The App That Turns Lightbulb Moments Into Lifelong Skills

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode, I sit down with Gary Surdam, CEO of Bright Start Ed-Tech, whose new mobile app “Illuminate” uses AI to personalize learning for students while empowering parents to become active educators at home. Gary shares how a single “lightbulb moment” in an online class inspired a ten-year journey toward creating a tool that blends emotional intelligence with STEAM education. We talk about his unique approach to building the app with student interns, the global mission behind Funding Hope, and why true learning lasts forever when both children and parents are supported in their growth.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Entrepreneurs, the Playbook, and I have a special guest today. Gary Sirdom is here,
0:07.9	President at Bright Start Ed Tech, one of the areas in businesses that I most am prioritizing,
0:17.1	and they have a new mobile app. But first, welcome Gary to the Playbook.
0:22.6	Thank you, David.
0:23.4	I appreciate it.
0:24.3	And thank you for having me on your podcast.
0:27.1	I'm excited to share some good news that it's happening.
0:30.5	In fact, news that came out this morning.
0:33.1	So I'm happy to share with you.
0:35.2	Well, you know, no pun intended, but illuminate for me.
0:41.5	What came out this morning is we have been working on our mobile app that is basically taking
0:50.3	technology, personalized learning, and emotional intelligence, and putting it together
0:55.8	in a mobile app that is designed for the success of every student, every student, not only in
1:02.5	America, but around the world.
1:04.6	And so we've been hard working on it.
1:08.1	I've kind of gone a different route. Again, as a startup, you end up with zero dollars
1:14.1	and you end up trying to make ends meet. I brought in some interns from USC, from Arizona State
1:23.2	University, from Berkeley that are getting their masters in computer science.
1:29.3	And they helped to put together our mobile app, our phase one of our mobile app.
1:35.3	And in fact, what happened is we ended up bringing on three of the interns after they had finished their internship
1:42.3	and we gave them equity into the company.
1:47.3	So now they are equity partners.
	...

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