Founder and CEO of BOOKR Kids Dorka Horvath leads an award-winning reading app for children.
With BOOKR Kids, Dorka Horvath “provides a combination of beloved children’s stories and interactive tools that support literacy development and give families a smart array of digital books in one comprehensive offering.”
Dorka Horvath is inspired by her true passion, which is publishing. At the same time, she also engages in “women entrepreneurship by encouraging young girls and women to make a difference.”
Thanks to her work with BOOKR Kids, Dorka Horvath has received the Founder of the Year prize at the Central European Innovation Awards. She was also nominated for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
According to Dorka Horvath, BOOKR Kids stands out because they combine “multimedia elements with print stories” to create “a new type of reading experience.”
Dorka Horvath believes that “books on a tablet and other interactive content” complement, but don’t replace, traditional paper books.
As Dorka Horvath says, “The point is for them to immerse themselves in a story and enjoy the world of books.”
Anyone who loves to read is “platform indifferent,” Dorka Horvath adds. “They do not choose between paper and screens; all they care about is reading, reading and more reading.”
As a result, Dorka Horvath and BOOKR Kids have embarked on an “outstanding” mission.
Check out more interviews with e-learning visionaries here.
I think our mission is outstanding. Dorka Horvath, BOOKR Kids
Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Dorka Horvath: We combined multimedia elements with print stories and created a new type of reading experience.
I believe that books on a tablet and other interactive content are complimentary, but aren’t substitutes for traditional paper-based books!
The point is for them to immerse themselves in a story and enjoy the world of books.
A person who loves to read is “platform indifferent”; they do not choose between paper and screens; all they care about is reading, reading and more reading.
I think our mission is outstanding.
In my PhD research I examine interactive books’ role as a new hybrid medium in education.
I am in such a lucky position to put my theoretical work into practice as we are continually developing and shaping the BOOKR methodology based on the latest research.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them thrive and not “burn out”?
Dorka Horvath: We need to train ourselves and learn continually. Learning always gives new ideas and motivation that protects you from burnout.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
Dorka Horvath: My mentor, Peter Balogh, founder of the most successful startup NNG told me once a good analogy about knowledge.
If you have two kegs of beer and share it with a friend, you’ll have less beer to drink. But knowledge works the opposite way.
Somehow, the more people you share it with, the more you have left for yourself. When you explain it, you get to understand it better.
When it gets challenged, your understanding gets more deep. When you apply it specifically to a topic, it helps you understand it more widely.
Some people are afraid that if they share their knowledge, they will be poorer without it. Less valuable to the world.
I think the opposite is true. You gain more knowledge, new viewpoints, and also more credibility and respect from others: friends, collaborators, fellow sharers, followers.
You become part of a network which helps in so many ways in your future success.
I am grateful for anyone who has shared his or her knowledge along the way.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The title of this series is “How to take your company from good to great”. Let’s start with defining our terms. How would you define a “good” company, what does that look like? How would you define a “great” company, what does that look like?
Dorka Horvath: I think a good company is one that operates sustainably, offers a competitive product or service, provides a stable job for its employees.
And a great company has a real impact on people’s lives and can change the world for the better. Trying to find real solutions to real problems.
There are many ways businesses can do this from a bakery to a marketing agency.
I think a good company is one that operates sustainably, offers a competitive product or service, provides a stable job for its employees.
Jerome Knyszewski: What would you advise to a business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill. From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth and “restart their engines”?
Dorka Horvath: We need to adapt to changed circumstances. We need to be able to change and not be afraid of it.
There are moments when you need to stop and re-plan. This is not a problem. It is part of the evolution of a business.
Being an entrepreneur is an addiction — addicted to the excitement of constant change, responsibility and continuous strength test. You are a sprinter, but you run a marathon at the same time.
Jerome Knyszewski: Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?
Dorka Horvath: During the first wave of the pandemic, we decided to make all our educational products free; we also realised that the company was going to lose significant revenue in the coming period.
But we could not have decided otherwise… this is the right way to go at this difficult time.
You can imagine, it caused me many sleepless nights.
It was a pleasant surprise that our partners helped us after the announcement immediately: we don’t have to pay for office space and for accounting services during this time — a massive gesture from our service providers.
However, we did not expect that one of the largest multinational companies, Samsung, would sponsor our apps and ensure that the free period will not affect the company’s stability very much in terms of CF.
I haven’t seen a more important gesture from a big player to a startup.
One month later, The Educational Authority of Hungary has named BOOKR Class, our English as a Second Language teaching aid an official textbook.
It means that our app is currently the first and only official cloud-based teaching material on the Hungarian list of approved textbooks.
In September we gained 25k new paying customers.
If you can stand up to the most challenging times, the market will pay the bill in the end.
Conversations build the company, not excel spreadsheets. Dorka Horvath
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated?
Dorka Horvath: Conversations. I think a leader’s life is about conversations, with colleagues, partners, investors, users.
Conversations build the company, not excel spreadsheets.
Jerome Knyszewski: Great customer service and great customer experience are essential to building a beloved brand and essential to be successful in general. In your experience, what are a few of the most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience?
Dorka Horvath: You THINK that you know what your clients think and then… You meet them.
Finding out what your clients think is the only way to give them the best service.
72% of customers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people.
53% of unhappy customers will share their disappointments with more than 20.
People tend to get locked into the product development process and visualize their own ideas and thoughts as others’ needs, which is the worst in the business aspect. I also did it.
However, by avoiding listening to your customers, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities. Whether this is about fixing these customers’ issues or retaining them.
These are also valuable opportunities to learn and make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.
I have now realized that it is much cheaper to keep an existing customer than to get a new one. In fact, it can be five times more expensive to attract a new one.
These days we have 7am-24pm customer service support because of the huge traffic and in order to learn and help as much as we can.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Dorka Horvath: The biggest mistake is if the CEO is not mission-driven and sees the business as a “simple job”.
If you love what you do from the bottom of your heart, you can do everything for it. This could be a superpower.
And it is essential not to be afraid of failure. Failure is the key to success.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
