Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch on Youtube.
Timestamps
0:00 Cold open: mics in every classroom & AI superpowers
1:57 Welcome to Sidekick: introducing John Danner & Flourish
2:15 From ad tech to education: John's career journey
4:15 why Flourish exists: existing schools won't change on their own
4:55 the two big ideas: 1-on-01 learning & AI teaching academics
8:55 AI improvement loops: digital students & automated bug fixing
13:17 What becomes of the teacher? people skills over content expertise
16:55 AI-generated interventions: teacher guides & worksheets
18:32 Curriculum, assessment & map testing in the Flourish model
20:10 Sci-fi measurement: mics in classrooms & scoring 24 superpowers
24:29 The future of Flourish in 2036 & new venture investment category
31:23 Advice for the next generation: agency, curiosity & ai fluency
Can a school finally deliver one-on-one learning at scale? John Danner, founder of Rocketship and now Flourish, joins David and Rhys to explain how AI now teaches the academics well enough for the middle of the class, freeing teachers to work with individual kids. He shares how Flourish measures curiosity and agency from classroom transcripts, why its AI finds and fixes its own product bugs, and why he believes school networks, not software, are the next venture growth category. Useful listening for founders building in K-12 and AI in learning.
Follow John on Substack for weekly updates.
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