From Campus to Acquisition in Under Two Years: Glenn Platt, Co-Founder & CEO of Lyceum AI

Glenn Platt didn't leave academia to start a company, he brought it with him. As professors at Miami University, Glenn and co-founder Russ Hamer spent years studying how people actually learn, retain knowledge, and change behavior. Lyceum AI was the product of that expertise applied to a market problem they couldn't ignore. Less than two years after launching, the company was acquired by Perceptyx. We sat down with Glenn to talk about the intrapreneur's path, the pivots that shaped the product, and what the exit means for Cincinnati.

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Cintrifuse: You and Russ came from academia, not from a big tech company or a previous startup. Did that feel like a disadvantage early on, or did your background actually give you an edge that a more "traditional" founder might not have had?

Glenn Platt: I’d say coming from academia was a double-edged sword.

On the positive side, it gave a lot of academic credibility to what we were doing. Much of our product is rooted in the science of learning, and my background as the founder of the flipped classroom opened many doors for us. It also helped us publicly present ourselves as agnostic. In addition, the academic background brought with it the network of the academic institution, which is highly valuable. So yes—I think it was an advantage.

On the other hand, there’s definitely an assumption that academics are very “ivory tower”—that they’re not very practical and don’t have the kind of experience a founder needs. I think we mitigated that pretty well by the fact that we both teach entrepreneurship, work with entrepreneurs, and mentor and support founders. So we weren’t coming from a research lab; we actually understood how to start and run a company.

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CF: Was there a specific moment in your work at Miami where the idea for Lyceum crystallized? Something you kept seeing in how people learn, or fail to learn, that existing corporate training tools were completely missing?

GP: I wouldn’t point to a single moment so much as a series of conversations that gradually led to an “aha” insight.

Russ and I were working on a DARPA grant to train diplomats in negotiation through conversational training, which started to reveal the power of a conversational training tool. At the same time, our experience in the classroom was showing us the ways students both succeed in learning and struggle with it. Through that, we began to see where traditional approaches were falling short.

My work with the flipped classroom added another layer to that realization. While the model worked well in many ways, it had an Achilles’ heel: when students returned to the classroom, they often couldn’t get the same level of personalized support they needed to truly master the material.

When generative AI began to emerge—especially with the release of GPT-2—it felt like the moment when everything clicked. It was less a sudden revelation and more the realization that the technology could finally solve a problem we had already been circling. We had effectively teed up the challenge in our conversations, and as generative AI became more accessible, the solution suddenly seemed obvious.

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CF: Tell us about Ellie, your AI learning agent. How did the learning science behind her come to life as a product, and why was a conversational AI approach the right bet for corporate learning?

GP: There are three parts to how Ellie works, all designed to make training more natural and effective.

The first is the creation of the training itself. You simply take the material you want people to learn—it doesn’t even have to be formal training content. It can be the entire body of source material, such as a user manual, product documentation, internal policies, or product details. That material can be uploaded directly into the system as a PDF, document, slides, or even video. Ellie then uses proprietary algorithms to analyze the content, determine the appropriate learning objectives, and automatically generate the conversational training experiences based on those objectives.

The second part is the conversations themselves. Conversation is one of the most natural and effective ways people learn. We teach our children through conversation, we mentor through conversation, and the most engaging classrooms are built around discussion. Conversation allows learners to engage with ideas, question them, and work through them in real time. Ellie recreates that dynamic by guiding learners through structured conversations that help them actively engage with the material rather than passively consume it.

Finally, while those conversations are happening, a sophisticated layer of learning science is operating quietly in the background. There is extensive research around what it means to truly understand something, and Ellie applies that research to continuously evaluate the learner’s understanding as the conversation unfolds. Instead of relying on quizzes, tests, or rigid training timelines, the platform assesses comprehension directly through the interaction. If someone grasps the material quickly, the conversation is shorter. If they need more time, the system continues guiding the discussion until the concept is truly understood. The process adapts to the learner and can take place in any language, ensuring the focus stays on genuine understanding rather than simply completing a training module.

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CF: You were part of the first cohort of Cintrifuse's Venture Velocity program. What did that experience unlock for you, and how did it help you move faster than you could have on your own?

GP: The Venture Velocity program was critical to our company’s success—I can’t imagine we’d be where we are today without it.

The experience helped us better understand every aspect of building the business, from fundraising and entrepreneurial finance to legal considerations and technical infrastructure. It gave us a much clearer picture of what it actually takes to grow a company.

Just as importantly, the program opened doors. It led to introductions with early customers and gave our platform valuable exposure to the broader community. The team also worked closely with us on refining our pitch deck, strengthening the design, and sharpening our go-to-market strategy.

And on top of all of that, the investment itself gave us the capital we needed to start building our team and moving the company forward.

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CF: Lyceum went from launch to acquisition in under two years. That kind of speed requires making fast calls and not getting too attached to your original plan. What was the most significant pivot you made, and what pushed you to pull the trigger on it?

GP: There was a significant pivot about eight months into the company that turned out to be pivotal to our success.

Originally, Ellie was framed as an edtech product. We were selling primarily to K–12 schools, with some motion in higher education as well. In hindsight, that focus was probably shaped by our own backgrounds in education. It felt like the most obvious first market for this kind of technology, and in many ways it did make sense. Teachers who used the product gave us incredibly positive feedback.

The challenge, though, was the same one many edtech companies face: it’s a very difficult market to break into. Software purchasing in education is always an uphill battle, and with AI still being such an early technology, there were understandably a lot of institutional hurdles to adoption. It simply wasn’t the product–market fit we had hoped for. It probably took us a little longer than it should have to fully recognize that, but eventually we did.

Our investors, including the Cintrifuse team, were really helpful in pointing out the opportunity in the corporate training space. I had some prior experience in that world and knew people operating in the space, so we leaned on that network to do market research. Very quickly, it started to feel like a much stronger fit.

When we began repositioning and rebuilding Ellie for corporate training, it felt like a hand in a glove. The response was almost immediately and universally positive. People wanted to get their hands on it. The product was solving a very real problem for companies: they often don’t know whether employees actually learn anything from their training. And at the same time, almost no one enjoys the traditional formats—PowerPoint decks and video modules. Conversation is simply a more natural and engaging way to learn, and companies immediately recognized that value.

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CF: The HR tech space is moving incredibly fast right now as AI is reshaping how companies think about training, performance, and employee experience. How did you build with that kind of tailwind without getting outpaced by it? Do you think the speed of the market actually accelerated your path to acquisition?

GP: I think our advantage in the dynamic HR AI space was that we were AI-centric from the very beginning. Many other AI tools and platforms in HR are essentially refactoring older HR workflows and layering AI on top of them. We approached it differently. We started by asking: what problems within HR can AI solve natively? Because we built Ellie as a native AI solution to a real problem, the evolving AI landscape actually became a tailwind that helped us move faster rather than something we had to constantly adapt to.

In terms of the acquisition, I do think the speed of the market played a role in accelerating that path. Once Perceptyx saw our platform, it became clear how naturally it fit alongside what they had already built. In many ways, it felt like a yin to their yang—complementing an already powerful AI platform while helping translate insights into direct, measurable outcomes for companies. Because of that clear strategic fit, they were eager to move quickly.

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CF: You're being acquired by a national firm, Perceptyx, but keeping the team rooted in Cincinnati. What does the next chapter look like for the Lyceum team, and what made staying here the right choice?

GP: Staying here in Cincinnati wasn’t even really a choice—it was simply the right thing to do. From our earliest conversations with Perceptyx, we talked about the value of the ecosystem here in Southwest Ohio.

Being based here gives us access to brilliant minds, great mentors, customers, and capital. There are incredible events that bring the community together, and there’s a strong talent pool we can draw from as the company continues to grow. On top of that, the region offers excellent transportation access and the infrastructure needed to support a scaling company.

When you put all of that together, staying in the Cincinnati area was a no-brainer for us.

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CF: For founders here who are earlier in the journey, what does Lyceum's story prove is possible and what would you tell them about building a venture-backed company in the Midwest?

GP: To use the Goldilocks metaphor, there are some ecosystems that are so big that an early-stage company like ours would just disappear. These ecosystems are great, but all of the attention ends up going to companies that are at a later stage or already have an established customer base or have already raised a significant amount of money. You just disappear into that ecosystem.

On the other hand, some ecosystems are so small that they lack the resources startups need. There may not be enough capital available, making it difficult to access angel or early-stage investors. It can also be harder to find mentors who have already built and exited companies, or to tap into the kind of support network that helps founders navigate the early stages of growth.

Then there's that middle, like Cincinnati, which is just the right size. It's big enough where there is significant access to capital. There is no shortage of angel and early-stage investors, both here in Southwest Ohio and broadly in the region. There's also a lot of experienced folks who've exited, like our mentors that we were matched with through the Venture Velocity Program. 

At the same time, the region offers strong access to potential customers, which makes it much easier to do real market validation early on. And because the ecosystem is tight-knit but active, companies can get the visibility and support they need to grow. That “just right” scale of the Cincinnati ecosystem was critical to our success, and I think it positions the region extremely well for early-stage startups.

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Cintrifuse is a non-profit organization accelerating startup growth in Greater Cincinnati by leveraging its three branches: Cintrifuse, Cintrifuse Capital, and StartupCincy. Together, these branches create an ecosystem which aims to amplify Cincinnati’s reputation as one of the best places in the Midwest to launch and scale a business.