Lydia Hall is Venture Lead and Co-Founder of Aqua by Adobe. A serial founder and growth strategist, Lydia has held executive roles across four venture-backed startups. She founded her first company, an edtech platform, while attending Penn Law and Wharton; and later served as COO at Chalkup, a content collaboration platform acquired by Microsoft. Lydia participated in Y Combinator Imagine K12, and was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for contributions to education.
Tell us about your company and the problem it solves, or its benefit to learners or educators.
Aqua by Adobe is a creative playground that introduces kids and families to digital drawing, graphic design, and 3D.
The app offers thousands of coloring pages and creative worksheets, along with tutorials from professional children’s book illustrators. And because Aqua is completely free, every child has the opportunity to explore their creativity.
The problem we’re solving is that professional creative tools can be too complicated for young artists. We wanted to create a first step into the world of digital creativity, something a five-year-old can pick up and immediately understand, while growing with them as their skills develop.
For educators, Aqua is a mess-free way to bring more art and creativity into the classroom. It complements what teachers are already doing, giving kids another medium to experiment with and helping them develop digital design skills alongside traditional art skills.
At its heart, Aqua is about giving every kid the opportunity to grow as an artist and celebrate what they create by building their very own museum.
Where did the idea come from to create your company?
The idea for Aqua came up over lunch with my co-founder, Peppe Ragusa. We got talking about how much time our kids spend on screens and lamented that there had to be something better than passive entertainment.
We wanted something we could feel good about handing them on a road trip. Something that would keep them engaged while helping them build new skills and create something of their own. We also had stacks of artwork piling up at home and wanted a place where our kids could showcase what they made.
That became the idea for Aqua: an art studio kids can take anywhere, where they can build creative skills and have a place to celebrate everything they create.
Tell us about one challenge and how you overcame that challenge.
One of our biggest challenges was balancing fun with learning. If an experience feels too instructional, kids lose interest. On the flipside, games can pull kids away from skill-building activities.
We realized we had to make every Aqua experience delightful and rewarding, so we started collaborating with kids on every art activity. We learned that the best ideas often come directly from the kids using the product.
What are you most proud of or what is your company’s greatest achievement?
I’m incredibly proud that Aqua reached one million users in under a year, well ahead of our original target. Seeing Aqua spread so quickly through word of mouth has been incredibly rewarding. It shows that teachers and families are excited to share it.
And we’ve done that while maintaining a near-perfect App Store rating. For me, that combination of scale and genuine love from our users is the real achievement.
Where do you see your company in five years?
Today, we’re focused on drawing and 3D design. Over the next five years, we want Aqua by Adobe to grow with our users and follow their curiosity, expanding into book creation, animation, photography, and whatever they dream up next.
We’re building Aqua for our own children, and we want to keep building it with them. The kids will tell us what they want to create next, and they’ll help shape where Aqua goes from here. I can’t wait to see where they take us.