The latest episode of my podcast breaks new ground for me. Joining me for the first time are two entrepreneurs. My guests are Ulrik Soderstrom and James Quinlan, co-founders of Leerly. Leerly takes popular articles and translates them into intermediate Spanish to help language learners reach new heights of mastery. I was a bit nervous about how this might go, since I’ve never interviewed two people at the same time before. I thought we might end up interrupting each other and getting all jumbled. But as I think you’ll see from the recording, the conversation flowed pretty naturally and we all enjoyed ourselves.

James and Ulrik have a unique story. But, they’ve also encountered many of the general truisms of entrepreneurship. Leerly began as a way to solve a common problem James and Ulrik encountered during their journeys as language learners. They found that most solutions merely educated people at a beginner level. As a result, James and Ulrik noticed a dearth of tools available to help people gain intermediate level competency in learning languages. Rather than simply accept the status quo, James and Ulrik did as any entrepreneurial minded person would do, and decided to make something that would help people with the same experience.

Another first for me this go around was interviewing someone I didn’t really know. I was virtually introduced to James and Ulrik by a mutual friend, Rohan Aurora, who I interviewed several weeks ago. I wasn’t quite sure to expect not knowing anything about their personalities. However, I was pleasantly surpised. Ulrik and James were very friendly and outgoing. They provided candid answers and really allowed their personalities to shine through, and I’m confident anyone viewing this will be impressed by not only their gregarious dispositions, but also by their noticeable intelligences.

Language Learning Disrupted

In any event, now that I’m done gushing, I hope you enjoy the interview and learn something about how to successfully run a new venture. Ulrik and James provide a lot of insight I hadn’t considered, and I think anyone hearing their experience stands to benefit from their experience.

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