This article is part of a series on Women in Tech. Read the series here.
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“Financial skills are a key component of the skills needed for the Future of Work and they impact personal lives significantly,” Meaghan Daly says of what led her to found Forward Vision Games, an educational technology company that aims to teach financial skills through simulation games.
Meaghan conceptualized the company while working on Bay Street as a trader during the 2008 financial crisis. She had a front row seat to how businesses, governments and people managed financial risk. After some investigation she found that most of the financial literacy coming out of the sector was outdated and didn’t teach tangible skills.
“When Forward Vision Games looks at how we can help participants, we always start with the key foundational financial skills particular to their phase of life or life pathway,” Meaghan says. “We then build a program up from there. We look at what skillsthose participants should build and then chart the shortest pathway to skill acquisition for them through an experiential learning process.”
The programs are very much like flight simulators; they get participants to make financial decisions for themselves and they then see the consequences of their choices play out over a long-time horizon.
The goal is to help each individual build financial skills that will help them maintain their own economic agency while also seeing opportunities to improve their financial situation when they come up. Importantly, economic reconciliation is also a top priority.
“In development, we always consider how our program content leaves space for an Indigenous worldview of money and the economy,” Meaghan notes. “We also look to create the technology features and pathways that can remove barriers to access for Indigenous learners.”
Her next big goal for Forward Vision Games is to expand the company’s offering to new consumers and to reach a wider audience. That’s one of the reasons she connected with ventureLAB and applied to be part of the organization's latest Tech Undivided cohort.
“When I investigated the opportunity I was very impressed by the calibre of mentors and advisors as well as the program content… My passion for the program has grown since meeting the terrific advisors and the other founders.”
She adds advocates can affect every part of a company, from talent to sales, so it’s important for entrepreneurs to network and make new connections like those offered by ventureLAB whenever possible.
“Show up on time, share your story and try to be as helpful as you can to others. Don’t over think it. You can’t predict future trajectories of everything and everyone, so don't worry about it.”
About Tech Undivided
ventureLAB’s Tech Undivided offers a comprehensive 6-month program to enable women-led tech companies to scale their businesses. The program creates a support ecosystem of resources and networking opportunities for women founders focused on key pillars of raising capital, commercializing technology and IP, attracting talent, and acquiring customers. Applications for Tech Undivided are open now! Apply today to access mentorship, peer-to-peer support, strategically aligned partners, and opportunities to pitch.
About ventureLAB
ventureLAB is a leading global founder community for hardware technology and enterprise software companies in Canada. Located at the heart of Ontario’s innovation corridor in York Region, ventureLAB is part of one of the biggest and most diverse tech communities in Canada. Our initiatives focused on raising capital, talent retention, commercializing technology and IP, and customer acquisition have enabled thousands of companies to create over 4,500 jobs and raise more than $200 million in investment capital. At ventureLAB, we grow globally competitive tech titans that build-to-scale in Canada, for global markets.
