Even though in this blog we have written about many entrepreneur subjects, which include among others, methodologies, tools and advices, we have not written about successful entrepreneurial stories. These successful cases are interesting but not because they must be our models, because each entrepreneurial project is different, but because they show us the relevant aspects these businessman took into account that with the unique aspects of our business can take us to success. This is why starting with this post I will share some cases that I think can be useful for our readers emphasizing in what made different their project.
The first case I am going to write about is Open English. I want to highlight that this excellent project of English education, was created by two young Venezuelan entrepreneurs, showing us it is possible to have great ideas in developing countries.
This project that started with an investment of US$300, was created by Andrés Moreno (CEO of Open English) and Wilmer Sarmiento when Moreno experimented the challenges that arise when he taught classroom sessions of English to senior executives which included among others the problem of arriving to the place where the class was going to be taught. In this way Sarmiento developed a platform such as Skype, while Moreno went to Silicon Valley to look for investors in their project. However one of their first partners was in Venezuela. Organization Cisneros let them air their ads in television time in exchange for company shares.
But what was the difference of this business that took them to success? As I wrote before one of the advantages of this business model is that the students don’t have to go to a classroom in a specific place and at an established hour. With Open English the students might connect when they want and in the place they want to receive a class that is taught by a teacher whose native language is English. The only thing they need is a good connection to the Internet. Other of the advantages of this model is that unlike most companies that teach English they can reach small towns. With this they conquer new markets that were also interested in learning English.
Besides their excellent business model, they had other characteristics that made them successful. One of these characteristics is they invest a lot of resources in publicity. The other characteristic is something we have mentioned many times in this blog. It is better to have a small part of a successful business that a whole company that is miserable. In this way Open English has more than a hundred partners, but in the same way they have had a lot of resources to invest.
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