Shira Rubin started Learn2Lingo.com last year. The recently launched online language school is now building on its successful trial period and seeking to gain key clients with language needs. Rubin tells us about her funding experience.

What’s the concept?
Technology is revolutionising the language industry. Learn2Lingo is an online platform for learning and teaching a language by webcam. The teacher and student can do it from anywhere in the world and we make it affordable to be taught by a high quality teacher without the need to travel, as often as users want. Lessons are also completely personalised. For example, international law firm Lovells deals a lot with clients in Germany while somebody else may want to focus a lesson on how to order a meal.

Why’s it unique?
There are a couple of others doing a similar thing. I think online language learning will be huge, with webcam becoming the way to learn and teach. We’re the only company in the UK to have partnered with language schools, so have a high volume of teachers as well as independent, experienced tutors. We’re also the only company to offer on-demand lessons, where you can view a tutor’s calendar and book a session.

Where are you now?
Prior to launch, we completed a trial with language schools. We were at the Language Show 2009 at Olympia and were the only company there to offer live tuition.

Where will you be in two years?
We aim to be the number one site for teaching languages – a marketplace for schools, teachers and learners. It’s specifically for one-to-one tuition. We also aim to have other sister projects that are not in this industry by replicating the platform.

Who’s backed you?
We’ve got five angel investors, two of whom are majority shareholders. Saul Rubin and Divian Mistry. Both are very successful and run their own businesses. They’re highly involved and have provided lots of contacts. We raised investment through the business angel network Envestors.

How much did you get?
£110,000.

When did you raise it?
February 2009. We started pitching for money in September 2008 – our first pitch was on the day Lehman Brothers went bust.

How long before the cheque cleared?
It cleared in April 2009.

What did it teach you?
The whole process taught us about investment in general. I had no idea before that. We explored all the other avenues of raising finance. The knowledge, expertise and support is equal to the amount you raise. It taught me about the legal process and structures of a company in terms of shareholders. I feel a lot easier going into it now. It gives you confidence in your idea because they’re backing it. The process of pitching a company is valuable. Angel investors highlight areas of weakness and focus on your strengths. You learn something new every time. Each investor looks for a different perspective and they’re quite probing. Our strategy from the beginning to now has changed quite a lot. The whole process was quite interactive. As a start-up it’s important to be flexible, agile and open to suggestions. I think the on-demand approach will be hugely successful but starting in that way is highly risky. We need critical mass quickly, and that would require a big marketing budget. We decided to strengthen the name and partner with language schools.

How has the money improved the business?
We’ve increased the size of the team and almost all of the team members have come through investor contacts. We’ve also strengthened and re-designed the platform.

Tell us something that would help another entrepreneur keep an investor happy?
Before you get investment make sure you have a good relationship with investors. Make sure it’s someone you want to work with. We had a long period of communication with investors from September and a strong idea of how each other worked. Be honest from the very beginning.

Why should we keep an eye on you?
We’re a cool company, fun and will be the way to learn a language.

A ‘Coolhunting Agency’ is how start-up Insider London describes itself. The business shows small tour-parties (no more than eight) an alternative side to the capital, or as the company puts it, lets them experience London ‘through the eyes of those in the know.’ There’s the Insider shopping tour, the architecture tour, gay tours, interior design tours, and custom-made bespoke tours. Founder Cate Trotter also offers sustainability focused ‘Quirky Tours’, featuring such oddities as streetlamps fuelled by sewage, and ‘pavements that eat pollution.’ ‘We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the interest’, says Trotter, who is impressed with ‘all the people offering help and assistance.’

Just launched is the new jewel in the company’s crown, the ‘cutting-edge green tour’, inspired by Trotter’s previous roles in ethical marketing. ‘There so much cool green stuff in London, but if you talk about sustainability, people just think you’re talking about recycling and organic food. It’s such a nice antidote to all this depressing stuff; there are so many inspiring examples of things that people didn’t know were green.’

Trotter is running the business alongside planning for the proper launch of Insider Trends – business focused tours of London that take inspiration from the creative buzz on London’s streets, as well as holding workshops and seminars to meet the company’s interests and challenges in an original way. Watch this space for more information.