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Vu Van and Xavier Anguera-CEO’s and Founders of ELSA

By Tyler on January 30, 2020

ELSA stands for English Language Speech Assistant and was created by Vu Van and Dr. Xavier Anguera back in 2015 and started to rise in 2016 with over 30,000 downloads. Vu Van, (in the picture) was born and raised in Vietnam.  She left and moved to San Francisco where she went on to earn a masters in education and business from Stanford University. This app was created to help non-English speakers sound more like native speakers of North America.  As a student in America herself, she found it difficult to fit in and sound American.  When she realized she had a product worth creating she teamed up with Dr. Xavier Anguera, who specializes in speech processing. They created an AI that gives one on one instruction time to English-Language-Learners.  ELSA listens to the speaker then is able to correct the persons pronunciation.

The subscription to ELSA costs anywhere from $3 to $6 US dollars.  So far ELSA has been able to raise $12 million from investors all over the world.  In the coming year they plan to partner up with the education field and get more into classrooms.  They remind us that ELSA is not replacing teachers it is just a tool that they can use to get extra support.

Dr. Xavier Anguera, Co-founder of ELSA:

See the video attached of Vu Van discussing ELSA.

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2 Feb Posted on Vu Van and Xavier Anguera-CEO’s and Founders of ELSA

Vu Van overcame her own challenges of being judged by her accent while studying abroad in America by coming up with a unique product that benefits her and other English language learners around the world. Not only did she come up with a solution to a widely felt problem by non-native English speakers, she took the initiative to form a partnership with someone who had greater expertise than her in the area of speech processing technology. Her insight on the needs of individual learners, collaborative spirit, and ambition for future development of this app and venture makes her an exciting ed tech entrepreneur to look out for.

2 Feb
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cass @casschan

Vu Van overcame her own challenges of being judged by her accent while studying abroad in America by coming up with a unique product that benefits her and other English language learners around the world. Not only did she come up with a solution to a widely felt problem by non-native English speakers, she took the initiative to form a partnership with someone who had greater expertise than her in the area of speech processing technology. Her insight on the needs of individual learners, collaborative spirit, and ambition for future development of this app and venture makes her an exciting ed tech entrepreneur to look out for.

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1 Feb Posted on Vu Van and Xavier Anguera-CEO’s and Founders of ELSA

******** IMPRESSIONS ******* After reading Tyler’s post above, I watched Vu Van’s pitch video and noted how she clearly differentiated the value proposition of her product (ELSA Speak) in the marketplace. She also provided information regarding her professional team and the story behind her product. I visited the ELSA website and was impressed with the size and quality of the international team of experts she has in her company. I then searched for the app in the Google Play store and noted it has over 1 million downloads, and I installed it on my Android smartphone. It is quite impressive, and I found it very effective at identifying and correcting me when I signed up as a native French speaker and read all the phrases with a French accent. I noticed a few minor quality control issues, but the AI engine behind the scenes does seem to be working as advertised, so I can easily believe the 40% improvement rate after 4 weeks that Ms. Van mentions in her video. ********** VERDICT ******** Because of all these elements: her Stanford credential, her authentic and well conceived product presentation, her ability to form an impressive team of experts, her effective use of relevant business and research metrics, and her ability to deliver a quality product that fills a real gap in English language learning resources, I think Vu Van is a very inspiring example of a successful entrepreneur!

1 Feb
1 Thumbs Up!
shuebrook @intigr8r

******** IMPRESSIONS ******* After reading Tyler’s post above, I watched Vu Van’s pitch video and noted how she clearly differentiated the value proposition of her product (ELSA Speak) in the marketplace. She also provided information regarding her professional team and the story behind her product. I visited the ELSA website and was impressed with the size and quality of the international team of experts she has in her company. I then searched for the app in the Google Play store and noted it has over 1 million downloads, and I installed it on my Android smartphone. It is quite impressive, and I found it very effective at identifying and correcting me when I signed up as a native French speaker and read all the phrases with a French accent. I noticed a few minor quality control issues, but the AI engine behind the scenes does seem to be working as advertised, so I can easily believe the 40% improvement rate after 4 weeks that Ms. Van mentions in her video. ********** VERDICT ******** Because of all these elements: her Stanford credential, her authentic and well conceived product presentation, her ability to form an impressive team of experts, her effective use of relevant business and research metrics, and her ability to deliver a quality product that fills a real gap in English language learning resources, I think Vu Van is a very inspiring example of a successful entrepreneur!

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31 Jan Posted on Vu Van and Xavier Anguera-CEO’s and Founders of ELSA

Vu Van has done an excellent job of finding an area where there is a need and turning it into a successful learning tool. Her personal experience led her to founding this tool and teaming up with someone who is an expert in an area where she is not, has definitely helped her develop the product. It seems she has gained some real attention from investors which is a positive. As time goes on, perhaps they will look into creating this product but to assist in other languages.

31 Jan
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Jessica Shea @jshea17

Vu Van has done an excellent job of finding an area where there is a need and turning it into a successful learning tool. Her personal experience led her to founding this tool and teaming up with someone who is an expert in an area where she is not, has definitely helped her develop the product. It seems she has gained some real attention from investors which is a positive. As time goes on, perhaps they will look into creating this product but to assist in other languages.

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