In the second of our getting to know the Akcela Incubator community, we speak to one of our founding members of the Akcela Incubator community, Readingmate. Hannah and James Rix created Readingmate in 2020 with the goal of developing a lifelong love of reading. Supporting parents to understand and develop their childs reading journey with the Readingmate app, through to launching the Love Literacy Tool for schools which instills a love of reading that accelerates students’ progress.
We were fortunate enough to speak to both Hannah Rix (HR) and James Rix (JR) through this interview. Responses are labelled accordingly.
In two sentences, tell me about Readingmate
HR
Readingmate are committed to instilling the love of reading and accelerating student progress with a free literacy app for parents and literacy improvement tool for schools.
Why did you start Readingmate?
HR
To help parents and improve the future prospects of children.
JR
After seeing Hannah struggling for years to promote a love of reading in children. We wanted to make a difference and make the process of literacy development more intelligent, easier and less time consuming for children, parents and teachers.
What’s been the hardest part of starting a business?
HR
Starting any business is hard, but it’s enjoyable. For us, app development, ensuring parent’s needs are completely met and communication with schools have been challenges, but we are so proud of where we have come to date in achieving them. It’s great to recognise them as a challenge, but also see we have solutions to meet them.
JR
Commercialisation. Great ideas are a dime a dozen, its execution and commercialisation that makes the difference when you need to deliver the good idea and make it financially viable.