• Who: Mike Thompson
• Website: learnermobile.com

Tell us about yourself and the business you started …

Learner Mobile is a next generation learning management system (LMS) and course authoring software. Learner Mobile is owned by SVI – a talent development company that supports clients around the world, including companies like Walmart, American Airlines, Rutgers University, Dillard’s, Mary Kay, Deloitte, Western Digital, and many other small, mid, and large-sized organizations. Our company was started 20 years ago with the charge to make training available to everyone by lowering training costs, bringing scalable training solutions to field-based workers, and making it easy and engaging for workers to drive high adoption and compliance.      .

Who is the market for your business?

Learner Mobile supports all sizes of organizations across many industries who have field-based workforces. We appeal to modern workers who prefer to receive their training on-demand, just-in-time and in a bite-sized format that accompanies them in their work every day. Because Learner Mobile is both an LMS and authoring software, our clients can build award-winning training curriculum and deploy it fast without having to incur the expense of a separate authoring software.

What problem does your solution solve?

Learner Mobile meets the needs and expectations of today’s workers by delivering a learner-centric experience featuring on-demand access to timely microlearnings that accompany the employee in the flow of their work. Training through Learner Mobile is affordable, scalable, and accessible anywhere at any time, and it drives higher productivity and better performance with its ability to deploy the right information to the right person at the perfect time, so workers succeed. With Learner Mobile’s best-in-class free authoring software built right in, LMS administrators can now easily build new and fresh content quickly, keeping a workforce engaged and up to date.

Why is it better than other solutions?

Learner Mobile is uniquely suited for today’s workforce that prefers to consume learning on-the-go and that fits their learning style. It delivers engaging, effective, and tailored training at the exact moment of need. It’s also optimized for consumption on any device, is configurable to accommodate multiple segments of users, is recognized as a leader in artificial intelligence (AI), features robust analytics, supports badging and certifications, and offers an award-winning user experience.

Learner Mobile is quick to implement and allows for easy delivery of training to employees. Learner Mobile focuses heavily on reducing “time to value” for administrators. With our AI powered authoring software, the platform can be set up and training delivered to employees in a matter of minutes – not days or weeks.

Learner Mobile is a low-cost leader in the LMS and authoring space. Not only are we good and fast – but we’re also inexpensive.

What are the biggest benefits for your customers?

Learner Mobile and its business model helps our clients get the right information to the right audience fast, so they are equipped and enabled to perform. With Learner Mobile, the speed-to-job readiness is improved by up to 40% – driving significant cost savings and higher employee engagement and enablement. Learner Mobile is a significant competitive advantage for our clients because the platform allows for more timely deployment of valuable content that helps employees win the day.

Where did the idea for the business come from?

For many years, SVI and its instructional designers have worked with lots of field-based organizations that relied on training delivered live in the classroom. This “destination” approach to training was very expensive due to travel requirements and costs and time away from customers. Learner Mobile helps our clients transition from expensive destination-based training to mobile-based training that serves field-based employees in the flow of their work. Because Learner Mobile is accessible on any device, employees consume training quickly while they’re on the floor, over a break, or while taking care of a customer. After finding lots of success in retail environments, we expanded to healthcare, hospitality, energy, education, and other industries that needed to get training to employees, rather than bringing employees to the training.

Do you have a lead magnet?

Yes – Learner Mobile is a try-before-you-buy model. It begins with a 30-day free trial and comes with free onboarding for training administrators. There are no limits during the free-trial – all features are included with artificial intelligence (AI) support. The Learner Mobile team will even help course creators build their first 5 courses for free.

Signing up for the free trial is very easy. In a few clicks, a user can put their name, email address, and company in an on-line form and create an account.

What’s the traffic strategy that works best for you?

We rely on Google and Bing adwords, email campaigns from our sales / marketing lists, Gartner online endorsements and search, national PR, free-trials, and word of mouth.

What tools do you use to run your business?

From a sales and marketing perspective, we use digital marketing tools such as Google, Bing, MailChimp, and Gartner. These drive in-bound qualified leads that encourage a free trial account creation.

We use Pipedrive as our CRM and we manage our website in-house through WordPress and Elementor to deliver fresh content that’s uploaded weekly to www.LearnerMobile.com.

Learner Mobile is built on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud which hosts all administrator, learner, media and API services. We are a Microsoft partner, helping Learner Mobile achieve the highest security and hosting standards while providing the highest industry active up-times.

What books or training programs have you found useful on your journey to a successful business owner that others might find valuable too?

We mostly rely on industry case studies, but also look outside of our industry for inspiration – e.g., the entertainment and tech industries. Our team values thought leaders behind these books:

• The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
• Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
• Scaling Up by Verne Harnish

Additionally, our team subscribes to Lenny Rachitsky’ podcast (called Lenny’s Podcast) on YouTube that speaks to software sales best practices.

Finally, we attend many industry conferences to network with field-based companies and to understand their needs, goals, and challenges.

Are there any numbers you would like to share?

Learner Mobile has no outside funding and has been profitable for years including profits maintained through the COVID years. We have achieved 30% growth year-over-year due to a 97% client retention rate, and a strong focus on marketing to drive lead generation. Learner Mobile operates across 20 countries and is accessed in almost 20 different languages. Over 20,000,000 learning activities have been completed since Learner Mobile began in 2014.

Do you have a story of a transformation from any of your clients?

Thankfully, we’ve had many success stories through Learner Mobile. As mentioned earlier, Learner Mobile has improved the speed-to-job readiness by 40% in manufacturing, healthcare, sales, and hospitality industries. Also, by providing timely product knowledge that is easily accessible at the moment of need, Learner Mobile has had a direct impact on significant increases in retail sales, including strong sales growth with the leading luxury retailer. Learner Mobile achieves 3 times higher adoption and engagement compared to traditional LMSs due to its on-demand access on any device and its easy-to-use and award-winning user experience. Finally, Learner Mobile helps create learning communities that share important information real-time, helping improve company culture, retention, and performance.

What advice do you have for people just starting out in business?

Understand your “WHY” and cherish it. There will be ups and downs through growth. Understanding your “WHY” helps you persevere through the tough times and gives you energy in the good times.

Have true empathy for your clients, listening to them more and helping them solve real problems.

Realize that there is no short-cut or magic effort that is going to make the journey easy. It’s a hard, competitive, and complex effort to build your company – and it takes time. Be careful not to fall for the many “get-rich-quick” promises that can take you off course.

Learn more about Mike Thompson of learnermobile.com:

• Website: learnermobile.com
• LinkedIn: @Learner Mobile
• Instagram: @Learner Mobile
• Facebook: @Learner Mobile
• X: @Learner Mobile