26. Learning Heroes

Founder: Adam Kara, Aaron Kara, Ian Darlington and Mike McGann
Founded: August 2014
Website: www.learningheroes.com

Nearly everyone, at some point in their career, has had to sit through a mind-numbingly boring training video at work. Thankfully, Warrington-based Learning Heroes is here to save the day.

Founded in 2014 by Adam Kara, Aaron Kara, Ian Darlington and Mike McGann, the e-learning business creates short, sharp and engaging animated videos. Having originally worked for a conventional e-learning company, the foursome found the content the company created “bored them stiff”.

Deciding to put more emphasis on quirky yet concise animation for “the YouTube generation”, and less focus on stock images and “dragged out” content, with a user-friendly subscription model, Learning Heroes – dubbed the “Netflix of e-learning” – was born.

Accessible via a smartphone or tablet, Learning Heroes aims to condense e-learning so employees have more time to spend ‘on the job’ and at home with their families.

Now making videos for over 300 customers across the UK, US and Australia, Learning Heroes offers subscribers 180 training modules and over 1,500 blended learning courses in its content library. Keen to reflect pressing topics in the news and the workplace, recently added modules include ‘modern slaver’ and ‘unconscious bias’.

Set to make a whopping £2m in profit for 2017, the business counts the likes of Mercedes, Kellogg’s and KFC among its users.

Having recently signed deals with fellow e-learning companies TalentLMS, Docebo and Education Blackbaud, the start-up has set its sights on US expansion and hopes to open an office here in the coming months.

Learning Heroes could certainly teach other start-ups a thing or two about business!