Firstly Academy
LivePaid English for software developers with personalized AI shadowing, lesson-aware voice practice, spaced repetition, and community.
Product builder for language learning.
I design and ship AI-powered learner practice, feedback, and teacher workflow systems from concept to live product.
About
Teacher-informed product building.
Former TESOL teacher now building EdTech products end to end.
I understand the learner side, the teacher side, and the product side. That lets me shape the workflow, the UX, the prompts, the data model, and the shipped product without treating education like generic SaaS.
Current focus
Running english-exercises.org and growing two connected products for software developers: Firstly Academy and daily WhatsEnglish practice.
- 0-to-1 product work across free tools, AI speaking practice, and WhatsApp-based learning.
- Products shaped by classroom reality: speaking time, feedback speed, and teacher workload.
- AI used explicitly for speed and capability, with quality control kept human.
Ecosystem
A connected language-learning product stack.
Not one app pretending to do everything. A set of products solving different learning problems while sharing useful context.
Shared core
Shared data, shared context, shared learning signal.
The goal is simple: if a learner practises in one product, the next product should know enough to be more useful.
english-exercises.org
LiveFree English practice with 13,300+ questions and an agentic pipeline that turns research into verified modules in about 45 minutes.
Teacher's Scribe
EmbeddedA teaching workflow that turns lesson recordings into usable notes, mistakes, and follow-up.
WhatsEnglish
In useDaily WhatsApp-based English practice for software developers, with voice correction, shadowing audio, and teacher review.
AI Voice Tutor
EmbeddedConversation practice that uses lesson transcripts and cross-product learner history.
MemEnglish
PlannedFast mobile drills designed as a top-of-funnel practice product.
Selected Work
Products, not prototypes.
What I have built across learner practice, feedback, and teacher workflows.
Production
english-exercises.org
A free platform with 13,300+ practice questions and an agentic research, creation, and verification pipeline that produces complete grammar modules in about 45 minutes.
- Next.js 15
- TypeScript
- SSR / SSG
- Multi-agent pipeline
Production
Firstly Academy
A paid English platform for software developers, combining personalized AI shadowing, lesson-aware voice chat, spaced repetition, and social retention loops.
- React
- Node.js
- PostgreSQL
- AI voice
- Spaced repetition
Embedded feature
Teacher's Scribe
A teacher workflow inside Firstly Academy that turns lesson recordings into reviewed mistakes, notes, and follow-up.
- Node.js
- WhisperX
- WebSockets
- PostgreSQL
In use
WhatsEnglish
WhatsApp-native daily English practice used by software developers, with voice correction, shadowing audio, teacher review, and a production backend.
- Meta Cloud API
- Node.js
- Deepgram
- Azure TTS
- PostgreSQL
How I Work
Product judgment first. Tools second.
01
Learning loop before feature list
I start with the learner or teacher problem, the product loop, and the data model. The interface follows the product logic, not the other way round.
02
AI as leverage, not autopilot
I use AI heavily to move faster, but product direction, standards, review, and quality control stay with me.
03
Real users over demo polish
I optimise for software that survives contact with learners, teachers, and production constraints, not just a nice prototype.
Contact
If you need a product builder for language learning, we should talk.
I’m open to product roles, pilot builds, and collaborations where teaching insight, product thinking, and technical execution all matter.