We Are Human is back!
and we have big bold fuzzy goals for 2018…
Jamie and I set up We Are Human to create purpose-driven organisations striving for social and commercial impact.
The effects of our lifestyles are becoming problematic for humanity — not to mention the animals and plants that share our planet.
Our vision is for a society re-engineered for sustainable growth. So we invest in projects that explore and influence human behaviours; with a particular focus on:
- How we learn & develop
- Improving health and wellbeing
- Building society in symbiosis with our environment
Our values, beliefs and way-of-working developed during a period of radical change, influenced by our Anglo-Nordic roots and inspirational individuals producing seminal work; including education expert Sir Ken Robinson, play guru Stuart Brown, architect & urban planner Jan Gehl and pedagogist Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.
The methodologies and frameworks we use include, or are influenced by, projects such as Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur (who we have also collaborated with); Hooked by Nir Eyal (our friend and angel investor in Kahoot!); Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown & James Macanufo; Lean Startup by Eric Ries; and Innovating With People: The Business Of Inclusive Design by Norwegian Design Council.
We were involved in a number of diverse startups before founding and incubating our latest success — Kahoot!. For more than five years, we poured heart and soul into scaling the world’s fastest growing learning brand. We raised more than $20M and assembled a dedicated team of creative professionals around our shared vision.
Kahoot! now has over 70 million unique monthly active users in 200 countries. It is loved by students, teachers and business alike and is a cultural phenomenon.
Last year, with a new management team in place, we began to explore new challenges while continuing as advisors, shareholders and champions of Kahoot!’s founding mission.
“Change is situational; transition is psychological.”
William Bridges
For the latter part of 2017, we allowed time and space for reflection and recovery after such an all-encompassing effort to create something amazing.
However, during that period we made time for some key activities that are enabling the next chapter of We Are Human.
At SLUSH we launched EntrepreneurShipOne, a zero-emission sailboat, and metaphor for business. Entrepreneurship can’t be taught in school, you learn it by doing it. The same goes for sailing. It’s all about working with the elements, building strong teams, enjoying the journey and being flexible about the path you need to take to get to your end goal. E/One is a platform and brand that enables bright minds to meet, learn and innovate at sea.
We gave something back — becoming even more active in the Oslo and London startup scenes, and making investments in a series of extremely exciting founders and ventures that range from journalism, seed funds, impact accelerators and learning companies. We also spoke at events in the Nordics, London and Croatia.
Finally, we worked on a mechanism for strategic philanthropy that we will provide more information on in the near future.
For 2018, We Are Human is reanimated.
Tim Moore, our General Manager at Kahoot!, joined us as Managing Partner. Tim created his first startup in 1994 to explore possibilities offered by the emergent Internet. We first worked together at his second company, Playgroup, in 2006 and have been working in creative technology startups ever since. Collectively, we now have over 40 years of startup experience.
We have learnt a lot through our work with startups, especially at Kahoot!, and we’ll be applying the lessons learned to our next venture. It might take us some time — and we’re comfortable with that — but stay tuned, it will be exciting!
In the meantime, we are interested in partnering with ambitious startups and established businesses working on product or service innovation, digital transformation, and concept development projects. We’re also available for mentoring and advisory roles.
Watch out for Wah!shops — our unique take on the workshop — where participants develop real business ideas utilising We Are Human’s methodologies and insights from our network.
We’ll be extending the EntrepreneurShipOne initiative by launching EntrepreneurShipX, promoting, backing and engaging in value-based entrepreneurship at a global scale.
Finally, we plan to be socially active: writing (this blog and a book), speaking (industry events and interviews) and connecting with like-minded entrepreneurs.
New beginnings can often only be seen in retrospect, but we are excited to embark on the next stage of the journey. 🚀
Feel free to get in touch with Jamie, Johan or Tim for more information.
I would hugely appreciate some claps 👏 and shares 🙌 so that others can find this article!
We Are Human creates purpose-driven organisations striving for social and commercial impact. We are mostly known for co-founding and incubating Kahoot!, “the world’s fastest growing learning brand”, launched in August 2013. By May 2017, along with our co-founders and a highly dedicated team, we had scaled Kahoot! to reach 50 million people around the world every month.
