What the business is
Free AI-powered learning app and chatbot that generates step-by-step answers to math and science problems for school and college students.
The bet
A free AI tutor that guides students through each step will win users from answer-only math solvers like Photomath and Symbolab.
Starting capital
$7.5M seed led by Owl Ventures with 8VC and FrenchFounders.
How it started
Jerome Pesenti, former vice president of AI at Meta, founded Sizzle after leaving Meta. He said he wanted to use AI to help students and non-students whatever their background or resources, and that AI had yet to have a clear positive effect on people's lives.
What happened
Sizzle uses large language models from third parties such as OpenAI and develops its own in-house; Pesenti put its accuracy rate at 90%. Four new features were launched: grading homework from a photo, regenerating steps, showing multiple answers, and photo upload from the camera roll. The team has backgrounds from Meta, Google, X and Twitch.
How it ended up
As of 20 September 2023 Sizzle had over 20,000 downloads since its August launch and was free to use. The company eventually wants to add a premium tier and in-app purchases while keeping the step-by-step solver free.
What has to be true
Students commonly use AI apps such as ChatGPT to get answers without learning.
Pesenti wanted AI to have a clear positive effect on people's lives.
Math solvers such as Photomath and Symbolab already existed, so Sizzle chose tutoring and word problems as its difference.
A free tier aims to attract students from any background.
What can be applied
In a market where AI makes answers free, a product can differentiate on how it teaches; a free core tier buys downloads, but the premium plan is still to be proven.
Aftermath
As of 2023-09-20 Sizzle was free, had 20,000+ downloads, and planned more features in the next few months. The 90% accuracy and ratings figures were company or app-store figures.
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