ABOUT SPARKI
Built by teachers.
Obsessed over by everyone else.
Sparki started because a handful of classroom teachers were tired
of coding tools built by people who'd never actually run a classroom.
"Every kid deserves to see themselves as someone who builds things with a computer, not just someone who consumes what other people built."
OUR MISSION, PRINTED ON THE OFFICE WALL SINCE DAY ONE
HOW IT STARTED
A whiteboard sketch
in an empty classroom.
In 2019, three former teachers sat in a classroom after the last bell and complained about the same thing for the hundredth time: every coding tool they'd tried was designed for a demo, not a Tuesday afternoon with 28 eight-year-olds and 40 minutes on the clock.
So they sketched their own on a whiteboard. Blocks that a six year old could use without reading. A dashboard that surfaced who was stuck without anyone raising a hand. Lesson plans a substitute could run cold.
One pilot classroom turned into one school, then a district, then a few hundred. Nothing about that original whiteboard list has really changed. We've just gotten better at building it.
WHITEBOARD, 2019
Blocks a 6 year old can use without reading
See who's stuck before they raise a hand
A substitute can run it cold
Grows all the way to real Python
(still figuring this one out...)
WHAT WE BELIEVE
The rules we don't break
Teachers first
If a feature makes a teacher's job harder, it doesn't ship, no matter how impressive it looks in a demo.
Kids over metrics
Engagement stats are easy to game with flashing lights. We'd rather a kid finish proud of something real.
Simple over clever
The obvious feature that any teacher can use beats the clever one that needs a training video.
Answer like a person
Every support reply comes from someone who has actually taught, not a script. Slower to hire for, worth it.
MILESTONES
Six years, one whiteboard list.
2019
Sparki is founded
Three former teachers build the first version of the block editor and pilot it in a single 3rd grade classroom.
2020
First 100 schools
Word spreads between teachers at conferences. The class dashboard ships after a district asks for it twice in one week.
2022
Hybrid Code and Python launch
Middle schoolers who started in kindergarten are ready for real code. The three-level platform becomes one continuous path.
2024
2,000+ schools
District-wide rollouts across 12 countries. The onboarding team grows from two people to a dozen.
Today
2,400+ schools, 18 countries
Same whiteboard list. Still no flashy engagement gimmicks. Still every support reply from someone who used to teach.
LEADERSHIP
Mostly former teachers.
More than half the company taught in a classroom before they worked here, engineering and support included.
RM
Renee Marsh
Co-founder & CEO
6 years teaching 3rd grade
TK
Theo Kwan
Co-founder & CTO
Former HS computer science teacher
AO
Amara Osei
Head of Curriculum
Instructional designer, 10 years in K-8
DP
Diego Pena
Head of Teacher Success
Runs the PD program he wished he'd had
CAREERS
We hire teachers
on purpose.
Not every role requires a classroom background, but a lot of them do better with one. If you've taught, you already understand the product better than most resumes we see. Five roles open right now, across curriculum, engineering, customer success, support, and sales.
Curriculum Designer, Grades K–2
Open
Frontend Engineer, Block Editor
Open
District Onboarding Specialist
Open
+ 2 more roles
Come see what we've
been building.
Free for one classroom, forever. No credit card required.