Spanish 55 is a Spanish teaching platform created by two young people (Abraham and Álvaro) of Mexican origin who were born and studied in the United States. When they started working as professionals they detected that there was a communication failure between the workers and the bosses due to the language. With this background, both young people talked for several months to try to find a solution and in 2014 they decided to do a pilot test. To carry out this pilot test and validate their business model, they contacted nearly one hundred professionals throughout the United States through social networks. They were invited to take Spanish classes via Skype for two months. In return, they asked for feedback to improve their teaching model. They also interviewed dozens of teachers in Tijuana to select the best and put the project in motion. The results were very pleasant, since 78 people finished the course of eight weeks and when asked if they were willing to pay for the service, half accepted it. "We were surprised by the results ... we asked many questions. How much would you pay for this service? What do you like? What did you not like? We tried to validate the idea as much as possible and also find an equilibrium price in which we could be working by the hour and approximately half of the people who entered the pilot decided to continue with us paying the service of their bag and for us that was the moment where the focus was turned on ", comments this Mexican-American entrepreneur. Once the business model was validated, both entrepreneurs were certified in foreign language teaching at the University of Cambridge to be in sync with their business, since they are not professors. All teachers are Mexican and teach
Spanish 55 is a Spanish teaching platform created by two young people (Abraham and Álvaro) of Mexican origin who were born and studied in the United States. When they started working as professionals they detected that there was a communication failure between the workers and the bosses due to the language.
With this background, both young people talked for several months to try to find a solution and in 2014 they decided to do a pilot test.
To carry out this pilot test and validate their business model, they contacted nearly one hundred professionals throughout the United States through social networks. They were invited to take Spanish classes via Skype for two months. In return, they asked for feedback to improve their teaching model.
They also interviewed dozens of teachers in Tijuana to select the best and put the project in motion. The results were very pleasant, since 78 people finished the course of eight weeks and when asked if they were willing to pay for the service, half accepted it.
“We were surprised by the results … we asked many questions. How much would you pay for this service? What do you like? What did you not like? We tried to validate the idea as much as possible and also find an equilibrium price in which we could be working by the hour and approximately half of the people who entered the pilot decided to continue with us paying the service of their bag and for us that was the moment where the focus was turned on “, comments this Mexican-American entrepreneur.
Once the business model was validated, both entrepreneurs were certified in foreign language teaching at the University of Cambridge to be in sync with their business, since they are not professors.
All teachers are Mexican and teach from Tijuana, Baja California. Because the page’s users pay in dollars, teachers are paid twice as much as a teacher at that level in Mexico.
Most of the clients are located in four states: California, Texas, Florida, and New York, although they already have students in 20 states of the American Union. Its main clients are executives, business owners, investors and employees of companies and international organizations.
Although its target clients are in the United States, Spanish 55 has already worked with people in Brazil, some African doctors and some people of Danish nationality who have come to them for recommendations.
Guanajuato is ready to receive visitors who do not speak a word in Spanish, however if you want to achieve a better local immersion you could be encouraged to take some classes before your visit to Mexico.
