From Homeschool Kitchen Table to 1,000 Users in 3 Months: How Arielle Phoenix Built Pip 11+ Practice Solo

Most founders talk about moving fast. Arielle Phoenix actually does it. She registered the domain for Pip 11+ Practice on June 2, 2026, and had version one live on the App Store and Google Play ten days later, all while home-educating three children and running the whole build herself. It’s the kind of timeline that sounds unlikely until you look at her background: nearly a decade of shipping software, an earlier tool that grew to £30,000 in monthly recurring revenue, and a habit of solving her own problems before anyone else’s.

Pip 11+ Practice is an adaptive learning app for kids aged 7 to 11, built around the UK’s 11+ entrance exams and KS2 SATs. In this interview, Arielle walks through how the app came together, why she chose freemium over ads, what’s actually working for growth without a marketing budget, and the tradeoffs of running an edtech company as a team of one (plus Claude). Here’s our conversation.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

I’m Arielle Phoenix, a self-taught software builder and home-educating mum of three. In 2015, I started building websites, and in 2020 I moved into SEO and content, building content marketing tools for that community. I was an early adopter of AI and connected the OpenAI API to Google Sheets to help site owners and marketers scale content creation via no-code programmatic SEO. My tool BulkPublishing AI grew to £30,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Since then, I’ve been building and shipping web apps and consulting on the side.

Pip 11+ Practice grew out of learning tools I built for my own children, and it’s the project I’m most passionate about. It’s an adaptive learning app for children aged 7 to 11, covering maths, English, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning for the UK 11+ entrance exams and the KS2 SATs. Parents pick Year 4, 5 or 6 to start; after that, the child’s answers decide what comes next. Get a question right, and the next one gets harder; keep getting stuck, and Pip, the in-app coach, goes back to the building block they’re missing, teaches it, then brings them back up. Skills they’ve mastered return for quick checks over the following weeks, so they stick. It’s on iOS, Android, and the web, and I run it solo.

How does your business make money?

Freemium, plus print. The core app is free, with no ads. Pip Pro (£69.99 a year, or £9.99 a month) adds an exam-date study plan, full mock papers, and harder Extreme challenges for children who are ready to be stretched. We also sell Pip 11+ branded paperback workbooks for families who like to practise on paper as well as on screen.

What was your inspiration for starting the business?

My eldest was approaching secondary school age, and as a home-educating family we had to decide whether he’d go to school. That sent me down the 11+ rabbit hole. We worked through workbooks and mock papers, and he enjoyed it. We did a lot of it together, but I found myself constantly buying and printing resources as we flew through them. So I reverse-engineered the common 11+ question types and started building my own learning tools, which, of course, they used.

They were ecstatic, and to this day wake me up to unlock devices so they can go on Pip! So that was the moment I knew it could help other families too. I shared it in my homeschool co op circle and got really positive feedback on V1, which was made in under a week.

My children had used plenty of learning apps over the years, and that shaped what Pip 11+ Practice does differently. It teaches, not just tests. Pip Teaches are our interactive lessons: children move blocks, drag bar models, slice shapes, and fill in receipts to see why a method works before they practise it. 

As somebody with ADHD, I know that for kids with ADHD and dyscalculia, plain text on a page or screen can sometimes look like nonsense and it’s hard to absorb, so I wanted to fix that completely by making it engaging but not babyish.

How and when did you launch the business?

Fast. I registered the domain on 2 June 2026, and the website went live the same day with my first SEO content seeded and waiting. By 12 June, version 1 was live in both the App Store and Google Play. I built it solo on 20-hour days while home-educating three children. It was not for the faint of heart, but years of shipping software meant I knew how to get from idea to live, lean product quickly.

Tell us about your team.

It’s me and Claude (Anthropic). I designed the teaching, wrote the content, built the adaptive engine, and shipped the apps. My children are my unofficial co-founders and toughest testers: if a screen is boring or confusing, I hear about it immediately. My first planned hire is a teacher-content lead so the curriculum can grow faster.

How are you funded? 

Fully bootstrapped, with nothing raised. Pip 11+ Practice runs on subscription revenue and my own time.

How did you acquire your first customers?

Without paid ads. Search came first: the site was built to answer parents’ questions from day one. Early families came from that, the app stores, my homeschool co-op, and word of mouth between parents. I then worked through free listings: education directories, UK council Family Information Service directories, home-education communities and edtech platforms. Pip 11+ Practice is Google Play Teacher Approved and listed on the BESA EdTech Exchange, which helps parents trust a new app.

Tell us about your primary driver(s) for growth. What worked for you in the beginning? What’s working now?

SEO from day one. I structured the site for search before anything else. I worked out the questions parents ask when they’re looking for help with the 11+, answered them properly, and created free resources alongside. Exam preparation is a moment of real urgency, so parents actively search, and the app stores helped too.

We passed 1,000 users in three months with no ad budget. Next, I’m expanding the search content across the SATs and wider KS2, and piloting Pip 11+ Practice with schools so children meet it in class and parents see progress at home.

What marketing strategies have been most effective for you so far?

Being useful and being findable. Free listings in the places parents already look (council family directories, home-education networks, education platforms) have worked better than anything flashy.

The product does a lot of the marketing, too. Children don’t feel like they’re studying: each topic looks like its real-world version, so money questions happen on a till, a café menu board, an airport currency board or a supermarket shelf. Weekly boss battles, a Learning Grove world to explore, coins, trophies and Pip, their own character to look after, keep them coming back. Pip only grows from real practice, so the fun is tied to the learning, and children who enjoy it tell their parents, who tell other parents.

What has been your biggest challenge so far, and what did you learn from it? How are you dealing with this issue today?

Time. Building, teaching, marketing, and parenting all compete for the same hours. I’ve learned to protect the product decisions that matter most and to systemise everything else.

Can you tell us about any upcoming developments we can look forward to?

Wider KS2 coverage, so a family that joins for the 11+ can use Pip 11+ Practice across Years 3 to 6. Clearer progress reports for parents. School pilots.

How do you see your business evolving in the next 5 years?

I want Pip 11+ Practice to be how children aged 7 to 11 learn at home, wherever they study the British curriculum: in the UK, in the Gulf and beyond. The mission is simple: every child ready for secondary school.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken as a founder/entrepreneur?

Going all in on a new market with no funding and no team, on the strength of what I saw my own children needed. Building it in ten days meant there was no safety net and no time to second-guess.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?

Shipping lean and letting real users guide the next step. Scope creep is real, and it is very easy to get caught up in a loop of building and never doing the hard stuff. I rejected that completely.

What tools do you use and recommend?

Claude Code or Codex (or both) for the MVP and in general for speeding up the repetitive work. Supabase for the backend; EAS for builds and store submissions.

What is your favorite quote?

“Just keep swimming” – Dory