Sidharth Kakkar is obsessed with the idea of making math fun.

The 29-year-old entrepreneur cofounded Front Row, a startup that reimagines how math is taught in school.

The app-based program is a virtual teacher's aide in the classroom, offering one-on-one lessons for K-8 graders and real-time progress reports to teachers.

"Typically in third grade, a bifurcation happens. Students progress in math or they start falling behind," Kakkar said. "If we don't catch the kids that are struggling early, we're doing them a disservice. They'll fall further behind by high school."

Kakkar and his cofounder Alexandr Kurilin became acutely aware of this issue when they spent a month at an inner city school in Baltimore.

"The teacher was writing on the board and the kids were copying it into a book, or memorizing it," said Kakkar.