Men of Manners wants to give young men a life education through gamified learning

Founder Louise Edmonds says there was no lightbulb moment for her startup Men of Manners but “many sliding doors” that led her to the idea. 

Men of Manners is a gamified subscription-based academy for male teens to properly know ‘the rules of engagement’ across social graces, confidence, purpose, deportment and behaviour. According to the startup, it is a pioneering online youth mentorship academy dedicated to fostering respect, civility, and positive masculinity for the 1.9 million high school-age Australian boys. 

Men of Manners aims to bring a compassionate approach to helping young men navigate a digital and physical world.

The startup was one of five brave businesses that pitched live to an expert guest judging panel and a room full of peers and potential funders at SmartCompany’s the Pitch in Sydney last week. The early-stage startup competition saw algae biotech startup Pikkl walk away with the top prize.

Past experience builds the foundation for Men of Manners 

The inspirations, or as Edmonds calls them, “sliding doors” that led to Men of Manners came from a variety of sources, the founder tells SmartCompany. 

“These included my own healing journey as a survivor, my men’s lifestyle journalism career, seeing the pain within society with male suicide and gender violence, and watching the #metoo movement explode.”

Edmonds has been one of the handful of women publishers of men’s lifestyle content, contributing to several national and international mastheads for the past 15 years.

Expanding on her journey, Edmonds says: “I’m a twin to a brother, and understood through experience the different ways society sees teen boys and girls. His path was not exempt from violence and neither was mine. However, I saw how he dealt with it in silence, where I sought counselling, help, justice and so forth”.

“None of the crimes against me ever brought on real repercussions to the perpetrator, which made me truly look at the ‘why’ around these incidents and if they could have been prevented,” she explains. 

Edmonds says this led her to develop a prototype of Men of Manners several years ago and “test the idea with a large number of men who I had interviewed for my men’s lifestyle platform”. 

She then tested the concept further via focus groups with teachers, society, parents and students. 

“It made sense to create an academy that placed ‘worth and value’ on young men to help them identify social and emotional cues, and educate them on purpose, identity and respect for themselves and others,” she explains. 

“The most important element however, is being taught by a ‘lived experience mentor’, because boys cannot be what they cannot see. And so the mentor must be very well versed in their topic, or the boys won’t believe them.”

Challenges and the path ahead for Men of Manners

As Edmonds looks to build the startup, she sees Men of Manners having a “dramatic impact on young men”, including an increase in emotional resilience, self-awareness and improved mental health, while simultaneously seeing a decrease in aggression, violence and substance abuse. 

But building a startup comes with its set of unique challenges. 

“As we’re a social enterprise, a for-profit business, we miss out on a lot of grants. And I won’t lie, being a woman in this space has its own set of challenges and prejudice even though I have identified deep causes from a survivor’s perspective that can answer some of the ongoing questions about the origin of men’s violence,” Edmonds says.

“These challenges however, only fuel me with more passion to find the most successful preventative techniques, to release young male teens into their strengths and purpose. Going to the next level also requires the right relationships with people, who understand the mission.” 

The Pitch a great starting point for startups

Speaking about her experience at SmartCompany’s the Pitch, Edmonds says she “particularly loved the other contestants with their marvellous social enterprises”. 

“For me also, it showed how other products in the market had gained traction, which isn’t a one-size-fits-all all. You can power forward via all sorts of disciplines; creative, mathematical, AI or data-driven.”

Edmonds says she also “appreciated their [judges’] questions, which were all about the impact of the social enterprise and that we would be looking after some of the most disadvantaged male teens”. 

“It allowed me to speak more about the product design of Men of Manners and showcase other ongoing brand engagements we’ve lined up, including our television series,” she adds. 

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