Starting an AI platform to support teaching: The journey of a 23-year-old man bringing Selfomy back

Bui Le Chi Bao, author of the AI-supported teaching and learning platform Selfomy, currently used by 30 centers nationwide - Photo: CT

It's quite surprising that the predecessor of Selfomy was a website that asked and answered homework questions for students that Bao and his friends created themselves more than ten years ago.

From student website to million-user startup

Chi Bao graduated with a degree in computer science from Goldsmiths University (University of London, UK), worked for three years at a technology company in the US, and has been writing code to make websites since 6th grade. That's a brief summary of this guy.

But not only that, the above-mentioned Q&A website about learning after four years was in the top 500 most visited websites in Vietnam (according to SimilarWeb's ranking). In the period 2017-2023, it reached an average of 1 million active users per month.

Selfomy was operating quite stably when trouble struck. The general education program had many changes, especially the appearance of ChatGPT, which put Selfomy at risk of being shaken, and at the same time Bao needed to focus on graduating from university.

Although it was a "brainchild" that he worked hard to build, difficulties forced Bao to grit his teeth and say goodbye to most of his colleagues, but he still cherished the day he would return.

Looking at the problem, I knew this was the moment to apply the knowledge I had learned and my three years of experience working for a technology company in the US to start a series of days forcing Selfomy to solve and answer the questions that were being raised. - BUI LE CHI BAO.

AI solves the problem of overload at foreign language centers

In early 2024, Bao happened to hear about the challenges and difficulties that foreign language test preparation centers were facing. There were test preparation centers for IELTS, TOEIC, SAT certificates that spent a lot of time manually marking papers, teachers were overloaded with writing and speaking tests, and students had little opportunity to improve their work.

Researching, this friend knew that many centers do not have a platform that allows for personalization of foreign language learning paths. Manual management through documents and people makes it difficult to track detailed progress for each student. Not to mention the difficulty in synchronizing data when most centers manage using many different tools.

"There are too many problems to deal with and we can only solve them if we know how to take advantage of technology," Chi Bao confidently said.

Do language centers recognize the problem? The answer is yes. They have searched and proposed many different ways to solve it, but buying a test preparation account and then sharing it with many students is a taboo. Meanwhile, using a free website for students to practice and do exercises is not necessarily effective.

On the other hand, using free text editing applications to assign homework and grade students gradually creates loopholes, limiting the posting of learning content according to teachers' own curriculum.

"There are foreign language centers that have built an IT team or hired a software company to build their own platform. However, this approach is quite expensive, time-consuming, and has operating costs, and sometimes there are also many bugs that need to be patched," Bao laughed.

Selfomy new version: AI-based teaching and learning platform

Chi Bao saw an opportunity in that matrix of questions. And the new version of Selfomy was launched, becoming a teaching and learning platform for foreign language centers. The platform can help with mock tests, assign and manage homework, practice tests and grade papers entirely with the support of AI.

Selfomy, which Bao built, creates a completely realistic exam preparation environment. Monitoring features, schedule notifications, grading, and encouraging students to self-study are also integrated into this platform.

Selfomy's official website recorded impressive initial numbers with 65,000 users and over 1.5 million views. Selfomy is currently a "platform rental" partner of about 30 foreign language centers nationwide.

From a small classroom corner to a learning community of hundreds of thousands of people

On the official website, many people will find it hard to ignore the "Our Story" section with confidences about the journey and mission of Selfomy. Therein lies the concern of the creators of this platform with the question "How to make learning more interesting and proactive or is it possible to self-study and still be good at it?".

The team that created Selfomy affirmed that with the enthusiasm of youth, they created Selfomy together, which started as a website for classmates to exchange lessons in 2013. Those young people confidently said: "Selfomy has become a platform, a dynamic learning community in Vietnam, helping hundreds of thousands of students each month who have difficulty in studying."

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khoi-nghiep-voi-nen-tang-ai-ho-tro-day-hoc-hanh-trinh-cua-chang-trai-23-tuoi-dua-selfomy-tro-lai-20250823101919568.htm