English learning app Voxy hit the scene nearly two years ago exactly, on our Disrupt SF stage. It was a great presentation, but perhaps more importantly it was a great business idea. Since then, Voxy is rated the number one education app in over 20 different countries, has raised a total of $8 million in funding, and now has over 2 million users.
So I sat down with CEO and founder Paul Gollash to talk about the trip from then to now, and how Disrupt shaped the company.
According to Gollash, the biggest obstacle between launch and now has been connecting with the right people. “It’s all about finding talent and keeping people motivated,” he said.
He also mentioned that, like many Disrupt startups, the Voxy product isn’t necessarily targeted toward the tech community. “Most of our target audience wasn’t actually watching, but the investing community was.”
Clearly it worked out well, considering the two-year old company now has $8 million in funding since their launch in 2010.
Voxy has plenty in store for the future, including a recent update that allows language learners to integrate their iTunes to learn English through music.
Disrupt NY pumped out crazy awesome products like the Gtar, UberConference and OpenGlass, among some other great happenstances. But when we bring it back to the bay, things are only bound to be better than ever. We’ve got an amazing list of speakers, and some of the coolest starups I’ve ever come across. If you’re interested in buying tickets to the show, or checking out the Hackathon, just visit our events page for more deets.
- VOXY
Voxy is the only language learning program that is based 100% on your real-life daily activities.
By using mobile technology and gaming mechanics, Voxy turns the media that you consume, the conversations that you have, and the activities you do into powerful contextual language lessons that are available anytime, anywhere. Voxy is currently focused on teaching English to Spanish and Portuguese speakers, but is rapidly expanding into new markets and new languages to reach the billions of…
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