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Speak Shop's Cindy Cooper; social entrepreneur interview with Moses Kariuki
Posted to: Ned.com Social Entrepreneurship by Moses Kariuki (42), Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:07:26 PST
Edited: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:02:18 PST
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Tags: education language speakshop teaching
Comments: 20 by 7 members
Viewed: 276 times by 40 members
What is Speak Shop?: Speak Shop, http://www.speakshop.com, is an award-winning pioneer in online foreign language tutoring. Speak Shop was founded by Clay and Cindy Cooper to increase access to foreign language education and to generate economic opportunity for people in Latin America. People around the nation use Speak Shop to take live Spanish lessons online while supporting international economic development.
Interviewee: Cindy Cooper
From Left: Clay and Cindy Cooper
Interviewer: Moses Kariuki
1. When and why did you start Speak Shop?
In 1998, Clay Cooper had to learn Spanish for graduate school. At the age of 31 and after falling short of his goals in traditional classes, he was worried. Friends told him to try studying abroad in Guatemala where excellent tutoring was cheap and the accent was clear, and they were right. As he became fluent, he kept thinking about all the people he knew who would love to take lessons abroad too, but were unable to because of time and money. Then, hurricane Mitch hit Guatemala and caused extensive flooding and landslides. As Clay helped his tutor dig mud out from the rustic homes in his village, Clay realized his tutor was living in a state of poverty. In nations with greater economic opportunities, someone with his tutor's education and work ethic would earn at least a middle class income. These factors and converging technological advances inspired him to create Speak Shop.
Over the years, we developed the idea into a business plan. Our core concept was a fair trade marketplace where language tutors in developing countries could become micro-entrepreneurs and sell their services directly to customers around the world. In turn, people all over the world could take high quality and cross-cultural language lessons with live tutors via webcam. The tutors, who lacked sufficient customer demand on a local level, could access a global market of customers, work their way out of poverty, and be rewarded for the quality of their work. The customers, who rarely are able to take the time and spend the money to travel and study with a tutor in a developing country, could take private lessons from the convenience of their computers.
We used our savings to develop a prototype website, including scheduling, payment, lesson feedback, and videoconferencing systems. Skype video did not exist at the time. In 2004, we quit our jobs, sold our belongings and went to Guatemala to find our first tutors. No one knew if language instruction via webcam would work at the time. A few months later, we had our first real customers along with rave reviews. It was very exciting!
2. What Motivated you to an extent of quitting your jobs to start Speak Shop?
We believed in Speak Shop and the huge potential social benefits. We also believed it was a scalable model that could be used for any language. Even though we didn’t know if it would work, we had to try. Both of us were always entrepreneurial, coming up with ideas and trying to solve problems in better ways. You get restless when you really believe in something and think you have a viable plan to make it work.
We also believed that in the worst case, if we tried and failed, we could get jobs again. We would lose our savings, and that was frightening, but we could always start over. We decided it was worth it to put off buying a home or having kids.
Being that we were a couple, the risk of quitting everything was in some ways bigger and in some ways smaller than if only one spouse takes the plunge. Both of us lost steady income, but on the plus side both of us were also supporting and encouraging each other through the exciting, scary and unknown adventure. We were there to help each other when things were difficult, and when things went well, we could celebrate together. No one else would really understand how much it meant to find our first tutors, or get our first customer. It is amazing to be able to share that with your spouse.
3. Which difficulties did you encounter while starting up?
There were lots! The first and biggest challenge was that our core service, tutoring via webcam, was completely unheard of. We had to be pioneers and take a risk that learning through a webcam would even work. We had to convince tutors to spend time learning new technology and business practices before we ever had customers. Then, we had to try to find customers. No one was looking for the type of service we offered because it did not exist in people’s minds yet. Even now, webcam tutoring is not top of mind for most people. We also had huge challenges dealing with internet and power outages in developing countries, finding efficient ways to process payments, and continuing to develop the business without external funding.
4. Speak shop has received several awards in the past, like the best Social Return on Investment and the Oregon InnoTech Innovation Award, which efforts did you put to receive such awards?.
Award competitions are a lot of work, but they are valuable. It's like starting a social venture: You put in a lot of effort without any promise of a pay off. So even though we didn't expect to win, we figured why not try. We've lost more competitions than we have won, but it's been worth it.
I think we have won some awards because we worked hard to create a business model that would deliver the most social impact while being financially sustainable. That has helped differentiate us. We were also trying something completely new in terms of the service we offered. Language tutoring by webcam was unheard of when we started, and the competitions were a great way to get feedback and to get the word out about our innovation. It's also a great idea to enter competitions because they force you to explain your ideas to others, which helps crystallize them for yourself.
5. Does Speak shop play a referee role between the students and the tutors or you just provide a play field?
We provide customer service to tutors and students, but we also put a lot of effort into empowering the tutors to work directly with their customers whenever possible. There's the problem of the language barrier between students and tutors, so we do bridge the communication.
6. Do you have plans of having people learn other languages at Speak Shop?
Absolutely. We have always planned to expand beyond Spanish, assuming we could make Spanish work! Now that we have gotten over that hurdle, we are working on adding other languages. The website and business model are very flexible, and we hope there is no limit to the languages we offer.
7. In your view, what is motivating more and more people to shift to social entrepreneurship?
People have always been motivated to help others and do good. They have always volunteered, donated, and helped their neighbors. Social entrepreneurship is a fairly new channel for making change, but it is proving to be a powerful way to make things better in our world.
It's a bit tricky to answer the question because there are so many ideas about social entrepreneurship means. We might loosely define it as using the best of business to deliver social impact. That's an exciting premise because business has proven to be one of the most powerful forces in the world, for good or bad. It depends how you use it! So with more people seeing exciting and positive results through social entrepreneurship, more people are inspired to try these new approaches.
8. How do you get feedback from tutors and students?
Students use our rating and comment system to leave lesson feedback – it’s like the rating systems on Amazon or eBay. We also provide email, phone, and Skype contact information to all students and encourage them to contact us. Finally, students have access to a discussion forum where they can ask us or each other questions and leave feedback*
We are available to tutors via email or instant messaging, and we regularly solicit their feedback on all kinds of things including website development and marketing ideas*
9. What should be done to encourage more social entrepreneurship?
A tough question! There are many ways, but I see two main avenues.
- Encourage sharing among social entrepreneurs. ned and interviews like this are great for this!
- Increase funding for social entrepreneurs.
10. While for profit entrepreneurs check profits to know whether they will continue with the venture, how do you measure profits of a social enterprise like Speak Shop?
We are set up as a for-profit because we believe it is the best business model for the success of our services and social impact. Our primary social measure is the net gain tutors receive by teaching through Speak Shop. In other words, how much additional income they have by teaching at Speak Shop that they would otherwise not have. This is fairly easy to track since we know how many lessons they teach online, and the tutors typically teach online when they do not have in person students. This is because they have a responsibility and vested interest to continue teaching in person. But for the majority of the year, there are far more tutors than students, so teaching online is a brand new source of income. Also for tutors, we have a variety of other social impact indicators we look at which are less quantifiable related to skill-building, impact on family and community, feelings of confidence and empowerment.
As for students, we have gotten great, and usually unsolicited, feedback about the value Speak Shop offers them. We need to start surveying them more formally and tracking this.
11. What makes some social entrepreneurs fail despite having a lot of potential?
I don’t know that I have good insight on this, but I would suspect the same types of things that lead “traditional” entrepreneurs to fail. Probably things such as: lack of funding, an idea whose time is not right, poor planning, bad luck.
12. Where do you see Speak Shop in the next 10 Years?
We’d love to have 1,000,000 students and 100,000 tutors from all over the world and 100+ languages.
Now an invitation to all Ned members, please ask Cindy any additional follow up questions you have regarding Speak Shop, social entrepreneurs or anything related to their business venture.
By Lars Hasselblad Torres (102), Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:33:30 PST
Edited: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:33:59 PST
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topBy Cindy Cooper (5), Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:09:24 PST
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Lars Hasselblad Torres said:
[Quick question: Is this a summary of an actual interview (and if so it would be interesting to know when and how it happened) or more the results of a survey? I am wondering about follow-up/clarifying questions and how that can happen?]
It was an email interview.
By Cindy Cooper (5), Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:35:28 PST
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Lars Hasselblad Torres said:
One question is, "Speakshop has a very distinct and fun online presence - kind of a 'retro' feel. Where did this design direction for your services come from? Do your language instructors have input into how they - and perhaps the conditions of their lives - are represented by the company?"
Based on your question, the design is doing its job! Clay was inspired to create the retro look to convey "good old-fashioned tutoring." Even though we are using 21st century technologies, it is still the same old way of learning - human to human. There is an implicit idea that we are neighbors. It de-emphasizes the coldness of technology and brings in the warmth and fun of using face-to-face videoconferencing. It's as close to meeting someone in person as you can get thru a computer.
The tutors write up profiles and provide us with information and feedback about what their lives are like and the value of using Speak Shop. We communicate this information carefully with the goal of informing people of the reality without creating a sense of charity. Students are not doing the tutors a favor, they are getting a great service while promoting better trade.
The point is the tutors provide a valuable service and they should be paid well, but can't be on a local level.
The service itself inherently engenders respect for tutors who are the experts in the dynamic between teacher and student.
By Mark Grimes (221), Sat, 22 Mar 2008 07:53:49 PST
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Fist I have to say this is a wonderful first interview and a huge thank you to Moses, Cindy and Clay for jumping in.
One thing I think would add more "depth" to this thread would be if the three of you had pictures of yourselves to embed in the thread too. I'm fortunate that I've met Moses in Uganda and also met Cindy and Clay quite a few times in Portland, so I picture them when I read the interview. It would be neat if other members could see pictures of you as well...if you guys would consider doing that. I know pictures are not quite like meeting face-to-face, but people do tend to be visual in nature.
Question bomb...sorry ;-)
- If you could go back to the very start, what one thing do you know now you wish you knew then that would be of most help to you in starting and growing the business?
- How could members in an online community (such as Ned) help Speak Shop if they had just 15 minutes to devote to doing something? What could they do, how would they do it, and what kind of difference would they make?
- Often times the challenge in growing a business is you don’t know what you don’t know. I think failing small often is a great strategy for grassroots and bootstrapped organizations. What are some of the small things you have failed at, and why do you think the thing didn't work?
- If you had "funding", meant to be a decent amount and put into use to grow Speak Shop, how would spend that funding, and what would your expected outcomes be?
- Often times it can be said it’s not what you know, but who you know. While that's not entirely true, who you know can still play important roles. If you could have introductions to 2-3 people, who would you want to be introduced to, and what would you hope could come out of it?
- Aside from the tutoring what are other possible revenue streams that could exist within this model?
Again, thank you so much for jumping into the void and doing this, I think it is providing great information and suspect many people will be able to learn many things from this very interactive experience.
Errr. I'll stop now.
By Perry Gruber (16), Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:17:55 PST
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By chris macrae (21), Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:06:53 PST
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By Cindy Cooper (5), Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:16:36 PST
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Mark Grimes said:
Fist I have to say this is a wonderful first interview and a huge thank you to Moses, Cindy and Clay for jumping in.
One thing I think would add more "depth" to this thread would be if the three of you had pictures of yourselves to embed in the thread too. I'm fortunate that I've met Moses in Uganda and also met Cindy and Clay quite a few times in Portland, so I picture them when I read the interview. It would be neat if other members could see pictures of you as well...if you guys would consider doing that. I know pictures are not quite like meeting face-to-face, but people do tend to be visual in nature.
Question bomb...sorry ;-)
...
Thanks, Mark. I'm finding that writing the answers is helping us too by looking at things from other people's eyes and thinking thru issues.
- If you could go back to the very start, what one thing do you know now you wish you knew then that would be of most help to you in starting and growing the business?
CC: That tutoring online would actually work. Until we had “real” customers giving us positive feedback about learning via webcam, we just didn’t know! It would have been great to approach the service with more confidence. That’s a danger of being very early in a new market.
- How could members in an online community (such as Ned) help Speak Shop if they had just 15 minutes to devote to doing something? What could they do, how would they do it, and what kind of difference would they make?
CC: Help us get the word out. Blog posts, links on websites, press, any kind of viral marketing would be great! It would be awesome to get introductions to some institutional clients especially companies or development organizations that need culturally-relevant or specialized language instruction. I could post some text or videos here to summarize what we do or send me a PM.
- Often times the challenge in growing a business is you don’t know what you don’t know. I think failing small often is a great strategy for grassroots and bootstrapped organizations. What are some of the small things you have failed at, and why do you think the thing didn't work?
CC: So true! The funny thing is how easy it is to forget the small things. Maybe that’s an entrepreneurial defense mechanism to keep you going! There have been some bigger things that I can’t help but remember. For example, we have been working on an upgrade to our website for much longer than we had planned. We are now changing course. We should have abandoned path A much sooner. Another thing is that It’s been hard for us to ask for and accept free help. We have met great people along the way and many have offered help, but we are still learning how to accept it.
- If you had "funding", meant to be a decent amount and put into use to grow Speak Shop, how would spend that funding, and what would your expected outcomes be?
CC: Two main things: technological upgrades and language expansion. Tech upgrades would improve the service, make it easier to bring in more and different types of customers, and it would make the service stickier. Language expansion would bring in more customers, move us closer to our vision and diversify our risk.
- Often times it can be said it’s not what you know, but who you know. While that's not entirely true, who you know can still play important roles. If you could have introductions to 2-3 people, who would you want to be introduced to, and what would you hope could come out of it?
CC: Pierre Omidyar. eBay was an inspiration for us. We’d love to talk informally about his challenges, successes and thoughts on the future of a business like ours. He could also be helpful with insight into aligning with the right funders for our stage and goals.
Craig Newmark. It would be interesting to learn about his experience running craigslist because it is an online business, and he has stayed true to the original mission and been quite successful.
Ellen DeGeneres. She was taking Spanish. I’d like her to become a customer and tell others about it.
- Aside from the tutoring what are other possible revenue streams that could exist within this model?
CC: Theoretically, advertising is a potential revenue stream. Charging tutors is another. We don’t see ourselves doing either of these. We could also sell training and consulting services for those wishing to do similar things. We could sell/license some of our applications.
By Cindy Cooper (5), Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:23:13 PST
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Perry Gruber said:
Great interview and great SE idea. What type of technology is being used in Latin America and are the tutors using iCafes to deliver the language education?
They are using PCs, high speed Internet, and webcams at the Spanish immersion school where they teach in person students. There are lots of advantages to this over an iCafe which I can get into if someone's interested.
Our goal is to help tutors graduate to teaching from home, if they want. That way they can teach more (it's safer and more convenient to work from home) and their kids can benefit hugely from having a computer and Internet.
To get there, they need to build their business sufficiently to be able to afford a computer, tech support if needed, and high speed Internet. We're also looking to work with microfinance agencies to help tutors get loans as a faster way to working from home.
By Lars Hasselblad Torres (102), Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:12:56 PST
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Cindy, do you market to organizations, individuals, or both? I ask because I imagine SpeakShop could offer a really engaging "crash course" for people planning to head out for contracts, jobs, service term, etc.
Also, I wonder whether you talk to tourist agencies - particularly those that do a lot of business online - I can imagine a "crash course" for tourists (basic stuff like you'd find in the back of a guide book) would do bang up business.
By Clay Cooper (6), Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:53:18 PST
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[Deleted by author on 26 Mar 2008 11:58 PST: Moving this post]
By Clay Cooper (6), Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:59:53 PST
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chris macrae said:
Approximately how many hours of teaching are being done a month, and is the number level, going up, down? I am asking because I wonder how you get critical mass and what sort of marketing channels might fit. (So far has almost every client come one by one, or have their been any group orders)
Great questions. Our tutors currently teach about 400 lessons per month which is double from the same time a year earlier. We continue to see steady growth but it has slowed I believe due to the recent economic downturn. We’ve explored schools and universities as marketing channels but, in general, we don’t seem to fit their model for several reasons. We would appreciate any suggestions on other marketing channels. Almost all of our students have been come one by one. We are researching how best to market to corporations for group orders.
By Cindy Cooper (5), Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:08:09 PST
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Lars Hasselblad Torres said:
Cindy, do you market to organizations, individuals, or both? I ask because I imagine SpeakShop could offer a really engaging "crash course" for people planning to head out for contracts, jobs, service term, etc.
Also, I wonder whether you talk to tourist agencies - particularly those that do a lot of business online - I can imagine a "crash course" for tourists (basic stuff like you'd find in the back of a guide book) would do bang up business.
We're very interested in offering courses for people going abroad, especially those who will be working or volunteering because they have a real incentive to communicate with locals in a meaningful way. We have individual customers now, but we're working on an offering for organizations. We attract longer term customers. Those who just want to learn a few words and phrases can get them easily through books and aren't typically interested in investing in tutoring. I think this will change as webcams and online tutoring become more commonplace.
By Perry Gruber (16), Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:14:52 PST
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Cindy Cooper said:
They are using PCs, high speed Internet, and webcams at the Spanish immersion school where they teach in person students. There are lots of advantages to this over an iCafe which I can get into if someone's interested.
Our goal is to help tutors graduate to teaching from home, if they want. That way they can teach more (it's safer and more convenient to work from home) and their kids can benefit hugely from having a computer and Internet.
To get there, they need to build their business sufficiently to be able to afford a computer, tech support if needed, and high speed Internet. We're also looking to work with microfinance agencies to help tutors get loans as a faster way to working from home.
Thanks for the reply and this makes sense. iCafes can be expensive too for some and I figured using them might bite heavily into any posssible income.
By Moses Kariuki (42), Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:29:46 PDT
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By Cindy Cooper (5), Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:26:54 PDT
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Thanks, Moses. This is a cool idea and I look forward to reading other interviews.
I've been largely offline since having our first baby about 10 days ago. The challenges of entrepreneurship, especially financial, take on heightened importance with a tiny person depending on you! What do other parents think?
By Mark Grimes (221), Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:35:46 PDT
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>>I've been largely offline since having our first baby about 10 days ago.<<
Wow, congratulations. When I saw you both last I didn't even notice.
>>What do other parents think?<<
When Pam gave birth to our third (and last) boy nine years ago our at the time business was simply booming. It is a challenge to balance work and a new baby, but to be honest...it's easier in many ways when you do have your own company, as often that means your time is somewhat more flexible. At that time there was only one out of 9-10 staff that had a child, so the rather young staff had no worldy idea what on earth Pam and I were going thru...so staff demands were a little challenging to deal with (that was when I realized I needed a COO).
Again, congratulations...and when you three are getting out and about, let's grab a coffee...I'd love to meet the little one. (We can even do a little SpeakShop talk). Also, thank you both again for the first interview...it was great.
By Mark Grimes (221), Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:36:44 PDT
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By Moses Kariuki (42), Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:02:25 PDT
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By Lars Hasselblad Torres (102), Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:39:21 PDT
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By Lars Hasselblad Torres (102), Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:30:50 PST
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