Alumni – Joe Davis

Above: Michelle Dickinson aka Nanogirl in action. Right: Joe Davis

KRISTIN ALUMNI – CO-FOUNDER OF NANOGIRL LABS

Joe Davis

Joe Davis (Class of 1998) is an innovator, change-maker and inspiring human! Co-founder of Nanogirl Labs with wife Michelle Dickinson, Joe and his team are changing the way STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education is delivered, making it accessible and inspiring for a broad spectrum of audiences globally. Joe has also recently published his first book, 'Silver Linings', sharing inspirational stories of courage and growth that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tell us about what you’re currently doing.

At the moment I’m leading a social enterprise called Nanogirl Labs. My now wife and I co-founded the business in 2016, and it’s been an awesome journey so far… We’re on a mission to ‘ignite the change-maker’ – to make STEM learning, and all the opportunities that flow from that, available to everyone.

Is there such a thing as a typical workday for you? What does it look like? What are the parts of your job that you enjoy most?

As a CEO in a mission-driven start-up, every day brings something new. We’re a significantly larger organisation than we were pre-pandemic, and that’s changed the nature of my role day to day a fair bit in the last few years. I’m still firmly connected to our business development and growth efforts; I’m less directly involved in our operational delivery now… our team really lead that work now. That’s great for the business – though I have to admit I miss being ‘on the tools’ sometimes (every now and then I get to write some code still, and I get a kick out of that!)

A lot of my time and focus is spent in service of our team: understanding and clearly articulating what’s important, making sure they have the support they need to bring their magic to our work together, and ensuring that we’re honouring our promises and continually living up to our values. It’s a real privilege to lead – we have such an amazing team of smart, talented, driven and thoroughly decent people. It’s the most challenging and rewarding part of my role for sure.

How has the landscape for your work changed in the last two years? How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the way you live and work?

short, the pandemic was transformative for us at Nanogirl Labs. Pre-pandemic, we’d just opened our offices in California, and registered our US company. We were running a strategy that used live events – explosive, funny science theatre – to introduce our ‘Nanogirl’ brand to families. All that evaporated in half a day as pandemic restrictions came into force around the globe.

We made a major shift in focus to online learning, and engaged more than 340,000 young people in 57 countries as a result, and were able to do that in a way that helped us fund work with families and communities that would otherwise have been left behind. It was a profoundly challenging time – exhilarating, exhausting – but ultimately a real positive for the business… the lessons we were able to learn were incredibly valuable.

Tell us a little about your career pathway to becoming Founder and CEO of Nanogirl Labs. When you left school, was this the path you expected to be on?

When I left in ’98 I was planning to read law… I thought I’d be a barrister. I’d always had the entrepreneurial bug, though – inherited from my dad, I reckon – and ultimately that won the day.

When I was at school I had a computer sales and web development business. From 5th Form (Year 11) on, I’d change my tie and jacket after school and walk into the Albany commercial district and go door to door, selling my work to the companies there.

Two weeks after my last exam my phone rang – a company I’d visited had a major web application project they needed help with. That led to another job by recommendation, that to another, and before I knew it, I had a consultancy practice building around tech and web development (as it was in the late ’90s).