IEGF funding broadens markets

Unsure how you can use the International Education Growth Fund (IEGF) to help innovate your offering?

We talked to Mike Walmsley, Chief Executive of Code Avengers, about how he has used the IEGF to grow his business.

ENZ: So Mike, what’s Code Avengers all about?

Mike: We have developed an online learning platform that teaches people how to build their own apps, games and websites in a way that is effective and fun as possible.

We are looking to expand into other related subject areas. Starting with a design focus – so, not only how to code software but also how to make it look nice. And, moving on to things like copy writing – making sure the content on your website or app engages learners – and tips on digital marketing that will get people actually using the product!

What has the International Education Growth Fund enabled you to do?

Our IEGF proposal was for internationalising our website. Our online courses contain a whole series of interactive exercises where people actually write code and build products as they learn. Initially, the instructions in these exercises were only available in English and those who didn’t have a reading age above 12 would struggle to follow them.

The fund enabled us to translate the course material into other languages – Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch! We’re also working on a Japanese translation. Thankfully, we’d developed the material with this in mind, so the translation process has been relatively straightforward.

Dutch is sort of the odd one out there. How that arose, was that one of our customers in the Netherlands offered to translate the content into Dutch while she was on holiday in Thailand. We jumped at the chance, and used that as a translation test case, which was really helpful.

This young woman is now working with us full time on marketing and promoting Code Avengers, including the code camps and clubs that we run. The IEGF funding has also enabled her to promote our products and engage partner organisations in other parts of Europe.

While we’re here, do you have any advice for others considering launching an EdTech business?

In any start up, passion is the key. You’ve got big competition, there are a lot of challenges and it’s not easy. In my case, I’m also doing a PhD part time and have a couple of kids, so that all adds to the challenge. For at least the first year and a half, I didn’t have anyone working with me full time, so really I think it’s the passion that keeps you going. The passion, combined with the feedback you get from customers, means you end up building a product that they like. Those two things are key.

What’s the most rewarding thing about your work?

One is definitely the feedback you get from customers. One customer emailed us saying that for their whole life – for 45 years – they thought they were really bad at maths and useless at learning anything that was quantitative.

After doing our courses, which have quite a bit of math in them, they’re feeling really good about themselves. They said, “for 45 years, I thought I was dumb and now it’s just I’ve been taught in the wrong way.”

Realising that your work can actually have real impact on someone’s life is probably the most satisfying thing. 

Find out more about Code Avengers here.