Kanyarat Nuchangpuek, originally from Thailand, graduated with a Masters in Information Systems in Germany. After completing her studies, she started working for a major IT company in Germany, along with her boyfriend at the time, now husband, Simon Bacher. Since there weren’t any mobile applications focused entirely on Thai language, together they created the Ling App, so that Simon could learn Thai more effectively in order to communicate with Kanyarat’s friends and family.
After the app started getting some traction, Kanyarat and Simon both decided to quit their jobs in Germany and move to Thailand to pursue their language app — the Ling App. Now, the app currently has over 5 million downloads and has even featured been as one of the great apps for education by the App Store. As Ling continues to grow, Kanyarat is excited to see where it all goes!
Please tell us a little bit about your business – what is the Ling App all about?
The Ling App is a language learning app that currently offers lessons in over 60 different languages around the world. Some key features of our app include applicable vocabulary words and phrases that can be used in daily life, thorough grammar lessons, fun exercises to practice your writing skills, quizzes to assess a user’s progress, and AI chatbot to help evaluate a user’s pronunciation and help them improve their overall speaking skills. The Ling App is a one-stop-shop learning resource that can help you master all four of the language skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
My name is Kanyarat Nuchangpuek, I am originally from Thailand. I graduated with a Masters in Information Systems in Germany. Following my studies, I worked for a big IT consulting company. I loved Germany, including my work, my colleagues, and my home, but something was always missing. Over time I realized I was craving freedom, meaning that I could decide what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it. So, I started exploring potential side jobs that I could do alongside my normal, everyday job.
Then, I got my idea. Since my boyfriend, now husband and co-founder, Simon was trying to learn Thai, we thought it would be a great idea to create a mobile app for learning the Thai language. So, Simon was in charge of developing and programming the app and I was in charge of creating the content, design, and testing. Although the app started as more of a side business, we noticed that it was gaining traction. Both craving that freedom, in 2016 we decided to quit our jobs in Germany and move to Thailand to pursue our app full-time. Since then, we’ve launched even more languages and formed an amazing international team.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
- The first skill I would say is persistence. Being someone who stands by their decisions, I never look back. After I quit my job in Germany to pursue my passion, I knew there would be challenges of all kinds, but, as an entrepreneur, you have to be prepared for those challenges and not let them dictate your decision. My motto is “Keep working and keep going”.
- The second skill would be efficiency. Since both Simon and I have a more “German-style” way of working, we love efficiency. When you’re first starting out, you probably won’t be able to have a huge team and different departments to help you. That’s okay, and take advantage of that. Learn to work efficiently or, as the saying goes, “work smarter, not harder.” At the beginning, we didn’t have enough time to finish everything in the timeline we had originally created, and we definitely needed more people, but we were forced to work more efficiently because there wasn’t room in the budget to hire anyone.
- Lastly, communication. Whether you’re an entrepreneurial team of one or you’re working with your friend or significant other, you need to have good communication skills. Co-founding the Ling App alongside my husband has taught me how to communicate clearly and more effectively. But, if you’re a solo entrepreneur, you’ll need to learn how to communicate with potential customers and users, as well as your team once you start growing.
What are your plans for the future, and how do you plan to grow this company?
Now, the Ling App is known as a language learning app that specializes in smaller languages, such as Thai, Vietnamese, and Eastern European languages. Our goal this year is to level up our app quality in order to compete with the high tier languages, like Korean and Japanese. Our 5 year plan is to not only have a language learning app, but an app where learners can truly learn a language from all perspectives.
How have the pandemic and lockdown affected you or your new business?
The pandemic has definitely affected us in several ways.
The first being working style. During the pandemic, we had to adapt to remote working, which isn’t always the most efficient when it comes to communicating. Now, with Thailand slowly easing restrictions and the country opening up, we’ve settled on a hybrid working policy that seems to work well for our employees. So, currently, employees can work from home on Monday and Friday and come to the office Tuesday through Thursday.
The other impact that the pandemic has had on our business is in terms of revenue. During the pandemic, our revenue doubled! We believe this was because people were staying at home more and were looking for ways to entertain and educate themselves, so some people decided to learn a new language.
Users often compared us to Duolingo, but, if you look closely, we actually provide some unique features that Duolingo doesn’t. Such features include lessons in over 60 languages, ability to practice writing the language’s alphabet, space repetition, and our AI chatbot that can assess your speaking skills.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
- Our first mistake was trying to make everything perfect. Instead of waiting for a perfect product, you should launch as early as you can. That way, you can get feedback, which is invaluable to a company first starting out.
- The second mistake we made was not spending money on design. It really makes a difference if you have experience in UX/UI design because it helps create a more professional feeling and, as a result, the user’s trust.
- The third mistake would be having too much flexibility. For us, this meant working time, working place, and working structure. With too much flexibility, we quickly realized that people need at least some working time overlap in order to discuss problems and coordinate their schedules. That’s why we introduced a mix of remote and in-person working, as well as regular meetings with the entire team. So far, this has worked really well for us.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
We only just started to focus on growing our marketing team since last year. Now we have over 10 people working in the following marketing positions: campaign, blog, partnership, ads, ASO, SEO, affiliate outreach, and social media.
Our most successful form of marketing has been our language blog. We grew our traffic from 50k monthly users to 400k monthly users in the span of a year. Now, we have over 1,000 blog posts for learners to read and learn from.
Our writing process requires writers to use Surfer SEO to draft their posts until they reach a score of 67+, then they get put into WordPress for further optimization. The last step is for our designated proofreaders and reviewers to edit and, finally, publish them. While it depends on the day, we typically publish around 10 blog posts per day.
What was your first business idea and what did you do with it?
The Ling App was my first business idea, so we were incredibly fortunate that it has grown as much as it has. With the idea, we first conducted market research because we wanted to see what other language apps were out there and if they were offering comprehensive Thai language material. We soon realized that there were hardly any apps featuring Thai, so we knew it wouldn’t be difficult for us to compete.
What are you learning now? Why is that important?
Our company vision is to learn something new every day. To help make that vision a reality, we have an internal workshop every 3 weeks where different team members can share their knowledge on a certain speciality. For example, Google Sheets or Google Analytics. It’s important to realize, especially as us being an educational app, that the best learning takes place when people get together and start sharing.
If you started your business again, what things would you do differently?
Early on, we tried a lot of different projects just to see if they’d work out. While it can be good to explore other options, if you already have something great right in front of you, it’s better to focus all your attention on that. If I started my business again, I would drop all the side-projects I was working on in order to fully focus on growing the Ling App.
What are the top 3 online tools and resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
- Trello: Trello is a great tool for project management, especially if you have multiple team members in different departments. Now, we use Trello on a daily basis and even have bi-monthly meetings where team members discuss the cards they completed in that two week sprint.
- Dropbox Paper: Dropbox Paper is a great way to quickly write SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure), which helps keep the entire company more structured. This is a highly recommended tool if you’re looking to organize knowledge in your company.
- Zoho Desk: Zoho Desk is a highly customizable customer support tool. While the UX is not the most intuitive at first, it’s extremely powerful and, not to mention, reasonably priced.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
The Getting Things Done method by David Allen took my productivity to the next level! It does take some time to implement into your daily routine, but, once you do, it’s 100% worth it and you’ll see the results.
Can you recommend one book, one podcast, and one online course for entrepreneurs?
- Book: Continuous Discovery Habits By integrating the methods in this book into our daily lives, we were able to change how fast we could draft and implement features that users really want.
- Podcast: Rogue Starups This podcast details the realities of starting and growing your own business. People often forget that having a great idea is not enough, and that it takes endless amounts of hard work and planning to make your idea a good, profitable reality. This podcast helps put the entire entrepreneurial process into perspective and offers great advice on how to have your own business.
- Online Course: InternetMarketing.gold This set of courses on all-things SEO really helped us take our website and language blog to the next level. As we mentioned before, we grew traffic on our blog from 50k monthly users to 400k monthly users all within the span of a year. That’s not only from having great writers, but from learning about the best SEO practices and tactics and implementing them into our process.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
First, I would pick a niche and spend $200 to subscribe to some of the most successful apps in that niche. Next, I’d think of three ideas to make those apps even better. I’d spend the remaining $800 to create three landing pages and drive traffic in order to see which landing page gets the most sign ups. From there, I’d start building on the app myself.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
The answer is simple, growth. I am a numbers and facts person, so when I see the number of users growing, an app satisfaction score of 4.8, traffic and revenue increasing, it motivates me to keep pushing to grow our business further and think of new ideas.
What is your favorite quote?
“Hire when it hurts”
– Walt Disney
This quote reminds me to only stay focused on the tasks that I can do and to not struggle working on a task that I can hire someone to do better than me.
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
As we mentioned before, don’t be afraid to launch an unfinished product! The most important step in creating a business is to get something out there to show your potential customers and users. If you’re waiting for perfection, you’ll be waiting a very long time. Instead, trust the dots to connect as you go.
Who should we interview next and why?
I recommend interviewing Steve P. Young from App Masters. He’s a fantastic entrepreneur whose ideas and advice have helped our business grow exponentially.
What is your definition of success?
To me, success is freedom, whether that’s lifestyle, financial, or other types of freedom. Being successful means that I can explore the world and live life on my own terms.
How do you personally overcome fear?
First off, fear is natural when it comes to being a business owner, so don’t try to avoid it. To help combat fear, it’s important to remember that mistakes are inevitable and persistence is key. No matter how many challenges you face, look at those challenges as learning opportunities. No matter how long it takes to see results, believe in your business and know that you won’t ever get there without having some patience and being persistent.
How can readers get in touch with you?
Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn.
