Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Truax.
Hi Paul, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I never cared much about grades until I started getting rejected from universities. Texas A&M accepted me, but with a note saying I wouldn’t have been admitted on grades alone, they simply believed I could succeed. That lit a fire in me to work hard and prove them right.
My drive to learn and apply knowledge led me to become a tutor in college and during my private equity career. Even as AI tools grew, students kept coming to my sessions because I understood their course context, something AI lacked.
This inspired me to combine human-like course expertise with the scalability of AI. I teamed up with a data engineer (now our CTO), raised a pre-seed round, and built the first course-specific AI tutoring platform for higher education. Within seven months, we had our first state contract and over 60,000 student queries in the first few months.
Today, our platform continues to grow in higher ed while expanding into workforce learning, where curiosity and lifelong learning are more essential than ever. Learn on!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all. This has been the most painful thing I’ve ever done.
Doing something like this means working 90-100 hours a week every week on something that no one will believe in except for you, your team, and your mom for the first few years. This means that there will be a shortage of capital, times when you and your team forgo salaries/wages in order to keep the company alive, and more.
Working hard on something in that type of environment is very gruelling from a mental, emotional, and physical standpoint if you factor in a lack of sleep, but it’s worth it if you believe in what you’re doing, identify an actual pain point in people’s lives, and keep the faith no matter what.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Cognify Learning Company, LLC?
Cognify specializes in providing AI-powered learning tools to users in higher education and the workforce. The reason we chose to focus on the learning space is because of the importance that learning new things has for our species, and the superiority that active learning has over passively skimming AI responses, as we’ve seen with many other platforms (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.).
Everything we have is the result of curiosity and the acquisition of knowledge, from stone tools in 100,000 BC to AI technology and space travel in the present day. This appreciation for curiosity translates to extreme care and craftsmanship in our platform and it’s features, which is why we are on a mission to be known as best team in the world when it comes to the development of modern-day learning tools.
What sets us apart is our ability to deploy effective learning tools that are extremely easy to use. We don’t over engineer our platform like other companies do. This priority on simplicity leads to a plug and play feel, but without a sacrafice on results and performance.
When it comes to brand, I am very proud of how personable and relatable we are, even when making tools that are at the cutting edge of technology. People who make technically advanced AI products often come off as “too detached from the common population,” especially when they focus their PR efforts on discussing complicated topics while using complicated language. We do this too to some degree, but it’s not our focus. Our focus is on providing a brand where users and the general public feel like they know the Cognify team on a personal level; like we built the product as a friendly favor to each and every user since that’s how “heard” and connected they feel to us.
I want your readers to know, yes the world is changing fast and yes there are a lot of unknowns, but that’s exactly why learning about the world around us is going to be more important than ever, and while that may seem scary, it doesn’t have to be. You just need to right tool to harness your curiosity and enable you to become the expert in whatever you’d like. Everyone has the capacity to learn about anything they want, and we want to give them the tools to do just that.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
There is a saying that, “every person has two lives, and their second begins when they realize they only have one.”
Risk is what makes life worth living. Bet on yourself. I left a six-figure job in private equity to become a tutor. I believed that a modern take on person-to-person tutoring (which I didn’t even incorporate AI into) was something that people wanted. I borrowed money from family members to chase that initial tutoring vision, and none of it worked, and it had absolutely no way to scale. We were running out of money to the point where I was on the brink of selling my truck just to afford a few more months of runway, had no sustainable path forward, and I was getting the pitty clap from only my closest friends and family members.
We have had some successes along this journey, which is fantastic, but we have definitely had some dark times as well. But, there is nothing more rewarding in life than fighting a losing battle and not losing it.
Take a risk because none of us are going to make it out of here alive anyway. That doesn’t mean you go put the house on black, but it does mean that you owe it to yourself and the people responsible for putting you where you are to be bold and do something memorable.
Another great saying (although I’m not sure who said it): “The person who fears pain more than failure will experience both.”
Pricing:
- Free tier: two projects total, assessment taking, goal setting
- $9.99/mth | Pro tier: everything in free + unlimited projects)
- $99.99 one-time fee | Founding User Tier: everything in pro for 2 years at a locked in, one-time price + ability to chat with Cognify leadership directly about feature requests, etc.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.askcognify.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/askcognify/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cognify-learning-company/
- Twitter: https://x.com/AskCognify
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AskCognify
Image Credits
KXAN news + our inhouse media team
