The Startup Club is pleased to present you with The Startup of The Week - Number Hive. Chris Hogbin, Founder and CEO of Number Hive shares his Startup journey and the challenges faced as an entrepreneur.

About Number Hive. Chris Hogbin presents, at Number Hive the goal is to make mathematics more accessible and enjoyable for students on a global scale. It's mission is to tackle the negative impacts of mathematics anxiety and the limiting beliefs associated with it, such as 'I'm not a mathematics person' or 'mathematics is just about rote learning.' Research shows that 80% of students are limited by mathematics anxiety, and our aim is to change that. He states that their innovative app game-based learning helps students build confidence and fluency in mathematics through - a method that is proven to increase engagement, understanding, and retention. We asked Chris What made you become an entrepreneur? His response was, "As a high school mathematics teacher, I saw firsthand the debilitating effects of maths anxiety and the attitudes associated. I solved the problem in the classroom with an analogue game. Number Hive is now solving the same problem, through digital technology, at scale. My ambition was always to help students have confidence in their mathematics learning, I’m now able to do that across the world. (Number Hive is used in 15 different countries around the globe)."

Every startup faces challenges even before they show up in the market. To handle such challenges the founder must be a versatile person with experience vali
dates Chris. "I’m good at anticipating the needs of teachers. I was one for many years. I understand the classroom, the challenge, and the market well. There’s a range of other skills I’ve had to learn fast. From product development to marketing, it’s important to understand what you do well, what you can learn, and when you need to bring people into the team to help you. And the investor world is a whole new ball game."
When asked about the biggest challenge faced when looking for funding he replies," We have had fantastic growth. Our strategy was always to build awareness of the app with a freemium version, while we find investment to help us build the levels of functionality and reporting that we can monetize. Investors often like to see a run rate of costs and revenue in order to project things like our cost of acquisition and lifetime value. We are so young that providing long-term data is difficult." Chris believes that one of the most fulfilling aspects of being an entrepreneur is the opportunity to create a positive impact on society. He takes pride in the fact that Number Hive has had a significant and positive effect on teachers, parents, and students all around the globe. What started out as a simple game that he used in his own classroom has now evolved into something much larger and more influential, with the power to make a real difference in the lives of learners everywhere. As a startup founder, Chris has valuable advice for other entrepreneurs who aspire to build their startups around the Edtech space. He believes that in order to create products that truly benefit teachers, it's important to keep things simple, and user-friendly, and to understand that teachers want to focus on teaching, not on navigating complex technology. In other words, entrepreneurs should aim to make the lives of teachers easier, not more difficult. By doing so, they can help to facilitate success in the classroom, while also building a product that is intuitive and enjoyable to use. To learn more about Number Hive visit the website here.
Reach out to contact@thestartupclub.net for the Number Hive's Pitch deck.
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