Why Alexandria Exists
A story about learning the hard way, and building so no one else has to.
Elliott Tong
Founder, Alexandria
Age 5: Words Don't Mix Well With Me
When I was five, my teachers put me in Advance Learning Support. My reading and writing were behind. Way behind. The teachers were kind. They made it feel special rather than shameful. But I walked away with a belief I'd carry for years: Elliott and words just don't mix that well.
So I avoided reading. If I couldn't do it right, I didn't want to try. I loved stories, but I'd pick picture books or anything that didn't make me feel stupid. Long blocks of text made my stomach drop.
That belief cost me years.
University: The First Book That Changed Everything
In my third year, studying abroad in China, my brother handed me a book before I left. "How to Win Friends and Influence People." I finally read it. And it hit me hard.
The ideas were so good they changed how I talked to people. My closest relationships got better. It felt like finding a cheat code to life. I realised you could learn from the distilled wisdom of others instead of making all the mistakes yourself.
I was furious I hadn't started sooner. Twenty years of avoiding books. For what?
Building the Reading Muscle
Even after that breakthrough, reading was hard. In my fourth year, tackling bigger books, I'd manage five minutes before needing a nap. But I kept showing up. Five minutes became ten. Ten became twenty. Then thirty.
That's when it clicked: reading isn't a talent. It's a skill. You can build it. I'm proud of that more than almost anything else.
Nobody taught me this. I had to teach myself. I watched people like Thomas Frank and Ali Abdaal. I read research on how memory works. I pieced it together.
From Learning Support to 80% in Engineering
I graduated with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering. Scored 80%. The kid from learning support, who thought words and him just didn't get along.
I didn't look back at the ALS stuff as something to overcome. I just kept going forward, kept being curious. It's only now, looking back, that the scale of the change hits me.
And if I can do it, I know you can too. That belief is the foundation of Alexandria.
The Moment Alexandria Started
After a long workout, brain cooked, I was trying to get through some technical docs. The words just wouldn't go in. I thought: what if my computer could just read this to me?
I looked at the tools out there. Most just played audio in a box. But I knew passive listening wasn't enough. I'd zone out. I wanted something that would read with me, highlighting each word as it went, so both my eyes and ears were engaged.
That became FlowRead, the text-to-speech feature at the heart of Alexandria. Words you hear and see at the same time. You don't zone out. You stay in.
The Bigger Problem
The more I built, the more I saw a deeper mess. My notes were in Notion, Obsidian, Google Keep. None of it connected. I'd read an article, save a highlight, and never find it again. Learning was everywhere and nowhere at once.
The internet is infinite. But our tools are broken. We read in one tab, listen in another, take notes in a third app. None of it builds on itself. You consume and consume and you're still starting from zero.
The real question became: how do you help people actually absorb the internet?
Why Alexandria?
The ancient Library of Alexandria was the most ambitious knowledge project in human history. One place where the world's understanding could live and be built upon. It was destroyed. We lost millennia of human thought overnight.
The internet is our modern version of that library. But it's chaotic, driven by algorithms that reward clicks over depth. Alexandria the product is about reclaiming that. One place to bring your reading, your listening, your learning. And actually absorb it.
Save an article. Listen while you walk. Get quizzed on what mattered. Remember it weeks later. That's it. That's the whole idea.
Building It Now
I'm a solo founder, currently building from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I moved here to stretch my runway and go all in. It's a deliberate choice, not a gap year.
I'm 28. I have a master's degree and a genuine belief that the tool I'm building would have changed my life at every age I've been. At 5. At 18. At 25.
If it can do for you what learning did for me, this will have been worth it.