Bryn Larkman: The innovator pushing EdTech into the future – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com

Bryn Larkman is a name you’ll want to keep an eye on if you follow product innovation, particularly in the realm of education technology. With a history of category-defining product development, Larkman’s latest venture, Flow Learn, is an AI-powered Test prep platform that promises to transform the way students study for one of the most critical exams of their academic careers.

In our conversation, Larkman delved deep into his passion for creating products that make a tangible difference in users’ lives—something he has been honing over years of working on innovative, disruptive platforms. From his role as Head of Product at Globe, a high-performance trading exchange backed by Y Combinator, to his leadership at Distributed, where he helped build a managed marketplace for remote tech teams, Larkman has demonstrated a knack for tackling complex problems with both rigor and creativity.

The flow learn vision

At the core of Flow Learn is a philosophy Larkman has nurtured through his career: understanding what users need, and then going beyond to offer something truly transformative. “Flow Learn is an AI-driven tutor that continuously adapts to the student’s needs,” Larkman explained. “It personalizes each session, offers real-time feedback, and is 30 times more affordable than traditional tutors. And it’s always available – 24/7.”

The idea behind Flow Learn is simple but powerful: leverage AI to remove the friction that exists in traditional learning environments, providing students with a highly personalized, responsive experience. It’s a concept that Larkman believes is perfectly timed with the arrival of increasingly sophisticated AI tools.

A track record of innovation

Flow Learn isn’t Larkman’s first attempt at shaking up an industry. His time at Globe saw him join as the first non-developer in a talented team of founders, scientists, and developers. “When I left 3 years later, we’d generated $15 billion in transactions and built arguably the most performant exchange in human history,” Larkman said, reflecting on the success of the platform. His ability to lead product development at such an early stage speaks to his capacity to scale products efficiently while keeping the user experience front and center.

Larkman’s work at Distributed was similarly impactful. “We built a new category we called ‘Elastic Teams,’ a pool of thousands of top-tier people that could join one or multiple client projects seamlessly through our online platform,” he said. The aim was to reduce the barriers to recruiting, onboarding, and managing high-demand teams of developers and data scientists, providing clients with reliable outcomes while eliminating typical project delays.

Building transformative products

What sets Larkman apart is his process for creating what he calls “transformative” products. For him, the key is knowing when to aim for incremental improvements and when to push for game-changing innovations. “The vast majority of product work should probably be incremental,” he explained, “but you always need some percentage of category-creating, step-change attempts.”

To accomplish this, Larkman draws from a range of frameworks, including the physics-based first-principles thinking, a method that requires breaking down assumptions and building solutions from the ground up. He also leans on more unconventional ideas, like the “causal cakes” framework, which emphasizes the need to consider multiple factors to achieve a desired outcome.

Confidence in EdTech’s future

Despite EdTech’s historic challenges, Larkman is optimistic. The sector’s market size is staggering—over $5 trillion annually—but it’s also known for slow sales cycles and higher standards of proof. That hasn’t deterred Larkman, who believes AI is the missing ingredient that will finally help education technology live up to its potential.

“There’s too much friction in learner experience at the moment,” he noted, pointing to the adoption difficulties teachers and students face even with high-quality products. “Conversational apps are frictionless, intuitive interfaces. AI can now take in, pinpoint, and provide bespoke feedback, and generate tailored content instantly. I’m confident Flow Learn is going to be a big part of that story.”