Bootstrapping an EdTech Startup with a Paycheck to over $5M: Karyn Koven, CEO of LanguageBird (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the beginning of LanguageBird. When you were thinking about doing this project, were you already thinking of it as an accredited language school that would serve as supplemental education?

Karyn Koven: Yes. One of the things I saw with my students is that most schools in the U.S. offer more limited options for language—maybe Spanish and French. Most of my students already spoke Spanish, and that was the only language we offered.

What I saw was a lot of students taking language courses not because it was a requirement, but because it was necessary to get into a four-year college. The courses, due to class sizes, were a lot less interactive and less focused on communication. In a language classroom, students should be speaking a lot, not just filling out worksheets.

Our school was project-based, and I realized that many students already spoke Spanish at home but had to take level one and two courses to meet college requirements. Since we didn’t offer anything beyond that, they were essentially wasting time. I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could offer them other languages? But schools are limited in budget, space, and qualified teachers.

Sramana Mitra: What did you start with and how did you get this off the ground?

Karyn Koven: I started by writing a curriculum for Spanish—something interactive, project-based, student-centered, and individualized. Then I hired a teacher who lived in the Balearic Islands in Spain. She was fantastic. I thought it would be an amazing experience for students to learn from native speakers abroad. Spanish was in high demand and easily accessible, so that’s where we started.

Sramana Mitra: So what was the model? The teacher from Spain was teaching online using your curriculum?

Karyn Koven: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: And were you charging hourly?

Karyn Koven: We charged by the course. Most students enrolled for a semester or a full year. We also offered packages for tutoring and test prep.

Sramana Mitra: One teacher can only teach so many students, especially since this isn’t group learning. It’s one-on-one, right?

Karyn Koven: That’s right. The number of students a teacher can teach depends on the teacher’s availability and capacity.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to when you started with that one teacher from Spain. What were you doing?

Karyn Koven: I was honestly just looking for students who would trust me enough to try this.

Sramana Mitra: How did that come together?

Karyn Koven: In 2012, not many parents even knew what video chat was. When I told moms on the phone that their child could take an accredited course for high school credit, many would ask, “How does video chat work?”

So, the first step was convincing families this was a viable way to learn.

Sramana Mitra: How did you do that?

Karyn Koven: By explaining clearly, using video examples, and sharing how I find instructors. My philosophy is very relationship-based. I emphasized the importance of one-to-one learning and the connection between teacher and student.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Bootstrapping an EdTech Startup with a Paycheck to over $5M: Karyn Koven, CEO of LanguageBird
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