Sameer Shariff - Breaking Language Barriers - [Founder’s Field Guide, EP. 46 ]

My guest today is Sameer Shariff, co-founder and CEO of Cambly. After starting his career at Google, Sameer founded Cambly in 2013 as an on-demand service to learn English. At the touch of a button, Cambly connects its global user base into a 1-on-1 conversation with an English speaker. During our conversation, we cover the origin story of the business, what Sameer views as the core functions of the two-sided marketplace, and how the team approached scaling a product that was international from day one. Once you hear Sameer talk, you quickly realize the size of Cambly’s market opportunity and why it may have been easy to overlook this problem. I hope you enjoy this great conversation with Sameer Shariff. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by SnackMagic. SnackMagic is the only 100% customizable snack and swag service that allows recipients to build their own snack stash. Whether you want to thank your global team, need goodie bags for your upcoming hybrid event or want to stock your office pantry, the menu of over 1,000 types of snacks and sips covers just about every preference. To learn more and get 10% off your first order with code Patrick at snackmagic.com/patrick. ----- This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2, HIPAA or ISO 27001 reports at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick. ----- Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes [00:03:05] - [First question] - What led him to the original concept of Cambly [00:05:21] - Beginning to learn the scope of the problem and what solving it unlocked [00:07:58] - What Cambly is and how they started tackling the problem [00:09:15] - Lessons learned about the challenges of building an alive marketplace [00:11:41] - Technical challenges and the enabling technologies that allowed it to happen [00:12:59] - Deciding on what to focus on first when it comes to students [00:15:24] - Figuring out the formula for unit economics and the pricing structure [00:17:02] - Learning what doesn’t work in their business model [00:18:07] - Setting up quality control measures and moderation [00:21:01] - Tools and services that will improve their experience in the future [00:23:18] - What the 11-star version of Cambly would look like in a decade [00:26:56] - Ways in which their software and concept could be applied elsewhere [00:28:30] - Setting themselves up for success and fine-tuning the matchmaking component [00:30:37] - Driving users to the platform and audience building strategies [00:33:46] - Making the platform feel native to each country it serves [00:35:59] - Surprising lessons learned around distribution and market penetration [00:37:13] - The biggest boss battles faced as a business [00:40:17] - Advice he would give to founders in a similar situation [00:41:32] - How he’s personally changed the most across this journey [00:43:32] - Ways he’s shifted to a state of letting go and trusting his team more [00:45:14] - Lessons learned from studying Airbnb [00:47:22] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him