"My grandmother was actually my first AI tutor."
Pitch & People Episodes
PITCH & PEOPLE Episode 37: Rocket Tutor
His grandmother saved him from being expelled from school – today Yue Wu is building Rocket Tutor. As a child, Yue Wu fought for his place at an elite school in Shanghai…
If Yue Wu When people talk about the origins of Rocket Tutor today, the story doesn't begin with artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, or investors. It begins with his grandmother.
At the age of six, Wu moved from Germany to China. His parents secured him a place at one of Shanghai's best primary schools. The requirements were demanding: in the first two years of school, the children were expected to learn around 2,000 Chinese characters. For young Yue, the task seemed almost impossible. While his classmates had already mastered many characters, he was significantly behind.
Salvation came from his own family. His grandmother, a retired professor, took him under her wing. Day after day, she studied with him until late into the evening. Together, they developed learning systems, kept progress logs, and systematically addressed gaps in his knowledge. His grandmother's methods—individualized learning, clear goals, and consistent feedback—continue to shape Yue Wu to this day.
This very experience formed the basis for the startup he would found many years later, as he explains in the videocast Pitch & People.
Education should not be a privilege
Today, Yue Wu, along with Lionel Rühlemann and Komaldeep Chahal, is the founder of Rocket TutorThe Munich-based Edtech startup develops AI-based learning companions designed to provide individualized support to students.
"We believe that personalized and good education should not be a privilege."
Wu believes the biggest problem in the education system is the teacher shortage. Good teachers are hard to find, individual support is often impossible, and traditional tutoring is too expensive for many families.
Rocket Tutor's solution aims to fill precisely this gap. The platform analyzes learning progress, identifies knowledge gaps, guides students through tasks, and creates individualized learning plans. Unlike human tutors, the AI is available around the clock and can provide ongoing support to each learner.
From the Technical University of Munich to the founding
That he would one day found his own company was far from certain for Wu. While he wanted to make a difference in education from an early age, his career path initially seemed to be heading in a different direction. Internships in investment banking, consulting, and private equity were on the agenda.
"I always knew that one day I wanted to do something for education."
The decisive impetus came during his master's studies at the Technical University of Munich. Through the UnternehmerTUM project, he had the opportunity to combine his master's thesis with a startup idea. Mentors encouraged him to implement his business idea directly, instead of postponing it.
Together with his co-founder Leo, Wu developed initial prototypes for preparing students for the Bavarian mathematics A-levels. The team then sent emails to grammar schools in the state, making the service available free of charge.
The response was surprisingly large: around ten percent of a Bavarian high school graduating class used the prototype at that time. For the founders, this was a clear signal that they had tapped into a real need.
His grandmother's inspiration lives on in the product.
According to Wu, many of the didactic principles behind Rocket Tutor stem directly from his experiences with his grandmother. At that time, he not only learned Chinese characters, but above all, a systematic approach to knowledge.
Honestly analyze your strengths and weaknesses. Identify knowledge gaps. Develop a clear plan. Make progress measurable.
This very principle is at the heart of the Rocket Tutor today. The platform attempts to break down learning material into individual knowledge elements and to make it visible to users which content has already been mastered and which is still missing.
What AI can do – and what it can't yet
Despite all the technological possibilities, Wu sees the limitations of artificial intelligence very clearly. The greatest strength of human tutors still lies in the personal relationship with their students. Building trust, motivating, and providing emotional support is significantly more difficult for AI.
Therefore, Rocket Tutor is currently focusing on providing the most precise technical support possible: individual explanations, tailored exercises and a systematic analysis of errors and knowledge gaps.
At the same time, Wu sees great advantages in the technology. While human tutors have limited time, AI can continuously track learning progress and address individual weaknesses at any time.
From high school math exam to educational platform
What began with mathematics has since evolved into a significantly larger platform. In addition to math, Rocket Tutor now also offers content for physics and chemistry. Further subjects are planned. In the long term, the startup aims to support students throughout their entire school career.
The vision behind it is ambitious: Rocket Tutor should one day be able to perform a large part of what human tutors do today. Not as a replacement for teachers, but as a tool that enables individualized support for significantly more people.
Yue Wu is co-founder and CEO of the Munich-based Edtech startup Rocket Tutor. Born in Germany, he grew up largely in China and later studied at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Together with his co-founders Lionel Rühlemann and Komaldeep Chahal, he develops AI-powered learning companions designed to make personalized education more accessible to students. His mission was shaped by the intensive support of his grandmother, who tutored him daily as a child – an experience that became the inspiration for Rocket Tutor.
Profitable – and yet only at the beginning
The company is currently experiencing strong growth. According to Wu, Rocket Tutor has doubled in size over the past six months and is now profitable. At the same time, he sees the startup as still far from its original goal. In the interview, he speaks openly about the mistakes the founding team made in the early years.
"I think we made an extreme number of mistakes as first-time founders."
With the knowledge they have today, Wu says, the team would likely have reached the same stage in a significantly shorter time. Rocket Tutor learned particularly important lessons regarding monetization. In retrospect, it was a mistake to wait too long before requiring users to pay for the product. For founders, it's crucial to test customers' willingness to pay as early as possible and not focus solely on growth.
The team also learned some hard lessons when dealing with fresh capital. Especially after funding rounds, the temptation to invest quickly is great.
"You suddenly have so much money and you're going to invest it. And then you realize: Oops, that might not have been the smartest idea."
Today, Rocket Tutor operates with a much more focused approach. Instead of spending capital as quickly as possible, the team concentrates on systematically testing new ideas, learning faster, and developing the product step by step. The experiences of recent years have helped the founders to grow more sustainably and set clearer priorities.
Nevertheless, Wu sees the company as only at the beginning of its journey. The vision extends beyond Germany. Additional school subjects, new markets, and international expansion are on the agenda. Above all, the platform should become ever closer to what Yue Wu herself once experienced: a tutor who is always available, offers individual support, and knows exactly where help is needed.
