Dacod's story 
I’m Dacod, one of FoondaMate’s co-founders. I went to a school in a rural township in Mpumalanga, South Africa, where there were an average of 50 – 70 students per class. There were so few text books, we had were share between other classmates.
In high school, my brother and I pooled our Christmas money to buy a computer. I used mobile data to download past papers and notes from the Internet, which helped me get good grades in the absence of teachers and text books. This was very helpful, especially for maths and physics because I didn’t have teachers for most of the year.
I ended up graduating top of my matric class and was my school’s first ever learner to be accepted into the best university in Africa, where I studied Computer Science and learned how to write computer programs.
After graduating from university, I discovered that I could write a program that communicated using WhatsApp, and the first thing I thought of was using it to help students get study materials. And that’s how FoondaMate was born!
Tao's story 
I’m Tao, FoondaMate’s other co-founder. My story is a little different. I went to schools where resources were not a limitation. There was no shortage of learning materials and my classes had about 12 students in them.
I graduated top of my class, and received a scholarship to study at UCT. While I was there, I realised that many students were limited by their resources. I was really excited about the doors that studying had opened for me, but I wanted to find a way to make that possible for everyone. So when Dacod told me about his idea to get students past papers on WhatsApp, I got really excited, and we started building FoondaMate together.
At first, the robot could just help with downloading past papers. But we made it smarter, so that it could explain things, help with maths, send study guides and speak different languages. Then we decided to share it with some learners and see what they thought. And we’ve been growing ever since!
A student’s story 
Hi, I’m Zamokuhle Dube, and I’m currently studying medicine at UKZN. Using FoondaMate really helped me boost my grades and get accepted into university.
I live in a town called Madlankala with my mom and brother. It’s a tough area, and growing up I was exposed to some difficult things. But my mom was strict and made sure I stayed focused on my schoolwork. The school I went to was far, and I had to take two taxis every day just to get there and back.
I started using FoondaMate to get familiar with how exam papers are structured. I downloaded past papers, practiced answering them, and figured out where I needed to improve. FoondaMate also helped me get comfortable with the types of questions asked in exams. This really paid off because, in the actual exams, many of the questions were structured in a similar way.
I ended up matriculating with a distinction and got accepted to study medicine at UKZN. Varsity life is tough, but I’m determined to improve my grades and hopefully earn a bursary or even graduate cum laude in the future.
