Providing children with quality online education anytime, anywhere, teaching them to think critically, filter information and not be manipulated... is incredible, but such ideas in Natalia Limonova arose even before the war and even before the COVID pandemic. The founder of the online platform Global Innovative Online School and a graduate Female Leadership Program from Ukrainian Hub shared her vision of modern education, as well as her own experience as a woman in the world of startups.
With this material, we begin a series of interviews with female founders of successful startups in support of a new educational project Amarelo Azul from Ukrainian Hub.
*GIOS - an online school for studying mathematics. The startup has retail and corporate sales. Parents of students can order an online course, find a tutor or purchase a course with a tutor. For teachers, GIOS has an online lesson designer for group classes.
I sincerely believe that mathematics, logical and critical thinking are the basis of any profession, not only in the future, but also in the present. These are effective skills for self-realization and revealing a person's potential. Our vision is to build a better future for our children in such a changing world with a competitive global economy.
Today, the issue of critical thinking (which is formed, including with the help of mathematics) is more relevant than ever. You see what manipulation of information and mass propaganda has led to, people are often under the influence of fake news and cannot distinguish lies from truth, build logical chains and draw correct conclusions.
"Our children are completely different, they were already born in the digital age, so it is necessary to create an updated, modern education for them."
Now there is certainly a demand for educational projects. The world is changing so fast that you need to constantly learn and re-learn to keep up with the times. Our children are completely different, they were already born in the digital era, so it is necessary to create updated, modern education for them, taking into account their psychological characteristics and perception of information.
I see in the near future the development of individual educational trajectories for each child, adjustments to their characteristics and behavior, digitization of education, creation of interactive gamified content that captures the child's attention and engages in an interesting process of learning about oneself and the world. Also, with the development of AR, VR, and artificial intelligence, education will become more visual, diverse, and the role of the teacher will change - he will no longer be the only source that preaches the truth, but more of a mentor and guide who helps choose the right path of personal development.
The turning point in the development of our startup was the COVID pandemic in the spring of 2020. In one day, all Ukrainian schools closed, and education was forced to move online (before that, online was perceived as something extra, not mandatory). It turned out that the majority of Ukrainian teachers and schools were not ready for such a format, quality digital content and tools were not enough. At this time, we decided to support our teachers and students and opened free access to the platform for everyone, conducted teacher training in parallel, introduced elements of mixed and online learning at all stages of the educational process. It was then that a huge wave of users (about 100,000) joined the GIOS platform, some of whom later became our paid users.
In my opinion, there are several important factors for the success of a startup:
- Unbreakable faith, even the passion of the founders for their project.
- A strong team is involved.
- The idea of a project that corresponds to the time and needs of consumers.
- Efficiency, perseverance, patience and stress resistance of the founders and the team.
"Greater efforts are needed to convince the male audience of the ability of a woman to bring her project to significant success"
Women are by nature more creative and flexible, inclined to negotiate and find solutions, multitasking, emotional and empathic. But the same can be said about some men, they also have their advantages, so it is very good when the team has a healthy balance between male and female types of thinking.
When entering international markets, in some countries there are outdated stereotypes about female leadership. Also, when pitching and presenting to investors and funds, women are often asked questions that subconsciously express more distrust than men. Greater efforts are needed to convince the male audience of the ability of a woman to bring her project to significant success.
If I were to give three pieces of advice to a woman who wants to start her own business from scratch right now, then mine would sound like this:
1. Believe in yourself and your project.
2. If you knock on the door persistently, it will open.
3. Inspire your team and clients, and then you will be attracted to the right people with whom you will direct your project to success.
From my experience, it is worth thinking about attracting investments and finding investors from the first day of the project's foundation. But you should actually start attracting investments when your first followers vote for your project with their money (buy your product).
At the beginning of the full-scale war, we opened free access to our platform for all Ukrainian teachers and students, wherever they are. Then difficult times began for us, when financial flows decreased significantly. But we persevered, returned to the pre-war level and began to grow. We are now entering the North American market and believe in the success of our product.
If I could give one piece of advice to myself from the past at the very start of GIOS, I would say simply: "Never give up! Knock, and any door will open."