Roadmap → The plan from v1 (benchmark + Ask Kumuao) through the full trust layer. Honest about what's shipped, what's next, and what's still a bet. ← Back to v1
Kumuao.ai · roadmap
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Public roadmap · updated May 2026

From a leaderboard and a family app to the trust layer every edtech platform deploys.

Kumuao v1 is two products: the open benchmark and Ask Kumuao, an education advisor that helps parents work through any decision in their child's education — from the day-to-day to the long game. Kumuao Spark, the AI Interaction Monitor, partner APIs, certification, schools and a possible foundation model come after — in the order listed here, for reasons we explain in the "bets we're making" section.

Kumuao is bootstrapped and founder-owned. Built lean with AI leverage and funded by its own revenue — past break-even, profit reinvests into growth (a healthy LTV:CAC), so it funds itself. No outside capital; we'll raise only if and when it would pour fuel on something already working.

How to read this roadmap: We commit to order and direction. Calendar dates beyond the current quarter are estimates — they'll shift as we learn. Phases are separated by signals, not hard gates. If a signal isn't there, we stay in the phase until it is rather than rushing to the next one.

Products on this roadmap

Kumuao Bench · v1 today
Our open benchmark — tests AI chatbots against child-safety scenarios across 8 dimensions and 4 developmental stages. The leaderboard is public.
Ask Kumuao · v1 today
An education advisor for parents. Five structured skills — Activity Decision, College Pathway & Gap Closing, AI-era Education Strategy, Parent Conversation Script, and Project Design — backed by a Family Knowledge Base that remembers every decision and follows up when checkpoints are due.
Kumuao Spark · later
A native AI chat for kids — safe by design, not by filter. We'll build it once Bench v1.0 lands and our safety classifier is tight enough to power it.
AI Interaction Monitor · later
Topic-level summaries of every Kumuao Spark conversation, in the parent dashboard. Built alongside Spark — signal, not surveillance.
Guard API · later
A safety classification layer edtech companies embed into their own products — real-time filtering and flagging powered by Kumuao Bench methodology.
Today
May 28, 2026
Live
1 product (Bench v0.1.0)
Building
Ask Kumuao · web beta
Horizon
30 months
The arc

Six phases. Rough timing, firm order.

Each phase has a primary goal and a signal we're looking for before shifting focus. Dates are our best current estimate — the order is what we're actually committed to.

  1. Q2 2026 · now

    Credibility

    Ship the benchmark. Get Ask Kumuao in real parents' hands. Cover costs from revenue.

    Signal: Benchmark generating conversation. Ask Kumuao waitlist + retention growing.
  2. Q3–Q4 2026

    Early traction

    Bench v1.0 published. Ask Kumuao public launch. First B2B partnerships on Bench.

    Signal: Bench cited in press. Ask Kumuao showing real retention. Revenue covering the stack.
  3. Q4 2026–H1 2027

    Product–market fit

    Bench v2.0. Ask Kumuao at scale. Self-service certification for edtech.

    Signal: Paying parents + paying B2B Bench customers. Pricing model validated.
  4. H1–H2 2027

    Platform expansion

    Kumuao Spark + AI Interaction Monitor enter beta. Guard API ships when classifier is ready.

    Signal: Spark + Monitor showing safety scores at the top of the leaderboard. API revenue growing.
  5. 2027–2028

    Scale & enterprise

    Complete API. International expansion. SOC 2. Outside capital only if growth outpaces revenue.

    Signal: ARR growing fast enough that raising would be a choice, not a need.
  6. 2028+

    Market leadership

    Foundation Model (if margin justifies it). Multimodal. 50+ countries. Procurement standard.

    Signal: Sustainable unit economics. Path to profitability visible.
Shipped — live today Building — work in flight Planned — committed scope Vision — strategic bet, scope TBD
Workstreams

Seven parallel tracks. They feed each other.

The benchmark generates safety signal data. That data trains the API. The API generates usage data. Usage data sharpens the benchmark. Each track is a flywheel input for another.

Q2 '26 now
Q3 '26
Q4 '26
H1 '27
H2 '27
2028+
Benchmark Open-source measurement
v0.1.0 · 100+ tests v1.0 + paper v2.0 — 2,400+ cases Multimodal extension Localized · 50+ countries
Ask Kumuao B2C · parent counsellor
Web beta Public launch → plan history iOS app Multi-language · couples mode
Spark + Monitor Kid AI · parent visibility
Classifier hardened Spark beta · Monitor beta iOS GA
API B2B · core revenue
Guard · private alpha Guard GA (when pilot feedback is strong) Tutor (Tier 2) Complete + Foundation
Certify Compliance program
Self-service eval Standard cert program Premium & Enterprise
Schools B2B2C · per-student
1–3 district pilots LMS integrations · grow districts Scale · 100+ districts
Trust & compliance SOC 2 · regulators
State of AI Child Safety v1 SOC 2 readiness → Type II UK · EU packs · regulators
Funding Bootstrapped
Self-funded + revenue Optional seed — if it takes off Growth round — only if a choice

Time periods are quarterly to mid-2027, then half-yearly, then annual. The further out you look, the less precise the boundaries are — that's deliberate. We commit to dates inside 12 months and to order beyond that.

The detail

What's in each phase, milestone by milestone.

Now · Q2 2026

Credibility

Goal — get the benchmark talked about and the family app in real parents' hands.

  • ShippedKumuao Bench v0.1.0Leaderboard live. 102 tests + 15 sequences, 4 stages, 8 dimensions.
  • BuildingAsk Kumuao · web betaParent counsellor grounded in child-development research and our Bench v0.1.0 findings. Invites by waitlist; free + $5.99/mo tiers. Eight topic rooms — three free (General, Which AI is safe?, Daily routine), five Family-tier (School work & grades, Activities & enrichment, Future school selection, Wellbeing & worries, Big talks).
  • ShippedBootstrapped & founder-ownedSelf-funded, built lean with AI leverage, costs covered by revenue. No outside capital — 100% founder-owned.
  • PlannedFirst hires — from revenueA GTM lead and an ML engineer, brought on as revenue supports them — not before.
Q3–Q4 2026

Early traction

Goal — get Kumuao into the conversation. Benchmark cited, app in real hands, first API pilots live.

  • PlannedBench v1.0 + research paper800+ test cases, eval harness open-sourced on GitHub. Target: cited in at least one press piece.
  • PlannedAsk Kumuao · public launchOpen sign-up. All eight topic rooms live (three free, five Family). Persistent plan history. Multi-child support. Co-parent sharing entering beta.
  • PlannedBench partnerships · pilotA handful of edtech companies licensing our test cases + scoring. We'd rather have 3 who love it than 10 lukewarm.
  • VisionOptional seed · only from strengthIf traction makes it obvious, raise to accelerate — from leverage, not need. Otherwise, keep compounding on revenue.
  • PlannedState of AI Child Safety · v1First edition of what we hope becomes a reference report for the industry.
Q4 2026 – H1 2027

Product–market fit

Goal — paying parents on Ask Kumuao + paying edtech partners on Bench. Two motions, both real.

  • PlannedBench v2.0 · 2,400+ casesFull grooming sequences, regulatory mapping, public leaderboard refresh.
  • PlannedAsk Kumuao · paid retentionFamily + Family Plus tiers shipped. Target: paid retention curves flattening above 40%.
  • PlannedSelf-service certification$2K/run automated eval + PDF report. Keeps the cert motion going without needing sales.
  • PlannedFirst district pilot(s)1–3 districts. Paid, but the goal is learning the sales motion and building references.
H1–H2 2027 · if PMF is clear

Platform expansion

Goal — Kumuao Spark + the Monitor enter beta (this is when our classifier is mature enough to power our own kid-facing AI). Guard API ships. Tutor API explored if Guard has signal.

  • VisionKumuao Spark · betaOur own child-safe AI chat. Built on a classifier hardened by Bench v2.0 and real Ask Kumuao usage signal.
  • VisionAI Interaction Monitor · betaParent visibility into every Spark conversation. Built alongside Spark, not bolted on.
  • VisionGuard API · GAEdtech embeds Kumuao's safety classifier into their own products. Open to paying customers when pilot feedback is strong.
  • VisionKumuao Tutor API (Tier 2)Education-optimized layer. Ships when Guard has product-market fit — not before.
  • VisionEducation fine-tune v1Llama-3 LoRA + DPO. Start when we have enough usage data to make it meaningful.
  • VisionAsk Kumuao on iOS + AndroidWeb-first today. Native apps when web retention and revenue justify the platform investment.
  • VisionStandard cert program$15K/yr tier when we have enough cert engagements to systemize it.
  • VisionGrow the district pipelineMore districts when we have references, an LMS integration story, and a dedicated sales motion.
2027–2028 · longer-horizon bets

Scale & enterprise

Goal — enterprise revenue, international compliance, and outside capital only if growth clearly outpaces what revenue can fund. Specific timing TBD based on what we learn.

  • VisionKumuao Complete API (Tier 3)Parent + teacher dashboards, assessment generation, white-label UI.
  • VisionSOC 2 Type IIEnterprise procurement requirement — will pursue when enterprise pipeline demands it.
  • VisionUK + EU compliance packsAADC + EU AI Act. Big opportunity, meaningful effort — sequenced after US PMF.
  • VisionEnterprise certification tierDedicated safety engineer + custom test cases. When we have the team to support it.
  • VisionSeries A · when the numbers support itNo target date set. We'll raise when ARR trajectory makes a strong growth story, not on a schedule.
2028 and beyond

Market leadership

Goal — be the standard. Be the thing regulators cite by name.

  • VisionKumuao Foundation Model v1Purpose-built child-safe education model. Only if API margin compression justifies it.
  • VisionMultimodal child safetyImage-generation safety added to Bench and Guard.
  • VisionLocalized benchmarks · 50+ countriesCultural and regulatory variants per jurisdiction.
  • VisionProcurement standard"Kumuao Certified" listed as a requirement in 100+ district RFPs.
  • Vision$10M+ ARR · path to profitabilityNet positive cash flow in early Year 3.
Bets we're making

Why this order, not some other.

A roadmap is mostly the story of which thing we're betting on second, given what we're betting on first. Here are the five sequencing bets — each one is the reason the next phase exists.

Bet 01

Benchmark before product.

We ship the leaderboard before the API because the benchmark is what makes Kumuao credible. Without it, we're just another wrapper. With it, every conversation about AI safety in education starts with our numbers — and that's distribution.

What kills this bet: if the benchmark doesn't get adopted as a reference within 6 months (citations, GitHub stars, press), we don't have the credibility to sell the API.

Bet 02

B2C before B2B.

Ask Kumuao ships before Spark, Monitor, or Guard API because parents convert in days and the counsellor can be built today (it's a system prompt + the Bench data). Kid-facing AI requires our classifier to be production-tight; that's earned, not assumed. Ask Kumuao generates the revenue that funds everything else, proves real demand, and produces real-world usage signal that improves Bench, Spark, and the API later.

What kills this bet: if early Ask Kumuao subscribers churn quickly and CAC doesn't fall with scale, the B2C unit economics don't work and we shift emphasis to B2B Bench earlier.

Bet 03

API before certification.

Guard API ships before paid certification because the API is what generates the data certification will need to be credible. You can't audit something you've never operated.

What kills this bet: if foundation model providers ship deep child-safety features in 2026, the wrapper-API thesis weakens and we lean harder on certification + benchmark as the standalone business.

Bet 04

Districts after enterprise edtech.

School districts have 6–18 month sales cycles and budget-driven procurement. We're not equipped for that motion at Q3 2026. We sell to the edtech companies that sell to districts first, then go direct once we have references and a cert program.

What kills this bet: if a district RFP explicitly requires "Kumuao Certified" before our cert program is GA, we'll have to accelerate.

Bet 05

Fine-tune before foundation model.

LoRA + DPO on Llama is a 2-engineer, 3-month investment. A custom foundation model is 20 engineers and 18 months. We don't take the second bet until usage data proves the first one was the bottleneck.

What kills this bet: if foundation model unit economics never improve to where margin justifies our own model, we stay a fine-tune company forever — which is fine, but it changes the long-term cap table math.

If we're wrong

The roadmap that survives every scenario.

We've sequenced everything so that if a phase fails, the work behind it still has value. Here's what the path looks like in each failure mode.

If the API doesn't work

We become a measurement-and-certification company. Benchmark + Certify alone is a $5M+ ARR business (see Veracode, Checkmarx). Ask Kumuao still runs as a B2C product.

If foundation labs commoditize child safety

Our deep evaluation methodology becomes the audit standard regardless of who provides the underlying safety. We pivot from "build the layer" to "certify the layers" — Kumuao becomes the UL Labs of AI safety.

If a competitor raises $50M+

Open-source benchmark adoption is sticky once it's the reference. First-mover on the standard wins the standard. We accelerate the cert program and lean on data flywheel.

If edtech funding stays frozen

Pivot weight to schools (budget-driven, not VC-driven) and compliance (regulatory requirement, not discretionary spend). EU AI Act enforcement gives us a buyer regardless of the funding climate.

Changelog

What's changed in this roadmap.

  1. v0.3 · Bootstrapped direction. Reframed funding from a pre-seed raise to self-funded, founder-owned and revenue-first. Outside capital is now optional, not planned.
  2. v0.2 · Roadmap restructure. Split v1 (Bench + Ask Kumuao) into its own surface. Added bets & failure-mode sections.
  3. v0.1 · Initial founder's design doc. Six-phase plan, seven workstreams, 30-month horizon defined.
  4. Pre-doc · Benchmark spec finalized. 8 safety dimensions, 4 developmental stages, 2,400+ target test cases set.

This roadmap is updated quarterly. Bookmark this page or follow the beta list to get changes by email.