Our Story
Born from real frustration, not market research
StudyStash was born from frustration. Our founders, Ben and Jonathan, were university students drowning in the same content dumps that overwhelm millions of students today. Hundreds of pages of PDFs, recorded lectures with no structure, notes that made sense to lecturers but not learners.
We weren't struggling because we weren't working hard-we were struggling because the way information was delivered just didn't make sense for how students actually learn.
Jonathan Graham
Co-Founder
Youth as a strategic advantage
Their youth wasn't a disadvantage - it became their strategic advantage. They weren't researching the problem from boardrooms; they were living it in lecture halls. They understood the gap between how universities deliver content and how students actually learn because they experienced that gap every single day.
Authentic insight drives better solutions
While established EdTech companies built solutions based on institutional assumptions, Ben and Jonathan built from student reality. They didn't need market research to understand learning pain points – they felt them. They didn't need surveys to identify where support was needed – they lived it.
Student perspective meets scientific rigour
This inside-out approach unlocked insights that traditional software companies miss: that students learn better when they can interrogate content in their native language, that spaced repetition only works when it fits real student schedules, that actionable intelligence must serve both learners and lecturers.
Proven at scale, grounded in authenticity
Today, StudyStash combines that authentic student perspective with rigorous neuroscience research. We're close enough to understand the problem, smart enough to solve it scientifically, and experienced enough to deploy it at university scale.
The Elevate Program
A key part of our journey came through the Elevate Program, which provided mentorship, structure, and the space to test our ideas in the real world. It pushed us to sharpen our approach, connect with the right partners, and turn a student-led idea into a scalable solution.
Growing Beyond the Classroom
From our roots in Birmingham, we've expanded to Bristol and now New York City. Along the way, we've partnered with EAB and are showcasingour work at major conferences including CONNECTED25, EDUCAUSE, and AoC.
And we're not just supporting universities anymore-we're now partnering with schools and colleges to make StudyStash available to learners at every stage.
