For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Raj
Valli and I founded Thinkster. I am a data and
statistics guy at heart. As a certified Six Sigma
Black Belt, I helped multi-billion dollar companies
save money by making sure that their products and
services will be of the highest quality. Six Sigma
means having less than 3.4 defects per 1 million
pieces of anything you produce - engines, coffee
cups, your shirt...tutoring….anything! That’s
outstanding almost defect-free quality!
I have worked for major multi-billion dollar
corporations leading functional areas in marketing,
finance, operations, strategy, and M&A, across
Aerospace, Automotive, Life Sciences, Chemicals,
Materials, Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Controls,
BioTech, Services, and Software.
I have spent 20+ years volunteering my time to help
provide basic education for underprivileged
children.
Several years ago, my daughters were using a
worksheets based math learning program (like Kumon,
Mathnasium) to help accelerate their math learning.
I was frustrated by the lack of progress they were
having in truly understanding math concepts. They
were getting really good in the process of solving
math problems in a very formulaic way without really
understanding why they were doing what they were
doing.
I looked everywhere for a math program that would
let my daughter’s learn math for life and not just
for a test or completing homework. I wanted a
guaranteed approach to learning math. Not hope. But
GUARANTEED! Like, Six-Sigma defect-free! I knew that
if they had a real strong foundation in math, it
would take them places. I found nothing other than a
few books on the topic or needed to hire an
excellent math tutor for $100/hour.
I decided to take matters into my own hands and
looked for efficient and fool-proof ways of getting
students to learn not only math, but develop a
strong foundation in problem solving skills but also
help them improve their critical thinking and
logical reasoning skills. In short, I wanted them to
develop the capacity to unpack and solve ANY
problems in life - not just math problems.
My strategy worked so well, that it got my daughters
to ace math in middle and high school and eventually
also got them into the top Ivy League school and
University.
I had other friends who were in a similar situation
and were looking for a better math learning program.
So we decided to join hands and start Thinkster to
help others with the method and now we service
thousands of customers in 30+ countries.