Some updates on @GiggleAcademy.
We got a team of 10 now. Some part time, some full time. All remote. We have calls together 3 times a week, in addition to adhoc smaller chats.
Hiring is on-going. I do a dozen interviews a week. We are targeting a 15 people team initially.
We finalized the content for the first phonics (English) lesson, and are working on producing it.
We made some adjustments along the way.
We are not making a web version first. We will make an Android version first. Several reasons. In our target market, Android is probably the first device a household gets, before a laptop. Smart phones also have a touch screen, which is easier for kids to interact with. Also with push notifications.
Our first draft of characters is a bit too much like Tom and Jerry, so we are adjusting that. 🐁😸
I am talking to many people and trying many Ed apps. Learning a lot. A lot going on.
Keep building!
"making progress", but not all linear. 😂 Also true, we are "struggling" to make the first lesson. Lots of debates on what it should look like, what gaming engine to use, features, animation, interactions to include, or not. Start up mode all over again. Like good old times.
Took a while, but finally got one lesson going, in an installable Apk. This is a screen recording of the App from my phone. (The poor video cutting also done by me😂. There was audio, but the cutting made it sound weird.)
This is a "testnet" lesson. We are still changing quite a bit of it. Don't read too much into it. This version is mainly for me to confirm that we got a complete team that can actually produce something.
This involved a lot more than what meets the eye. We had to design the characters, the content, make animations, make audio, use a game engine, and a whole bunch of developers. 😂
Will find a way to streamline the process going forward. Keep building.
From another work stream, one more WIP (work in progress) screen snippet.
AI voice recognition / rating for kids to speak back.
Still many little problems to fix, make the ears bigger, the rolling eyes, the Chinese on screen, etc. But you get the idea...
Build!
btw, we moved the goal post a little bit again since a few weeks ago. We are starting at a much earlier age now, 2-3 year olds.
Start at the beginning, instead of somewhere in the "middle", and hopefully keep growing with our community, for 18 (or more) years...
Initially, our dev capacity may lag behind a bit, but we intend to catch up once we get to the scaling phase.
We wanted the @GiggleAcademy logo to show youth, fun, positive energy, and growth. We also want to show respect to our “Binance heritage”.
1. The logo is a child’s face, symbolizing youth.
2. The smiling face is made of the “Gi” characters (rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise), as in “Gi”ggle.
3. The curved “i” is a wink. Fun and playful.
4. The G is a tongue sticking out from the mouth, inspired by the emoji 😋.
5. The outline of the face can be a sunflower, symbolizing livelihood and fast growth.
6. The outline of the face is two overlapping squares. Once you see it, it is hard to unsee it. This is to show our respect to our “Binance heritage”, whose logo is more squarely.
7. The color is yellow and black, also owing to our “Binance heritage”. Although, the yellow is a light yellow, more playful.
8. The outline of the face can also look like the sun, especially with the lighter yellow, symbolizing positive energy, for growth globally.
I would like to thank everyone for your care and support, be it writing letters, showing support on X, or in any other form. They all mean a lot to me and keep me strong. I will do my time, conclude this phase and focus on the next chapter of my life (education).
I will remain a passive investor (and holder) in crypto. Our industry has entered a new phase. Compliance is super important.
A silver lining of this whole process is that Binance has been under the microscope. And funds are SAFU.
Protect users!
My friend and colleague, Tigran Gambaryan, has been unlawfully detained by the Nigerian government for more than 70 days. We're tirelessly working to #BringTigranHome.
For the first time publicly, I'm sharing the full context of this situation here. ⤵️
https://t.co/Rg3DEYJZgW