Episode overview

Darren Winterford joined Steve Grace on Give It A Nudge for a 60-minute conversation about the journey from digital agency founder to edtech CEO. The conversation covers how building mobile solutions for enterprise clients revealed the gap in corporate learning, why Darren chose to make EdApp free when every competitor charged per seat, the challenge of building a freemium SaaS business before freemium was understood in Australia, scaling a global user base, and the founder traits that Darren believes are non-negotiable for anyone building a technology product.

From digital agency to edtech

Darren spent years running a digital agency that built custom mobile applications for enterprise clients. One recurring project type was mobile learning: companies wanted to train large, distributed, or frontline workforces and the existing LMS platforms were desktop-first, unintuitive, and not designed for how people actually use phones. He built enough of these solutions on behalf of clients to understand the product requirements deeply, then made the decision to build the product once rather than many times as agency work. EdApp was the result.

The freemium decision

Most corporate LMS platforms charge per seat, per user, or per course. Darren made EdApp free from the beginning and the model has been central to the platform’s growth. Free removes the friction from the buying decision, gets the product in front of the person who actually uses it rather than just the procurement team, and creates a word-of-mouth dynamic that paid tools rarely generate. Monetisation comes through premium features, content services, and enterprise add-ons rather than the core platform access.

Building a global user base

EdApp’s free model and mobile-first design gave it natural viral distribution in markets where enterprise software rarely reaches: hospitality, construction, retail, healthcare, and logistics in countries where desktop computers are not part of the daily work environment. Darren describes the platform accumulating users in markets he had not deliberately targeted, and the challenge of building enterprise sales motion on top of a product-led growth foundation.

What the modern workforce needs from learning

Darren is direct about what corporate learning has historically gotten wrong. Long desktop-based modules designed for compliance sign-off rather than actual learning, deployed once a year, are not how adults retain information. EdApp’s microlearning approach, gamification elements, and mobile delivery are designed around how people actually learn: in short bursts, repeatedly, with immediate feedback, and in the context of the work they are doing.