- Panos Siozos is a third-generation educator who co-founded LearnWorlds in 2014 to bridge the gap between learning science and traditional LMS platforms.
- Inspired by frustration with compliance-driven learning tools, he built LearnWorlds as an AI-powered platform designed to help creators, businesses, and L&D teams create, deliver and monetise interactive learning experiences.
- A key turning point came during COVID-19, when demand for flexible digital learning surged, reinforcing Siozos’ vision of LearnWorlds as an adaptable learning infrastructure rather than a static course platform.
Tell Me About Yourself and Learnworlds
I’m Panos Siozos, co-founder and CEO of LearnWorlds. I have a PhD in Educational Technology and have spent the last 25 years designing and building learning platforms. Before LearnWorlds, I worked in academia as a researcher and later as a policy advisor at the European Parliament, focusing on research and innovation policy.
We founded LearnWorlds in 2014 to bridge the gap between learning science and the ‘LMSs’ out on the market. Today, it’s an AI-powered platform that enables creators, training businesses, L&D teams (anyone, really) to create, deliver and monetise high-quality, interactive learning experiences.
What Inspired You To Start Learnworlds, and What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?
I’m a third-generation educator. Teaching runs in my family. My great-grandfathers were teachers in early-1900s Greece, my father was a special education teacher, I grew up surrounded by books, lesson plans, marked-up student papers. Education shaped my values long before it became my work.
What changed with my generation wasn’t the belief in education, but the scale and the tools available. When my co-founders and I turned to educational technology, it wasn’t about building a startup, it was about rethinking how learning works in a digital, global world. LearnWorlds was born from frustration with platforms built for compliance rather than genuine development, and a belief that learning should be treated as a core system for growth, human progress, not as a PDF.
What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far, and How Did You Overcome It?
Our biggest challenge was unlearning our own assumptions. Coming from academia and engineering, we believed that building a great product was enough, that quality alone would carry us. It didn’t. We initially over-invested in depth, perfection, and theory, and under-invested in speed, distribution and real-world feedback.
What changed was listening. We put customers at the center of every decision and treated their problems as our research lab. That shift, from designing in isolation to building in constant dialogue, helped us turn a strong product into a scalable business, without compromising our standards or values.
Can You Describe a Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of Learnworlds?
COVID was a defining moment for LearnWorlds. Not because it changed our direction, but because it helped us see more clearly what our customers needed from an e-learning platform.
In early 2020, businesses that relied on in-person interaction suddenly couldn’t reach their audiences. They had to figure out how to train teams, deliver expertise, and keep serving customers under completely different conditions.
What we saw was that learning wasn’t being used as a static course catalog. People were using it as a flexible system to experiment, reskill, and adapt. That experience shaped how we think about LearnWorlds today: as infrastructure designed to support change whenever it happens.
How Do You Define Success?
As a business: Success for LearnWorlds means that learning actually makes a difference. If our customers can use the platform to train people effectively, build sustainable businesses, and adapt as their needs change, then we’re succeeding. It’s not about feature counts or short-term growth. It’s about whether learning delivered through LearnWorlds leads to real outcomes: better skills, better decisions, and long-term value for the organisations and individuals who rely on it.
As a founder: For me, success is building something that helps people learn and grow. I come from a family where education was the path out of poverty, so there’s a strong sense of responsibility behind what we build. If LearnWorlds helps people create high-quality learning that leads to real capability and real opportunity — whether that’s building a business, growing a team, or sustaining a livelihood — that’s success.
On a personal level, success also means continuing to learn myself. The moment I stop learning is the moment I stop being useful to the company.
What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?
Don’t start with the idea, start with the problem. And resist jumping to solutions too quickly.
Many founders fall in love with what they want to build before they truly understand the reality they’re trying to change. Spend time with the people you want to serve, listen carefully, and be prepared to unlearn your assumptions.
Also, understand that building a product and building a business are very different skills. You don’t need to master everything immediately, but you do need the humility to recognise what you don’t know and the patience to learn it properly.
What’s Next for Your Company? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out for?
It’s boring to say AI, but it’s AI. How AI can be properly integrated into not only operations but to deliver genuinely better learning outcomes that are business-measurable.
Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.
Founder’s 5 with Panos Siozos
Here’s TechRound’s exclusive Founder’s 5 with Panos Siozos.
Favourite business tool
Zapier. It’s like having a little digital magician on hand at all times.
One lesson you learned the hard way?
We came from academia. We thought a great product would speak for itself. It doesn’t. Distribution, feedback, real-world messiness. That’s where the actual learning happened.
One future trend you’re watching?
Human-directed AI learning. Everyone’s focused on what AI can do autonomously. The more interesting question is what it unlocks in people.
One quote you live by
“Getting better every single day.” Sounds simple. Apply it consistently and the compounding effect is huge.
One book/podcast you recommend
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. It teaches you to question assumptions and flip reality on its head. That’s a more useful skill than most MBA programmes will give you.
Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.
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