Language Learning #2 — Giacomo Moiso from Fluentify
Biography of the speaker
Giacomo Moiso completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Turin and his Masters of Management at ESPC Europe. Focused on the innovation and start-up sector ever since his postgraduate studies, Giacomo worked for a UK start-up accelerator, Accelerator Academy, and for an investment advisory boutique firm, White Horse Capital, researching and advising specifically the Telco industry. He is now the co-founder and CEO of Fluentify, a company that provides professional language training for businesses.
The interview was recorded virtually and transcribed by Zanichelli Venture.
Question 1: Fluentify was founded back in 2012 and has raised $2.3M up until now. Can you tell us more about your venture? How has Fluentify changed since you have started?
GM: Fluentify was founded in the UK in 2013 and it is a marketplace for avid language learners. Back to the origins, Fluentify presented an innovative technological platform on WebRTC, a framework that allows real time communications online; although this may seem outdated now, most of the online interaction happened through Adobe and Flash in the early 2010s. At the core of our business, we facilitate the interaction between native speakers and language learners. In the first stages of our company, we mainly addressed the B2C market; through a first capital increase, we managed to breakeven in 2015. Our initial goal was to create a healthy business with sound KPIs; it turned out that this should have never been our main goal. In fact, the big players of the B2C market are currently quoted in the stock market at a loss. Our initial strategy did not help from a B2C perspective as we lacked customer focus. We then started talking to a few VC funds and angel investors to test our ideas and reality hit: we had actually built something that could add some value but how could we achieve that highly desired exponential growth? We then took a step back and analysed our customer base: how was Fluentify being utilised? Who was buying it? Our customer analysis showed that Fluentify was mainly used by young professionals for very specific reasons. Our company initially placed native speakers on the marketplace, rather than trained teachers, because our goal was to let you practice the language as if you were travelling to the country of interest. From our analysis we learnt that 1) professional teachers were required and that 2) adding a B2B model would have probably worked in our favour. Now our B2B market segment is the core business and we are excited for the future of Fluentify!
ZV: Thanks for sharing your story with us! It is really a testament of how you should always maintain you customer focus and not be afraid of iterating and changing direction. Why do you think your platform attracted specifically young professionals?
GM: I would say that price is the main reason why we attracted such a specific customer segment. Fluentify is a premium product; for a private client, 30 minutes of English tutoring might cost from €12 to €25, with discounts for orders in bulk. This type of positioning ensured that conversations in a language different than what was taught were minimised. On another note, it is notoriously challenging to sell an education-based product/service as this sector is not as appealing as finance or healthcare. EdTech ventures are wrongly associated with traditional school protocols, which are just not exciting. We are going through a very interesting moment in the EdTech space now; we are showing that there are other ways, besides school and university, through which learners can expand their knowledge and skillset. At Fluentify, we don’t provide a simple corporate language training program; we take the learner through an experience guided by an interactive, simple and lean platform that can track their lessons and their performance to help structure their way to language mastery. We often like to compare the language learning experience to fitness: it is challenging to pick up a new sport. More often than not, you need someone to help you take the first few steps and, more importantly, it will take time to learn. This is very similar to language learning: the best apps/platforms on the market try to give you a structure to your learning journey and they sell users a promise (e.g. “you will become fluent in this language in 6 months”). Let’s not forget, though, if you do not put the work in, you will not learn a new language; it is as simple as that.
ZV: I really like the comparison between language learning and the fitness world. In the beginning of your answer, you mentioned prices for English tutoring. Have you started with this language? If so, why?
GM: Well, it is very simple. English is the language that everyone is supposed to know; it is the business language by default and it is astonishing that many capable individuals lack access to great job opportunities worldwide simply because of their language skills. You may be the best candidate in a specific sector, but if you can’t speak English, your value is halved. Initially, we started off with English; now we offer French, German and Spanish as well. We have also created technology processes whereby we can create a fully-fledged learning experience for a new language in only 30 days; if there is a language we currently don’t offer, give us a month, and we will be happy to help you!
Question 2: On a recent HolonIQ Executive Brief, we notice that there has been a growing interest in the use of technology language learning. In what way do you think that the current advancement of tech can help people learn languages better?
GM: If you are focussing on the language learning space, you need to make sure you are selling a credible promise; it will take years to learn a new language, not months. At the same time, you’ve got to show some results in the short term, otherwise learners might feel hopeless and give up. Technology can help you shape short-term results for learners through gamification, like Duolingo does, or through customisable feedback, like we do. Other companies may use VR/AR but I think that learning a language is probably simpler than what it seems. The means to teach a language may change but you always need persistence and speaking practice to master one. I believe that the winning model in the space is provided by a company that offers a complete package: learning the basics, speaking with natives while travelling the world or using the language for work. I hope to see consolidation in our sector; we currently have many smaller players, such as Fluentify, and each one of us is really good at one specific task. We need all these puzzle pieces to fit together, otherwise the learner will feel lost.
ZV: Really interesting thoughts around consolidation. They also consistent with the fitness analogy you mentioned earlier: when you go to the gym, you have access to all sorts of machines for your workout. Right now in the language space, it feels like there is an individual gym for each need. If a user wants to learn a language for work and travel the world as well, they will probably have to sign up to “two gyms”, increasing the chances of losing the customer’s trust.
GM: It is exactly as you depicted it. If you want to become a strong athlete, you have to put consistent effort in and diversify your training sessions; when you go to the gym, you can simply do that. Fluentify is really good for corporate language training, but if you then want to travel to a country that speaks your language of interest, you will have to reach out to another company. There are bigger companies, such as Duolingo, who are attempting to consolidate the sector, and I really hope to see more of this. The secret to learning languages, though, is very simple: be perseverant in your learning.
ZV: Do you think that technology will ever replace human interaction in the language learning space?
GM: It is difficult to provide an answer to this. Our approach at Fluentify is to use technology as support. We believe it is a key tool, but it should not substitute the human interaction. We also have to remind ourselves that there are humans on the other end of the marketplace; in fact, our teachers use Fluentify as their main source of income. We welcome new tools that can facilitate language learning, such as the new Apple Translator, but I challenge you to use it at a dinner with people who speak different languages; you will quickly lose the beauty of personal interactions.
Question 3: Many learners now turn to language learning platforms or applications to improve their language skills; at Fluentify, you have a clear focus on professional training. Thinking about the future of this education space, do you see language learning applications incorporated into the more traditional learning paths in a B2B model (e.g. early school, high school, etc.) or will they be more suitable for a direct B2C consumer use?
GM: I am not sure that looking at the B2C and B2B models separately is the best approach. At the end of the day, the end-user is always the learner. A more pertinent issue is the identification of who pays for the product. From this, we derive different go-to market strategies. From our market and customer analysis, we know that the best way of reaching new customers is word of mouth. An healthy and useful business is spread around by its own users. If I believe that Fluentify is the right partner to learn English with, I will tell everyone about it and soon enough, we have many more customers in our platform. As mentioned earlier, the greatest opportunities come when you interact with companies in B2B models. If companies choose a B2C model, they probably use similar learning models as Duolingo and Babbel. I believe that the right spot is just in the middle. It is worth noting that selling B2B poses additional challenges: for example, when you sell your service, you probably speak to HR or the CEO of a company, who ultimately are not the end-user. You need to have a great structure in place to communicate with the buyer and an even better learning programme to entice the learner to use it.
ZV: Interesting points here. When you work in the B2C segment, do you think there are risks of disintermediation?
GM: There surely might be but for us this is not really a problem for two reasons: 1) our core business is mainly B2B, so the end-user does not pay. There is no interest in disintermediating; 2) our teacher recruitment strategy focuses on hiring teachers who don’t just look for pocket money. We want teachers to use Fluentify as their main source of income. When a teacher looks at their profile on Fluentify, they can see all their earnings, feedback, calendar and more. Economically, it does not make much sense for a teacher to disintermediate. We also noted that users tend to prefer Fluentify because it eliminates the uncomfortable topic of payment in private language tutoring classes: when do I pay the teacher? Do I pay multiple sessions at once? How do I send the money? Fluentify takes ownership of all of this, which is a weight off everyone’s shoulders.
Question 4: People learn languages for a variety of different reasons, whether that is for fun, to find a new job, to connect with a different culture and more. Do you think that it is possible to have a unique product/platform that caters for all these different motivations, or would it be more appropriate to develop solutions uniquely tailored to different market segments? If the latter, what differences might these solutions show?
GM: It is possible and, most importantly, necessary to find a language company that can support the language learning experience holistically. There are several billions of euros spent worldwide in the language learning space; this is a great market opportunity. Imagine Babbel working together with Fluentify and a company that plans trips abroad to practice languages: this becomes an all-in-one solution that solves all the decisional issues. It boils down to activating/deactivating the services you need. The consolidation will probably happen through means of M&A, but I do understand that it may get complicated very quickly. However, the goal is never to be lost: facilitating the process of learning new languages.
Key takeaways
- When you are setting up a new business, remember to start from your customers — they will guide your future development.
- Language learning platforms/applications can now leverage technology to increase user engagement and highlight short-term results.
- The language learning space is lacking consolidation; this represents a good opportunity for M&A strategies.
Closing statement
We thank Giacomo for taking the time to speak with us. If you are interested in reading more about Fluentify, you can visit their website. Have a look at our other interviews on the Language Learning space:
