Natalie & August have done what a lot of us dream of doing. In Natalie’s case, after graduating from Waterloo and working at Amazon in Seattle for a few years she quit her cushy software developer position, traveled the world, and settled, I-don’t-even-know-where (Columbia), coded up a site with the help of outsourcing from around-the-world, and is now enjoying the startup dream.
The site they launched is Lenguajero, where you can practice Spanish online or learn to write in Spanish. They describe their mission as such:
The goal of Lenguajero is to connect Spanish and English speakers so that they can have online conversations that will improve their ability to speak the language they are learning. With this goal in mind we knew that we needed to a simple, effective way to put our members in touch with one another.
Of course I’m sure Natalie & August have much grander plans and once they conquer Spanish they’ll branch out to other languages (my French is really rusty).
So not yet having the desire to learn Spanish, but as a startup fan I’m loving their blog and hope they continue to blog about what they’ve learned so I can copy it:
- How they used 99designs & Elance to get the site designed for $1000
- Tackling a real world problem
- How they connect users with TokBox (instead of using Skype)
And as coincidence would have it, yesterday and today while flying from Seattle to Orange County and back, I used my new Kindle (thanks Chelsea!) to start reading Four Hour Work Week. A book about ditching the rat race to live abroad and start a company to finance the lifestyle of your dreams. I’m sure they’ve both read it as it sounds like they’re following Timothy Ferriss’s playbook.