Jun 3, 2026
Otus President and Co-Founder Chris Hull recently joined Adam Giery on Capital Class for a conversation about the daily realities teachers face and the classroom frustrations that sparked Otus. From the early days of building tools to the growing role of AI in helping educators understand student data, Chris shared what continues to guide Otus’ work: helping schools see the full picture of each student so educators can guide them toward success.
3 Takeaways for K–12 Leaders Thinking About Data, AI, and Student Success
The strongest edtech ideas often start with real classroom frustration
Before Chris Hull launched Otus, he was a middle school teacher trying to solve the everyday challenges happening right in front of him. While managing 150 students, he was also trying to find ways to make technology more useful, but was slowly realizing that the tools available to him weren’t connected in the way teachers needed them to be. The early idea behind Otus came from that reality: teachers and school teams had the data, but it was scattered across too many places.
"The entire problem was, ‘Where do I go to see everything?’ We'd have these problem-solving meetings where we would talk about a student, and there'd be eight of us with eight different things on our laptops. Some people would just talk about what was happening in their class anecdotally, and it became, ‘How can we distill this thirty-minute information gathering moment into something that allows us to get to the problem-solving faster?’"
Chris Hull
Co-founder and President
,
Otus
Data is only valuable when educators can make sense of it in the moment
As every district leader knows, schools are not short on student data. The challenge they do face, however, is helping educators interpret that data quickly enough to support students while that information is still relevant. Even a small amount of documentation for each student can become overwhelming when multiplied across an entire class roster. That’s where AI has the potential to serve as a meaningful assistant, helping teachers surface the right insights at the exact right time. For K–12 leaders, the opportunity now is to move beyond collecting data and focus on building systems that help educators understand what the data is telling them.
"When I was teaching, we had IEPs for about ten percent of our students, so let's just call that fifteen students. For each of my fifteen students on an IEP, there were eight or nine pages of data. That was overwhelming. It’s too much to maintain in our heads unless we have help. That, to me, is where AI comes into play; where we can really utilize that as an assistant to serve up those insights when you need them. Some teachers can learn their kids in a quarter. For others, it can take longer. So how do we ensure that they learn their kids faster so that you really know who your kids are? That's the most important thing."
Chris Hull
Co-founder and President
,
Otus
AI’s most important role is helping teachers know students more deeply
When Chris was a seventh-grade teacher, he realized how easily important student context could disappear between grade levels. A student he knew well had experienced a major loss years earlier, and while previous teachers knew that information, it never made its way to him. When schools have a more complete picture of each learner, including not just academic data but also personal context, teachers can better understand how to support them. Using AI, educators can surface that context even faster. And with the right systems in place, educators can begin each relationship with a clearer understanding of the student seated in front of them.
"We really need to be able to capture this longitudinal profile so that it's there at your fingertips. And that is where I think AI can help. It could unearth that. With AI, we have the ability to say, ‘Help me discover this. Deliver this. Give me the insights.’"
Chris Hull
Co-founder and President
,
Otus
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