Andres Moreno is a 31 year old Venezuelan who dropped out of college to pursue his dream - running an English language school. His focus was on employees working for companies doing business with multi-national corporations. He hired native English speakers who moved to Venezuela and tutored students in their own offices. But moving tutors around the capital Caracas, was a transit nightmare. What to do?
Moreno came up with the idea of holding classes on-line. And he would run them 24-7, staffed with native speakers living in various parts of the world and offering only English, which in Latin America is essential for career advancement. Like all start-ups, "Open English" found making inroads in a competitive market was a daunting challenge. Finally, when down to his last $700, Moreno flew to Silicon Valley to raise venture capital. Two years later, he had his first 2 million and launched an advertising campaign on television and social media. The ads were humourous, and effective. In one commercial, a young man is dreamily following a seductive perfume scent. With eyes closed, he repeats over and over "Persueychon", "Persueychon". Suddenly, a beautiful young woman appears and softly says: "Do you mean, Persuasion?".
The ads attracted a second look from prospective students. One, Diony Lugo, said: "I saw the Open
English ads, and they were hilarious and very creative. Then I investigated the school..... I'm the kind of person who likes to sit at home and on my own time, log onto the class". Lugo then took a 12 month course.
To date, Open English has raised $120 million in venture capital. Cate Ambrose, president of the Latin American Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, said: "In Latin America, the demographics are there. You have a growing middle class and a young demographic with climbing increase in the consumption of technology".
Recently, Open English moved its head office to Miami, Florida. It has 100,000 students in the Spanish-speaking world, 2000 teachers and is worth $350 million. And even with all this success, Andres Moreno still looks to change in order to stay on top. In addition to his 24-7, live teacher, on-line courses designed to promote speaking and listening, Moreno says: "Of course, we emphasize our live teachers but our learning platform aims to provide a well-balanced study plan, including reading and writing". Andres Moreno is 31 years old, he had a dream, he persevered, he changed his business model to increase market share, he took risks and he was creative. And of course, there's always an unknown element of luck. But what a success story - a true lesson for all young entrepreneurs.
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