#882: Why Kids Can Learn 10x Faster Than We Think — Niels Hoven of Mentava (Tim Coaching Session)

September 10, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Niels Hoven’s two-year-old twins were reading Green Eggs and Ham before their third birthday. That video, projected onto a large screen while the twins competed to read aloud, is the kind of result that makes people ask whether conventional beliefs about how fast young children can learn are simply wrong. Hoven’s company, Mentava, is built on the conviction that they are.

Mentava is software designed to let kids learn as fast as they are capable of, rather than at the pace assigned to their age. Its first product is early literacy software for preschoolers as young as two or three, aiming to get them to a second-grade reading level—the point where they can read easy reader books like Hop on Pop or the Elephant and Piggy series on their own. The company has seen a three-year-old learn to read in about three months, and a kindergartener who was behind catch up so fast that his teacher said she had never seen anything like it. The parent of that child reported that the boy went from calling another kid “so smart” because he could read to saying, “Mom, I can read like he can read now.”

How Mentava Works: Curriculum and Motivation Design

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What you'll learn

1 Timestamped Navigation Outline
2 (01:32) **What is Mentava?** - Niels defines Mentava as software that lets kids learn as fast as they're capable of, starting with early literacy for preschoolers
3 (07:00) **Origin Story: Born from Pandemic Necessity** - Niels explains how Mentava started when his own kids wanted to learn during lockdown
4 (08:33) **The Magic Sauce: Curriculum + Motivation Design** - Niels breaks down the two core advantages Mentava brings
5 (11:58) **Tim's Bio Wordsmithing Session** - Tim line-edits Niels's bio in real time, explaining why each change matters
6 (21:14) **The Real Problem: Marketing to Parents Who Don't Know They Have a Problem** - Niels identifies the core business challenge
7 (24:16) **The BRAIN Framework for Positioning** - Tim introduces a decision-making acronym from a midwife friend

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Tim Ferriss

Show Notes

This episode is a bit different. It's a live, unscripted working session with a founder, and I've only done one other earlier this year.

Niels Hoven (@NielsHoven) is the founder and CEO of Mentava, a company building software to support fast learners. Eager kids are dramatically underserved by today's education system, and Niels created Mentava to allow students to achieve their potential. Prior to Mentava, Niels worked at Cloudflare, ClassDojo, and Pocket Gems, where he ran the highest-grossing mobile game in the world in 2011. He has a graduate degree in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley.

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Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Start.

[00:01:32] What Mentava is—and the toddlers reading before age three.

[00:08:31] Game design, slot-machine motivation, and lowering the hoop.

[00:11:54] Tim's red pen: rewriting the bio and positioning.

[00:16:59] The real problem: wasted early years, high-school pressure.<