Niels Hoven

Hoven argues early reading gives parents leverage to demand more from schools that would hold children back.

“being able to say, my kid can already read. You need to give them more opportunity is one of your strongest negotiating levers”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:49:24

Hoven reports that his son, given independent study during math class, completed eighth-grade math in third grade.

“And he finished eighth grade math while he was in third grade”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 28:48

Hoven says he supports public schools and wants children to self-pace within them rather than in parallel systems.

“I actually really believe in the institution of public schools. I went to public schools. My children go to public schools”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 27:32

Hoven describes Mentava's ideal customer as tech-employed first-generation immigrants aged 35 to 45 who value education.

“age 35 to 45 first-generation immigrants who work at tech companies, who value education”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:13:26

Hoven says X and word of mouth bring Mentava's best customers, while Meta ads produce cheap but unqualified leads.

“I think our best customers are X and word of mouth”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 57:20

Hoven describes Mentava as software that lets children learn at their own capacity rather than an age-assigned pace.

“software that is designed to let kids learn as fast as they're capable of learning instead of just at the pace assigned to their age”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:39

Hoven argues teachers are victims of training that told them phonics discourages reading.

“teachers are the victims here, too. They were told in teacher's college that phonics will turn kids off of reading”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:00:58

Hoven claims that outside education schools, academia and cognitive science agree phonics is the only way to teach reading.

“everybody in cognitive science, everybody in the rest of academia completely understands that phonics is the only way to teach reading”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 59:50

Hoven argues that teaching reading is a solved problem based on letter sounds and blending.

“reading and math are both basically solved problems. We know how to teach reading. You teach kids letter sounds and then you teach them to blend them together”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 8:51

Hoven says Mentava is generally not suitable for two-year-olds and suggests three and a half to five as the ideal range.

“I'm very comfortable saying it's probably not for two-year-olds”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:25:46

Hoven explains that children can learn letter sounds well before they are developmentally able to blend them into words.

“kids are able to learn letters and letter sounds quite a bit earlier than actually being able to blend those sounds together and be able to read”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 32:57

Hoven attributes the failed referral incentive to wealthy customers valuing social considerations over a $500 bonus.

“that $500 bonus that they get is not as valuable to them as the social currency”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:03:38

Hoven reports that a two-sided free-month referral offer sent to all customers produced no referrals.

“And we send out coupon codes to our entire customer base. And we got zero referrals”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:03:09

Hoven urges parents to advocate for their children's education without guilt.

“never, ever let anybody make you feel guilty for advocating for your kid”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 2:08:40

Hoven says leading with the high price has worked because customers read it as a signal of legitimacy.

“we knew there's no way you could be a scam if you manage to charge that much money”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:20:30

Hoven frames motivation design as either increasing rewards or lowering the effort required.

“you can either increase the size of the reward on the other side or you can lower the hoop”

The Tim Ferriss Show: #882: How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Read and Rethinking Education — Tim Coaches Niels Hoven of Mentava (Sep 10, 2026) · Listen from 10:56