Mike Meiners - Founder and CEO

Mike used to hate math. Until grad school, when he needed it for something fun ...outside the curriculum.

In three weeks, he learned the lifetime of math he had previously failed to grasp. The simple difference? This learning wasn't satisfying an assignment, it was serving an immediate need. Mike wondered why all learning couldn't be as exciting, self-directed and relevant as those three weeks.

In 2011, after replicating the approach in acting, film-making, architecture, furniture design and music, Mike decided it can. He found his life’s work in the counterintuitive thread that tied them all together: That the best way to pick up and retain an important, transferable skill is not to focus on it directly ahead of time because it's wise to prepare for the future, but to tackle it in real time because it's the key to what you want right now.

Mike is a creative at heart and a CEO in practice. He goes to every Northwestern football home game and is the father of two boys aged 13 and 15.