Series 2, Episode 3 - Charity Wilson, Founder and CEO of Beam Education

In Series 2, Episode #3 we hear from Charity Wilson founder and CEO of Beam Education 

Website:
https://www.beam-education.co.uk

LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charity-wilson-6502789b/

In this episode we cover Charity's journey from school teacher to entrepreneur:

• How Charity saw a problem first hand and felt there was a validated need to find a solution
• The trials and tribulations of starting your own business
• Her views on the future of education

Join us and share in Charity's experiences and learnings as we seek to discover what makes this inspiring founder tick.

Host:  Biraj Nakarja
Co Hosts: Tijana Momirov & Pedro Guimarães

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Transcript

UNKNOWN: 0:00

Music.

SPEAKER_01: 0:05

Welcome to Canopy Community's Founder Friday, the podcast series that brings real-life experiences and inspirational stories from founders and innovators across the globe. My name's Biraj Nekarja, and together with my co-hosts Tiana Momrov and Pedro Guimérez, we bring you a diverse group of founders from varying industries who've been kind enough to share with us their journeys and what makes them tick. We really hope you enjoy this episode, and so without further ado, let's dive in and get ready to learn. Welcome everybody to another episode of Founder Friday presented to you by Canopy Community. My name is Biraj, your host, and I have the lovely Tiana and Pedro with me as my co-hosts again today, once again in sunny Brazil and maybe not so sunny Portugal, but still I'm always envious of these guys and the fantastic places they come from. And I'm delighted to welcome our guest on this episode, Charity Wilson. Charity, welcome. Charity is the founder and CEO of Beam Education and is going to be talking to us today about her entrepreneurial journey from the world of education as a teacher, I believe, to entrepreneur, founder and CEO of a fantastic product that she's going to be talking to us about today as well. But today is so good to have you, Charity, because I think and from the conversations we've been having, I know that your journey has been exciting. It's been nerve-wracking as well because it's something that's quite new to you. Definitely. And I think there's so many people that will be listening that are going to resonate with your story today. So thank you once again for joining us, Charity.

SPEAKER_04: 1:52

Thank you for having me. It's exciting to share it and also just be part of the Canopy community and learn more from each other, which is

SPEAKER_01: 2:01

great. Absolutely. Absolutely. So Tiana and Pedro, please, as always, feel free to jump in with your questions and But Charity, why don't we start with a little bit of an intro? Why don't you tell everyone about who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_04: 2:14

Sure. So I have been leading my company for about, well, it's coming up to six years. It's a place I never thought I'd be in. I trained as a teacher and that's world that i was in for a decade and then this sort of opportunity came up out of nowhere um i never could have imagined if you'd asked me you know seven years ago would you be running your own company and um and and having to make the kind of decisions that i'm making will you be doing that one day i i never would have thought i'd be doing that so it's it's uh it's a sideways direction in my life um and it's an exciting path and i've learned lot and I'm still learning massively I'm very aware of what I still need to learn but basically a few years ago while I was teaching I noticed a significant problem and I know that most companies most businesses are solutions that come on the back of a problem and the problem was that We had a new curriculum in place in the UK and that significant numbers of teachers were leaving education. In fact, at the time that I started working on my project, about 50% of all new teachers were leaving the profession. And most of those were leaving within the first five years and they were citing workload. So there's a lot of evidence-based reports about how many teachers were just finding that the job wasn't living up to what they thought it was. I think a lot of people go into teaching because it's a vocation. They feel that calling to help help children and be involved in shaping young lives. But the reality was that they were coming into a workplace that was just a treadmill for paperwork. And so lots of people were leaving. In fact, 80% of all teachers were considering leaving regardless well prior to retirement date. So you've got these amazing skilled professionals who are enriching children's lives and they're leaving because the system is somehow a bit broken.

SPEAKER_01: 4:44

It's interesting, isn't it? Because my mother is a teacher and she always used to get very frustrated with the standard comment was, oh, you get so many holidays. You're so lucky you get so many holidays. But no one actually sees what goes on in the background.

SPEAKER_04: 5:01

Yeah, you finish at 3.30, right?

SPEAKER_01: 5:04

I don't think she ever came home at 3.30. I don't think she ever had six weeks in the summer holidays because she's planning and prepping lessons and things like that. But yeah, she loved teaching but you're right actually a lot of people go into education for that passion but the passion is in the teaching but it's the administrative side of the the role that I think can be really draining is that what you're referring to in terms of your

SPEAKER_04: 5:28

experience absolutely yeah and it's it's not it's not what um People go in because, yeah, it's this vocation. It's like a calling. You go and do it and you bring all that energy and enthusiasm. And then within a few years, the system completely breaks you because of the paperwork. And there are some amazing head teachers out there who help to protect their staff from the paperwork. But ultimately, it's a system that we all have to be part of. There's, you know, Ofsted, the inspectors that come in to measure how well schools are doing. And although it's there to monitor how well schools are doing, it's still quite a frightening thing. So there's a lot of pressure in education and none more so than at the moment. And I think I was just very aware of that workload issue. And a major part of that workload problem was being able to prove that pupils are making progress. So on the back of that, I was looking at how we in our school assess pupils how we sort of keep track of where the children are, what skills they need to learn. And like many schools, we were using a paper-based system, lots of photocopying, lots of, you know, printing things out and sharing it with each other. And I thought, I wonder if this can be digitized in a clever way. And so I looked into it some more, and there were actually some products already on the market that enabled teachers to keep a track of where pupils are, what they still needed to learn, what they were good at, what their strengths and weaknesses were, in a digital format. But they'd been designed so long ago, well before, you know, before... cloud-based platforms. They were very kind of Excel-based and very clunky to use. And actually, although it was a safe space for recording that information, it wasn't at all looking at the end user and user friendliness. So actually those systems that were there to supposedly to help were actually increasing workload in many cases.

SPEAKER_03: 7:45

I

SPEAKER_04: 7:46

thought there's got to be a better way. There must be a better way. So I started to think, what would be a good way to do this? And actually, if I'm going to design an assessment system, what other information would be useful to make visible to teachers, just to make their jobs easier, streamline everything, sink it all into one place, and let them just have more time and freedom to be creative and teach the way that they're passionate about teaching? So I sort of came up with a bit of an idea for a prototype. I started putting together some wireframing, thinking about how, you know, what you'd click, where it would take you. And I know nothing about software development to this day. I'm still not sure what the difference between C++ and... In fact, I can't even give you another example. I look at the code and I think it's amazing. I have no idea how to read it. It's like hieroglyphs. But I knew how I wanted to navigate, how I wanted it to be intuitive, and I knew what I wanted to do. for the teachers who would be using it. So I started looking around for some software development companies. And luckily, I'm based in Cornwall, so right down in the very southwest of England. And it's been historically quite an economically deprived area. But because of that, it's had some grant funding. It's had super fast broadband funding. you know, installed across the region. And it's becoming a real digital hub. So there's a lot of innovation going on where I am, which is great. It's really opening up lots of new pathways for fresh, innovative companies. So I started looking around at some of the lovely software development companies down here and I found a company called Buzz Interactive and I still work with them. So they are the contractors who carry out exactly what I want to be built. And I just resonated with them. They understood the data security side of things. They understood exactly what I was trying to create and what other companies hadn't yet created. So I started bootstrapping very early on, using my teaching salary and early revenue. I was... because I had connections with other schools, I was able to make sales before we'd even launched the MVP.

SPEAKER_01: 10:26

Amazing.

SPEAKER_04: 10:28

Yeah, it was a really exciting time, actually. Were

SPEAKER_01: 10:34

you still teaching while you were kind of doing all of this? So you're already in that already high-pressured environment of all the administrative stuff you're trying to fix whilst also doing this. How did you manage that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 10:48

Luckily, I think I was in a very sort of creative, forward-thinking school, and even though there were a lot of pressures, it was just a really strong team at the time, and I have friendships from that team that I'll have forever. So, yeah, I just juggled. I felt really excited about it, and I felt that when I was working– As a teacher, I enjoyed finding solutions for problems that might be affecting the whole school. And this made me feel really passionate because I felt like I was finding a solution for teachers across the country, potentially. This could help so many people. And that's what really drove me. So I was just using my salary, early revenue, some small... Loans that I take, business loans I've taken out. And just following that build, measure, learn model, I didn't have a big chunk of funding. I didn't have anything that I could liquidate to put into it. So I could only afford to build tiny little parts. Each iteration had an extra tiny little bit added on. And it worked in the... because I was doing build, measure, learn, I was having to decide on every decision, every iteration. Do I really need this? Is this a wishlist for me or does the end user want it? So I was constantly involving the end user. I was the end user, but I was also really engaging with other schools, other teachers and finding out, you know, what would be really helpful to you? And that's still an ongoing process. That's still, you know, it's quite a collaborative process. I think it's we share ideas. Schools give ideas and they're invariably brilliant. And then when we can fund them, we make it live on the platform and then it's live for everybody. So it's best practice is being shared every which way. And that's something we can offer that perhaps bigger companies can't do because it's more challenging for them perhaps to change the direction of their software. But it's something that I feel quite passionate about. So,

SPEAKER_01: 13:12

yeah. I think initially when you're trying to launch a product, the temptation to have everything in there and make it, you know, fantastic from day one versus actually the MVP, as you say, and what is actually needed the most. And it's fantastic that, you know, you're going out there and validating that. But for me, what I'm really interested in kind of like that, What was the light bulb moment where you're like, right, okay, I really need to now stop teaching and take this forward as a business owner?

SPEAKER_04: 13:47

Do you know, that was terrifying. That was, do you remember years ago, there was an episode of Friends where one of the characters really wanted to get out of the job they were in. And, you know, the other friends were kind of saying, you need the fear. You need the fear. You have to quit. And then it will force you to go and make the new career work. And that's what it felt like. Actually, I was working part-time as a teacher. Then I went on sabbatical for a little while. And I had some mentoring. I had some great mentoring from a branch of Oxford Innovation based down here in Cornwall. And I took any mentoring I could get, any opportunity to learn and grow and listen to other people who had more experience. Yeah, I jumped on all of those chances. And one of the people who mentored me said, at the moment, you're not really investable because you are still working part-time as a teacher. And no one's going to take you seriously if if you don't go full time with this. And that was terrifying because, you know, you still have to make rent. And every bit of money that was coming in was going into developing the MVP or developing the next thing that was really required in order to extend our reach to new customers. So I wasn't really earning a salary from it. And yeah, I took the leap. And so in 2018, I went full time and I launched a crowdfunding campaign at the same time. And again, that was a whole new experience in itself. But luckily, like you said, Maraj, so many people resonate with the teacher struggle. So many people know teachers and they actually, yeah, it just struck a chord with them that they understood that challenge. And if you know a teacher, you've probably heard them say, you know, it's not what I thought it would be, or it's not what it once was. And they want to leave. And I obviously, I didn't, I didn't want that to be the case. So I went for, I used Crowdcube. And I managed to successfully raise about 90,000. Yeah. And that just meant then that we could go from minimum viable product to actually sort of more of a more rounded offering to our customers. So, yeah, that was the turning point, I think, just having that advice saying, you know, you need to take yourself seriously. You need to take the company seriously. You need to go full time on this. So, yeah. Yeah, I just, I took a leap of faith.

SPEAKER_01: 16:58

It's really funny you say that because there's one thing that my son's headmaster, and it's just ironic that it's coming from an educational kind of role, but my son's headmaster said that he wants the children in the school to be comfortable not being comfortable. And it's something that really just sticks with me. Like, you know, when I asked him kind of, what's your vision? We were looking for my son's school and we were like, you know, the headmaster plays such a crucial kind of role in the decision of joining a school or not a headmaster or headmistress. And it was just something that he said. And I was just like, wow, that makes so much sense. You know, being comfortable, not being comfortable. And it's the same sort of thing, right? It's kind of like being okay that, right, I'm going into this big wide world that's completely unknown to me. But as you say, sometimes that's the thing that, gives us the kick up the backside and forces us to have to really drive and make that work. Otherwise it's sometimes a little bit too easy to just sit back or, you know, when you, when you've still got a salary coming in, the focus maybe is not quite as much as it would be if you have to go and earn that next dollar.

SPEAKER_04: 18:10

Absolutely. And, and I think there is power in having that fear.

SPEAKER_03: 18:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 18:18

It really drives you. Yeah. So I'm very glad I did it. I'll be honest, there are so many times when... Oh, I haven't been glad I did it. There's been so many times, you know, when you're lying in bed at night and, you know, you can't sleep, you've got chest pain, you're wondering how you're going to, you know, pay those bills. It just feels like you've come to yet another roadblock. And that's... It's so often the experience, I think, on the entrepreneur's journey to come across these challenges and really not know how you're going to overcome them. But you do overcome them. Somehow you make your way through. And suddenly that fear becomes experience. Yeah. And you grow in strength because you learn that there's more resilience in you than you realized you had. And I think for every sleepless night where I thought, I don't know how I can do this. I don't know how I can make ends meet, or I'm not sure what my next step is. each one of those adds up to being, you know, an experience and proof to myself, if not to anyone else, that actually I can find a way through that. And I think sometimes you're winning just by still being there. You know, we're such a small company up against these juggernauts of companies, these huge sort of monoliths of educational providers. And we're so tiny and we, we see that especially when we go to attend events like the um the the british educational technology show bet show and um that's normally in the excel center

SPEAKER_03: 20:09

okay

SPEAKER_04: 20:11

every year and that's you know one of the biggest um ed tech events uh in in europe if not globally it has a massive draw and you know we'll be there with our with our sort of our little pitch you know our little stands you know come over and say hi and and we're up against companies that are 50 times the size of us just in in space and nothing nothing sort of shows it better than when you attend those kind of events and you just see the enormity you know the the advertising marketing power of these these hugely um influential companies and we're we're so tiny um But you just somehow draw strength from it and think, you know, we're doing something different. We're doing something that we're proud of and we just keep plowing on.

SPEAKER_01: 21:02

Yeah, absolutely. Amazing. Tiana, were you going to say something?

SPEAKER_02: 21:07

Yeah, sure. When you mentioned about being uncomfortable, I remember the one saying when it's like, what keeps us away from the great things are the good things. While we have the good things, we are not chasing the great things. I think the moment you decide to go out of the, let's say, comfort zone, this is when the magic happens. And I know these are all cliches, but they're actually true. And I've worked with many founders in a similar situation, going from the idea to the launch. And for me, the most impressive ones are those who started the business out of their own struggle, going into even a bigger struggle, hoping that they're going to fix the initial one. So it all sounds like really, really too much and overwhelming and very often our project management check-ins and meetings turned into live coaching sessions and comforting calls. But I really find it very, very impressive. And what you mentioned, how valuable you found the work with the mentors. I think it's also amazing because you are a teacher and in the same time, you're a good learner because you value what it means to have the opportunity to be taught by someone who has more experience, right?

SPEAKER_04: 22:15

Absolutely. I think knowing your own limitations is crucial and understanding. I'm a huge advocate of lifelong learning. As teachers, that's what you're doing. You're not just teaching information. You're teaching the skills to carry on learning throughout your life because we're teaching young people and we don't actually know what their jobs will look like You know, in the next 10, 20 years, we're teaching towards, there won't be the careers as we know them necessarily. You know, so it's a digital world. So we've got to teach the skills and we've got to teach the love of learning. We've got to kind of instill that passion. So I certainly have that. And I love learning from other people. I really enjoy it. And I think that's what's been great about being part of entrepreneur communities is that the mentoring, but also the learning from each other. And quite often, I think the community has the answer. You're not sure what the answer is yourself, but actually share it and someone will say something and you'll just get that light bulb moment from somebody else in the same shoes.

SPEAKER_02: 23:29

And how about your colleagues from your day job at the time while you were still part-time in the school? How were your colleagues reacting? Did you talk to them about your new projects?

SPEAKER_04: 23:38

yeah they weren't hugely supportive so I tried I actually had a head teacher at the time that was that was massively supportive and and so allowed me to go part-time said just just go for it just go and you know he could he could see the benefit in what I was creating just for our school and and saw that it had you know had legs to go and help others so I was I was really lucky on that front and those teachers are still, yeah, they still champion the product. So the actual, so it's, I'm CEO of Beam Education. The actual product is called MapX. And by now it has thousands of pupil data stored on it. And it's, you know, touch wood, working beautifully and helping lots of teachers in lots of schools. So, yeah, they were really, yeah, I think it's important to have good relationships with people, even if perhaps you fundamentally disagree about things, it's important to maintain really positive relationships. And I had just great relationships, great friendships at the school, and they were really encouraging of me going and trying this. And I definitely Thank you so much. On the career journey, I'm still climbing the mountain. I'm still near the bottom of the mountain and I can see how far I have to climb. I can see how much I have to learn. And sometimes I think when you're networking or when you're engaging with other company founders, it's impossible not to compare and to look at their successes and just feel proud. But

SPEAKER_02: 25:48

actually, we mostly learn from the people who are just a little bit ahead of us on the journey. When they're so far away, it's even difficult to understand what the steps are and what's happening over there. So I think people who will relate to this podcast will be the people who are just a little bit behind you on the journey and they will value a lot what you're sharing today.

SPEAKER_01: 26:10

I think with the imposter syndrome, it's really interesting. I think the very fact that it has a... kind of a term called imposter syndrome attached to it is a problem in itself because people think like, oh my God, this is really bad, right? It's quite a natural feeling. But as you say, Tiana, there's going to be people listening this episode that are going to be thinking, oh my God, look what Charity's done. Like, how the hell am I ever going to get to the stage that she's got to? And oh my God, that's so far away and probably feeling similar sort of things to you did. But that's just the natural evolution of starting a business, right? We all start from somewhere. We don't always know what that next step is going to be. But as you say, Charity, it's the experiences, the the learning, the knockbacks that you get on that journey that essentially strengthen your armory and allow you to build that resilience to really then make that kind of dream or passion a success. So, yeah, I mean, please don't feel imposter syndrome. It's fantastic what you're

SPEAKER_03: 27:17

doing. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01: 27:18

You know, you would never tell that kind of that was something that you struggled with really in that respect. Pedro, are you going to say something?

SPEAKER_00: 27:27

Yes, I want to make three comments and a question. The first comment is charity. I feel that imposter syndrome, I think, almost every day. So welcome to the jungle, okay?

SPEAKER_04: 27:38

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 27:39

The second thing is you're climbing the mountain and you can't see the top of it. The good news there is no top of the mountain. The mountain keeps growing. At the same time, you grow and it just becomes... say more not exciting the third comment is i love what you just said about teaching the kids how to be ready for the future jobs that we don't know exactly which one will be at the stage which gives me the perfect segue to refer our next monday at 3 p.m oh

SPEAKER_01: 28:16

i think we've lost him We're losing you, Pedro. I think he's got a connections issue there. I think what Pedro is referring to there actually is next week, we are hosting an event called the Future of Work in Education. And I'm guessing, I'm going to preempt that Pedro is going to ask you actually, based on your experiences and what you're doing so far, what do you think that future of education is? Like, you know, teachers are in schools, teaching at the moment for the now, but as you say, it's very important for us to be able to teach for the future. Where do you see education going in the future, obviously digitally focused based on what you're doing with your business. But where do you see that going?

SPEAKER_04: 29:08

I think due to COVID, you know, there wasn't any time to plan or think, you know, it sort of came out of nowhere. And schools have digitised very quickly. It came at a time where there is the technology available. And people could deliver lessons online. And I think online learning is far less scary. But I think the key to the future of education is skills-based learning. And I also think it needs to be more pupil-led. So it's got to ignite the passion within the individual pupil, things that... interest them whether that's you know uh skateboarding mountain climbing uh maths logarithms whatever that is whatever um challenge appeals to to the way that they work and then building from there so actually introducing a a range of skills letting them find their niche find what excites them and then developing from there so i think we will move more into that kind of skills base what exactly that will look like yeah i i don't know i guess um

SPEAKER_01: 30:28

yeah i really really resonate with that i'm a i'm a strength coach and i advocate to all my clients about understanding their natural talents and strengths and how you can maximize that for greatest potential and you know what you said there about children at an earlier age trying to find their thing, you know, that, well, what is it that I'm really passionate about? Like, and not necessarily a career choice, but I really enjoy problem solving, or I really enjoy communicating in front of people, or I really enjoy strategic thinking, you know, or whatever that may be. If they can really understand that early, then the world is their oyster in terms of their next steps, in terms of their choices, in terms of the, the, subjects that they choose, the work experience that they go for. But often we, as educators, I guess, are trying to, I don't know, maybe actually, what's your view on this? Do you think we're trying to mould children to become jack of all trades and kind of be that really well-rounded person? Or actually, should the whole education system be slightly different and say, well, okay, it's okay to be I'm going to use the word average, but, you know, good at certain things, but actually be focusing on being fantastic at certain things only. I

SPEAKER_04: 31:51

think that the question you just asked would resonate with a lot of teachers who've been in the profession for a long time, you know, way before I joined, who've seen the change in the system. And I think... There was a period, whether or not we're beyond that now, I don't know. There was a period where that expectation for good record keeping and data analysis of showing pupil improvement put a lot of pressure on teachers to show improvement on every skill. And the reality is a lot of those teachers would tell you that actually, you know, this particular child, he's getting there. He's developing, he's coming along. He'll catch up with other children or he's flourishing in this respect. But that kind of one size fits all system that we have means that for many children, They perhaps experience a sense of failure. I mean, we try to do our best to protect them from that. But you don't really want children to feel that they fall short of a mark, a benchmark. That means they have to be great at languages, English, math, science, PE, whatever it is. You don't want them to feel like they don't meet that. And similarly, you don't want them to feel like they're only good at math. They're only good at sports. Oh, you're not academic, you're physical. And sometimes you hear those messages coming through. So I think that we need to adapt to understanding how to deliver a more sort of skills-based system. And I think that we're moving in that direction now. And the data is that, like, for example, if you look at the thing that... We're particularly interested in now following on from having developed Mapix and looking at what does the teacher need. We're really interested now in looking at what does the pupil need. So how do we come at it from their perspective? And the data is there that shows us what children enjoy. So statistically, they are... you know, most, more than half of children own their own mobile phone by the time they're seven or they have independent use of a mobile phone by that age in the UK. Yeah. And that is, you know, that's amazing, isn't it? You just think by 10, most of them, by 11, you know, by secondary school, it's a kind of standard thing that you've got the use of that independently all the time.

UNKNOWN: 34:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 34:46

And you can look at what they're downloading. And most of the time they're interested in YouTube and YouTube influencers. And TikTok is now one of the most downloaded apps. So you can actually see what the trends are and what children are interested in and how they like to absorb information and how they like to follow not just national trends, um, influencers, but local influencers as well. Um, and how that's that kind of mini snapshot movie view of, of, of, of skills is what they're, what they're kind of downloading or what they're, what they're experiencing through those apps. And so we can see them that that's, that's like a potentially a really great way into, um, into educating through those means. And I think that's what we're really interested in at the moment is looking at what kids use, what they enjoy, and how we can then kind of bend that towards education. And we're actually, we've devised a concept for an app where we're actually looking for investment into that at the moment. We're looking for funding to support that. So I'll be going on some of the canopy demo nights to talk about exactly what we're looking for, which will be great. It's exciting. So we're looking at, you know, what are pupils interested in? How can we ignite that passion? And then how can we build that passion towards developing skill sets that are then transferable across schools? multiple subject areas, if you like, or multiple topics.

SPEAKER_03: 36:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_04: 36:38

So how can we take their strengths and help them grow? Sorry, Pedro.

SPEAKER_00: 36:43

No, no, Biraj. I'm having connection problems, as you know. No, that's okay.

SPEAKER_01: 36:49

I predicted your question. I thought you were going to ask about the future of education.

SPEAKER_00: 36:54

No, I was referring to that we're going to organise next Monday for the ones that are watching us live at an event regarding that at 3pm. But getting back... I do believe that schools need to improve a lot on soft skills training kids, which will probably imply retraining teachers on that area also. If we have time, I could explain why did I reach this conclusion. But I've been involved in projects regarding education. And one of these days, I crossed by with a guy that used a concept that I never thought about. That is, today, the teacher is a YouTuber. Okay, actually due to the remote teaching. And it's a quite unfair game because you are having a noobish YouTuber actually performing for experienced YouTuber followers, okay? So how do you see all this in the process of what you're doing at MyPix, meaning experience? Are you planning to help teachers develop their soft skills in order that they can be of more use? Because I fully agree with what Viraj has said. It's better to be proud, to be great in strategic thinking or communicating in public than to be the best physics student in the long run when you can predict which will be the future jobs. So how does this Does this fit in what you're doing at your company today?

SPEAKER_04: 38:32

Well, with MAPIX, so we are, at the moment, we deliver a formative assessment platform for core subjects, so reading, writing, maths, science, and we've included PE in that as well. And then We're now introducing foundation subjects, so history, art, design technology, geography. And why one's called core and one's called foundation, I'm still not sure, even though I've been in that world for a very long time. So we're introducing these subjects. And actually, it's been a really exciting time. and challenging thing to do, but I love that kind of problem-solving anyway, is taking a subject and looking at what skills are required within that subject and then developing a sort of coherent curriculum on the back of that. So we're actually looking at skills more than, you know, the concrete knowledge, more than just, you know... finding out about the Spanish Armada or, you know, how many wives King Henry VIII had. Yeah, that's still relevant, and we'll still include that, but we're looking more at the skills. So, yeah, we're leaning towards that, and we're leaning towards that because that's what schools are telling us that they want. They want that kind of skills-led kind of curriculum. That said, we also have to follow the national curriculum, so we also have to provide teachers with what's the statutory requirement, and that's quite... Elements of it are very fixed, but where we can be fluid, we try to be fluid. And we work with the schools and just communicate and say, what's good for you? You know, what works best for you guys? So that's where we're going

SPEAKER_01: 40:29

with that. How does a MAPIX product work then? Tell us a little bit more about MAPIX in particular.

SPEAKER_04: 40:33

So MAPIX in particular, so that's the name of our first product. launched product and basically it's for use on the go so unlike other assessment systems which are summative which involve teachers sitting down usually over half term or over their holidays and filling in tick boxes about every objective in the curriculum and every child that they teach and ticking boxes how well they can do each objective. Instead, it's more sort of on the go. So you might teach a lesson about, for example, you might teach multiplication by up to thousands. And then while you're teaching it in the class, you open up, it's like a smart mark sheet. And you have all the pupils' names there. It's preloaded with all of their historical data, sort of little colour coding elements that are really quick for the teachers to read. They can see which children are considered pupil premium children. So they're the children who may come from economically deprived backgrounds, that kind of thing. So all of the information about the children that we're that we need to be specifically looking out for, or group, they call them groups of children, We know what their history is. Even if I'm covering someone else's class, I can jump straight in and see all the data for those children. And I can teach that lesson on multiplying by a thousand. And I can quickly tick off the children who've got it instantly. Usually, most teachers use it on a tablet or an iPad. And as soon as you close that window, it's saved. And that data is then uploaded and instantly shared with all the sort of key people within the school. So, that then becomes data that can be interrogated by the head teachers, by the lead teachers. They can have a look at how that group of children, pupil premium children are doing. They can see how well they were doing last year compared to this year. They can see their growth rate. They can compare boys and girls, see if there's a gender gap. So, all the kind of things that you need to be reporting anyway and the kind of things that that Ofsted would come and ask you about. It's there instantly, but it's there, you know, teachers might update that smart mark sheet once or twice a week. And so it's instant data. You can see where the gaps are with the children straight away. You don't have to wait until half term when the teachers sit down and try and remember everything they've taught.

SPEAKER_03: 43:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 43:11

Get all the books out.

UNKNOWN: 43:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 43:13

And sit there and tap until they, yeah. So it's formative.

SPEAKER_01: 43:17

Do parents get access to that as well? So they've got real-time reports on their children as well?

SPEAKER_04: 43:23

No, but that's kind of on the wish list. That's something I would have done straight away if I'd been able to. we made it we made sure that it generates parent-friendly reports so reports that kind of make sense you know it just prints out hey look you know here's a graph of

SPEAKER_03: 43:41

how well they're doing in the subject

SPEAKER_04: 43:43

no jargon because you do as a teacher you do spend half the time explaining what the jargon means and then suddenly your 10 minutes is up that's the end of of that session

SPEAKER_01: 43:53

you can almost do away with parents evenings right i mean it could be real-time data that you don't have to then go and have this moment in time where you sit and speak to your teacher

SPEAKER_04: 44:01

Exactly. Although I think there's, obviously there's real value in that face-to-face, that, that, that kind of, that pastoral care is a huge part of the job and that, you know, just that time to engage and encourage that link between home

SPEAKER_03: 44:14

and school.

SPEAKER_04: 44:15

So that's what we've like to come back to what Pedro was asking about that in with our, with the app that we're actually looking to, to raise funding on. we're really interested in sort of reaching those children who, bridging that homeschool divide and reaching those children who've particularly suffered during, academically suffered and probably in other ways during COVID, those children who have effectively gone absent from the system. So the stats are showing us that during the lockdowns for many teachers, they might only have, regular contact with 60 of the of their class so those those children have gone you know they're there but they're not quite reachable and that's because um for for online learning a lot of children as you'll have seen in the news they don't have um the right the right kit yeah to get online so it needs to be a pc or a laptop so we're like well actually can we do this in a way that's mobile phone because we know so many children have got mobile phones um Or they don't have the space. They literally don't have a desk to work at or enough mental space to process new learning. So we're really interested in how can we reach those children who have missed out on over a year's worth of learning, those children who will statistically be, by the time they leave secondary school, around about two and a half years behind their peers academically. And these children tend to be from those pupil premium children. They're from economically deprived backgrounds. They may be children who've been in and out of care. Quite often they are children from black and minority ethnic groups. So there's this huge number of children who have these skills and we just want to help them, reach them and help them to to develop that you know self-esteem and and resilience and develop love of learning and it's a big ask uh but it's it's worth doing so that's what we're looking at now it's how to how to reach them and how to bring them back in

SPEAKER_02: 46:40

charity and what are your thoughts uh on socializing among children with these new trends i guess they are missing out on socializing with the peers, with the other children, in a way that is not so structured, like, okay, they are in a class right now, everybody's on a Zoom call, sure, but it's not the same as in real life, right? And for them, one year or two years is huge for us. We can miss one year of normal social life, but somehow in the development phase that they are in, I think it's a huge chunk of time. So what are your thoughts on that? Can something be done under these circumstances to maybe facilitate more of this less formal socialising? I

SPEAKER_04: 47:25

wish I had the answer because it's definitely a huge concern, isn't it? I think that there's been a lot in the press about the impact of isolation on adults. Now they're starting to look at young adults and young children But the actual impact of it, of not socialising in the way that we're used to socialising, I'm sure there will be an impact. And I wonder if that's something that somebody will innovate on the back of, because, you know, socialising is hugely important, but, you know, it's the root of communication. It's the root of understanding, you know, kind of... your your value and how you contribute uh so it's it's hugely important and i think hopefully we're at the tail end of of covid now and we're going into a a positive um you know more integrative uh stage but yeah i i don't know what what do you think

SPEAKER_02: 48:38

I think definitely while we are under these circumstances that it has to be online, there should be some time dedicated for something that is not a math lesson, not a language lesson, not history lesson, like something that is just pure socializing, maybe even like leading the children to communicate between themselves or facilitate it in some way. And also once we go back to, let's say, normal life, offline life, real-time communication, to value it even more, to never forget how much you missed on that.

SPEAKER_04: 49:06

Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 49:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 49:07

I think peer-to-peer communication is really important. And again, that's something that we're looking at is how to enable children to communicate and to applaud the positives about each other without veering into those territories where children get bullied online and that kind of thing. So how can we facilitate a space where it's about positivity and just build self-confidence, build self-esteem, those kind of things.

SPEAKER_01: 49:44

This period, I was going to say, it's probably been hugely valuable in terms of ideas for you, in terms of features and future iterations of your products, right? Like the learning that we're going through and the experiences and what we're seeing children going through, as you say, from a social perspective, but generally from a learning perspective. I mean, there must be ideas flying around in your mind at the moment around I could add this and I could add that so kind of how are you prioritizing kind of the next iteration so iteration one is now live and

SPEAKER_04: 50:17

yeah well I think we're technically iteration probably three so anytime we've had any kind of substantial funding in so following the crowd cube yeah that kind of thing um so yeah prioritizing wise it's just it's it's a case of just keeping that communication with the schools open. Yeah. And just talking about, you know, what, what would make your life easier right now? So it's always addressing a problem. It's always, you know, looking at what's going to help benefit most people because we don't customize it. We develop it. And as I said, we, you know, whatever we build,

SPEAKER_01: 50:58

it goes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's brilliant. Right. And that's, that's actually a mistake. A lot of people I see, making is that um they to please the end customer they will make it bespoke to that customer and then the next customer wants something else and then there's and then you end up with like these multiple iterations of code bases that are also i think kind of going in it with this product mindset from the offset is a fantastic way to look at that and i guess you know For someone that doesn't come from a technology background, to be thinking that that's the way forward is already a huge step in the right direction. Definitely, I would certainly encourage. I know, Tiana, your background is in product as well. I don't know what your view is on that as well, but certainly my experience has shown having that product mindset is hugely important. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 51:50

Having a sounding board as well, you know, having that extra person, I was really lucky in 2018, same time that I did the crowdfunding, the size of my company doubled from one to two and I was no longer alone. And so Becky Allen joins me at Beam Education and And I was listening to your last week's podcast about Robert Bulldog talking about having interesting titles. And I think she should actually be like the make it happen officer. She's just like this absolute ball of energy and can always see a way through to where I might be going. Should we be doing this? Should we be prioritizing that? She's just that, that sounding board, that, common sense but also huge ambition. Does

SPEAKER_01: 52:51

she also come from an educational background?

SPEAKER_04: 52:53

No she can't actually her background is pharmaceutical sales and also she trained as a nurse so she's from that kind of medical side of things as well so when we're looking at you know pupil health and things like that mental health and well-being she's she's very sort of gend up on that um so

SPEAKER_01: 53:17

was that intentional or was that a uh was that luck it

SPEAKER_04: 53:19

was luck no

SPEAKER_01: 53:22

you're supposed to say it was intentional

SPEAKER_04: 53:23

oh sorry i mean it was entirely intentional

SPEAKER_01: 53:27

that's really interesting right so the default would be to grow your business with more educational sort of um experience because that's what you're trying to do but i think that's really valuable experience um uh experience for for some of the listeners as well is that bringing that different perspective early on can really shape what your product looks like because you know you've got that initial kind of direction that it's it's educational focused there's so many periphery elements to that as you say pupil health is is huge part of what you're doing

SPEAKER_04: 54:02

yeah

SPEAKER_01: 54:03

someone with that experience to be able to to help influence the shape of your product early doors is is amazing

SPEAKER_04: 54:10

pupil health and and well-being which is where we're so heavily focused

SPEAKER_03: 54:15

yeah

SPEAKER_04: 54:16

and now But also, you know, the starting point was really teacher health and wellbeing. And actually looking at a system that was, you know, is breaking the professionals within it, albeit with, you know, so many really good people championing the teachers. It's still, you know, an overwhelming burden of paperwork. So actually championing them and, you know, I sympathize enormously because I've had, you know, I've struggled with anxiety on and off for years and years. So I know what that feels like when you just, you have that pain in your chest and you just think, I'm not going to get it all done. I've got to get it in. I've got to, and that burden as well of feeling like you're letting down not only the people you work with or your head teacher, but you're letting the children down if you don't, get all this, this, this paperwork done. And actually, um, focusing on, on, on that, it, it drives, I find that drives me forward. It gives me a sense of, of purpose and yeah. And I know you said that we'll never, you know, there's no top to the mountain Pedro, but I do. Yeah. I, I just, well, I completely get that because I feel like you think you've overcome one challenge and another challenge crops up. But I do quite often feel like we're so, you know, we're really at the very beginning. We're not quite even, maybe base camp.

SPEAKER_02: 55:57

The confidence grows. Along the journey, the confidence grows because you know what you've accomplished so far and it gives you a certain amount of confidence for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 56:08

Sorry, Pedro, go ahead. Just following on that chart you were saying, and before I forget, congratulations on what you achieved. You're so inspiring and the reason why you started and everything you've done until today, it's a huge congratulation to you, honestly, from the heart. I'm amazed with what you achieved. So I'm going to give you a gift. Now I'm going to give you a magic wand, okay? And you can do whatever, okay? Limitless. Tell me where you are in five years from now. Where is Mepixis? What is it doing?

SPEAKER_04: 56:46

Five years from now, we have launched our new app. I don't have a name for it at the moment, but we've launched it. We are shaking up the education system. We're known to be game changers. We're walking a fine line between entertainment and social engagement and growing skill sets for young people. We're engaging high-profile people, people who are excellent in their own field in sharing their experiences skills with young people and we're helping to influence to a degree the shape of how we deliver education. I am probably on a beach somewhere drinking A margarita.

SPEAKER_01: 58:05

Love it.

SPEAKER_04: 58:06

And taking, you know, just taking the odd phone call as and when.

SPEAKER_01: 58:10

I love

SPEAKER_04: 58:13

it. No, I'm not. That would be lovely, wouldn't it? I'm on a holiday. That's what it is. I have a holiday booked in. That'll be it. So, yeah, I hope so. I hope that we can. Yeah, magic wand would be.

SPEAKER_00: 58:30

Remember, this is being recorded. We're going to cherish this in five years from now. In five years. And we'll be far ahead, I'm sure. Thank

SPEAKER_01: 58:37

you so much. I love the ambition, though. I love the ambition. I love the passion that's coming through your voice in terms of what you're doing. Well, you can see that education means so much to you. And it's, you know, that's what I love about this whole kind of conversation, actually, is that it started from a passion to teach and it's turned into learning. your business that is now going to help disrupt that whole kind of environment that you originally came into and probably hasn't changed that much in, in however many years. But actually now is the time. And unfortunately things like a pandemic, you know, both within the education sector, but generally has forced people to pivot and has forced people to think differently. But actually now, you thought about this before the pandemic, right? And the pandemic, as I said, is probably going to give you even more ideas, but it's fantastic that that vision that you had is now a reality. And yeah, congratulations to you for getting to where you've got to. And there's still, obviously, I'm sure lots of experiences ahead of you that will make you even stronger as well.

SPEAKER_03: 59:52

I hope so. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 59:53

Fantastic. So I wanted to actually... touch a little bit more about the person behind Beam Education. Tell me, tell us a little bit more about you. So, you know, you talked about the pressures of being a teacher. You're now facing the pressures of being a business owner and a founder and a CEO. So, and you talked about the anxiety and kind of, you know, the pressures then stresses that comes with that. But what do you then do and what recommendations can you give others that might be in a similar situation where this is all actually, you know, no time for holidays, no time for spending with friends or whatever it may be. What are you doing to balance that work life?

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:41

Yeah, that's a good question because I do have to remind myself to be mindful. I'm very lucky with where I live in that I I'm right on the Cornish coast. So I, you know, just getting outside and, and feeling, you know, the wind in your hair and the sea spray and all of that makes a huge difference. I'm a terrible surfer, really bad. I spend most of the time under, under the board, under the water rather than on it. But I think getting in the sea I found is there's nothing like it for, you've got your back to the land. You're just, bobbing along, just floating, looking out to the expanse of the ocean. There's nothing like it for washing away all of the worries.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:29

That's music in Tiana's ears, right? Because you're a surfer as well, aren't

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:34

you? Yeah, and the ocean is really, like we always say, there is nothing the ocean cannot fix. However you feel, you're going to get out of the ocean in a better mood.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:44

So true. yeah there's nothing like it for just washing everything everything away it's it's brilliant um and when I'm not doing that I'm um I'm a really I actually trained as a writer before as a teacher so I'm a really keen writer and illustrator um so it comes in handy when I'm creating resources so we sell resources as well through the website creating things you know just to simplify concepts so that the younger people can understand it as well. So, yeah, I like to, I like to do things physically with my hands. I like to get myself in the sea, just do something that it doesn't involve being still and, and going over all the decisions that you've made or should have made or could have made.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:32

Definitely, definitely. And just in terms of last question before we wrap things up, given everything that you've been through in terms of your experience so far, what would be the one piece of advice that you would give your younger self?

SPEAKER_04: 1:02:48

Learn to love plan B. Plan A probably won't happen. I

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:56

love this. I love this. I keep thinking about this a lot.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:03

Amazing. It's funny, right? Because I often hear there is no plan B, right? It's only plan A. But the reality is that's not the case, right? You're going to have to pivot. You're going to have to change direction. And there's probably going to be a C and a D and an E as well. And that's okay, right? That's okay.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:19

It's all fine. I think if you pin all your hopes on plan A...

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:25

And

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:26

I think a lot, especially when you're starting off, there's a lot of almost forcing yourself to cement the idea of plan A in your head because you create a business plan. And the business plan depends on this, this and this. And you create that cause and effect structure on your financial forecasts and things like that. And I think it almost feels like you're failing if you don't achieve plan A. But You know, if you're still there, if you're still going and it's because of plan B, then that's good. Love plan B. Love

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:03

that. I think that's a very appropriate tagline. Absolutely, absolutely. Charity, thank you so much for joining us today. It was really inspirational to hear your story and your journey. And I'm sure that so many people that are listening are going to be able to resonate and learn so much from that as well. How can people get in contact with you and learn more about what you're doing? What's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_04: 1:04:29

LinkedIn. is really good. Yeah, it's nice. Like you were saying last week, it's just so easy, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:36

Yeah, absolutely. We'll put your LinkedIn details on the show notes as well. But thank you so much. Tiana, Pedro, any final words from you guys?

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:48

Just a huge congratulations on the journey. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:54

Lovely to meet you and all the luck because you deserve it and your cause deserves

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:00

it. Thank you very much. It's been so lovely to meet you and yeah, just... Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:06

it's been amazing to have you on and before we go as well, a huge, huge happy birthday to you, Tiana. It's your birthday. Thank you so much. Hopefully now you're going to go off and celebrate in the Brazilian sunshine, maybe do some surfing if you can and finish the day off with a piece of cake maybe, you know, it's

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:23

thank you guys thanks for everything have a great weekend and we all keep in touch

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:28

absolutely thanks everyone for listening in and for everyone that is listening please do follow us and like and share this podcast with your friends and family we've got some exciting podcast guests coming on in the future as well so yeah please do join us for future episodes as well thanks everyone and have a great weekend Thank you. If you'd like to join the tribe or have any recommendations for amazing founders or innovators for future episodes, please visit our website at www.canopy So all that's left to say is a huge thank you from me for listening in and obrigado yet de breve from Tiana and Pedro. We really look forward to you joining us on the next episode.