Bio
John Heine is the founder of Poktu, an early-stage edtech startup focused on mathematics education, which he launched in January 2023. He holds a Master's in Mathematics and Chemistry from King's College London and operates out of the Netherlands. The product is a small-team or solo build — low public footprint, which usually means the work is still in the hands.
Before committing to building, Heine worked as an independent advisor on government effectiveness and public service reform, with education-sector engagements across Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Serbia. That's a specific kind of field experience — working inside education systems that don't have the luxury of incrementalism — and it's the kind of context that tends to sharpen what a product actually needs to do.
The through-line is clear: a rigorous quantitative background, years spent close to broken education infrastructure in difficult markets, and then a decision to build rather than advise. Poktu is the bet that software is the right lever.