GoHenry: The school stories that led Louise Hill to create a money app for kids | Business News

For many women, having children unfairly interrupts or hinders their careers. For Louise Hill, the opposite happened.

Growing up in Lowestoft on the east coast of England, she had a childhood filled with days at the beach, kayaking and exploring old boats. But their own children have arrived in a very different world – a world of apps, downloads and online marketplaces.

It didn’t take long for her to start thinking about financial education and the importance of practical money skills.

By the time his two sons were iPod and downloaded music from iTunes, she printed an invoice every time she received an invoice in her inbox. The invoice would then be stuck on the refrigerator.

When they came to her at the weekend asking for an allowance, Louise would point to the fridge and deduct from the allowance the amount they had already spent.

“I was trying to make them understand that money has to come from somewhere and that it doesn’t really grow on trees,” she said. the money team.

“I could go through the process of saying, well, you’d normally get £5, but here’s what you spent this week, so you’ll only get £1.20.”

How the idea for GoHenry came about

During the children’s school activities and football games, Louise would hear other parents complaining about their children’s spending habits.

A father told a story about his daughter spending £200 on an online My Little Pony game. Another didn’t know what to do when a beat-up car arrived at his garage on a flatbed truck after his son spent £600 on eBay on what he thought was a toy.

“Everyone had a story. It was incredible to realize that we were all having the same problems and that children were starting to access the digital world through their parents, but there was nothing on the market that helped parents teach them how to access it. it in a safe way,” said Louise.

“We wanted to create a service that gives them the freedom and confidence to use and understand money, but in a safe environment.”

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The idea of ​​GoHenry, a prepaid debit card and learning app, was born.

With a large mortgage, little money to start a business, and two children to care for after the divorce, Louise said she and her co-founders (who quickly left the company) “grafted in.”

“I could have gotten a pretty secure, well-paying corporate job – jumping from the edge of a cliff to the uncertainty of starting a business was a big leap,” she said.

“But the idea was too good, frankly.

“It took a while to figure out the right tool to use, so we worked nights, weekends, holidays, all because we really, really wanted to bring this to market.”

In an initial round of seed funding, it raised over £650,000, which was followed by several successful crowdfunding campaigns.

The challenges

Her company launched in 2012 and although it is now a huge success, providing a service to more than two million people in France, Spain, Italy, the US and the UK, Louise said it has not been without its challenges.

The first was the name. When it first hit the market, the business was called PKTMNY (pronounced pocket money), but the name was changed about 18 months later after she realized it was “stupid.”

“No one could say it and no one could spell it, it was a very silly idea,” she added.

The company was named GoHenry after its first customer – an 11-year-old boy called Henry from Bristol.

Another challenge was its scale of growth – GoHenry grew very, very quickly, which meant constant changes to the company’s structure.

“About six or seven years ago, we were growing incredibly fast… I know this sounds ridiculous, but almost every six months we had to take a step back and look at what we needed,” she said.

This was a problem Louise faced and couldn’t overcome years earlier in a previous business – an e-commerce company called Manners, which she was forced to sell after running out of money to support its growth.

“We failed to think about how we were going to scale it,” she said.

“We couldn’t grow anymore because we didn’t have enough cash in the company. At the time, I was really angry with myself for not thinking about it.”

‘I was becoming a hindrance’

Around 2017-18, Louise realized another problem with GoHenry: herself.

“I was becoming a hindrance. I was working full steam ahead and a lot of the information about why we did things the way we did was in my head or in the files on my laptop,” she explained.

“This surprised me and I was fundamentally creating a risk to the business and preventing us from growing as fast as we could.”

She started a company-wide campaign encouraging employees to raise “single points of failure” to see where the problems were.

“I showed up there a lot,” she said.

“So yeah, that’s a top tip from me – don’t let this go unnoticed. Plan ahead.”

What was the key to your success?

In operation for over 12 years, GoHenry has continued to expand and innovate.

Louise said keeping her mission of “making all kids money smart” at the forefront was “critical.”

“That’s our only focus,” she added.

“This is not a complementary product for another business – everyone who joins GoHenry is here for one reason: to meet the money needs of Gen Z and now Gen Alpha and I think that makes a big difference.”

Louise’s advice for others

“Who am I to give advice?” was his initial response when this question was asked.

She said she wanted more girls and women to see images of people who looked like them being successful.

“The more this becomes the norm, the more people will think they can do it too,” she said.

“I’ve been asked many times what the difference is between a founder, an entrepreneur and a non-entrepreneur, and it has to do with risk appetite.

“I thought about all kinds of mindsets, different experiences, different skills with, I don’t know, spreadsheets or contacts… But at some point it all comes down to being confident enough.”

So in practice, she said, women who want to start a business should start by finding support groups.

“There are many out there. They can be extremely helpful because founding a company can be a lonely and difficult thing to take. No one pretends it’s easy,” she said.

Another tip she gave was to plan your layover “from day one,” thinking about the partners you work with, the suppliers, how much money you need to bring in, and how often you might need to “go out and get more money.”

But the most important lesson, she says, is to hire people you know are better than you.

“It’s scary to hire people who you know are much better than you, but if you can do that and give them the space they need to do what they can really well, you’ll have a much better chance of having a successful business .” she said.

“What’s the worst thing that can happen if you fail? Get up, dust yourself off and start again.”