Going for Growth: TestReach founder Louella Morton is passionate about empowering other woman to excel in business.
Award-winning business development scheme for women entrepreneurs Going for Growth is accepting applications for the 16th year of the programme.
The programme, which is supported by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, helps ambitious female entrepreneurs to achieve their growth ambitions – helping to build stronger companies, create new jobs and increase revenues.
“Getting different perspectives on issues and effectively using the group as an informal advisory board was really helpful in the development of our strategy and steering a clear path for growth at TestReach”
The 15th cycle of Going for Growth reported significant results for its 69 participants. Combined turnover increased from €80.6m at the start of the cycle to almost €92.3m by the end, almost a 15% increase in just six months.
The deadline for applications for the 16th cycle of Going for Growth is Friday 17 November 2023.
Up to 60 places will be available and applications are sought from female entrepreneurs across all sectors who are strongly focused on growth. There is no charge for those selected and the six-month initiative will begin in January 2024. To learn more, click here
TestReach
Louella Morton’s journey into the tech world officially began when she did a degree in computer science at Trinity College and after graduating, her first role was as a software developer in a large financial institution.
As her career progressed in organisations such as Deloitte and Adobe, she quickly ascended the ranks and made her mark in the tech industry.
Although passionate about technology, Louella’s interest in customers and strong organisational skills opened up opportunities in other areas. She soon moved into the business side, first into services and programme management, and then transitioning into business development, where she held a number of senior commercial roles within the educational technology sector.
With strong communication skills and a healthy competitive streak, Louella found her calling in the enterprise software sales world – managing global account teams and exceeding targets.
With an outstanding ability to drive revenue growth, Louella built a very successful career in software sales, however she always had a strong desire to apply her exceptional skills to create something of her own. Fuelled by a passion for technology and a desire to create something meaningful, she took a leap of faith, and in 2014, with a bold vision to completely disrupt the way that exams are run, she co-founded TestReach with her business partner and Co-CEO Sheena Bailey.
TestReach is an end-to-end software and services solution to manage assessments. It not only covers authoring, delivery, marking, moderation and results issuing, but also includes integral remote invigilation (proctoring), where for any exam TestReach supervisors remotely monitor each candidate taking the exam via video, audio and remote screen share. This means that candidates can take their exam using a desktop or a laptop at a location of their choice, and do not need to travel to a test centre, which provides a huge degree of flexibility.
Taking a bootstrapped approach without institutional investment, Louella and Sheena have transformed TestReach from an initial idea, into a major global player in the online assessment industry. Currently running over 4m exams per year, with candidates in more than 150 countries and 200+ staff, TestReach has grown rapidly, with plans to continue this expansion at pace. Louella is clear that taking part in Going for Growth played a key role in TestReach’s success.
“Getting different perspectives on issues and effectively using the group as an informal advisory board was really helpful in the development of our strategy and steering a clear path for growth at TestReach”, she says.
And the impact was also personal – “I have benefited greatly from Going for Growth and from continuing within the Going for Growth community. It gave me a wonderful opportunity to network and establish solid business relationships that I know will support me as we continue to grow the business”.
Louella is a vocal advocate for female entrepreneurs and is keen to support initiatives aimed at empowering women to start their own businesses, particularly in the tech sector. She was runner up in the Advocate for Women in Technology Award – Deloitte / Indeed, 2022. In addition, TestReach was included in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards, as the 15th fastest growing technology company in Ireland in 2022, and Louella and Sheena have been named as EY Entrepreneur of the Year Finalists, 2023.
The deadline for applications for the 16th cycle of Going for Growth is Friday 17 November 2023. To learn more, click here
