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Female Internet Heroes Interview: Penny Power

Penny Power, co-founder of Ecademy

Every week we publish an interview with one of our female internet heroes. This is an opportunity for you to MEET interesting women, READ about their WORK, THINK about how they PLAY the internet industry and see how you MATCH them. Be inspired!This monday: Penny Power.

“The internet really is all about the people and about the community and all about how people are engaging and understanding one another” says Penny Power, co-founder of Ecademy. Ecademy is a social community and a business network, which since its founding in 1998 has grown to an impressive level.

But Ecademy is much more than that; it is a place for people to work together, to share expertise and skills, get business advice or emotional support, advertise their business and attend network events. Since founding Ecademy in 1998, the network has grown to an impressive 320,000 members all over the world. Penny has had offers to sell, but she won’t consider this unless the partnership is a good choice for the members. Thenextwomen interviewed Penny to find out why she is holding on to Ecademy.

Can you tell me a little about yourself?

I am married, I have been married for 18 years, I have three children, a 16 year old girl, and two boys of 11 and 14. I am 44 and live in the South of England. I started Ecademy in 1998, when the children were very small, and had no idea what it would become.

How did you come up with the idea for Ecademy?

It was based on the fact that my husband Thomas had become self-employed and was speaking and writing on e-commerce. I realised that when you work on your own, you do a lot of things outside your skill set, because you cannot outsource it to a webmaster or a bookkeeper. These may be very challenging tasks that take away from the good stuff in your business. So I thought ‘there must be a place where you can find other people to share those with, a way to distribute your brand; build a brand and at the same time find someone who is happy to do your bookkeeping and the rest of your wax and so create a network in this way.

Where you the first to set up a network of this kind?

When we founded Ecademy, facebook and linkedin did not exist yet. We did not call Ecademy a social network either, we called it an online business network. We do get associated with facebook and linkedin, which is great to a certain extent, but we are in a different market than them. Linkedin is more a corporate reunited site, a corporate job market site. The other day, we had someone post on Ecademy the question ‘does anyone get jobs in here?’ so I wrote , well you can build a brand here that others recognise and want to utilise, the future is about Individual capitalism, the world will not revolve around ‘jobs’ any more; that’s the difference. Ecademy is like facebook in the sense that it is a social network. I went to a wedding this summer of two people that met through Ecademy, that was fantastic. But Ecademy is a social business network; it centres around the business owner.

Besides Ecademy being a networking site, it is also about education, right? How do you educate Ecademy’s members?

We are very much educating and teaching members how to move into the 21^st values and also in respect to technology, because a lot of them are a little bit baffled by it. The average age of members is over 35 and those people have not grown up with facebook. We have members come in and do not know what blogs are. There is a whole generation that has been left behind . They are relying on us to bring the technology to them and teach them how to use it. Also, a lot of people think marketing their business is about broadcasting, direct mails and spamming and we teach them it is not about that. The 21^st century business man knows that conversation marketing is the way to influence buying decisions.

You try to encourage people to have ‘deeper’ contacts , how do go about promoting that?

We have learned that some people like a wide network and can manage it. My husband is like that and he is the same socially. But then there is me who likes to sit with a few close friends. So there are different styles. On Ecademy you can network in both ways. Actually, we now have colours on people’s profiles that indicate what people want and what they are open to in terms of networking. So we try to tell people that everyone has a different style in how they want to be approached and that you will have better success financially and in your whole life if you respect the way people want to be approached. If you meet someone face to face, you can tell by people’s body language how to approach them, but online you can’t. So we try to offer that.

How did you arrange financing for Ecademy?

Thomas and I funded it ourselves. We re-mortgaged our house and few times and then ultimately sold it to have capital to invest in the growth of Ecademy. I worked at my sons’ school for years; in the school office, kitchen and driving minibuses, to try to keep them at their schools. For a couple of years we had revenue through consulting, so we funded it with that and then later we funded it through the introduction of subscription on the site. The growth in subscribers now allows it so sustain itself due to the value it brings to the subscribers.

Is the subscription model one you would recommend?

Free networks, where is the guarantee there is value in that for the client? Many Networks fund their models through advertising, but the number of people who want to advertise is getting less. I don’t think there is longevity in that.

It is very tough to change people’s attitudes. But we tried to teach people that to get to the like-me stage with networking they needed to become a subscriber and have conversations, not just pass contacts requests between one another. That is how we created a world of authenticity. That is how we keep the quality up that it is now.

How big is Ecademy at this point?

It depends on how you measure these things because a lot of social networks measure this differently. At the moment we have about 320,000 members and about 500.000 people using the site every month. So it is a niche social network, but, to give you an idea; it took us 8 years to get to our first 100,000 members, and then in the last 12 months we have seen traffic to the site increase by 150%.

What makes you different from other players in the industry?

We are teaching people that to be successful in networking, you have to go through the process of getting people to know you and follow you and take that to the next level. That makes us unique, we are teaching people to move to the like-me stage. People at linkedin are at the know me stage.

How international is Ecademy?

Our members are in 230 countries so it is a network for business owners all over the world. When I speak and train people, I try to tell people that you can collaborate and do a lot across the world. I try to teach people that they have to diversify and not rely on local business, and find business models that allow them to supply globally and broaden their reach, because competition is getting stronger.

Do you see different cultures differences in how people approach you?

Yes, I do, for example, in India, they are very direct in approaching you. There are definitely cultural problems online when people do not understand each other. Being part of a community is like being part of an ecosystem, it is about absorbing information. I try to teach people that that information may come from someone in China, India, The USA; acting local in your networking does not enable you to absorb, learn and adapt to the demands of 21^st century business.

How do you see the future for Ecademy?

We are seeing a growth, the market of small business owners is growing very very fast, whereas the corporate market is declining. And when people do set up their own company, they need to learn how to run how their own business.

How do you see the future for social networks more generally?

I think conversation marketing will become fundamental in everyone’s approach to marketing and growing their brand. When the big companies realise that, that is when it will get interesting and that is when we will see jobs around it being created inside large organisations. We recently saw an example of that with Ecademy. A person complained on his blog about a communications company….and about 15 people participated. Then we got and email from the communications company telling us to take the blog down, they felt it was defamatory despite it being true. We then told them that that would potentially upset the people that participated, and the guy that set up the blog. So we said, ‘why don’t you come inside and engage with them; put your hand up and give advice, and you would gain in your reputation.’ But he said he was NOT allowed to do that, to engage in social networks.

Do you consider Ecademy a success?

Yes it is phenomenal. People say when you are on your deathbed, you would not think about your job, but I would. I get messages every day of people that they were struggling with their business, that they were going to get back to the corporate world but that by joining Ecademy, they have turned their business around. And people that message about emotional support they have received. Ecademy is a not a group of takers. They respect each other. They are givers, they understand what goes around come around.

Do you consider yourself successful?

It depends how you measure success. I feel I have made a difference while on this planet, I feel I know many people and they know me, I have a great marriage and great children with good values. As far as the business is concerned, I am proud of what I have created with Glenn and Thomas. In our niche, Ecademy is a big brand, it is a big deal.

What explains your success?

I suppose it is commitment. Someone said to me, my favorite word is contribution. I want to contribute. Whenever I meet someone I want to contribute socially and in business. I want to contribute, even if it is just with a smile. I have always been very driven by that. Ecademy has a strong intention, it wants to help business owners be more successful. It is a very understandable task when we wake up every morning.

What do you consider your biggest failure?

Keeping fit..

But in business I don’t know. It has been a tough journey. In the year 2000, we were worth 22 million pounds and then lost it in the dot com crash. I remember saying to my husband, we are not worth that, we have not contributed enough. We could have built a business on venture capital money, like facebook or linkedin, and made money quicker. But I don’t think it would have the emotion in it, my involvement, the heart, had I gone down that route. I did not want to go down that route, so it has been tougher.

How is your work/life balance?

As a mom, family values are a big part of the reason why I exist.. Family is so important to me, so I built Ecademy very much around them and try to plan around them too. I don’t believe in life-work balance, I believe in work-life integration. I think balance puts them on competing scales. Today I may go see my son’s rugby game, tonight I might get to bed later to work. The two integrate, you have to realize what you are achieving on both parts.

Who are the female entrepreneurs / companies to watch?

There is a lady, Claire Richmond. She had a great idea, called find a find a TV expert. It is a great service. I think she could be successful, I like her attitude and she has a good business model. I meet so many great ladies but the thing is, some people are happy to live they lives small, they are successful in their way..

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

It is about being extremely flexible and adaptable and having a lot of energy. And you have to love what you do. There is a danger that people think that idea is and that they think it is THE idea, it is brilliant. But the market is changing. In the economic downturn, people spend their money in different ways. So small business owners have to realize that because they do not live in a corporate world where it takes three years to change the corporate strategy. They can turn the business on the whim. And they do not have to be too proud to do other jobs to support the business.

Are you feeling the effects of the credit crunch?

We are seeing a growth, we are seeing MORE activity on the site. People realize they need to network. People who lose their jobs, they are not going to find another job, they have to create a job for themselves. A lot of people now start to talk to me and start to create those jobs.