#Interview
“We stand in front of hundreds of teachers every week, carry out further training and receive direct feedback from everyday life,” says Lukas Portmann, founder of paddy. The EdTech wants to establish itself as a “personal AI agent for teachers”.
The Bielefeld EdTech Paddyfounded in 2024 by Matty Frommann, Lukas Portmann and Tobias Schröder, wants to establish itself as a “personal AI agent for teachers”. “We help to modernize education, make individual learning possible through AI and thus strengthen Germany as an educational location in the long term,” says founder Portmann about the concept.
Business angels and the early-stage investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) have already invested 1 million euros in the company, whose roots go back to 2020. “We originally started with training and supported teachers in understanding AI and using it sensibly. This gave us an extremely good understanding of what was really missing in everyday life. That’s how paddy came about,” explains Portmann.
In an interview with deutsche-startups.de, the paddy maker speaks in detail about the state of affairs in his company.
How would you paddy your grandmother explain?
We help to modernize education, make individual learning possible through AI and thus strengthen Germany as an educational location in the long term.
Was this your concept from the beginning?
Our model has changed a lot. We originally started with training and supported teachers in understanding and using AI sensibly. This gave us an extremely good understanding of what is really missing in everyday life. At some point it became clear: It’s not enough to just show how it’s done. We have to build the solution ourselves. This is how paddy was created – a proprietary AI platform that is tailored precisely to the needs of teachers.
How has paddy developed since it was founded?
We started as students at the age of 17 – without a large network, but with the clear goal of changing something in the education system. Today we are a team of more than 10 employees and have over 30,000 teachers registered on our platform. At the same time, we continue to work very closely with schools and develop the product directly from real everyday school life.
What was the highlight for you recently?
A big highlight was definitely our financing round with the High-Tech Gründerfonds last summer. At the same time, we are just now noticing that paddy is really catching on in the market. The topic has been present since “The Lion’s Den” at the latest – we are currently receiving a lot of inquiries from schools and school authorities. The feeling that the product is really needed is the biggest highlight.
What has really gone wrong since it was founded?
We actually once managed to accidentally send 10,000 emails to the same principal. That was, let’s say, a very intense moment. Things like this happen when you grow quickly and try out a lot – the important thing is to learn from them and set up the processes cleanly.
And where have you done everything right so far?
We have built an extremely good understanding of our target group. This is mainly because we are still very close to it today: We stand in front of hundreds of teachers every week, carry out further training and receive direct feedback from everyday life. We have never lost this tight feedback loop and that is probably one of the most important reasons why people really use our product.
What general tip would you give other founders?
Just do it. Especially in the beginning, it helps to follow your own intuition and try things out instead of overthinking everything. At the same time, you should make data-driven decisions in the right places. Looking back, when we were 17 we were probably quite naive to say that we were now doing AI training for teachers. But it was precisely this “just doing it” that led us to dig in, learn and develop step by step.
Where will Paddy be in a year?
In one year we are at over 500 schools and have clearly demonstrated that we noticeably relieve teachers and improve student learning. We have a team of over 20 people, work with a clear vision and are continuing to expand paddy into a platform that is noticeably shaping the educational standard in Germany.
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