aspiration, like, anchored and also figure out what it looks like to get there and how to be supportive and helpful in that trajectory without also waking up one day and being like, where did that aspiration go? So that would be my, I think, fear or vulnerability. Yeah. You know, y' all didn't ask me this question, but I'm going to answer it. And as I was preparing for this conversation, what I was reflecting over is how many moments we've kind of been told no, but then also told keep going. Right. And how many moments we have maybe encountered, like a technical challenge or a limitation on time, but we kept going. And so the funny thing is, for the audience, this team overcomes challenges not only on a daily basis, but major hurdles month to month and quarter to quarter. This last year, there was probably three major product iterations. And when I say product iterations, I literally meant we burnt the boat and said, okay, the customer doesn't like it, we'll burn all of this work to the ground, and we'll start over in the desire to not only meet our customers needs, but to really solve the problem that we're married to and not stay stuck to our solution. And I can't be more excited. It's where we are today. If y' all think about where we were a year ago, like, it's September 19th. This is right around the time where the CEO of Stride was telling us, like, excuse my French, everybody, if you have kids in the car, cover their ears. But the guy literally almost was like, what the fuck is this? I want something different. I want something better. I invested in you guys because I wanted you to transform education. And so looking back where we were a year from now and then, even the decision we made earlier this year where we said, okay, we need to go like platform first, web based first, and we need to trim our game team to now being in a place where we're bringing on more game developers than we've ever had before. Like, what I guess I'm trying to say in a longer way is that fear and doubt exist on a daily and to an equivalent. Our greater power is like this belief in ourselves and a belief that if we don't do what we're trying to do, then nobody else is. And a belief in a better world. So, yeah, but speaking of burning the boats, what I want to know from you guys next is the theme of this question, is starting over or game over? When have you felt like you've hit the game over point in your work or in your life? And what does starting over actually teach you all about that point and just about yourselves? Yeah, I like this question. I was excited about this one. I feel like I have so much to say about this one because like on a meta level, my favorite games are about losing everything and having to start over from scratch. Like literally naked in some cases, like rust. Like there's something about that that is just. And then like in real life, a lot of times when I, like right now, I'm kind of going through a starting over, losing everything, even in my personal life. And it's like I kind of, I've done it a lot of times just because of how, where I've come from. And I'm like, okay, here we go again. You know, it's like, it's kind of this weird thing, right? But burning the boats, I think something I've realized in this last, this startup, because I've done other startups, but in this one particularly, I've burnt the boats before to varying degrees of success and failure. Sometimes you burn the boats and the team literally falls apart and the trust is lost and people turn on each other and it's like a disaster, right? But I think it's like we've done it like a couple times, like you were saying, and each time we built more trust and we're like, no, actually we're going to do even better in Half the time because we, like, learned a bunch of stuff and we're going to hire better and we're going to, like, we're going to try again. Right. And not turn on each other because there's. Because that metaphor is really strong. Right. You think about, like, when you've landed somewhere to invade and it's like you're making sure that nobody on your team can escape. And you're also, like, sending a signal like, no, we're going to, like, double down on this endeavor. And they're even like, a little bit in the lore is the sense that, like, anyone who is going to come from the past and try to derail you, they. They're going to realize you're there to stay. Right? So it's like, I don't know, it's pretty strong, I feel like. So I'm even more. I'm even more convinced now that burning the boats is like, not even just a good strategic move for the reasons that seem obvious at the time. It really, like, can build camaraderie, actually, which is interesting to see, so I'll follow that. I think it sounds like in similar ways I've, throughout my life, had to do that. When I was a kid, I had to start over a whole bunch of. And so I got used to starting over, and then I fell into a place where things stabilized and then it was like, you know, a new starting over of learning from, okay, well, I'm not starting over anymore, so what does that look like? And then even transitioning into, like, you know, I did time in the military and like, transitioning into that kind of mind frame and then getting out and joining the police department and starting over again, and then getting out and going back to school and starting over again and going into, like, software development. So I think I've grown comfortable in. In that space of starting over and have used it as, you know, you say you start over, there's. It can feel sometimes like it's starting over and you're not. You probably learned a lot if you reflect on it. And that's usually what I try to do is look at, you know, what opportunities are there and how can I apply something that seemingly isn't related. Like operating a fire team under stress is similar to operating in developing software. Right. The stakes are different, but the concept bears the same. So I really like starting over in some senses. But, you know, I like to be comfortable at times too. Right. I can't, like, always be starting over. So. Yeah. Just reflecting on what both of you said, so I know the team knows, like, I'm a very, like, spiritual person. I believe a lot in, you know, my higher power. And, James, coming back to what you said is, anytime I've almost been, like, humbled by life or by work, in the midst of me being at my quote, unquote lowest, I actually feel the strongest. And I think it's just a muscle of resilience that I've built because I know that there's a lot of people in the world that actually don't feel that way. Right. But what I also find really interesting about what you said is what we're programming into the game. Right. Like, for those of you that don't know, the game that will be launching in January is like a founder tycoons game. And kids are going to, for once in their education, have the ability to fail, but then to start over, pick themselves back up again and create a new business. And entrepreneurs know, like, oftentimes it's easier to raise funds if you can say, yeah, I've run multiple businesses and either exited or, yeah, I failed a couple. But to Jason's point, even though sometimes we feel like we're literally starting over, we're actually carrying, you know, the wisdom of the past with us forward. So you got me excited again. And just thinking about the resilience score that probably all of us have on the team internally, the resilience that we've built over the year, and the resilience that we're going to be able to teach these kids and the next game we release. I think the biggest. I've started over many times as well, but one of the biggest ones was I had worked all through my PhD program to be a professor. Like, that's what I thought I really wanted to do. And I could make a really big impact from that space. And I did. I finished my PhD program and I went and became a professor of the learning sciences at iu. And I was doing really well. And I actually really liked the work I did. I liked working with students. And, you know, I like my research. Everything was feeling okay, but what wasn't aligned was I was very far from home. I wasn't with my people. I felt really misaligned, like, in my body and in my spirit. To your point, Taylor. And I just. Even though I was doing work I cared about, I felt like I wanted to start a family. I wanted to be near my family, near my village, my people. And I ended up leaving, like, just, like, I'm gonna just walk away from this. It's very Hard to get a tenure track position as a professor. And so a lot of people at that time were like, what are you doing? You know, like people have been on the market for the decade trying to get a job like this. And for me I just needed to do something that felt more in alignment like across life. And what's really interesting is, you know, I went on to Wested and I really enjoyed my time there. But this now walking away and walking towards Stimuli is something brand new and I feel like I'm even more in alignment with who I am and what I care about and what I'm trying to design and, and build and do with students and with like minded people. So I would just say every time it happened too, I felt like I got closer and closer to something that felt comfortable in my body and like in my spirit. So yeah, I agree starting over has been scary, but good. So Rebecca, we feel aligned with you two. If somebody hasn't told you today, we need you at Stimuli, thank you for all that you do all right. Yeah, it just made everything easier. I call Rebecca my Rebecca, my PhD worthy. That's a common though. That's like a success, that's like a, that's a success mode I guess in like AI startups that I see right now is like if you can get somebody who's like industry expertise and can help you write down what something would look like from like the top 1% of the industry, somebody who can clearly explain it, then you can, then you're like a big step closer to how do we now make this part of AI? You know, but it's like, it's really hard when you don't have the subject expert who can also kind of help you form the data and stuff. You're kind of like somebody who's not an expert kind of shooting in the dark, you know what I mean? So it's been a big step, but I see that with like legal startups, like all kinds of people are trying to do that right now. They're like, let's hire some attorneys and get them to like give us, help us make good data. And then you go from there. Kind of, it's kind of a pattern. Yeah, you could say that. Rebecca is like that I got you right? Like, oh, you need to do what I got you. In yalls own way, each of you have done that for me. But I want to know from you, how has this team been your I got you crew, the people who made it safe for you to try, fail or go big. This has Been the most refreshing work experience for me in my life. And I say that, like, with complete sincerity, because I am a very anxious person. I overthink. That is me. I am an overthinker. I. I think of something and then I say, no, this could be better. That could be better. This. And I just spiral. And then I feel this a massive responsibility to make sure I get it right and then to, like, worry that if I don't get it right, it's going to mess everything up anyways. That whole spiral, I have found this, like, peace in knowing that there are really, really intelligent experts in this space. On the call with three of them. Like, who. When I'm in those spirals, I can just, like, say, hey, I don't know, you know, like, what. What do you think? And that has been. I've been scared sometimes, I'll be honest, like, vulnerability, like, is this a dumb question? Right? But I'm like, I'm just gonna go ahead and ask James, right? Even if he's like, oh, my gosh, Rebecca. Like, and every time I have, it's gotten me closer and closer to, like, understanding, like, what I need to do and how to be helpful and how to get out of that spiral. So I just feel like it's less heavy in the sense of, like, owning all of it. Like, I feel like we're doing that together. So that's been really amazing on this team. Yeah. No, it's from a data science, like, AI perspective, too. I feel like there's this, like, you see these memes where there's, like, a bell curve where at the beginning the guy's a novice, and then in the middle he thinks he knows everything and at the end he believes the same thing from before. Right? There's like this thing where in the beginning we're like, I only need a few examples and I'll get them perfect, right? Like, for training and, like, doing AI stuff. And then in the middle, you're like, I need lots of data. I need, like, millions of examples, right? And then at the end, you're like, no, I only need a few really good examples, right? So it's like this thing where, like, there's this litmus test for, like, ML. It's like, do you know what your data looks like? Are you intimately familiar with, like, why it's the way it is and, like, what it means, you know, like, most of the time, like, people are guilty of, like, not having that because you don't have the subject matter expert or you don't have this or that. So, no, I think that's just like. That's like, what kind of sets apart to me sometimes now when I'm looking at, like, or when I'm trying to do something, it's like, do we really, like, know on a small scale, like, what we're doing and then how do we scale that up? So it's like a different paradigm a little bit than throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. Right? Yeah. And I mean, speaking of that, not only do we have, I guess, domain experts across major domains, right? Like, gaming in and of itself is an industry just to try and make a technology that's fun, like Jason does. And then the work that Rebecca comes from with, like, research and learning science is also another industry. And then we've got James, our English major, also AI expert. And bringing all that together is seismic. But not only do we have the team internally, I think about the partners that we have on the outside. Right. Like, the example I gave earlier of Stride being like, wtf? Like, I mean, who gets the opportunity to have the. The nation's largest online school saying, yes, no, yes, no, go this way, go that way, or the Gates foundation, from a research perspective, saying, okay, let's validate which product features you have that are increasing motivation, engagement, and persistence. And then probably most importantly, the voice that we care about, the students, the league, what we're doing on a weekly basis where they're also telling us, yes, I love this, or no, I don't like that. So I do think that's great that we, you know, not only have, like, the great problem sets that you and Rebecca are working on, but also internal and external people that are truly guiding us, which makes me think again of, like, the word y' all said earlier, with alignment and blessed. Jason, you helped me and the company with a major breakthrough this year. And I'll tell the audience that the trajectory stimuli has been on is like, first, we turned school into a video game before anybody else in the world had done it. And that was like serving an online school, literally. We got kids in the game instead of on Zoom, and they were learning. We got great results in math and science from them learning on our platform. And then we know we got back to our original vision of, like, wait. But we believe K12 education should mirror the career pathways that kids want to get on. And then it was like this open sky, green field of like, okay, well, how in the world do you teach career pathways within a video game? Everybody could see it, right? Like, everybody thought it made sense from the standpoint of kids love games and then the ability to, like, have these, like, simulations. But then the question was kind of like, how do you raise enough money to create a simulation for every experience? How do you update that experience? And so for the audience that hasn't been paying attention to our LinkedIn or hasn't seen the news, we landed a major partnership with a group called Heartland Ford, a think and do tank based in Bentonville, Arkansas, founded with Walton family money. And they partnered with us in order to teach AI literacy through a video game to kids and young adults and entrepreneurs across the heartland. So all of that is context to show the audience how. Jason had an I got you moment with me, and I think, you know, all of us really help work together on what I'm getting ready to say. But for the longest time, what I knew is I had all of these, like, connection points. I would call them almost like stars that hadn't been formed until constellation around. We need AI, we need educational material, we need this video game. How do they all come together to actually prepare kids for almost any career of the future? And so Jason helped me finally land a core game loop that makes sense and is going to be extensible across every single industry. And it's basically involves us putting the player in the seat of a founder. Like, that's the way I learned best as soon as I was in college and I became a founder of my own enterprise. The traditional education way can no longer keep me engaged. I was obsessed with the idea of I could learn something, I could practically apply it. And immediately I would encounter another decision and so long way of saying, thank you, Jason James and the entire team that helped us finally nail that core game loop that's going to be able to teach kids how to ideate, build, scale, exit a business, all through creating, managing and running their own AI agents. I think this game is going to be the way of the future. We're launching a lifelong learning companion named Orbi. In the after show, I'll tell you how Orbi got its name. But for now, the question I have for you all is if Orbi reflected back one truth about you right now, the way Nike's campaign asked, why do it? What would it say? What's the one truth about you that Orbi would say reflecting back to you as your mirror? I think you should go first, Taylor. No, no, you don't get to do that to me. Mine would be like, do it for the team. I'm down with that. Do it for the team. Mine would probably be because we're building something larger than, you know, us as a team or a company, as individuals. And for me, that's a way to show appreciation for all the effort put in, not just by the team itself working on it, but my wife, my kid. Right. The time dedication, the amount of time that Taylor spent on it. Right. That, for me, is. Is really important in making that all worthwhile for me. It's actually something Taylor has said to me. It kind of goes back to the original just do it slogan, but it's not what it is. It's actually just say it. Like, I think that's what Orbee would say to me. I think this is an opportunity here in what we're building to, like, to be a little weird and a little aspirational and, you know, in other systems where I haven't always fit and I've had to filter and do a lot of filtering. I feel like here, Taylor's been like, rebecca, can you just take off the masks, take off costumes? Like, just be. You just say the thing like you're here for a reason. And I think that that's what Orbi would say to me is just like, say the thing, do the thing, be the thing. Like, you know, so, yeah. Yeah. So now I'll answer the question, Jason. But if you don't follow me on Instagram and you're listening to this, go hit a follow M I S S Taylor. Shed S H E A D is the last name and how you spell it. I recently wrote a letter to the younger version of myself, and I posted a picture of the younger version of myself and some other, like, cool pictures. But I think the message of that longer letter and what Orbee would say to me, like, if I was literally looking in a mirror and myself, it would be like, I got you. And that's something that I'm telling, like, the younger version of myself. That's something I'm telling myself on a daily basis, like, yo, I got you. We can do this. But also, you know, I feel like that is what you guys have done for me as well. It's like, I got you, Taylor. Like, I mean, literally reaching milestone two is insane. And it's like, at times, I didn't even see what y' all were working on, and you're just like, I got it. I got it. I'm gonna do what I'm supposed to do. And y' all have done what you're supposed to do, and I know you're gonna continue to do that. And, you know, I could Go into a lot of other funny stories where I've been, like, really passionate is what I'll call it. But I've been, like, in the zone, and I've been, like, challenging the team, and I've, like, been maybe raising my voice a little bit. And, you know, Jason hits me in the chat. Take a deep breath. I got you. So I. I do appreciate that. And, you know, we are going to do something bigger than us, so I do want to say thank you. But I also just, like, can't wait for the world to see. I've told everybody, I've told our investors that the next product Stimuli releases is going to be the best product it's ever released, and that's just going to continue to get better after that. So what's one way you think Stimuli can change how students deal with their own fears and identity shifts? And compared to how we all had to figure it out in our own lives, the way I had to learn was just by doing and failing. Right. And, like, there was not a whole lot of stability or support provided in that space. And I guess, thankfully, I was resilient enough to learn from that and, like, land where I'm happy with. But I know that doesn't happen for everyone. The thing I'm excited about with what we're doing is really on the game side. And maybe people hold the same feeling, but I think games are unappreciated, especially for people outside of the gaming culture and understanding, like, the impact that it can have. Right. And the number of, like, I can't tell you the number of things I've learned from playing games. Right. Let alone learning perseverance of, like, I can't beat this boss, and now I'm on my 50th time, and, you know, I'm never gonna do this. And then you do it, and, you know, you have a sense of accomplishment. I don't think there's a lot of places in which you can do that and learn from it and not feel like it's overwhelming to the degree of, like, failure is okay. Right. It's expected, and it's how you recover from those things. So I think that's the big thing that I think we're going to give students the ability to. Is a space to experiment and maybe take on a personality that they wouldn't normally associate with. Right. Like, I'm usually quiet and reserved, and I like, you know, this thing, but, oh, I get to be the leader in this moment. So cool. Let me do that. And I think providing those Spaces for students and the ability to experiment and grow and learn from that. I think there's a huge, huge gap for that right now for education, and we're feeling it. So the first one is really in the space of Orbee. I was a teacher. I love teachers. I also know the best of us have a hard time serving all of the students that come through our classrooms. It's really hard. Like, you know, we can know our students, follow up, make phone calls. But I have classrooms of up to 40 students at a time. And there was not a day that went by as a teacher that I knew I wasn't serving every single student the way I wanted to. And I wish they had more. And what Orbee is, isn't just like, oh, math support, like, Orbeez. The whole character, like, Orbee is a pedagogue. Orbee is like, essentially, students will have that to follow them, to have the kind of, like, support all the time that they need that teachers, I think, wish they could give every one of their students. So for me, I'm super excited, like, from an access point, but also just like, from students having the ability to explore in a nonjudgmental way in a way where they can fail to Jason's point, in a way where they can try again in a way where. Or we can say, hey, that was a good try, but try again. Like, yeah. So I think some of that kind of stuff, like, for me is really exciting to see how that supports students motivation and their persistence and just like, feeling like somebody is there to support their learning and to see what they do with that. And I just cannot say enough how excited I am that we're going to get to a point where we're also able to relate like math, AI literacy, things like that to students actual lives and career aspirations. Like, that's not a small thing. People have been trying to figure that out for a long time. So to even the smallest extent, we can do that. That I'm really excited about what students will have and experience. And then the last thing I'll say is that this is the second thing, even though it's like the tenth thing. But Founders Tycoon to me is an amazing opportunity. And I've said this many times, so I know, Taylor, you might be like, yes, Rebecca, I've heard this. But, like, I think our youth are brilliant. I think there are problems in our world that we will not be able to solve as adults. I think we are going to have to look to our youth to solve some of the problems that are currently in our environment or you know, in our education systems, whatever it might be. And I think that this is one way where students have the agency to build something like on their own to imagine, to dream, to think about what businesses might, you know, might, yeah, help them in their career, but also help their communities, help their like their families or whatever, like take their aspirations, their lived experiences, their interests and like bring them to life. So I'm really excited about that as well. Yeah, I think one thing for me is just our emphasis on game design is kind of big advantage for kids. I'm going to assume going forward like one thing like I've been a, I guess you'd call like an AI accelerationist for a really long time. I've worked on a lot of projects for free to basically try to make what has come about, come about I guess in a way. Right. But like I never saw that people would like form like these weird like emotional connections to AI and stuff. So like to me I think the benefit that we actually can offer is like from an AI lab perspective is like just some of the research we're doing about around like small language models and making models that just do one really specific thing like that type of thing rather than being profit hungry and having like one big L and trying to like notify the police if something bad happens. You know, there's just like, I think a lot of times there's a better way to do stuff if you have the right motivations. So to me, having having like been in and around this AI stuff since before ChatGPT came out and like having done the whole like reproducing GPT2 by hand and just like over the years being like invested in it really heavily. Like it's cool to see now. Like before I joined this company I was really interested in using an LLM as a game engine for like non deterministic narrative generation, right? Like that's still one of the coolest things you can do with an LLM and people use it. It's one of the largest use cases for LLMs, right? Is like characters and story. Right. And so to me it's like once the dust settles a little bit and it feels like it's starting to with AI stuff, there's still so many like cool techniques that haven't even been utilized all the way. Like small language models for instance, you know, like what happens if your model doesn't even know any curse words? Right. You know, So I think it's, I don't know, it's interesting to actually look at, like, the practicality of, like, some of the ideas we've had. Because I think between Jason and I too, we've, like, like, I think, like, I have known for a long time we really need, like, game design is really important and that we have to find how we do that at Stimuli. But today we asked, why do you do it? And what we heard is that it isn't just about the work. It's about the people beside you, the fears you face down, and the purpose that fuels you. Nike reframed greatness as a choice, and I think our conversation proved the same thing. Choosing to trust each other, choosing to try again after setbacks, and choosing to build something bigger than ourselves. That's what makes us different at Stimuli. That's why we do it. We'll see you next time. Y' all stay up. All right, all right, all right. That's a wrap. On today's episode of Big Tech Energy by Stimuli. Remember, AI doesn't have to be intimidating. Exclusive or just for the tech bros? This is your hustle, your future, your bag. And we're here to help keep you ready. Reeling, ahead of the curve. Love this episode. Well, don't just listen. Make some moves. Drop a review. Hit that five stars and tell your crew. Share this with anyone who's ready to future proof their career. Or maybe wake up that friend that's still stuck in 2015. Hit subscribe. Follow Big Tech Energy by Stimuli on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you roll. However your role, whatever your preference, want to get even closer to the game. You can find me Taylor Shedd on LinkedIn or tap into the Stimuli newsletter from Moves. You won't get anywhere else. Big Tech Energy isn't just a podcast. It's a movement. We'll catch you next time. Stay bold, stay real, stay future proofed.