P

Pensive

AI-based grading and personalized learning platform

Founding Growth

Full-Time
No salary listed
Mid
San Francisco, CA, USA
In Person
Growth & MarketingGrowth Marketing

About the job

Requirements
  • The candidate should be able to contribute directly to the product by building tools needed for campaigns.
  • The candidate should scope projects using projected return on investment and clear key performance indicator targets.
  • The candidate should prioritize using data and intuition and determine when to stop an experiment.
  • The candidate should be comfortable hosting events and engaging builders.
Responsibilities
  • Own growth for the entire Builders platform.
  • Launch creative signature campaigns to attract builders.
  • Design and ship a referral program engineered for virality.
  • Host in-person community events, including dinners, demo nights, and hackathons.
  • Grow Builders' social media presence and run brand-awareness campaigns.
  • Attend conferences where builders and founders gather and turn that presence into pipeline for both sides of the marketplace.
  • Build the systems and tools needed to support growth campaigns.
  • Test growth hypotheses and develop original acquisition channels.

About the company

Pensive builds an AI-assisted grading and personalized learning platform for higher education. It helps instructors by automating grading, generating personalized feedback, creating rubrics, and learning the instructor’s grading style; it can grade handwritten STEM work and essays and provides a course-aligned AI tutor that answers questions 24/7 with citations from lecture notes, while integrating with LMS like Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle. It differentiates itself by scaling individualized support for large classes through AI that mirrors a professor’s grading approach and feedback, backed by pilots at universities such as Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Columbia. Its goal is to cut educators’ grading time by up to about tenfold so they can focus more on teaching, mentorship, and research, while improving student outcomes.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Seed

Total Funding

$6.9M

Headquarters

Palo Alto, California

Founded

2024

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Mayfield led the $6.8 million seed, with Sequoia, a16z, and prominent founders participating.
  • Pensive opened to all instructors in February 2026, expanding beyond closed beta.
  • Columbia’s math course used the tutor for tens of thousands of questions.

What critics are saying

  • Instructure launched IgniteAI Agent in March 2026, bundling AI workflows inside Canvas.
  • Universities banning automated grading after an error will crush trust and renewals quickly.
  • If campus privacy teams reject student data sharing, Pensive loses its core product.

What makes Pensive unique

  • Pensive grades handwritten STEM work and essays, then learns instructor preferences over time.
  • In February 2026, Pensive processed 3 million questions across 1,000 instructors and 100+ schools.
  • Its course-aligned tutor cites lecture notes and respects instructor AI policies.

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Benefits

  • Remote Work Options

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

9%

1 year growth

0%

2 year growth

0%
Seoul Economic Daily
Jul 24th, 2026
Korean startup Pensieve wins over 100 US universities with AI grading, raises $7.3M seed round

Korean startup Pensieve has secured over 100 US universities as clients for its AI-powered grading platform, reducing grading time by up to 90%. Founded by CEO Yang Yun-seok and CTO Kim Min-jun in Silicon Valley, the company has processed 3 million submissions since launching in February last year. The platform is used by more than 1,000 professors and teaching assistants at elite institutions including Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Columbia. The AI analyses answer sheets and provides scores with detailed explanations of deductions based on grading rubrics. Pensieve raised approximately 10 billion won in seed funding this year, led by Mayfield, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz scout funds, plus Base Ventures. The company plans to expand beyond grading into a comprehensive learning platform connecting university education with employment opportunities.

Wow Partners, Inc.
Feb 26th, 2026
Pensive raises $6.9M seed to automate grading at Harvard, UC Berkeley with AI tutoring platform

Pensive, a Silicon Valley-based AI education startup, has raised $6.87 million in seed funding led by Mayfield, with participation from Sequoia Capital Scout Fund, a16z Scout Fund, Base Ventures, and angel investors including Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev. The company operates an AI grading and tutoring platform for universities, reducing grading time by up to 10 times whilst providing personalised feedback. Since launching its closed beta in February 2025, Pensive has processed 3 million gradings and conducted over 300,000 AI tutoring sessions across more than 100 universities globally, including Harvard, UC Berkeley and Columbia. Founded by former Socraa AI employees, CEO Yoon Seok Yang and CTO Min Jun Kim, Pensive aims to automate repetitive grading tasks and transform university education for the AI era.