Bobolink was born from a shared conviction: that the way we learn needs to change. Founded by Nicole Pochinki and Joe Olson—two learning scientists who met during their Master’s in Learning Analytics at Columbia University—Bobolink is a response to a system that’s failing to keep up with the pace of change.

While co-leading a graduate course on recommendation systems, they recognized a huge, overlooked opportunity: the world already has a vast ocean of high-quality learning content, but no one is effectively guiding people through it. Then came the breakthrough: large language models (LLMs). Suddenly, it was possible to personalize learning at scale, and Bobolink was born. 

Joe Olson, who holds a PhD in Physics from Harvard, had long been passionate about education. After years of research in computational neuroscience and AI, he set out to apply that knowledge to one of society’s greatest challenges: helping people learn better, faster, and more meaningfully.

Nicole Pochinki began her career in cognitive science research before moving into the EdTech world, leading product at several startups. She saw firsthand how even the best tools fell short when learning pathways weren’t personalized, relevant, or actionable.

Teo Bainbridge soon joined the team to lead strategic growth. With a background in Business and Management and EdTech, he has witnessed first hand how traditional training methods often fall short for busy professionals and shares with the founders a deep commitment to making up-skilling seamless, relevant and impactful.

Muhammad Saad brings almost two decades of expertise a technologist and researcher. Driven by a passion for solving complex problems through innovation, with recent focus in AI and systems engineering, he has contributed to cutting-edge research in collaboration with renowned institutions including MIT and Arizona State University. .