In the high-stakes world of entrepreneurship, Palo Alto High School graduate Mehr Sikri risked it all, investing her life savings to revolutionize how young students tackle math. Today, nestled in Palo Alto’s Midtown Shopping Center, Operation Math stands as a bold testament to her unwavering determination.

Sikri founded OpMath in May 2018, an in-person service focusing on teaching younger children while using technology to enhance learning and address unfinished learning and learning loss.

Sikri said she has always had an immense passion for education, especially in mathematics. Ever since she was young, Sikri said her mother emphasized the importance of a strong education to give her the skills and freedom to do what she wanted. 

“Now that I’m older, I realize that having confidence in working with numbers really does open so many doors, even if you don’t choose a career that is in math and sciences,” Sikri said. “Almost every career is now impacted by or influenced by some level of math and or data, so really knowing the foundations is essential.”

Sikri said she was first exposed to the world of math tutoring through a friend by pure coincidence, recalling her first two-hour session flying by in what felt like 15 minutes. 

“Now, looking back, I realize that I was experiencing a state of ‘flow,’” Sikri said. “That was the first time I realized that not only do I love learning math myself, but I love teaching it and helping it make sense to others.”

Sikri said she realized that even though the Palo Alto Unified School District school system is one of the best in the country, children were still struggling with foundational math skills. She recalled observing a high school junior that had difficulty adding and subtracting negative numbers, skills that she deemed essential to success in future courses. 

“I realized that if kids in Palo Alto are struggling with foundational mastery, then there’s a major opportunity to help students in the Bay Area and beyond,” Sikri said. “The goal of OpMath is to help students build an extremely strong foundation in math to avoid the fear often associated with the subject as kids enter middle and high school.”

The idea for OpMath was born with goals for an all-new learning environment. Sikri started her business from scratch, growing the business through word-of-mouth rather than receiving funding from investors.

“I ended up bootstrapping the company, so it’s all my own savings and that’s why it was a very stressful decision,” Sikri said. “When I signed it, I was like ‘I’m gonna go all in and if it fails then I will get back up and figure it out.’”

The challenges of COVID-19 also increased the risk of opening her own business, Sikri said, since it was a factor in stunting not only students’ foundational math skills, but attention span as well. 

“I think everyone would agree that online learning was not nearly as effective as in traditional school settings and we’re now starting to see the aftermath,” Sikri said. “This is the main reason why we advocate for in-person learning and I’ve invested in setting up a learning center locally.”

However, despite the many other local neighborhood math tutoring programs may exist in Palo Alto, Sikri said that OpMath is not a typical tutoring center. 

“It [OpMath] has been built from the ground up by a Palo Alto graduate with immense care and dedication,” Sikri said. “It’s a very warm and supportive environment and I’m very hands-on and invested in each and every one of our students.”

Additionally to having an immense passion for education, Sikri said that one factor truly keeps her going and motivated: her students. 

“I love the instant connection students and I have,” Sikri said. “I had many of the same teachers when I was a Paly student and I also feel like I’m especially well-equipped to help students because I know the PAUSD curriculum inside and out.”

From designing new features for their platform to creating new and improved versions of the app, Sikri says she plans to continue running OpMath to help Bay Area students succeed in their math courses and beyond.

“Confidence and mastery in math is no longer optional and it is a topic used and required in every field and plays such a big role in a person’s professional success even if a person doesn’t go into traditional math or science dominant fields,” Sikri said. “I want to help everyone realize that anyone can be good at math, with the right tools and starting early.”