‣ Company: Funexpected LTD
‣ Founders: Alexandra Kazilo and Natalia Pereldik
‣ Mission: To engage little minds with creative math games
‣ App launched: 2019
‣ Team size: 15
‣ Go-to emoji: 🔭

Who said math apps have to be a chore? Funexpected Math for Kids founders Alexandra Kazilo and Natalia Pereldik—who are also best friends and possibly the biggest math fans we know—have created an app full of lively, colorful games.

“If you wanted to make your kids readers, you’d never start with spelling exercises. You’d start with a beautifully crafted book of adventures,” says Kazilo. “The same goes with math. We consider Funexpected the first book of math wonders.”

The wondrous app, geared toward 4-to-7-year-olds, takes kids on an around-the-world numbers adventure. “At this age, children don’t want to sit and learn,” says Pereldik. “They want to live in their stories.” Those stories are told with a team of illustrators, curriculum designers, and translators in 14 countries. (We counted.)

We caught up with the duo to talk about the power of curiosity, working with your best friend, and Funexpected’s very expert team of playtesters.

Have you always been big math fans?

Pereldik: We’re both from math-loving families; our childhoods were full of math jokes, riddles, and games. We met in a high school that specialized in math, then attended university and got degrees in math. When we had our own children, we wanted to share our experiences with them—and that’s when we found most other kids had very different experiences with math. For them it was boring! We wanted to change that by sharing this natural way—this new language—for learning.

How do you put that into practice?

Kazilo: Kids’ curiosity is fragile but powerful. If you kill it in the beginning with addition and subtraction, you can’t use it in the future. What matters is love and interest, not ability. Those are the drivers that push you to go on.

Pereldik: People think math is something you’re either born with or not, but we believe that every person can do it. Mathematics is not only numeracy but also logical thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and special skills needed in many professions. We hope the app helps kids feel capable of choosing whatever field they like.

You’ve known each other for 25 years. How does that connection inform your work?

Pereldik: We haven’t just known each other for 25 years—we’re best friends who’ve been in many situations together. At 18, we hitchhiked in Europe together without any money; we had no mobile phones and only called our parents once in a while. We’ve always been adventurous, and we’ve always had each other’s backs.

Do you have advice for anyone taking an unconventional route to tech?

Kazilo: Choose an area you know and love. You have to learn so much, and that’s the only thing that’ll help you create all those everyday miracles.

Pereldik: Focus. At the beginning you’ll have so many different ideas: “My app can have a very wide audience! I want all kids to love math!” But it’s very difficult to go after that. Focus and narrow your audience first—you can always expand later.

The app is partly inspired by your own children. Do they play it often?

Kazilo: When my son comes to our office, the first thing he asks is “Is there anything to test?”

Pereldik: Whenever we design a new game, the first users are our kids and their friends. We look at how they play, what hooks them in, what’s not clear, and how they interact with it. And then we make a lot of adjustments!

Funexpected LTD is a part of the App Store Small Business Program. If you are a developer and would like to learn more about the program, follow the link below.