This Entrepreneur Raised $60 Million To Help You Become Fluent In English
Sameer Shariff launched a startup to make a big impact in the lives of 1.5B people that are dealing with the same challenge. On the journey they’ve already raised $60M, and built an international presence.
On the Dealmakers Show Shariff shared lessons from working at Google, as well as bootstrapping, startup accelerators, and raising money. Plus, balancing building a cash flow positive business with scaling, building a global, yet localized and decentralized business, and the value of learning English.
Listen in for the full details, and where to find out about the positions they are currently hiring for here.
If there is one theme that seems to have been consistent throughout Sameer Shariff’s life and career, it seems to be his constant love of learning.
He was born into a family of five, who were interestingly all born in different countries. Sameer himself was born in Canada. Though relocated to New Jersey with his family when he was just a year old.
Both of his parents were software engineers. He was the youngest of three siblings. That meant a lot of knowledge being poured into him during his childhood. Including some pretty complex computer science concepts by his mother.
He says that he always remembers being fascinated by being a student. Something he has been able to blend with his passion for technology.
For college Shariff attended both Princeton and Stanford. It was during this time that he began flexing his entrepreneurial muscles and got interested in business.
Half way through college Google Maps came out, and it was a big deal for technology. So, when a job opportunity to work at Google just after they went public came up, he jumped on it.
He wanted to be a part of the great advancements being made in technology. It provided him a lot of insight and learning in both building software are scale, and how a big company is run.
Joining as a 22 year old electrical engineer, Sameer found himself surrounded by computer scientists with Phds, and software engineers that really understood how to think about building with architecture and scale in mind.
He got to see how leadership worked in the organization, and how decisions were made.
The team he was on was all about data, metrics, and analytics. He learned about leveraging data, and A/B testing as you scale a business.
After five years at Google Sameer decided to make the big leap into entrepreneurship, and embraced some of his most significant learning experiences in his life.
While it is a tough decision to leave a good job that you love, looking back now, he says that we sometimes make choices out to be much bigger than they are.
Being surrounded by startups in Silicon Valley it was hard to ignore. When his cofounder presented his idea, it became a tangible opportunity, and not just a dream.
Looking at the length of his career and working life in front of him, he says it was still early. He recognized that you could always go back to your old job, or get another one if you didn’t like it. Trying a startup is not an irreversible choice.
So, he made the leap, and found he absolutely loved it. It was far better than a job. He discovered he enjoyed wearing the many hats of a founder, and many things that he was good at. Like sales and customer facing product.
Sameer and his cofounder Kevin both shared similar experiences around language. They had both spent time learning languages in school for several years, without anything really sticking.
When they actually traveled to other countries they found they loved being challenged by learning a new language. Even more so by engaging with real people. It stuck so much better.
Together they thought about how they could recreate that with technology and give it to other people. Which has become their startup Cambly.
It turns out that needing to learn English is a huge, worldwide problem. It turns out that about 6B people in the world don’t speak English. Yet, 1.5B are already actively wanting to.
Being able to speak English is incredibly pivotal for creating opportunities. Both to do business, and to simply access information. Of which most on the internet is English.
Sameer says learning English can be life changing, and have a huge impact on people’s lives.
Cambly is an app. One which connects students with native English speakers for video chats in a few seconds.
Today Cambly has a team a couple hundred people strong. While they are headquartered in San Francisco, the company was designed to be global out of the gate. They have teams in the MIddle East, East Asia, and South America.
Their app is available in 10 languages. With local market managers and experts who know the culture and marketing, Cambly has been able to balance building a decentralized international business that feels local.
After bootstrapping with their own funds at the beginning, they went through Y Combinator, before going on to raise around $60M so far.
Balancing a cash flow positive business with the scale VCs want · Startup accelerators · Sameer Shariff’s advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs · Picking the right investors for your startup
