An interview with Micah Greenberg, Co-Founder & CEO of Language Zen

What traction do you have so far?
We have over 70,000 users and are looking to expand to new opportunities in Brazil. Our user feedback has been very positive with an NPS of 63%. Our unit economics are also promising and it’s nice to see that people are willing to pay for a better experience in an industry where free options are available. 

What is the story and inspiration behind starting Language Zen?
Myself and every other member of the team have gone through the experience of learning new languages independently and we were frustrated by the methods and programs we used. We really wanted to build something that comes a lot closer to a killer-app to learn a language, something that we wished had existed when we were learners. Our co-founder and CTO has a background in AI and machine learning and we started nerding-out about how that could create a much more flexible, personalized and adaptive methodology. 

What is the unmet market need or challenge that Language Zen is addressing?
The language learning market is well established but fragmented. Many people turn to startups to try to find a better experience and we are here to provide that experience. There are many unmet needs in the corporate space and we believe that Language Zen can be a powerful tool for workforce development. We are planning to develop courses that align with companies and organizations in a more cost-effective and accessible way than any other language app.

How does your company solve the proposed problem and why are you the team to solve this problem?
The biggest problem in language learning is the reliance on static, linear curricula, where users are drilled on the same set of rigid, predetermined questions. This rote experience is both frustrating and inefficient and it’s easy for users to feel overwhelmed or bored.

Language Zen uses machine learning to solve this by understanding the specific details that each user needs to practice. We center learning around the user rather than the curriculum and give them the flexibility to choose between practicing with real conversations, professional vocabulary or music.

Why are you participating in the LearnLaunch Accelerator? Why did you choose this program?
We were excited to work with LearnLaunch and benefit from the accelerator’s deep connections with publishers and potentially high-value B2B markets. We were particularly drawn to this cohort because of the partnership with ETS. We are confident that Language Zen can be an effective tool for improving scores in their language assessments and see a lot of value of connecting with ETS in this endeavor.

Learn more about Language Zen here.