My idea is about a language learning platform for native Spanish speakers to teach their language in return of learning another language of their interest and the ability to learn the language and also talk in areas of their interest.

1. Business Concept Proposal
MOOC Launching New Ventures
Submission: Ramya Mahendran

2. Fertile Ground
Identifying & evaluating opportunities
• Top 3 problems I phase everyday:
– To learn foreign languages, practice and talk
fluently (Spanish)
– To keep track of all those tasks I need to
accomplish (things I need to do, remember, learn
and accomplish)
– To try and stop food wastage by people and
helping those in need to find food if present in
surplus (Social idea)

3. Opportunity for using technology
• Language Learning Platform:
– We can use technology to disseminate basics of a language
– We can use it as a testing platform to test level of proficiency in
the language
– We can ascertain expertise of a person with their level of
knowledge and accreditation the person posses
– We can also use it as a crowd sourcing platform for our other
language translation needs
– We can use it as an interaction platform where one on one
tutoring can occur
– We can use it as finding friends in a foreign land – social median
learning platform to identify people with different interests
– It can be like a online MOOC platform for language learning
purpose

4. Understanding the Customer
• Native Spanish Speakers who want to teach
their language in exchange for learning
another language of their choice.
• Non Native Spanish Speakers who want to
keep in tough with the language
• People trying to learn Spanish but are experts
in their own language (e.g. Native or non
native expert English speaker learning Spanish
in exchange learning mode)

5. Jobs The Customer wants to get done
• Learn basics levels of Spanish
– Grammar
– Vocabulary
– Cultural and Colloquial lingua
• Keep in touch with Spanish
– Betterment and strengthening of skills like
• Listening
• Speaking
• Hearing / Understanding
• Writing
• Improve conversation skills and understanding of language with native speakers
– Pick cultural nuances
– Contextual nuances
– Business conversation
– Student level conversation
– Survival Spanish
– Spanish for travelers / tourists

6. Value Proposition
• I can go through instructor online basic courses in MOOC format and e-learning format (paid
at $25 every level with twelve levels of material covering A1, A2, B1, B2 & paid at $50 for
every level with four levels covering C1, C2)
• They can chose to do daily tests for a months at $5, for a year at $25 and lifetime at $500.
The tests are for vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, syntax, grasping, memory,
understanding, error deduction skills)
Or
• I visit the platform and get to chose from a variety of teachers and interest areas
• I can either chose to reverse teach my language and see a match of interest area / or just
learn the language
• I get a free class to see if I fit with the teacher and they with us in return (maximum of three
fitment allowed per user)
• If they are happy they can get to know each others details and continue their online teaching
with a set curriculum or a designed curriculum for a fee decided by the level of expertise of
both speakers with a percentage commission to the hosting platform
• Levels of expertise can be determined with placement exams or prior gained recognition with
respective language certification boards like Cambridge Certification for English speakers

7. Future Roadmap
• People learn a language to be able to speak the language and for which
they will need to take not just language classes but also other small
courses on topics of interest,
– Basic of cooking in Spanish
– Basics of sports (football) in Spanish
– Tourism in Spain & Spanish speaking countries
– History of Spain
– Political landscape in Spain
– Technology and Innovation in Spain
– Business Culture in Spain
– Cultural Adaptability for visitors
– Arts and literature of Spain
– Fashion trends of Spain
– Health and Lifestyle of Spain
– Travel and Living in Spain

8. MVP
• Must haves:
– Ability of people to find other who speak a language they
want to learn and in return want to teach their own
language
– Fitment of interest areas (say someone wants to talk about
sports and they find a like minded sports fan) easier to
develop conversation around the topic
– Fitment of expertise (a native Spanish speaker with a
native non Latin base language speaker – they both need
to have at least English for common basic conversation)
– Basic security checks for authenticity of information
provided by the crowd sourced learning platform is
needed for safety of the individuals onboarding the
platform

9. Marketing
• We want to do only online marketing with
partners like
– Spanish Dictionaries
– Online Translators
– Facebook, Instagram & Twitter
– Through reference articles on language speaking
– Expert blogs which interview about language learning
– YouTube as a way to give our free lessons
– Online MOOC platforms like NovoEd, Udemy for
hosting short courses

10. First Customers
• We want to launch out product intensively to
India based speakers where we have a
increasing need for Spanish learning both for
business and personal purposes
• We are planning to target young workforce
(business experts in particular), final year
students who want to take up masters in
European countries and business and tourist
travelers

11. Value Capture
• Our ideas is more a combination of all existing ideas in the realm of language learning
• We want people to not just be able to talk a language fluently develop their skills to talk in an area
of their interest and with native speakers who are experts in that area
• Our value capture happens via,
– Online learning platform
– Online crowd sourced teaching exchange program
• If this is successful enough we would like to extend this to other languages learning with same
amount of demand
• The strength of this platform is the fitment of the expertise level of speakers and their interest
areas
• It is not hard to imitate, as it is process more than technology that is powering this platform, but
the knowledge base in how soon this goes to market as a platform and the people base we build in
terms of experts
• The unique combination of the platform is what makes it an one stop language learning platform
than other platforms which offer only one of these things in a really good level but not the
combination
• We would like to venture into advertising as a source of income as it is a online / app based learning
platform

12. Partnerships
• There are amazing apps like
– Duolingo and Busuu who cover basic of languages
like Spanish, German and French. We can onboard
them as certification body for our online content.
– Partner with University to provide language based
MOOC to our participants on a on demand mode
– We can partner with apps like Elevate to provide a
continuous engagement platform that is both
gamified and interesting but to provide it in
Spanish

13. Resources
• We have design experts, language teachers as
part of the core team
• We have strong experience in teaching the
language in physical institutions and online
methods
• We will need a coding team and managerial team
to give us more strong directions
• We are bootstrapping to begin with and
eventually plan to acquire seed funding through
angels once the MVP of our product is ready