STARTUP STORY
EMPOWERING DYSLEXIC WRITERS
Paul Mallinson, Founder of Capiche, a startup developing writing assistance technology specifically designed for people with dyslexia. Paul shares his journey from tech leadership roles to founding his own purpose-driven enterprise.
Capiche was born out of necessity when Paul couldn't find adequate writing assistance technology for his dyslexic son. The existing tools - grammar checkers and spell checkers - weren't good enough. Drawing on his career in technology and in collaboration with his linguist father, Paul started prototyping a solution.
"Last year, I stepped away from full-time employment to devote myself 100% to this project for 12 months, to either make it succeed or fail," Paul explains. The initial target users are intermediate to high school New Zealand students who produce English for their schoolwork, with their parents as the primary customers. The core problem Capiche addresses is that current writing tools are underserving the dyslexic community."
From supporting actor to leading role: How different is founding your own startup?
"This is my first time founding a business," Paul explains. "I've always wanted to found a business but never felt there was an opportunity worth pursuing until this combination of need and skill emerged." Prior to Capiche, Paul worked in several startups and SMEs in technology leadership roles, including engineering manager and CTO positions.
Why did you decide to bootstrap?
One of the key lessons Paul has applied to Capiche is his approach to funding. "It's very tempting when you found a business to pursue funding as your objective," he notes. "But when you're massively under-resourced, when you're very early, when you're pre-product with no market validation, I see that as being a very easy way to consume all of your resources."
Instead, Paul is deliberately bootstrapping, doing as much as possible with minimal resources. He emphasises, "Funding is useful if you've got an objective, but it's also a liability. I just don't have the time or capacity to pursue funding and make progress validating the market simultaneously."
How do you stay focused when failure is just one 90-day sprint away?
Paul has structured his approach in 90-day blocks, with clear objectives for each period. "At the end of each block, I stop and think, 'Continue or return to paid employment,'" he explains. "At the moment, it has been continue to continue, and the primary reason for that is that the problem I'm trying to solve isn't yet solved."
The current goal is to develop an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that can be tested in schools. As Paul puts it, "I want this to become something that sort of terrifies me by the start of next year because there's possibility. And I'm not sure how I'm going to hold on - that's what I want to get to."
"I've always wanted to found a business but never felt there was an opportunity worth pursuing until this combination of need and skill emerged."
How has Startup Aotearoa helped shape your strategy?
"There are so many valuable, informal conversations that happen across New Zealand's startup ecosystem, and they really contribute to shaping your approach. I tend to be very open about what I’m doing, so I’ve spoken with lots of people, like Keren Phillips from Startup Aotearoa. For me, it wasn’t just about organising my thoughts, but about sanity-checking my approach and making sure I was thinking through the right things in the right order.
"I’d already sketched out a general strategy in my head, but these conversations helped me refine it. The initial plan for Capiche is to go direct-to-consumer. Dealing with the Ministry of Education at this stage would be too time-consuming, so I’m focusing on a more straightforward approach. Observing the startup lifecycle—from initial ideas, through funding and product development, to various conclusions—has given me a sense of the most practical way forward. That’s been reinforced by the insights and shared experiences of the coaches and mentors who have seen this journey before."
Keren Phillips - Startup Aotearoa Coach
What other startup ecosystem support have you tapped into?
"I was fortunate to be enrolled in a program called Get Market Ready, which was run by Flavio Hangarter at GridAKL. It was fantastic and incredibly helpful. The structure and guidance provided through the program made a significant difference, especially when I was refining my strategy for Capiche. Having the opportunity to work with knowledgeable coaches gave me a lot of clarity about the steps I needed to take. It was one of those experiences where you feel the value of a well-designed program that focuses on practical, market-driven advice."
"The ecosystem support extends beyond just mentorship. We've been successful in securing grant funding from Callaghan Innovation - we've completed an R&D Experience Grant and currently have an active R&D Career Grant. This financial support has been crucial in enabling us to push forward with our technological development."
"We also have established a successful relationship with the University of Auckland. We're working with two groups of students, providing them with real-world project scope and product ownership experience. In return, they're prototyping technology and practicing agile software development skills. It's been a tremendously successful relationship - they get practical experience, and we benefit from fresh perspectives and technical expertise."
Could solving dyslexia be a billion-dollar opportunity?
Dyslexia affects about 10% of the population, and it's a lifelong condition. Paul outlines the market potential: "I reckon that Capiche can probably help 20% of people with dyslexia - that's a fairly conservative estimate - and I reckon we can probably capture five percent of those, again fairly conservative."
Beyond individual users, Paul sees potential for broader impact: "As you put a tool like this into an education system, you now have a system capturing information about how students are processing language. We can use this to drive targeted educational interventions and potentially do early screening for dyslexia."
He adds, "If you look at the dyslexia Facebook groups in New Zealand, there are thousands of parents out there looking for solutions."
"Financial support from Callaghan Innovation has been crucial in enabling us to push forward with our technological development."
When you're 50/50 on success, how do you define failure?
Paul takes a balanced view of his venture's chances: "Capiche as a business I think at the moment has 50/50 chance of success, and I think that's pretty good." He attributes this optimism to the clarity of the problem: "The people with the problem know that they have the problem and they are looking for solutions."
On potential failure, Paul remains pragmatic: "One of the biggest puzzles is I can't work out what failure looks like... If I get to a point where I can take it no further, I'll take all the source code and open source it and move on."
Could Capiche become the next must-have feature for Apple, Google, or Microsoft?
Paul envisions Capiche becoming ubiquitous: "The final horizon is this is so ubiquitous we don't notice it." He sees potential for the technology to be integrated into major platforms: "The fantasy endpoint for this is that you build strong enough brand and market engagement that actually one of the large players decides that Capiche is a valuable differentiating feature when they are competing to sell their technology platform into large/regional educational systems.