<aside> đź’» Website: fluent.co Twitter: twitter.com/usefluent
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<aside> 🗞️ Working on a Fluent story? Reach out to [email protected] for questions, quotes, interviews, or anything else!
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Fluent is a chrome extension that helps you learn a new language while browsing the web.
We translate select words and phrases to the language you want to learn, on any website you're on. We then take those new words and regularly engage you with them across all the sites you browse until you've fully learnt them. We immerse you with new vocabulary throughout your day without needing to pull out an app or study from a textbook.
The goal is for language learning to become a part of your life, the same way it would if you learnt French by moving to France. The words and phrases you learn mean something to you since you encounter them while reading things you already care about. Learning business words while reading Bloomberg, or sports vocab while browsing Twitter, or romantic phrases while seeing your friend's wedding post on Facebook. You learn just by living your life.
Fluent started in February 2020 & launched early access in May 2020
Founders went full-time in the summer of 2020
16,000+ users & growing
2,000,000+ unique words practiced by our users (we crossed 1m at the start of 2021)
Yaniv Silberman - CTO twitter, linkedin
Throughout his life Yaniv has been self-taught, whether it was for directing films or learning how to code. When he realized others struggled to do the same he founded his last startup, Odyss, to help them.
Despite never having gone to school for software engineering he worked his way up to a position at Samsung. Within a few months he was being sent to Silicon Valley to help senior engineering teams move to the company's new codebase.
Yaniv is a fanatic for creating and tinkering with products. He also has a noble prize for the best bad puns and is a genuinely OK guy at best.
Olga Sanchis - CPO twitter, linkedin
Olga is an Industrial Design engineer by training. She previously worked in the auto industry at one of Europe's largest car producers, Seat. There she helped create innovative human-centered designs for self driving cars.
Olga brings together the intersection of great design, technology, and user empathy to create experiences people love.
She's also a world-class doodler and has a creative energy that spreads to everyone she talks to. She's fluent in 4 languages and is currently learning Italian.
Gavin Dove - CEO twitter, linkedin
Gavin is a mechanical engineer who loves building cool things and cooking tasty food, in that order.
In a previous life he co-founded a transit startup that promised to cut down city-wide traffic by 40% while also teaching himself how to code. Afterwards moving onto aerospace engineering where he helped make airplanes safer for everyone.
Gavin has a deep focus on product, and obsesses over solving problems for our users. We joke that his voluptuous hair contains all the knowledge of Fluent, the longer it gets, the wiser we all are.
Ara Ghougassian - CMO twitter, linkedin
Joining as the youngest hire to date, Ara helped increase sales at one of Vancouver's fastest-growing startups, Procurify.
Afterwards, he dropped out of university, moving to Montreal with Yaniv to work on their first edtech startup, Odyss. They ran out of savings so Ara went back to university. Eventually, he dropped out a second time in his last year of school to pursue Fluent.
He flew back out to Montreal and slept on a couch for 3 months before the team eventually raised enough money to afford a bed for him (his back is very grateful to this day).
Forbes
You Can Become Fluent In A New Language By Browsing The Web
The National
Canadian tech start-up hopes to add fluency to language learning
Product Hunt
A new Duolingo competitor? | Product Hunt
Daily Hive
Canadian company helping users learn languages by browsing the web | Venture