The $120M bet on people-powered language learning with Open English — Small Empires S. 2 Ep. 2
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Open English, a language-learning startup, uses human teachers instead of machines. Can it compete in today’s automated world?
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Open English is a Miami based startup looking to reinvent the market for learning a language. Customers sign up from anywhere in the world and through the magic of the web, begin working one on one with a teacher. This can be a video session, or in the low-bandwidth areas the Open English reaches, simply a audio call.
The teacher walks the student through grammar, vocabulary, and most importantly, real live conversation. It’s an alternative to the brick and mortar schools that require the extra work of getting to each lesson. Removing that overhead allows Open English to offer competitive pricing to a physical class, but for a one-on-one session.
The company has raised $120 million and scaled to more than twenty countries across the Americas. But it faces stiff competition from services like Rosetta Stone and DuoLingo, which don’t have the overhead cost of hiring actual teachers to handle new customers. This episode is a deep dive into the classic startup conundrum: maybe software is eating the world, but what do you do when your business is built on the human element?
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What’s the outro music?
Anyone else notice that sneaky Reddit decal at 6:40?
The BG music is too loud compared to the speech.
Please fix in the future.
Alexis Ohanian Really loving the new direction #smallempires is going. As a tech entrepreneurship student it’s awesome seeing you explain the details startups need to know when talking to VCs and just building a startup in general. Keep it coming!
happy that small empires is back on the verge! 🙂
Does anybody know how they charge customers that don’t have credit cards?
great show and great company I love Florida its so beautiful here trust me you don’t even notice the wackos 😉
7:15 “Really have that opportunity to speak with someone who speaks perfect English without an accent“
Without an accent? I mean really? EVERYONE has an accent. Everybody.
Just wanted to say, as a linguist, everyone has an accent. There is no one who “speaks English with no accent.”
The guy in a suit at 16 minutes looks strangely like Seinfeld.
They seem a bit full of themselves
#+Alexis Ohanian You are my mentor, nice work
Uh oh this company is a threat to the Democrat party!!
that’s a call center company … we have toons of them en Latin America .. Big No No, will watch a season 1 episode to balance …
This kind of service has existed in the Philippines for quite some time now. It’s biggest clients have been Koreans and Japanese. If you want to lower your costs, move your call centers here to the Philippines. You can hire Filipino teachers at lower costs and save money.
Whats the name of the intro song?
I know all about these language learning operations with an “aggressive marketing strategy”. I want to keep it short, so i’ll just hint you all to try and find out how big their LEGAL department is. Always the same story, on-site or e‑learning — a handful of over-greedy, early 30’s, marketing heads, trying to sell the easiest commodity in the modern world — English learning. Then you add the infamous “aggressive marketing” technique and BAM, there you have it — a douchey, eye-brow raising language learning company. Research “Wise Up” English school in Brazil and you’ll all see what i’m talking about. Hope not too many people get “inspired” by these assholes. Nothing will ever replace a dedicated teacher, in-loco. Whether in a classroom or as private teaching sessions. If you’re and English teacher, try to get together with other professionals in your area to expand the reach of your services. Don’t fall for this BS or any other international language learning operation. They are ultimately not good for the student or the teacher.
So, we’re just not going to address who that old liver spot dude is? He had some great info but wasn’t introduced!
The opening music is just plain great.
They need to start teaching Spanish!
amaaaazing video series.
pause @ 7:07
Nice video on Open English, probably the most successful Latin American Startup