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.