Three times the reading speed, infinite possibilities

Hi there,

I'm Troy Shu, the founder here at SwiftRead.

People often ask me why I built SwiftRead.

I love to read and learn things. Yet for whatever reason, it always takes me twice as long to read something than it does others around me .

Perhaps it was the immigrant, multi-lingual environment I grew up in. I definitely wasn't born with a silver-spoon in my mouth: my parents fled a famine-ravished country that politically persecuted them before having me. Or maybe it's being born with a uniquely wired brain, as we all are.

Fast forward to college, where I chose to study two areas I was passionate about: computer science and business. Luckily for me, my professors liked to torture their students by assigning towering stacks of reading.

Yet, I actually wanted to do the reading: I wanted to participate in discussions, do well on exams, and absorb the knowledge.

On top of that, I loved reading books, articles, and papers about my favorite topics. I wanted to read and learn more so that I could do more in life.

I yearned to unlock the potential that I knew I had.

Add the typical college shenanigans to the mix, and I found myself struggling to keep up with the pace.

One day, as I was struggling through some assigned reading about Apple and how they changed computing, a thought entered my head.

"Why do I have to keep struggling with reading? Why can't this amazing tool that we have, the computer, help me read faster?"

I did some research and learned more about the science of how our eyes, ears, and brain process language as markings on a page or sounds through speech. Some "speed reading" software did already exist. I tried them, but they were all outdated, buggy, and hard-to-use.

So, using what I had learned about how reading works and how to improve it, I built my own reading software, SwiftRead, to help me instantly 2-3X my reading speed on anything I could read on my computer.

I used SwiftRead throughout college to breeze through all my reading in a fraction of the time. I shared SwiftRead with others and published it on the internet.

And people loved it.

Turns out I'm not the only one that wants to be able to read faster. Users started telling me how SwiftRead, and being able to read faster, helped them excel in school, work, and life. Some even called it "life-changing" and the "best reading experience ever".

When you find out that you can absorb information two to three times faster, you start to see the infinite possibilites of being able to learn and do anything.

Over the years, SwiftRead became the top-rated speed reading browser extension. Last year, users from over 100 different countries used it. Even Google selected SwiftRead as one of their favorite Chrome extensions.

Students use SwiftRead to breeze through their readings and ace their tests. Professionals who read a lot (like writers, consultants, lawyers) use it to do their jobs better and get ahead in their careers.

Based on feedback and our own ideas, we've made many improvements to SwiftRead over the years, with so much more to come. It's our mission to improve lives by helping people read better. I'm excited to keep building SwiftRead as a company and product that people love.

It's the best job that I could ever ask for.

Thanks for reading, and for giving SwiftRead a try. You can always contact me directly if you have any questions: troy@swiftread.com.

I'd love to hear from you!

Troy ShuFounder and CEO of SwiftRead

P.S. My mom loves this baby photo of me reading. Born to read, walk, and create - in that order :)