Seattle-area entrepreneur and tech vet Ryan Bruels joined education-focused artificial intelligence startup Atypical AI as founding head of engineering.
The San Francisco-based company said it raised $4 million in pre-seed funding to boost development of its AI-powered tutoring, teaching and grading tools.
“At this specific point in history, and reflecting on my educational experiences and those of my family, I find this incredibly exciting,” Bruels wrote in a LinkedIn post Tuesday.
Bruels began his career at Apple, serving for six years at the tech giant in various roles including software engineering. After leaving Apple, he co-founded app development startups DevToaster and Assemble, as well as Dunno, an app that compiled info from online sources based on user notes.
Bruels later became director of emerging technology at Starbucks, overseeing a team that rolled out tech for enhancing customer and partner experiences. He then joined real estate tech company Knock as VP of engineering and data science. Most recently, Bruels was an independent startup engineering consultant, helping early-stage companies build out their engineering teams and processes.
In his new role, Bruels is looking to grow a small Seattle engineering team for Atypical, which is a remote company.
Bruels is joined by longtime collaborator Jay Jones, a Seattle-area developer who will serve as lead full stack engineer. He also co-founded DevToaster and Assemble, where he spent more than 13 years as a mobile and full-stack architect.
Atypical AI was founded this year by CEO Bethanie Maples. The former Stanford AI researcher also worked as product lead at Google AI and Alphabet-owned research and development facility X (Moonshot Factory), among other roles.
The startup’s vision is to function as an AI and learning science “lab,” inventing tools that power educators and students to create content, engage, collaborate, and personalize experiences.
Seattle’s Aimee Johnson, former chief marketing officer at Zillow Group, is an advisor to the company.
The pre-seed round included participation from Seattle-based venture firm Ascend; 568Cap; Bloomberg Beta; Accelerator Venture Capital; SNR; and others.
Kirby Winfield, founding general partner at Ascend, said the company is “solving a problem that affects all of humanity.”
“As the father of a neurodivergent child who struggles to learn, and another who excels as a student, I am hugely excited by the prospect of true one-to-one tailored curriculum and teaching,” Winfield told GeekWire. “I wish every student could be met every day precisely where they are, not where a school system arbitrarily wishes they were. I believe the future absolutely will look this way, and I believe Atypical will create this future for all of us.”
