Starting with the most powerful skill that you can have: Learning.
Mindstone was built by a team of engineers, educators, and continuous learners, all determined to bridge the gap that 200 years of education systems have yet to close: Teaching people how to learn.
Even though we've achieved great things in our respective fields, all of us have struggled with the core challenges of learning:
Focusing, remembering, organising and keeping ourselves motivated.
Despite groundbreaking discoveries in the science of learning over the past 20 years, this foundation is still missing from most academic institutions.
And while a lot of ed-tech brands promised shortcuts and tools that claimed to “hack” education, most hardly address the actual struggles that learners face.
So we decided to build the solution ourselves: a platform that actually helps people learn.
Then came the most unlikely of opportunities: the world went into lockdown. Overnight, students, professionals, and lifelong learners alike scrambled to find the best way to learn and collaborate online.
This gave us greater insight into what was needed. Even though we had to complete the platform remotely, right in the middle of a pandemic, we got to do what we had set out to do even better.
In April 2020, we launched Mindstone — a user-centric platform that brings all your work and resources together in one place. It lets you organise easily, collaborate effectively, and learn better and faster... compounding your learning over time.
Here at Mindstone, we don’t represent an establishment or an institution. We only represent you, the learner. Our mission is to empower you to develop yourself and meet your goals by being in charge of your own learning journey.
Mindstone is based on the concept of compound learning. Our platform makes it easier for you to draw valuable connections between your learning materials — including your resources, notes, highlights and discussions. And the more connections your brain makes to existing knowledge, the faster you learn, and the more you remember.
This enables you to compound your knowledge and grow your capabilities exponentially over time.
In 2013, when Joshua co-founded SuperAwesome — a digital media ecosystem designed for children — he had to learn the first principles of building a company from the ground up.
Thinking back on his own learning journey — from dropping out of college twice, to getting a remote MBA from the Open University — it hit him that the principles of education taught by these institutions had all been wrong.
Joshua realised that what people need is a learning model that focuses on the learner. Not the institution, the system or the employer. That’s why he founded Mindstone.
As a secondary school teacher and Head of Sixth Form, Patrick has seen first-hand how the current education system leaves people feeling like failures when it’s the system itself that is broken.
For 18 years he watched students fed into an educational machine modelled on a Victorian factory and spat out the other end with neither the skills needed in the workplace nor the love of learning which could unlock their personal growth.
When he met Joshua, their conversation about a better education experience immediately clicked. And so Patrick co-founded Mindstone, serving as Chief Learning Officer to build a platform that works for the learner, not the institution.
Melody is the founder and director of MPA, an advisory company that focuses on the Future of learning, talent and work. While her PhD is in Engineering, her passion is Education.
Growing up, her greatest struggle as a learner was memorising facts. She also had trouble forming opinions on what she read: something that was hardly required in school, but as she discovered later, is critical in the world of work.
She wants to help create a future where what you learn, how you learn, and when and where you learn is up to you — not an institution. And that’s exactly what Mindstone is setting out to achieve.
Formerly an engineer behind Monzo bank and SuperAwesome, Florian has mostly worked in finance and advertising.
When he started taking evening classes to complete his bachelor’s degree, Florian discovered how much he had to compromise on his career. Having to go to a specific location at a specific time meant that he was regularly torn between two options: Skip an important meeting to make it to class — or skip class to prioritise work.
Through Mindstone, he hopes to build a learning platform that is flexible, open-ended, and allows the user to create their own path and get excited about learning something new.
Stefan is a web developer who’s worked on various content and membership platforms including SuperAwesome, Kaluza and Very Connect.
Coming out of school and into university, he had zero knowledge of how to be an independent learner and was shocked to find that this was the case for other students too.
It was only when he joined Mindstone that he started adopting the learning techniques featured on the platform to grow his knowledge of the tech industry — for example by using remember to consolidate his learning.
Exciting Features In The Pipeline
LEARNING SCORE (coming soon)
Keep track of your learning progress with a custom score that provides feedback based on your activity... so you can stay motivated and on your path.
INSTANT REFERENCING (coming soon)
We’re currently developing a reference generator feature that automatically creates in-text citations, so you can always ensure the credibility of your work.
At Mindstone we know what it’s like to work remotely - we launched during lockdown and some members of our team have never met in person. So we set out to build a learning platform that we would want to use ourselves.
Joshua Wohle - Chief Executive Officer
As co-founder @ SuperAwesome, I learned to build a company from first principles. Thinking back over my own learning journey, from dropping out of college twice, to getting a remote MBA from the Open University, I realized that the first principles of education were all wrong. We need a model of learning that focuses on the learner, not the institution or the employer. That’s why I founded Mindstone.
Patrick Cootes - Chief Learning Officer
As a secondary teacher and head of Sixth Form I’ve seen first-hand how the education system leaves people feeling like failures, when it’s the system itself that's broken. Josh and I got talking about what a better learning experience would look like, and the idea of a learner-centred approach really clicked with me. I co-founded Mindstone to help people become better learners, and I’ve never looked back.
Melody Lang - Chief Operating Officer
My PhD is in engineering, but my passion is Education, which led me to change career to co-found Mindstone. I want to see a future where what you learn, how you learn, and when and where you learn is up to you, not an institution - and that’s exactly what Mindstone is setting out to achieve.
Florian Zysset - Chief Technology Officer
This is the third company I’ve launched with Josh, so I knew what I was getting myself into! With Mindstone we’re working to build something flexible and open-ended, where you never get bored because there’s always something new to learn.
