Pivoting with purpose: the founders channelling entrepreneurial smarts into game-changing organisations

0:11Hello and welcome to The Entrepreneurs on Monocle Radio, the show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business. On today's show, two great stories of women turning their rich experience, entrepreneurial smarts and passion for working with purpose into game-changing organizations. First, we meet the inspirational founder, helping to identify, support and prepare talented but vulnerable people that would otherwise be overlooked for sustainable careers in tech.

0:40Laura Hackney:Trafficking can happen within the borders of any country. And so we work with a network of about 120 community-based organizations, government agencies who refer students to our program, which is all about bringing people into STEM fields and just creating space for them to be successful. And later, we'll hear from another founder who's leveraging her skills and experience building and scaling financial institutions in the pursuit of another underserved market. I've always loved building and solving hard problems and focusing on life science, especially women's health. That's such an underserved market.

1:16We're half of the population on this earth and most of the medicines and treatments are focused for men. This is The Entrepreneurs with me, Tom Edwards.

1:36you're listening to the entrepreneurs laura hackney is the ceo and founder of tech training and development platform annie cannons a graduate of stanford and berkeley and former manager of a human rights program at stanford's fsi laura's also a full-stack software engineer she has perhaps somewhat improbably leveraged all of those skills and experiences and more to create Annie Cannons. Where did that name come from? Well, Annie Jump Cannon is a name with which you perhaps should be familiar if you're not already. Cannon was an extraordinary woman who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries played a critical role in the development of astronomy's stellar categorisation, despite the resistance she encountered as a woman working in this field At that time, a good example then of great accomplishment in the face of great challenge.

2:25And the perfect name for an organisation that does what Annie Cannons does, which is training, preparing and connecting survivors of human trafficking for sustainable careers in technology. It's a programme tailored for people who've faced compounded barriers across multiple systems. Laura Hackney stopped by Midori House recently to tell me more of the story.

2:47Laura Hackney:I've been doing a lot of work, both in the U.S. as well as in different parts of East and Southeast Asia, on the issue of anti-human trafficking. And really, when I was back in the U.S., to be quite honest, got pretty frustrated that so much of the narrative, especially in the U.S. and also in the U.K., was really focused on the quote-unquote rescue or some kind of intervention. How do we get someone out of this situation of human trafficking and not on the what's next? What happens right after? And so started working with a lot of survivor leaders and hearing their stories. And the thing that kept coming up over and over again was I want to be able to support myself and my family.

3:27Laura Hackney:You know, thoughts and prayers are great. But what I really want to be able to do is to have a job. And so really started looking at how technology could be that pathway for people, not only into a sustainable career, but into different industries, into giving people a chance to really be creative and expressive with what they could produce. And I guess it's interesting then you sort of turn to this part of the tech ecosystem that you knew very well. And it's one, I don't know, forgive me if this is wrong or to generalize slightly, that's perhaps not associated with being particularly civic minded or expansive in terms of policy terms or how inclusive maybe that it is, although maybe it's meritocratic in some ways.

4:08Tell me a little bit about, I don't know, did you instantly have this conviction that actually you could leverage your knowledge of that sector to deliver those goals? Or were you minded that even from the front, look, this might be a bit of a Hail Mary, speaking of thoughts and prayers, but I'll give it a shot.

4:23Laura Hackney:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it definitely felt like, you know, there were having conversations with other engineers and the things that kept coming up and we kept hearing is that people who have tremendous problem solving ability and grit, those were the two characteristics. And we sort of said, oh, we know some people like that. And it was really an opportunity, I think, to we found, I kind of went into the computer science world thinking I was going to be learning much more about, you know, hard sciences and how machines work and, you know, all of that. And I was like, oh, I'm much more of a kind of humanities love learning languages and being with people.

4:58Laura Hackney:And but it's so much about how humans think and solve problems. And so much of the technology is just built on our own biology, which is fascinating. And so I think one of the kind of unexpected outcomes of the work has been that a lot of our students have really felt that learning this type of technology and this way of thinking, algorithmic problem solving, you're creating order out of chaos. And it's actually something that feels very healing and very empowering. I've experienced that and I know a lot of our students have. And so it was a kind of continuous sweep. We started with technology from very practical purposes.

5:31Laura Hackney:It was not going away. It was, you know, lucrative. You could work from home, which at the time we had students who weren't able to take public transportation because their exploiter was still on those, you know, taking the same subway lines and things like that. So we wanted to kind of meet people where we could be the most helpful and also really change the narrative around survivors, especially in the U.S. There's a lot of doubts around people's capacity, around what people could achieve. And our namesake, Annie Cannon, was all about bringing people into STEM fields and just creating space for them to be successful.

6:07Talk to me about the team. We heard about your own journey a little bit, but in terms of the experts you bring in and who work as part of Annie Cannon's, obviously they are people with expertise in tech, in education and product development, but presumably also in social work, in support in these kinds of areas. Talk to me about the chemistry or almost the alchemy that's involved in bringing those people together.

6:30Laura Hackney:Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I just our team is such a delight. Yeah, we have people with technology background. We have people with neuroscience, education, pedagogy background. We have someone who's a licensed counselor who does a lot of the one-on-one coaching with our students. We have a career development specialist. I think for us, a lot of our staff members have lived experience as survivors of trafficking, gender-based violence. It's really important that they serve as reference points, as models for our students, but also really understanding. I was in your seat once learning how to do this complicated task in this programming language and I promise you can learn it.

7:10Laura Hackney:So I think for us teaching that kind of understanding is much harder than teaching software actually. And so having those folks on our team and having our team really reflect the people that we serve is really important. Talk to me a bit about the mechanics then of I don't know how the process works, whether it's outreach, whether it's onboarding people with these experiences, how you ensure you can connect with the community you need to serve. What are the nuts and bolts of that process? And how do you support people? Maybe I don't know if it's useful to give us a sort of a typical example. I guess the problem is there probably is no typical example and people's experiences are often atypical.

7:46But tell us a little bit about how someone's journey into that Annie Cannon's experience starts.

7:51Laura Hackney:Yeah, absolutely. We often talk about the fact that the majority of our students, about 80 % were actually born in the U.S. And almost all of, I mean, all of our students, 100 % of them experience trafficking in the U.S. So it's not just people being trafficked into particular countries. Trafficking can happen within the borders of any country. And so we work with a network of about 120 organizations, community-based organizations, government agencies who refer students to our program. So it's really after someone is out of their situation kind of post-crisis and asking that what's next question.

8:26Laura Hackney:They're referred to us. They go through an application process, an interview process. We have a whole interview that's really based around is this the right time for someone in their journey to join a program like this? But we also do some, we call them more education agnostic kind of problem-solving exercises, really to see if people are going to be interested in this world of coding. Now I'm really excited because we do have some students who've gone through our program who have the core technical foundations, but are starting to branch into other fields like cybersecurity, product management, design.

8:58Laura Hackney:We even have someone really interested in gaming, which is exciting. So they go through, after the interview, an application process, a 12-month training in-house with our team. So they're with us 20 to 25 hours a week. Everything from exactly how the digital workplace operates up through full-stack software engineering. Of course, we're weaving in a lot of ethical AI education at the moment. Just that little thing, AI. It tends to crop up, almost regardless of what we're talking about. It's the way of the world at the moment. Yeah, but it's wonderful. And then after the 12 months, we then place people in a 15-week apprenticeship with a company.

9:36Laura Hackney:All companies are tech companies these days. But it's great because our students get to work on a technical team. It's low risk for the company because we continue to pay their compensation and benefits. And we've been really excited recently to partner with more Series B growth stage startups. We've seen a really high conversion rate, about 80 % into full-time hires. So we're just working with more VCs and investors who are connecting us with their portfolio companies and really getting our folks into these growth stage companies where they can see kind of the full end-to-end stage of how the business operates.

10:09Amazing number. If you can talk about getting 8 out of 10 or more into those full-time positions, that's an incredible ratio. If we zoom out a little bit, Laura, what's the kind of macro environment, particularly in the US, there's lots of talk about defunding of loads of critical social policy areas. And obviously, one hopes and one expects a little bit that the philanthropic space or corporate social responsibility can sort of plug some of the gaps. But it's a really, really, really tough environment. I don't know, what's that like? How's any kind of, you know, you're a decade in, perhaps you saw it coming.

10:40But there's sort of some of the narratives, the discourse in some of these areas. It's really challenging. I don't know. Can you make sense of the current environment?

10:47Laura Hackney:Yeah, it's really tough. And I think for us, the most immediate impact that we felt is a lot of the services that our students rely on, either before they come to our training or while they're in their training, have been impacted. Different housing programs, certain case management organizations, certainly legal aid organizations. We've seen just a lot of programs shut down, and that's been really challenging. I think for us, it's continuing to evolve with the landscape in the job marketplace as well. We've historically partnered with larger companies, Wells Fargo, Delta, companies that are able to bring on.

11:24Laura Hackney:But also we've had a lot of success in smaller, midsize companies as well. And just having a larger portfolio of companies that can hire our students has always felt right to us just because we can really tailor it and help students get placed where they want to. be working. But I think on the nonprofit side, we've definitely seen over the last 16 months, a lot of funders saying, well, let's just wait and see at a time when we really need people to be leaning in. And I think really kind of looking at a lot of the workforce development funding starting to shift. At the same time, a lot of new AI funding kind of coming into the space.

12:03Laura Hackney:But it's interesting because our model is very much based not on breadth of number of people that we serve, but the depth of impact with each individual we work with. So there's been a kind of a because of AI and because we can now apparently scale everything. You know, you should be. It's as easy as that. It's as easy as that. You know, we should be serving hundreds of thousands of people as quickly as possible. And for us, it's, you know, we're going to continue with that model around depth. And we do have plans around expanding to new cities across the U.S. And we've been talking to a lot of wonderful organizations outside of the U.S.

12:39Laura Hackney:as well who really want to bring more people into the space. But I think it is challenging when you're up against both the uncertainty, all of the shifts, as well as I think people who could be stepping in are just continuing to say, we'll wait and see. And sit on the margins. I often ask people who do this kind of work, which is very inspiring, and they seem to be optimistic by their nature, even if sometimes counterintuitively they are hearing and seeing and witnessing and dealing with people who suffer sometimes unimaginable trauma. And yet that seems to galvanize them to retain that foundational optimism.

13:16Despite your adjacency to those stories and that complicated backdrop that you've just described strikes me you're still optimistic. How so? What's the secret, Laura? Is it that you just see one case where you get that great outcome and it gives you enough? Tell me about how you retain your optimism, if indeed you'd agree you are an optimist.

13:37Laura Hackney:I would. And I think despite the, you know, a lot of our students as they go through the program, a lot of things can be, people can be re-triggered, certain things can come up. A lot of our students experienced exploitation that was happening kind of concurrently online as well as in person. And so I think there's been a lot of times when we've, we used to say that it was usually around week four of our training when you've had a kind of that community built and trust built that suddenly everyone would share their stories. So we as a team would kind of have that, you know, just making sure that people are prepared.

14:11Laura Hackney:But we have a lot of fun in our classrooms. We're building things. Our students are presenting projects, doing stand-ups. They're doing showcases at the end of each term. And it's, I make a lot of really bad punny jokes. Those are the best kind of jokes, in my opinion. I mean, 100%. But it's watching someone go through the process of being able to slow down, of being able to make mistakes, see bugs, fix them, learn, be curious, that I think it's a really important space, our classroom. And I think for me, the times when I get to jump in and guest lecture, I used to teach our classes. And now we have a wonderful team of people teaching our classes.

14:52Laura Hackney:But every term, I'm like, can I just jump in for one class? And so I think it's seeing that and then seeing our students not only go into, you know, send the email with the offer letter, but also just seeing them come back and support future students. And so I think it's that community feeling. It's kind of bringing that levity. And I think there's a lot of pressure to kind of have these sort of big moments of this is kind of what we're doing and the kind of shiny, the shininess. But really, for me, it's the day to day. It's the student who moved into our advanced classes and finally got health insurance so was finally able to get her vision tested and get a pair of glasses.

15:30Laura Hackney:You know, it's those types of things that I think they make a difference and people notice. And it's – I have a lot of hope. Well, I'm sure people listening will say, I need to find out more. I'd like to support. I'd like to get involved. Who knows? What's the path of least resistance? I'm sure you'd welcome people to get in touch. But what should they do if this message, this kind of story, this kind of optimistic take, it's like gratuitous optimism, I love it. But what should people do if they want to act on that impulse? Yes, absolutely. I mean, we are bringing in more companies for hiring our students.

16:02Laura Hackney:You can reach out on our website, AnnieCannons.org. We have placements coming up for each of our cohorts in January, May and September. So we're always looking for companies that really want to bring on exceptional talent and support our students as they step into their career paths. We have a mentorship program. And then you also can sponsor a classroom. So if you're interested in any of those things, we have companies also come in and do these cutting edge talks. So we're always hearing from technologists, from developers, from product managers, what's changing in the industry for them and how are they bracing for that change.

16:37Laura Hackney:So we love to hear people and have them come into the classroom. That was Laura Hackney, the founder and CEO of tech training and development platform Annie Cannons. You can find out more by heading over to AnnieCannons.org.

17:01You're listening to The Entrepreneurs. Next up, we're talking to another entrepreneur with a track record of building and scaling innovative businesses, but who's also undertaking something of a thematic pivot for her latest venture. But one prompted by an interest in working with intention and purpose. Monika Likkamma, the Finnish entrepreneur who made her name building financial institutions like payments company Infus, tells Monika's Ian Wiley why she swapped fintech for the complexities of women's health and why success these days has less to do with material things and more to do with the legacy she's planning on leaving behind.

17:39Like, I know how to build banks. I build 60 plus now banks or financial institutions. So I know that. And it's boring. Monika Likama made her name in Finnish fintech. After helping build Infus into one of Europe's leading payments companies, she could easily have stayed in banking. Instead, Monika chose something much harder. I met her at Aalto University in Helsinki, where she is entrepreneur in residence. I've always loved building and solving hard problems. and focusing on life science, especially women's health. That's such an underserved market. We're half of the population on this earth, and most of the medicines and treatments are focused for men.

18:28So I said, I love men. I have two sons and a lovely husband, but there's an untapped market. And I was like, let's do it. And it's very hard. In FinTech, we think that's hard. It's so regulated, and I'm regulated under the Finnish supervisors and the UK FCA. But med tech, medical device, level three grade, that's the next level shit. And that's what I'm doing because I like next level shit. Monica is now executive chair of Lignum Medical, a Finnish startup tackling a problem that affects millions of women but is rarely talked about publicly. So 2019, a group of hardcore doctors and midwives and nurses and whatever sat down and they have been working a long time, gynecologists and urologists, with the incontinence problem, and especially focused on stress urinary incontinence in women.

19:22So one in four women suffer from pretty severe incontinence problems, and it's born out of three typical things. One, childbirth. Two, obesity. And three, old age. The treatments have been either very invasive, meaning that it's severe enough that you need to go into surgery. And predominantly, they've been fixing the urethra with a sling or a mesh that's been done by medical plastic. So there has been a series of lawsuits due to problems arise from putting plastic into the body. And then some years ago, a company started building hydrogel that you actually inject and fix the problem, so to say.

20:10But the current solution that they're using, it's based on medical plastic. So you're actually injecting plastics into the body to fix the peeing, so to say. Then the other non-invasive treatments have been, you know, take some pelvic muscle training lessons, listen to some mindfulness deba-daba, or most use diapers. So if you think about that, this problem arises from around 25-ish up until old age. So there's a lot of super athletes, for example, who suffer from this. So that's what they started developing and researching. And what they did was focused on plant-based, fully organic stuff and really looking into how does that work in the body, what kind of reaction does it have, etc., etc.

21:02Then they started to be ready to become a spin-out from the university. And that's when I kind of stumbled upon this. So I had a lunch with the founder because I met her last year in other occasions. And she had another idea that she pitched, which I thought sucked. Like, really? So I was like, yeah, no way. This is like, no, I'm not going to do this. And then she sent me like, hey, I have one other thing. I would really like to have a lunch with you. and I was like, okay, sure, because I strongly believe in networking, because you never know, and this is a good example again, like, you never know what happens, I sat down, she started explaining this problem, and I was like, that's interesting, and that's hard, because they have patents, and IP, and a lot of stuff, and then I listened to the game plan, I was like, oh god, like, you know, this is not going anywhere, and then she said, no, it's not going anywhere, I don't know what to do.

21:56I said, but I can join. Let's make this a world leading med tech. What's the magic that Monica brings to this? I'm a mega pimp. So I know the university is like, oh God. But they hired me also here in the Aalto University, which is a huge honor to be executive in residence. So I'm here to pimp stuff off, make the right people talk to each other. And then I also put the big, hairy, audacious goal. Because I said, just so you know, we're going to be dual listing in Europe and in the US by 2037. Let's start counting back on what needs to happen. So I think I bring the steroids. I inject the speed, or let's say the sense of urgency, because they know what needs to get done, but they have been in such a big corporate or they've been in this mindset that it has to take time.

22:55And so Eva, who is the CEO, she's with a carrot and then I come with a stick. And so how important is it to set that goal at the end? It's massively important. If I look at any other companies that I have been working with and building, there has to be like this massive goal. So for MFUSE, I always talked about like, we want to be the best in the world. We want to win the Olympics. And then you start like, what does it look like? Because I strongly believe that there's a lot of good people and people want to do a good job. But if they don't know why they come to work and why they matter, they will be just another worker.