Every student's personalized learning assistant
Shepherd is a Learning assistant for schools to provide to their students. Shepherd seamlessly combines AI-enabled self-study, affordable tutoring, peer collaboration, and analytics for a personalized learning experience that is both efficient and effective.
Active Founders
Hear from the founders
What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?
The problem is two-fold. From a student’s perspective: The studying process is fragmented, leading to sub-optimal and expensive learning experiences. Students have to use multiple learning apps - note-taking, flashcards, quizzes, AI help, tutoring, and reminder apps - to have a complete learning experience. From speaking to numerous students (and being former students ourselves), there is a significant opportunity to use AI to make studying a truly seamless end-to-end experience that understands the student deeply. From an educational institution’s perspective: The AI genie is out of the bottle, and existing institutions realize this and are deeply concerned about how to embrace AI and deliver the value it promises to their students in a safe and impactful manner without compromising the goal of education delivery. This is what Shepherd provides. Imagine a world with 19M college students (to start with) getting an institution-endorsed AI-enabled learning assistant in their pocket. Students get education-specific workflows, not just chatbots, access to tutors, and a learning community. Institutions get analytics, control on prompting, and the ability to monitor academic dishonesty. This is the future of education.
What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?
Every learner has Shepherd in their pocket. This means they have a personalized learning assistant designed specifically for them to enable them to excel at any subject they choose.
Selected answers from Shepherd's original YC application for the W24 Batch
Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.
Learning assistant that combines AI & human tutors
What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.
An institution-endorsed platform that meets students’ needs for collaborative and AI-enhanced learning without compromising academic integrity.