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Vivita was founded to empower children worldwide through creativity and entrepreneurship. Inspired by startup principles, they equip children with essential skills in prototyping and problem-solving, fostering a global community of young innovators. Mari-Liis Lind, CEO and co-founder of Vivita, shares insights and perspectives from her adventurous journey.
What inspired you to create Vivita? What problem did you attempt to solve?
Vivita was born from a collective ambition to create a better world for children, requiring numerous experiments, community support, and a touch of luck. With my background in startups, venture capital, and strategic design, I aimed to make a significant impact by teaching children prototyping and startup principles. Initially, Vivita started in Japan, spearheaded by the inspirational entrepreneur Taizo Son. Introduced to Taizo by Kaidi Ruusalepp, founder of Funderbeam, our meeting sparked the idea of empowering children. This led to the creation of Vivita Global Creativity Accelerator for Children, which quickly evolved from a simple maker space into a powerhouse of empowerment for children’s ideas and innovations. We support their abilities to create, prototype, and innovate through real-world projects and inspiration.
Can you describe Vivita’s mission and vision?
Vivita embraces all kinds of creative thinkers, providing tools and technologies that allow children to choose their learning paths, processes, and projects. We believe in hands-on, curiosity-driven learning guided by friendly mentors rather than traditional teachers. Our mission is to equip children with the mindset, toolset, and skillset to innovate, involving them in real-world processes. Estonian neuroscientist Jaan Aru states, “We learn best when we communicate, make mistakes, and experience embarrassment.” We believe in this mindset, nurturing children’s problem-solving, collaboration, and innovation skills. Our approach integrates project-based, challenge-based, play-based, and self-directed learning centred on the learner. Unlike traditional education systems prioritising rote learning, Vivita’s innovation studios focus on experimentation and creator-centric learning. Our vision is to create a movement that includes children in shaping society’s future, ensuring their ideas are heard and acted upon.
What are some key success stories from Vivita’s programs?
Our programs have led to numerous successes. Children have collaborated with public and private sector clients, enhancing products and services in Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, and New Zealand. Initiatives like our Idea-to-Prototype Accelerator program, Vivita Vista, have facilitated global collaboration among children from the Philippines, Estonia, New Zealand, Japan, and Lithuania. This program helps children prototype solutions for better communities and more sustainable cities. Our Wellington, New Zealand studio saw kids successfully compete in designing and building electric vehicles at the university level. We’ve also developed elective courses on inventing and rapid prototyping in Estonia, integrating these practical learning materials into language programs to encourage interaction and communication. These successes validate our approach and establish us as innovators in creative learning.
What are some of the most innovative projects you’ve seen from Vivita?
We have seen various innovative projects involving more than 10,000 children globally. Highlights include a Filipino sibling duo creating an app to educate kids about corruption, addressing a significant community issue. A Japanese schoolgirl devised a way to turn leftover food from the school cafeteria into colourful crayons, promoting sustainability and providing affordable art supplies. In Estonia, a teenage boy addressed gender inequality by writing a rap song, using music to express his ideas. These projects showcase children’s social awareness and creativity, demonstrating that innovations can range from apps and material science experiments to raising awareness through music.
What is Vivita’s global impact and influence on various countries?
Since 2018, Vivita has expanded to 12 studios across seven countries, with pop-ups in diverse locations from tech-focused cities like Seoul to rural villages in Nepal. Our deliberate expansion into varied regions allowed us to test our hypotheses across different environments. Over five years of research and experimentation, we’ve immersed ourselves in various cultures, community systems, educational structures, and partnerships. Some initiatives thrived while others did not, but we consistently found that child-led, creativity-focused learning yields better outcomes. Starting this summer, “The Vivita Ways of Doing”—our studio design blueprint, mentoring principles, and learning management software—will be freely available under the Creative Commons license. This approach aims to create a collaborative, innovative network for children’s creative learning, allowing anyone, anywhere, to establish a creative environment based on our principles.
How do you measure the success and impact of Vivita’s initiatives on children?
Success at Vivita is seen in children’s increased independence, confidence, and collaboration. We witness daily transformations as children become more receptive to feedback and confidently present their concepts and prototypes. Success means children continuously return for more experiences and apply the skills, competencies, attitudes, and behaviours developed at Vivita in various aspects of their lives. Whether excelling in school projects, starting ventures, or engaging in community work, seeing them utilise what they’ve learned is our ultimate measure of success. Additionally, the growing interest from organisations seeking children’s input reflects Vivita’s impact. This Chinese proverb resonates with our ethos: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now,” illustrating that while results may not be immediately visible, their impact will eventually manifest.
What recent technological innovations did Vivita develop to support children’s creativity?
Vivita has developed various tools, from electronic prototyping kits and apps for laser cutter interfaces to a digital platform where young creators can share their work. However, the focus has shifted to nurturing skills like adaptability, collaboration, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving. This includes collaborating directly with organisations to solve real-life challenges, providing children with mentorship from professionals across various fields, and advocating for integrating rapid prototyping and design thinking skills into formal education. These interventions and experiences are crucial for developing the mindset and skillset needed to innovate in today’s rapidly advancing technological scene.
How do you support an entrepreneurial mindset in children through Vivita’s programs?
We support an entrepreneurial mindset by encouraging children to take ownership of their learning journeys. We offer a safe space where failures are reframed as learning opportunities, promoting a culture of play and curiosity that builds problem-solving skills and emotional resilience. Collaboration with local startup communities and professional mentorship helps children view challenges as opportunities for innovation. Successful entrepreneurs, engineers, material scientists, and designers share their knowledge and mentor children, inspiring them with fresh perspectives. The ability to see the world through the lens of “how might I solve this challenge” is at the core of an entrepreneurial mindset.
What advice would you give other educators or innovators looking to start similar initiatives?
Vivita advocates for community impact through relentless experimentation, collaboration, and the wide sharing of learning. It’s crucial to involve children from the beginning in designing innovations. Go out, experiment, get feedback, and adjust plans accordingly. Radical openness and community collaboration are crucial to success. Many excellent concepts fade due to a lack of cooperation. Designing and building with children, rather than for them, is essential. For like-minded newcomers, joining the Vivita community and leveraging our network, tools, and experiences can drive more significant impact and innovation.
What are your long-term goals for Vivita, and what do you hope to achieve in the next 5-10 years?
The plan is to include children in innovation and decision-making processes universally. Over the next 5-10 years, we hope our principles and practices become universal in education, fostering creative learning environments where collaboration, peer-to-peer learning, and real-world problem-solving are central. We envision hundreds of organisations operating under Vivita’s framework worldwide, amplifying our impact and ensuring more children become innovators and change-makers. In five years, we will have a decade of operation, with children who started at eight years old entering adulthood with a remarkable portfolio of entrepreneurial experiences, ready to continue building and innovating.
