Convincing a proactive 5 year old child to sit still and study in front of a textbook can be a daunting task for parents. New generations are blessed with a capacity to gain and adapt knowledge quickly and from various sectors. In the digital age where artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly and with a world of information available at our fingertips, new generations are demanding simpler, more efficient and enhanced approaches to learning. Recognizing this need Cristobal Viedma founded Lingokids, a Spain based organization that envisions making language learning simple for families across the globe. Today, it is renowned for its English language learning platform designed for children 2 to 8 years old, with over 8 million registered families in more than 190 countries. The platform offers a customized approach towards learning which is makes lives easier for parents and even educators who wish to teach their children or students effectively in today’s world. In an interview with Insights Success Cristobal Viedma shared valuable information about the product and his vision for the company.
Below are the highlights of the interview between Cristobal and Insights Success
Give a brief overview of the company, its uniqueness and its vision.
Lingokids is the leading English language learning platform for children between 2 – 8 years old, the best time to learn a new language. Our platform provides a complete and structured English language course, with hundreds of activities designed to make learning fun and easy for the little ones. We make the learning process fun for the kids, easy for parents providing them an interface to track their child’s progress, while simultaneously bringing down economic and physical barriers to high quality educational content. All you need is a smartphone or tablet to download the app.
Our mission is to break down educational barriers and provide equal opportunities for children around the world. We do this by increasing worldwide access to high quality and innovative educational content.
Lingokids’ unique selling point is the specialization in early childhood language learning. We have found the perfect balance between education and entertainment for these ages.
What are the cutting-edge products/solutions offered by Lingokids?
We provide a solution to the problem of access to quality educational contents for young learners. We do this by providing an E-learning platform that reduces burden on parents and educators while also bringing down price barriers. What makes our platform unique is that our learning activities (videos, games, songs and traceables) are immersive and personalized to the level of the child. While the games are mainly focused on teaching English they also help with basic motor and cognitive skills while also increasing the child’s motivation for learning in general.
Describe the experiences, achievements or lessons learnt that have shaped the journey of your organization in becoming a Unicorn company.
We’re about to turn 3 years old as a company, so we still have a way to go before we become a Unicorn. That being said, we are on the right path, growing revenues and our user base at an impressive rate.
One of my main takeaways is to not settle when it comes to hiring talent. We look for the best of the best and that’s how we managed to create such an amazing product that people love.
Another takeaway is to have a purpose. Employees at Lingokids have a real passion for the product and we make sure that everyone is aware of the benefits we feel we are providing to society through consistent communication of this aspect.
Some highlights have been winning Mom’s Choice Awards in 2016, Best Startup in Social Impact in Education at this year’s South Summit Awards and reaching 8 million families just one month ago. Another one of our most notable achievements has been the opportunity to present our project to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook during his most recent visit to Spain.
What are the challenges faced while providing solutions and services in a volatile and competitive market and how is Lingokids serving to tackle them?
The challenges are endless. Education for early childhood learning is a challenge in itself and a lot of players entering the market underestimate this thinking methods of learning are similar for all ages. In this way we are incredibly consumer centric. Our team conducts user tests and focus groups weekly and tests absolutely everything there is to test to make sure we are offering the best possible solution.
Another challenge is that your target audience (i.e. the ones that make the decision to download our app), parents, are not the final consumers of your product, in this case children. We tackle this by involving the parent in the learning process allowing them to see the full value that Lingokids offers and giving them full transparency of what the child is doing on the app with progress report as well as a full list of completed activities.
What according to you could be the potential future of your field of expertise/operations and how do you envision sustaining competency?
Classrooms will never disappear. We feel blended learning is the future of education. There are benefits in both electronic and traditional face-to-face teaching, the point is to find the right balance. Lingokids specializes in Elearning, but we also develop offline materials. Eventually we hope to incorporate more languages and eventually subjects such as programming.
Testimonials
“Aadi went from not speaking too much English to framing his own sentences. I thank you all who are involved in creating such an amazing platform and bringing education to people like us who are far away from places where English is a native language”
“They are learning and enjoying at the same time.” “My 2 year old LOVES the Lingokids app. I have a few apps for him on my tablet, but he always chooses Lingokids first”
“I want my children to learn English because I want to give them the opportunity to live outside of Russia, to study somewhere else in Europe, and to be able to travel a lot and see the world. I will highly recommend Lingokids to our friends!”
About the Leader
Cristobal is the Founder and CEO of Lingokids. He helps to oversee all company operations – Financial, Product, Marketing, and Business. His main task at the moment is representing the firm and liaising with investors.
Cristobal is a reference both in the Spain’s startup space and globally when it comes to Ed-tech. He’s recently spoken in events such as GET2018 (Global Education Technology Summit) in China.
