How I Grew My Language Learning App To $7K/Month
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
I am Stefano Lodola, founder of Think in Italian, a language learning platform designed to help individuals master Italian through an immersive approach. What sets Think in Italian apart is the value of natural language acquisition, inspired by my belief that "we all master languages by listening and mimicking."
With a background in Industrial Engineering and an MBA in Strategy and Marketing, I’ve combined my technical expertise and passion for languages to create a unique learning experience that fills the gaps I encountered while mastering 13 languages.
At its peak in October 2023, my business was getting close to $10k MRR, then I got hit by Google and now I’m down to $5k.
How did you come up with your business idea?
I had been doing 1:1 language tutoring online for a few years. When my students asked me to suggest an online course to supplement our classes, I couldn’t find one to recommend wholeheartedly. So, I created my own one.
Originally, my course was a package of downloadable MP3s that I’d sell to my existing students. The positive feedback I received from them encouraged me to turn it into a full-fledged app.
As a solopreneur, I had to do everything by myself. My academic background in engineering and business administration helped to cover virtually every area of the business, the only limit being the time available to me.
My message is simple: stop playing (literally!) with language apps that entertain you but won’t teach you how to speak and start speaking.
Give us a step-by-step process for how you built the first version of your product.
To start Think in Italian, I began by analyzing the existing resources for language learners. I also listened to my students’ feedback. My research confirmed that there was a gap in the market for a more comprehensive and engaging approach to learning Italian.
At the beginning, I did everything by myself: course creation, website building, content writing, etc. So, it didn’t cost me any money. I only spent my own time.
My courses were only available as a downloadable package of MP3s until 2020. I kept adding lessons to my courses, starting from 15 and completing it at 250 lessons. Then, I made them available on my membership site on a subscription basis.
Technically speaking, I used WordPress post structure with my own custom audio player until 2022, when I turned all my courses into a custom-coded 1-page web app. In 2023, I added my own AI conversational tutor.
Overall, starting all this by myself was a huge commitment of time and effort, but it was spread over years more as a side hustle than a full-time job. Working for so long for little or no money was only bearable because I enjoyed the process of creating something about learning languages, which I’m passionate about. I wouldn’t recommend that unless you have a strong motivation.
How did you “launch” the business?
I didn’t “launch”. My first customers were my existing students. Then, my blog gradually started to get organic traffic from search engines, and some visitors became my customers.
How did you land your first customers?
I don’t remember who exactly my first customer was, but they were some of my existing students when I was doing 1:1 tutoring online. They already knew my method, so it didn’t take much to convince them.
Convincing the “cold” traffic from search engines would prove much harder. When compared with famous apps like Babbel or Busuu, I’m a non-entity, so I need to get people to know about my existence through SEO and then educate them on my method with content marketing or email marketing.
My message is simple: stop playing (literally!) with language apps that entertain you but won’t teach you how to speak and start speaking. However, many language app users have expectations that work against them (“where are the quizzes? Can I make flashcards?”) and judge learning materials by appearances rather than effectiveness.
How have you grown your business?
To attract more customers, I bet everything on SEO. At its peak, my site had the largest amount of organic traffic among those focusing on teaching the Italian language with 130k visits/m.
My content was not only written to be picked by Google, but also meant to be useful, most of it being grammar notes and study tips.
Instead of those spammy “best xyz” listicles that any content writer can make up, I published hundreds of grammar notes to attract people who are serious about learning Italian.
Give us a breakdown of your revenue & financials.
I always tried to position my product as an online course rather than an app, because people are willing to pay more for the former and also because until recently it was relatively low-tech.
Since 2022, the full monthly price for full access is $39.80. Longer plans come with generous discounts up to 66%. In addition, I run promotions through my mailing list, so usually users get by paying lower prices, but still relatively higher than most language apps.
Sales grew slowly but steadily until October 2023, when I had about $10k in MMR, then I got hit by Google and now I’m down to $5k. At my peak, I had 300+ paying users, now I’m down to less than 200.
The business is still profitable because I have little fixed costs. I’m still investing in content to recover from last year’s drop in traffic.
What does the future look like?
Organic search has always been my sole source of traffic. That was my strength and now my weakness.
In 2023, after many bad experiences with developers, I set about to code my app by myself. It came through well, but I ended up neglecting my blog. I left it in the hands of someone who had no idea what they were doing and I got what I deserved.
I’ve always been sabotaged by incompetents and scammers, but no one did so much harm like my past content manager. I can only hope to recover over the next search algorithm update.
Even so, as search volumes are shrinking due to generative search engines, I need to diversify my traffic sources. I’m trying to overcome my personal repulsion for social media and post regularly there.
In the next 5 years, I hope I’ll have nothing to do with this business. It was fun when I did everything by myself, but I need people to scale it and they all suck. I’m replacing people with AI as much as possible, but I’m still limited by my own time.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Because I taught myself everything I needed to start and run the business, I assumed that freelancers and agencies would be good at what they do, and that virtual assistants would at least be able to learn how to do one thing well.
However, except for easy, small or repetitive tasks of limited scope, the results I got ranged from mediocre to outrageous. Dubious profiles, inexplicably high ratings vs poor skills, shady time logging practices, poor quality of work, bad work ethics, web designers and developers breaking things, virtual assistants disappearing…
I should have never hired 90% of those I’ve hired so far: virtual assistants, freelancers, agencies… most of them only did harm. Even allowing for some time to give them a try, I should have fired them much earlier.
Every morning I wake up and regret that I didn’t sell for $500k on Empire Flippers 2 years ago. I still could sell at any time, but the market has changed and sales have dropped, so I would get much less. I’ll go through the next couple of Google updates and make up my mind.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Learn how to do things by yourself. People suck.
Even when you can’t do without people, at least you should be knowledgeable enough to understand if they’re good at what they do and get rid of them if they’re not.
Where can we go to learn more?
Links to your website, FB, Twitter, Instagram, blog posts, your email, etc
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
