Project Summary

GradeSlam connected students with tutors on demand. Usage was uneven, repeat sessions were rare, and there was no system behind the interaction. I joined post-MVP to build the full SaaS product districts could buy, including the visual system that carried the product through the Paper rebrand.

My Role

VP of Product. Owned interface, roadmap systems, teacher dashboards, and pre-LLM session insights. Contributed to the $2M Seed raise through product narrative, decks, and investor meetings.

The Challenge

GradeSlam started as a tutoring marketplace: students could connect with tutors for help on-demand. It worked to a point, but usage was uneven. Repeat sessions were rare. Adoption had plateaued. There was no system behind the interaction. The team knew they had something valuable but needed a clearer path to reliable, scalable, fundable growth. They brought me in post-MVP to lead the transition to a SaaS product.

My Mandate

Build the full product. Move from tutoring marketplace to district SaaS. Make the value obvious early. Make it investable.

Key Decisions

• Build systems that scale Approached transformation as building systems that scale beyond individual features. Created feedback loops connecting tutors, students, and teachers.
• Overlay topic selector on chat preview Instead of a plain white screen, showed students what came next. This simple UX change increased session starts by 25%.
• Build Paper Review based on user demand Tutors were already reviewing papers manually in chat. Built dedicated interface that saved teachers 30%+ time and became company flagship.

Build the foundation

We built the full interface and product system from scratch - everything beyond the MVP. That included: • AI-powered tutoring insights (pre-LLMs): Automatically analyzed sessions to detect topics, sentiment, and confusion signals. • Feedback loops: Tutor reports that were summarized and sent to teachers. • Knowledge gap detection: Built dashboards to show teachers which students struggled with which concepts - and which topics they depended on. • Scheduling tools: Tutor calendar system to match demand with availability. • Demand forecasting: Built a prediction system with 90% accuracy to preempt surges and dips. • Internal tools: Dynamic product roadmap system that scored features by impact and complexity. • Feedback categorization system: Turned raw user feedback into usable, prioritized product insights. • Interface design + branding: Led redesign of the product UI and full visual system. • Documentation: Created team-ready slides, specs, systems, and pitch materials. This version of the product helped raise the $2M seed round. I worked closely with the CEO and CTO, contributing to both product and fundraising - from deck creation to investor meetings.

Define the pair mark before the Paper rebrand

GradeSlam needed a mark that expressed the tutor-student relationship for students, teachers, and investors. EdTech identities often feel childish or corporate. We sketched pair concepts, explored alternate directions, and refined the approved mark for screen-first product use before the company later rebranded to Paper. The pair symbol had to work on app icons, marketing, and tutor-facing surfaces. We set aside directions that did not read at small sizes and tightened contrast for product chrome.

Pair mark conception

Concept sketches through alternate directions to the approved pair mark, before the Paper rebrand.

• GradeSlam mark exploration: Pair concept sketches: Pair concept sketches
• GradeSlam mark exploration: Alternate directions explored: Alternate directions explored
• GradeSlam approved pair logo with overlapping figures and script wordmark: Approved pair mark

Fix what blocks progress

While scaling that product, I reviewed the session start flow. Something felt off. Students landed on a plain white screen with a box prompting them to select a topic. It worked, but it didn't excite. Students hesitated. So I tried something simple: I overlaid that same topic selector on top of the actual chat interface. Just a peek. A preview of what was underneath. Now they saw what came next - and it clicked. Session starts went up by ~25%.

Build what they're asking for

As more usage came in, a pattern emerged: "Can someone help me review my paper?" Tutors were already doing it - manually - in chat. But there was no dedicated interface. No system. So we built one. The Paper Review feature made it easy for students to submit work, get structured feedback, and for teachers to track it all transparently. This saved teachers 30%+ of their time - without losing the human connection. Now, they could log in, see all their students at a glance, spot the ones struggling, and review tutor notes and AI-generated insights. It gave them back control. For overloaded classrooms, this was a breakthrough. The company rebranded from GradeSlam to Paper - because this was now the core value.

Keep listening (and translating)

What made this all work was the loop: • Talk to users constantly (students, teachers, districts) • Watch usage behavior • Listen to feedback • Categorize input by frequency and friction • Score ideas by impact vs. effort • Make changes fast • Check with the same users: 'Does this help?' We built systems to turn feedback into product decisions. This is what let us move quickly and stay right.

Outcome

During my tenure the product grew from hundreds to tens of thousands of students and eventually served millions across North America. Paper Review became the flagship feature and the company rebranded from GradeSlam to Paper. The product foundation supported the Seed round and Series A.

Closing Insight

The Paper Review feature started because tutors were already doing the work in chat. We just gave it a screen.