Gabriel Wyner is the Founder and CEO of Fluent Forever, a startup that aims to help anyone learn a language quickly and remember it forever. He launched a bestselling book 4 years ago and now has the most successful app Kickstarter of all time for his Fluent Forever app. As of this episode, he has raised over $430,000 and he still has another week left.
Gabe is not your typical founder. He is a former opera singer/engineer who has a passion for learning new languages and just recently got thrown into the tech and startup world. He has a lot of great advice and brings a unique perspective to not only learning languages, but also building products.
In This Episode You Will Learn:
- Why Gabe had to learn multiple languages to become a better opera singer
- How lying on a french test led to his discovery of spaced repetition
- Why starting by translating a language is the wrong approach to learning new languages
- Gabe speaks eight languages but doesn't believe he has an innate skill for it
- The importance of learning pronunciation at the start
- How he decided to make an app after having a successful book and flashcards
- The value in making flash cards yourself
- How he thinks about budgeting and spending the Kickstarter money
- How Gabe approaches bootstrapping vs raising money for his company
- Gabe's view on the future with translation services and whether the desire to learn languages will ever wane
- Why founders need to develop a circle of advisors
Favorite Books:
- Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
Sponsored By:
- Bevy: a Chicago startup delivering everything you need, but don’t want to own, for amazing experiences. Own Less. Live More.