2021 in review: To keep learning, keep having fun

This year at imagi we were challenged to think more deeply and innovatively about what learning really means and how to best deliver learning experiences, especially in the context of teaching children.

We started to look more and more towards gaming, and as part of this journey I read A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster. I was sold already in the introduction:

“Boredom is the opposite of learning. When a game stops teaching us, we feel bored.”

Koster also claims that games are essentially teachers and that "fun is just another word for learning." The book gave the green light to my thinking around how games could and should be used for learning.?

But it was yet another read that sparked the idea that fun is also essential in long-term, impactful work. In July I received a gift from the incredible Cartier Women's Initiative team. It was Jacqueline Novogratz’s new book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution.?

Novogratz introduces several portfolio cases of Acumen, her impact investment fund. She recognizes that when impact entrepreneurs are already on the path, set out to make a difference, they tend to reach a dip when within a few years they haven't yet changed the world. She repeatedly emphasizes that creating significant and sustained impact can take an extremely long time. I valued her reminder: "You're doing what you set out to do. Be proud of what you've built. Most people talk about change. You’re doing it. And you’ve only started."

But having seen numerous impact cases Novogratz is also able to look beyond the surface and ask a critical question: "The question isn't just what problem you want to solve, but how do you want to spend the next 40 years of your life?”

Whether the question should be about 10-15 or 40 years is not the point, but by forcing us to think how we want to spend our days (after all how we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives as Annie Dilliar says), she sparked my ideas around bringing learning, impact and games all together. When you set out to make a change, something beyond yourself, it will be a huge endeavor. You will have to constantly learn new skills in order to climb over bigger and bigger obstacles. And the only way to do that sustainably is if you are having fun.

In my 2020 reflection I talked about all the things I learnt in the startup journey during the year. Now I am writing about all the fun I had. Because fun is just another word for learning.?

1. Highs and hype

At imagi, we started the year on a high, receiving angel investments in January from prominent entrepreneurs such as Eros Resmini, the former CMO of Discord, and David Baszucki, the CEO of Roblox, among a great group of supporters. We’d also just landed our first partnership with Black Girls Code in February, after months of work. In April, our founding team was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for our effort in social impact.

Not to even mention the Women's Month hype. March is a strange month as a female founder. Suddenly, the world pays so much attention, apps on the App store made by women developers, products on Amazon made by women innovators get all the spotlight. (When will we get to a world where we won't need a dedicated month to hype women's businesses could be a post on its own). And the hype continued throughout the year, in September we even got 2 seconds of fame during one of the Apple Events.

These little boosts of dopamine certainly help keep the founder’s brain engaged. However, while I am all for celebrating (small and large) wins, and highs come with a lot of the fun, they are sometimes just a very small part of the reward and the learning journey, the cherry on top.

2. Dips and lows

In my opinion, the startup roller coaster analogy is very real. Highs and lows come in rapid succession, but sometimes the dips take longer and they get deeper than you expected them to. Dips and lows are a less obvious source of fun but I would argue that for anyone looking to walk down on the entrepreneurial path, it is necessary to find joy in them.?

Dips can come in many forms: low seasons of growth and sales, times when you feel like all you do is paperwork and administration, campaigns, projects or hires that don't work out, promising leads that fall through the cracks. Or simply through the perception that things just aren't moving fast enough. And we had plenty of these moments in 2021.

Seth Godin calls dips "the moments (which can feel like forever) when the thing you think you want to do has gotten so hard that you don’t know if it will ever work or become enjoyable."

But when looking at it from a game perspective, dips and challenges only really become unenjoyable when you feel like you don't possess the skills required to solve the problem you are facing, essentially you are outside of the zone of proximal development. Sometimes, the startup game is poorly designed and you find yourself in a place where either things are just too easy to do and don't require any learning or things get so hard you can't fix them and don't know where to look for help. According to game design theory, fun happens when you do require some help to achieve your goals but the help is readily provided by the game system.?

Working through problems has been the biggest learning experience of the year, and the joy of figuring things out sustained me with endless fun.

3. COVID's effects on our business (and happiness)

In August, we tested some of our new features and ideas for the imagiCharm and the imagi app in-person, setting up our little corner in the Technical Museum in Stockholm - a magical place full of experiments and science and a constant flow of children. In November, our team set up a table at Comic Con Stockholm - for the first time since our product has been available, we had the opportunity to market and sell it in person. Both of these experiences were successful and extremely fulfilling. Seeing a kid struggle with the step in the flow you designed, seeing a young girl beg their parent for the imagiCharm, seeing a parent trying to convince their child that they should get an imagiCharm. We got to see all the good, the bad, some of our assumptions validated, some completely nullified. We had the thrill of resolving problems on the spot, which in my opinion is a perfect way of combining learning and fun.

Over the fall I attended several in-person startup events, including Tech BBQ in Copenhagen and Slush in Helsinki, and connected with inspiring founders. . In both cases I was also challenged to speak on stage, something I find to be a very fun task, usually with just enough stress to motivate me to dig deeper into and further educate myself on topics such as gender equality in tech/startups, or making a case for combining impact and profit.?

When in-person events have not been possible during (new) waves of COVID, we have taken great advantage of the opportunities of being remote, gaining customers of organizing online events and coding workshops globally (from Singapore, to the US and Brazil, there were imagi coding events in 15 countries ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? in 2021).

However, the opportunities allowing me to experience offline events again reminded me why I am looking forward to a world with more in person interactions. Simply put, they tend to be more fun and more stimulating. When I think back on Novogratz's question, what is it that I want to work on for the next 40 years, these are the experiences that give a boost of bliss to inspire me to keep moving forward.

4. Creating Social Impact

While I chose fun as one of my most important companions on the journey to make a difference in the world, it is also important to surround ourselves with others who value creating impact, and to continue developing our thinking and measurement systems around what impact we actually bring about.

In 2021 we were part of Mastercard's Lighthouse program for impact companies where we worked with representatives from the UN, helping us think critically not only about our positive impact on the world but our footprint as well. Among other backers, we also welcomed Unconventional Ventures as an investor, a fund vocal about the need for change in the investment landscape (In 2020, all-women-founded startups raised just 0.7% of investment in the Nordics. 7.3% went to mixed-gender founding teams, while all-men founding teams raised 92% according to their report.). At the end of the year imagiLabs also received grants from Deloitte and One Young World as well as from the City of Stockholm to support the development of our educational platform and amplify our reach.?

All the funding, our believers and supporters are providing us with an opportunity to deliver on our promise. If you want to think of it from a game perspective, it's like we have skill boosters and hidden resources along the way that we can unlock as we progress.?

5. Games and Fun

We celebrated turning three this summer, inviting our friends and creating a game about our history. Our team also gets together weekly to play online games. And this year we recognized that we are in the business of making a game as opposed to gamifying learning. "Most attempts at making software both educational and fun end up being neither. Fun is often treated like a sugar coating to be added to an educational core. Which makes about as much sense as chocolate-dipped broccoli," wrote education professor Amy Buckman. This observation has been shaping a lot of our recent thinking. Since the summer, we have been spending a lot of time rethinking and redesigning the way we deliver learning experiences. Over the last few months, we’ve been mentored by and worked with some of the creators behind one of our favorite childhood games, the Sims. However, more reflection on this will have to wait until next year. For now all I can say is that I am really grateful for the fact that thinking about how to deliver fun experiences to our community made me more aware of the importance of fun in our team's life and in my own life as well.?

Final Thoughts

According to Raph Koster, "the definition of a good game is one that teaches everything it has to offer before the player stops playing".

Based on this definition I would argue that building imagiLabs has been the best designed game I've played in my life so far. More than three years down the line I am still learning and having fun every single day, and most importantly, I am still playing.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading along and wishing you a fun and success filled 2022! ??

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PS. This is a reflection/ account from my personal perspective and without serious rigor to include everything. This is my third annual review since starting a company, and given that the last one I wrote led to making a great friend (hi Julie!), now I have even more reasons to keep up the tradition.?

Initially, the goal of these reflections was to give a radically honest and transparent insight into my experience with the hope that it would give courage for anyone who might be considering going down the entrepreneurial path. As time moves forward however, the insights become less generic to an early stage startup journey and are more focused on the journey of impact entrepreneurship, on creating and marketing a product for 8-13 year olds, and on building something educational. Still, I hope it can give some inspiration to any (aspiring) entrepreneur.