Two rooms: the classroom and the workshop.

Richa Gautam

Physics professor and practitioner. She teaches real students at community and regional colleges — the nursing major terrified of physics, the bright kid slowed by uniform instruction — and builds the AI-native learning tools she wishes existed, at a fraction of what large institutions pay.

She's also a parent. The first versions of these tools were built for her own family and battle-tested at her own kitchen table — a typing tutor, a journal, a planner, a heritage-language game. They worked. ThinkAthena is the project of rebuilding them properly, for everyone, without losing what made them work: they were made by someone who knew the learner.

Everything here is built in the open — the essays, the prototypes, the decisions, the mistakes. Not because it's a marketing strategy, but because "show your work" is the whole philosophy.

Principles.

• Privacy before convenience.Sensitive data stays on the device. Children's data is never sold — ever. No behavioral ad tracking, no data harvesting, period.
• Evidence before marketing.If the research doesn't support a claim, we don't make it. Honest about what's shipped and what's still an experiment.
• Learning before engagement.Never optimized for addiction or time-on-app. If a feature increases engagement while decreasing learning, it doesn't ship.
• Accessibility before aesthetics.It has to work for the learner who needs it most — that's where the whole idea started.
• Affordable by design.Priced for families, with a genuinely useful free tier. The mission tier — tools for kids who need them most — stays free, forever.

Say hello.

For collaboration, research conversations, early testing, or just to compare notes on teaching in the AI age: richa@thinkathena.ai. Longer-form thinking lives in the Research section; the build itself in the Lab.