Babbel 2.0

Hi Ali! like my classmates, I also went a reviewed Babbel to learn more about it before diving into your venture pitch. I like that you had focused on the areas that were lacking and updated Babbel to be more appealing. It would be nice to explain why the additions and how it will support/advance learning of language. However, the venture upgrades were more focused on the educational changes, such as micro lessons and sensory learning through visual and audio. Is there more that can be done with the wide range of technological capabilities. As a learner, how do I know if what i'm saying is correct? Is there a form of tracking or assessing my progress/improvement? Video capabilities? conferences? I am unclear if i'm investing to be part of a trend or to advance the education sector. I'm also not sure what the direction of this venture is. The innovations in the 2.0 edition are valuable, but has not brought the product to the 21st century of technological advancement that it could be.

Hi Ali! Thank you for sharing you venture with us. I enjoyed your elevator pitch but I do think it could have been more effective if there was a voiceover and more information about the revised Babbel 2.0. Your venture pitch was well designed and easy to follow. You had clearly done your research on the initial Babbel venture and did have some compelling reasons defending the need for a revised version. What I am left wondering is whether Babbel 2.0 is a new venture opportunity or an extension of the existing company. If the later is true, then I would argue that this is a sales pitch as opposed to a venture pitch. As has been stated below, I am also wondering why an investment is required. If Babbel is a successful company with over a million users, why does it need more investors? It would be assumed that the company is making enough capital to reinvest in itself. I admire the fact that you took on the tricky task of revising an existing company; however, from an investor perspective I would need more details before investing.

Hey Ali, I truly enjoyed learning about your venture. I think you have a great idea here in taking something that has been so successful and expanding its market reach with a new program. As it is an expansion of an existing product it was initially tricky to identify the 'pain point' and solution. Here is what I got Babel is a successful personal language learning app but it has its limits and for the next step you want to bring this success into the classroom. I really like your line of 'team that started with a simple mission: to help spread the love of learning languages globally. Babbel 2.0 is an extension of this mission'. As an investor, it works really well as a hook for me because what I hear is 'we are going to extend our success'. I might have even put that in the elevator pitch. I did enjoy your unique approach to the elevator pitch, it was like an announcement and invitation, it was high energy with the music and generated enough excitement for me to look at the website. I think what would really add to your venture pitch would be to really work to emphasize and boldly state the pain point and solution, really focus on we have had incredible success with Babbel in the personal learning market….but it doesn't work for teachers and schools, we want to change that, and bring our success into the schools. I really commend you on taking on a venture that adapts and improves an existing success. It gives an extra twist into thinking through the market, business plan, and investment. I checked out your links to Babbel and one thing I noted that might help is that Babbel's last round of funding (33 million) was way back in 2009. So it would seem reasonable for your pitch to say….now we need new funding, X amount, for our growth and expansion. What do you think? The other thing I was looking for is what the pricing plan would be, and what my return on my investment would be. As an investor, these details would be crucial for me to have before I made any decisions. What I hope you don't lose is your way of writing and engaging the reader. Contrary to others I like the language that you used in describing the teaching theory. I think it makes it more accessible to the investor. As educators we love the theory and research and all the details and jargon, however, think investors just want proof of how effective the learning method is and that it is the future trend for education. For my venture, I really had to work to take as much of the nursing jargon and detail out. The other part of your writing I like is that it was very personable and inviting, for example, the About Us section and the first couple of lines are engaging in a social way. I liked your description of yourself, but feel you may be selling yourself short, list your degrees (including the impending MET) and your accomplishments, and as people have said a photo also helps connect with the investor. I think you have a really good idea here, and a great new market for Babbel. As an EVA with a little more information, I would invest and recommend your venture. Eva

It is a good idea, with some potential. However, I feel that you have not looked long and hard enough at your competitors in Europe. Your pitch describes some approaches that already exist (I know about one developed by British Council to teach Syrian refugee children English) but I am unable to tell differences. I was also wondering: it is true that language learning tools are necessary and popular, yet I am very skeptical about their use in North America. The culture of language learning is embryonic in comparison to other parts of the world (well captured in some of the comments below). Learning the second language is unpopular, not to mention third or fourth or fifth. No fancy software is going to change this. Motivation comes when a student feels it is not only cool but handy to know another language. And this comes in linguistically varied regions. I do rarely see this attitude in North America (I guess National Capital Region is an exception). Maybe Asia, after Europe, would be a better market for the venture? If you go for Asia, I invest :)

Hi Ali, as someone with past ESL experience I appreciate the approach. A few questions do come to mind that, if answered, may help make your pitch more effective: how will you meet global ESL-school competition? What are your plans to infiltrate this market, and who is your competition besides Babel 1? What is your ask? What is your ROI? What is your prediction for how long it will take to develop this program? It would also be nice to see your face or hear your voice somewhere on the website, as this would help to boost investor affinity with you. -M

I really like your idea, first because it is the main driver behind my decision to take the MET, I had an interest in creating interactive language learning "textbooks". Nitpicks -- First, your picture on your homepage needs a better resolution, fuzzy is no professional Next, I think your elevator pitch was quite good, but it could have benefited from narration, but that is just my personal preference, not everyone's. Also, it felt much more like a sales pitch than a venture pitch, I wish you had have included more business-like information in it, how will this make me money as an investor, as cool as your product might be, show me the money... Finally, a huge nitpick on my part, but your use of "build up" should be switched with the term "scaffolding" from the Vygotsky camp of learning terms. It is a term well know in educational circles and just would give it a much more professional and knowledgeable feel. Now this is not a nitpick, it is a real concern. I felt that the Why Invest to the Revenue sections were a little light on information. I want to know what your predictions for the future are, how many clients will you get in the first year, how are you going to market it and connect with the schools, etc. If I were to have more of this investment information, I could definitely think about investing as this is a sound product that will greatly benefit language learners.

HI Ali, I was interested in Babbel 1.0 so I took a peek at their website. Your development of a new version is a good way to start a venture. It is always smart to find success and work off of it. Your pitch is a bit text heavy for the average investor to get through, but what you have to say is very interesting. School French programmes are always searching for better ways to persuade students to stay in the programme. At our school, the grade twelve French class is down to about 6 students from 140 in grade nine. Your decision to use audio, video and visuals will make the programme appealing. I also think your research (McGee, 2014) helps to make Babbel 2.0 easier to sell to investors. Your “Why Invest” in Babbel 2.0 page leans heavily on the past success of Babbel 1.0 and I would like to see a little more information about the future. I would also like to know how you plan to invest the money I give you: sales, or development of the product? Although Babbel 1.0 is successful I would need a little more information before I jump into this interesting sounding venture. Good work Ali!

This is really interesting Ali. I hadn’t heard of Babbel before so did a bit of research on it before I looked at your venture. My question - if Babbel is doing so well, why does it need an investor’s money? Surely it’s already making enough money to put back into the company to develop this 2.0 version? If it was an initial start-up, I could understand the need, but this is an established company, and one that’s doing quite well if there are over 1 million paying customers. As a customer, I’m all in...I can really see how this would be beneficial in schools especially for personalized learning programs. My concerns just come down to the financing and return on investment. As I say, I like the looks of the platform and think it would tie in well with a school based language program! Good work and good luck on this very interesting venture!

Hello Ali, Thank you for the sharing your venture regarding Babbel 2.0. I assume that the VideoScibe clip in the Home page was your elevator pitch which I had to view it at least twice and pause it many times to read all the great information that you added there. It was very fast for the normal reader. However, coming from the same background of language passion, I can tell you that, I do agree with you in this venture. Learning languages applications and software are in high demand around the world. Navigating your website, I can say that you have included a great amount of information that can convince any investor of putting money into your company; the new version of existing Babbel. I do agree with, as an educator, I agree that visual learning, in general, is what lacks in the market of teaching languages software. From my experience, I can say that most of these websites are made by teachers for teachers and they should have been done for students too, using a variety of strategies to teach languages, exactly as what you are offering here to add to the existing version of Babbel. Having said that, I was wondering how can you convince the real company of your adjustments. Are you looking into being a partner with them once you introduce the changes, or you are satisfied to be an employee? I think this question determines how is going to invest in this company and why. Are we, as investors, investing in you as well as in your new product? If I am to invest in your venture, I would have liked to see some examples of the lessons that you are offering with your newly designed Babbel 2.0. as a demonstration of visual integration of teaching new languages. Deffenatlly, It is an opportunity to invest in this sector and support a new idea. Great Venture, and Good luck. G.

REVIEW: I like that you have chosen your venture pitch as an improvement on an existing product (I assume: https://www.babbel.com/ ). You identified the emerging market of personalized learning nicely and applied it to the reformatting of Babbel’s existing product to make it appealing to an educational audience. As teacher who works in EFL contexts, having a tool like this at my disposal is extremely appealing, and with the established team of software engineers and several languages to choose from, I think this venture has a great chance of success in the education sector. Your pitch is firmly grounded in educational theory (like situated learning) that apply to school contexts rather than typical EFL scenarios (like ordering in a restaurant), making it perfect for academic rather than personal contexts. Before investing fully, I would love to see more ideas on how your product could be marketed in the education sector; as school budgets are tight, and educational tools are heavily marketed and competitive, I’d love to see some fleshed out strategy on how your new product could be successful. With this small reservation in mind, as an EVA I would recommend investing in your Babbel 2.0 venture. As this company already has a substantial market share, and is extremely well established, I feel comfortable recommending an investment, and seeing the app’s success in 1.0, I think that the 2.0 version has a very large growth potential if marketed in the K-12 market.