It's Surprising How Much Small Teams Can Get Done

At Demo Day, Paul Graham asked Sam and co-founder Liam about a metric and their growth curve. They emailed him charts for days, not realizing his offer to invest was in Liam’s spam folder. Graham eventually reminded them that funding offers usually get a response, and Liam biked over to collect the check.

Sam says ClassDojo aims to connect school and home, and make it easier for teachers to introduce new classroom practices. Working with Carol Dweck’s team, three people made five short growth mindset animations in eight weeks. The series reached about 15 million children in classrooms; later projects explored empathy with Harvard and mindfulness with Yale.

Before launch, Sam and Liam spoke with hundreds of teachers, visited classrooms, and emailed thousands to learn about their needs. After ClassDojo launched, teachers shared it with colleagues, and about 80 were using it daily by the end of the first week. Teacher Jenna Klein helped the company recognize this school-by-school pattern and build a mentor community to support it.

Sam describes a 30-person team organized into groups of three to ten, each with a clear mission and room to make decisions. The company shares information such as board materials and financials so teams can make informed choices. He says his role has shifted toward shaping culture, and he recently hired a recruiter after handling recruiting himself.

Sam says education companies need to explain their data practices clearly, especially when working with children. ClassDojo rewrote policies in plain language and emphasizes that it does not need student data to sell ads. Internally, the company keeps a public issue log, reviews it weekly, and commits to taking action or explaining why an issue cannot be addressed.