HRTech | HowToo | Lisa Vincent
Growing up on the leafy north shore of Sydney, a young Lisa Vincent dreamed of becoming a jazz singer. However, pursuing a professional career in music took a backseat and instead has continued as her side passion. Fast forward to the present day, Lisa has thrived in creating digital learning solutions for large corporate and government clients. Her latest start up is called HowToo and it’s online software that gives people with no background in learning and design, the power to create great digital learning.
We were lucky enough to speak to Lisa about her journey and HowToo.
The HowToo female team members. From left to right: Jola Van Der Horn - Channel & Enterprise Sales Manager, Selena Chew - Digital/UI Designer; Lisa Vincent - Co-founder/CEO; Jenny Barltrop - Co-founder/Product Manager; Meghan McGreevy - Marketing Manager; Claire Boucher - Marketing Consultant; Sheena Anil - Production Manager
What gave you the idea for HowToo?
My business partner, Jenny Barltrop and I established our first digital learning business Savv-e in 2000 where we delivered custom digital learning solutions. However, over recent years we've noticed a rapidly escalating problem many of our clients are facing, which is capturing know-how within their organisations to ensure it’s’ shared with the workforce in a way that maximises learning and performance. Traditional design and delivery of learning solutions was too slow, costly and ineffective. So, we wanted to create a tool that would give every individual around the world the power to create high impact learning without the need for a PhD, Hollywood camera or team of UX designers. This resonated with clients, so much so that one client bought it before it was built, and our new start-up HowToo was born.
How important is learning and development in organisations?
2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends research found:
75% of surveyed organisations said creating and preserving knowledge across the evolving workforces is important or very important for their success over the next 12-18 months but only 9% said they are ready to address this trend.
53% of respondents said that between 50% – 100% of their workforce will need to change their skills and capabilities in the next three years but only 10% said they are ready to address this trend.
73% of respondents saw organisations as responsible for workforce development, compared with just 19% seeing this as the role of educational institutions.
Click to download HowToo's 2021 L&D trends report.
What does HowToo do? Who is the solution for? What problem does it solve?
HowToo is an online tool that gives people with no background in learning and design the power to create great digital learning. Inside every organisation is know-how that can elevate a workforce. It’s locked inside people's minds. Sometimes it’s passed on. Rarely, it’s written down. Often it leaves when they do. How Too bridges the gap between knowledge capture and transfer by combining the science of learning with sophisticated and initiative design that anyone can use!
What is unique about HowToo?
What makes HowToo so unique is its inclusivity. It can take anyone’s knowledge, skills and expertise and turn it into really effective learning that reaches every learner, on any device. And it does this through its inbuild learning intelligence and automation. We're really passionate about the rights of our learners and have made it extremely easy for users to create WCAG AA 2.1 compliant content. This is an international standard that all Australian Government agencies and large corporates need to comply with. As learning rapidly moves online it is more important than ever to ensure people living with a disability have equal access to learning. We see it as a human right.
Where do you see HowToo in ten years time?
HowToo is still so new with so much potential I can’t even imagine how it will look in ten years. If we start small, in five years we’d like to have one million users around the globe sharing their know-how with millions of others by using the world’s most accessible learning tool, How Too, and unlocking the potential of individuals in the world’s largest workforces.
Your not from a Tech background, how has that impacted and what do you bring to the table?
I’ve never really described myself as a non-tech founder. While I don’t code, I have managed to develop a pretty in depth understanding of the technology and built some good skills recruiting and managing developers (as a result of making lots of mistakes!).
Not being a coder has its pros and cons. On the positive side technology doesn’t constrain your imagination and focus on solving the customer’s problem. On the other hand, not understanding the nitty-gritty of coding can make recruitment of developers and decision making about how to make the software scalable and robust more challenging. Here are some of the strategies I recommend:
Learn as much as you can about technology and then when you know enough to be dangerous ask as many questions as you can (and never be afraid to keep asking)
Learn how to communicate effectively with developers
Lean on people you trust to advise you and undertake code tests/reviews
Spend time employing the best tech minds you can afford and make key tech people a core part of our business (CTO or founder)
Implement a rigorous testing process of all developers before you employ them
Develop processes that protect and manage your code development
Biggest challenge you have faced so far?
Funding our start-up has been the biggest challenge. Fortunately, we were able to make significant pre-sale to one of our Savv-e customers which gave us the funds to get off the ground and build a minimal viable product.
After testing the MVP with users, we knew we were going in the right direction but we had to rethink our tech stack and architecture to scale and grow the software for a global market. As is often the case we realised we needed to rebuild and required a team of five working over 12 months. We funded the build via loans from our service business and founder loans.
Our Federal Government Accelerating Commercialisation grant, which came through in April this year, has been a game-changer giving us funds to grow our dev, sales and marketing teams and build our revenue.
In what ways do you think female founders are treated differently?
Overall our experience as female founders has been really positive - we’ve had lots of support from both men and women who have gone out of their way to give us a go, share connections and back us.
Up until now we’ve boot-strapped our businesses. As we step into the investor world to help scale our start-up we recognise it’s a bit of a boy’s club. Female founders often don’t have the networks their male counterparts do and particularly in the investor world it’s not what you know but who you know. Investors are taking a gamble on founders so a lack of personal connections is a clear disadvantage. However, times are changing and it’s great to see many programs like Elevacao around today supporting women founders in their quest to build networks and prepare themselves for investment. It’s also wonderful to see more female investors and female-only founded investment funds - this will make all the difference!
I think it’s important to support fellow female entrepreneurs and I volunteer my time as a mentor. Often the biggest thing female founders struggle with is building confidence and as a mentor I can provide advice, challenge and question, be a shoulder to cry on and a cheer squad.
What is your focus now? And for the next couple of years? How has COVID impact your activity?
Our focus is scaling the business in Australia and globally and growing our user-base so organisations throughout the world can tap into their know-how and elevate their workforces. The demand for beautiful, accessible digital learning has been growing and COVID has only accelerated this trend and fast tracked our growth plans.
What tips would you have for female entrepreneurs?
Believe in yourself: Starting a business from scratch is a tough gig that requires guts, drive and resilience. You’ll have massive highs and some low days so your confidence needs to come from within and not from the external affirmations you might receive from others.
Don’t be afraid to fail: Starting, running and growing and business involves making mistakes and experiencing failures. Our early failures were critical to our success as we ironed out problems that would have destroyed us a few years later.
Build a network: Get out and build a network that will help you create new business opportunities, support you in your decision making and give you energy and positivity.
Trust your gut (but also refer to the data): Take on board the data but also don’t ignore your gut feelings when making decisions.
Look after yourself: A business is all encompassing and can really take over your life. Remember that time spent looking after yourself is also good for your business. Celebrate! Make time to enjoy your wins and celebrate each small step you take towards your goals.
What are the one or two lessons/principles/ you carry with you into everything you do?
Our team and culture are everything. We take the time to find the very best people, develop them and inspire them to shine. I’ve learnt that a negative culture is a cancer that can eventually destroy a business (and people’s confidence along with it). Protecting and nourishing a positive culture needs quick and direct action to address any behaviour that’s undermining it. And building a sense of purpose into our everyday work is critical.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
I’ll be fancy-free travelling and singing at festivals around the world.
How do you balance your personal time and your ‘work’ time?
Getting HowToo off the ground doesn’t feel like work so personal and work time really merge in together. I schedule in regular time for the gym, singing and hanging out with friends and family which gives me space to re-energise and let the creativity flow. My friends are an inspirational bunch and social time is often a chance to throw around work ideas. Health is also a number one priority - my breast cancer crisis 5 years ago certainly put everything in perspective and keeps me focused on eating well, exercising, managing stress and not over-indulging.
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