Amplify: A Company That Killed Math Storytelling And My Advisory Position For Proficiency and Profits
I’ve been biting my tongue for almost a year, as math friends have asked me “What happened with you and Amplify?”
I think it’s taken me this long to reflect upon the long road to learning a valuable lesson I should have had prior to working with Amplify.
You’re replaceable and it’s always about the bottom line — money.
My story with Amplify began in January, 2020. And, to be frank, the first 2 years were simply amazing — especially with all the people I worked with. I had never worked in an environment where I enjoyed working with everyone.
That all began to change — not coincidentally by any means — when Amplify bought Desmos.
But, let’s start at the beginning.
I left a math consulting job in Canada — Scolab/Buzzmath — that gave me pretty good pay(80K/year) + benefits. It was also a company which I liked so many of my colleagues. The company was ahead of its time with regards to mathematics and storytelling. By early as 2010, they were deeply integrating math history into their platform.
Here is a link to the last blog that I wrote for them.
This was one of the reasons Amplify wanted to work with me in 2020 — to help build/curate a rich and robust platform centered around math history/storytelling with its amazing team.
So, I left. I took a pay cut, and there were no benefits.
Only the promise of helping build something special — which was good enough for me.
In January 2020, I went to Brooklyn and met the people I would be working with. Meeting everyone in person confirmed that I had made the best decision.
At this time, I was also doing some work for Mathigon. And what I mention next is important to the final narrative of how I was fooled by the true ethics and morals of the company.
I showed the Mathigon platform to Brad Shank(product). He loved it! Who wouldn’t? We all know that Mathigon was acquired by Amplify a few years later. Please remember this detail and this:
In 2020, I was the only person on the planet that was involved in working with both Amplify and Mathigon.
By summer of 2023, I worked at neither.
How that all came to be is a function of the slippery leadership at the top of the company, the acquisition of Desmos, and a change in direction — bland and conservative.
When I first came, Amplify was centring me in the platform they were creating. I was an Advisor. Over time, I was asked by Amplify to remove that title. Over time, I was removed from the team with losing access to Slack channels and company email.
So, what the hell went wrong?
It seemed that there was some hesitancy when the initial draft of the resource was field tested with teachers, as some of storytelling/narrative was perhaps too bulky or challenging.
Of course there would be hesitancy! It’s a new way of looking at mathematics. I thought there would be PD around this to help teachers better understand how to incorporate such lessons, and alleviate some of the anxiety about such an approach.
What you also have to keep in mind, is the DEI initiatives were beginning to get pushback from conservative parts of the US. This was communicated to me in no uncertain terms to watch the kind of language I use around DEI and Culturally Responsive Mathematics — especially since Florida was a targeted State.
My internal response was “Fuck, Florida”. Why would you want to sell to a state that wants to live like The Flintstones?
That should have been the first red flag for me in terms of where the company would eventually end up today. I ignored it.
The one that I should definitely not have ignored is when Amplify acquired Mathigon.
Who showed Mathigon to Amplify? Me.
Who spent an hour with Philipp Legner of Mathigon prior to the acquisition convincing him to partner with Amplify? Me.
Who took all the credit for the merger? Not me.
It was Larry Berger, CEO of the company.
Without me, Amplify does acquire Mathigon.
How did Amplify thank me? By letting me go in Summer of 2023.
That move alone should let you know that this is a company that should never be trusted. But, there’s more.
Fawn Nguyen — who we all love(and why not!) — now works at Amplify. Guess who was also integral in making that happen? Yup. Me.
The initial package that Amplify offered to Nguyen was rejected by her — as it should have been. The dollar amount was below what she was worth/expecting. I was in communication with some Amplify folks saying that she was not happy with the lack of response to her concerns — literally, nobody was responding back to her.
I met her in 2022 in San Antonio, and we had a great chat. I reassured her that Amplify was a great company — do you see how naive I still was? I also pitched how amazing of math person she was back to the key folks at Amplify.
Eventually, it all worked out for her and Amplify, and she is part of the team.
Unfortunately, for me, my time was expiring at Amplify because of what happened a few months earlier — Amplify acquiring Desmos.
Amplify launched The Math Teacher Lounge with Dan Meyer and Bethany Lockhart.
In one episode, they talked about math “biographies”. I thought that was a such strange and stiff choice of words — why wouldn’t you just use “stories”.
Then it occurred to me, I am the “storytelling person”. Let’s not use language or reference that anyway connects that idea back to me. That’s only my conjecture. Also, I was never invited on as a guest — even though I was working at Amplify(probably only in a ghost form at this point).
None of this is a coincidence. Dan Meyer has the ego the size of a few planets. I think he is off on LinkedIn now trying to be the superhero in all things cautionary AI.
In May of 2023, I was at the Annual Wisconsin Mathematics Conference. So were Dan Meyer and Eli Luberoff, as they were going to do a full day of Desmos stuff. I asked Amplify folks if I should affix “Amplify” to my image.
They said “no”. Are you keeping track of the red flags?
The wifi at the conference in 2023 was spotty(it’s much better now). Unfortunately, it acted up on the day of the Desmos Classroom presentation. And, Dan Meyer and Eli Luberoff had to stop their presenation.
Understandble.
What’s not understandable is that they packed it all up and left. They could have stayted and done some pop up Q and A with the audience. They could have stayed and done some fun math — trivia, etc.? People had come from all over the State to see both of you, and you simply walk away?
Branding eclipses time spent with people? Isn’t this a cautionary tale about technology — and how much we shouldn’t be a servant to it?
I was embarrassed to be associated with Amplify at this point.
So, when I got let go by the company in August 2023, it wasn’t a shock. I never got a formal notice or anything — just we don’t have the budget for you.
Amplify acquired Desmos to get to the “front of the line” in the competitive tech market in math education. What they were actually doing confused a lot of people — including me. I still don’t know what the collaboration looks like.
All I know is that the face of Amplify are two white guys — Dan Meyer and Jason Zimba.
All I know is that the direction the company is heading in philosophically is more conservative and right-wing. Proof?
They invited this guy on
Cue up Irony.
This is the same guy who has done nothing but criticize every amazing math educator we know — including Dan Finkel! He even ripped on Dan Meyer.
Dan Finkel’s ideas/creations are on Mathigon.
Amplify is eating it’s own and doesn’t even know it. That’s because they are frantically trying to latch on to any movement that has potential for more sales while blatantly also not caring about contradictory messaging.
It was always, always, always about the bottom line.
It just took me a long, long, long time to finally realize it.
