Sylvi

As founders, there are two things we know all founders hate:

1. Raising money (that’s ofc why we built quick pitch!)

2. Taxes

Thankfully, the guys at Syntax are using AI to mean you never need to worry if your accountant has done the tax bit wrong.

Because let’s face it, no one is ever 100% on their tax return.

We registered for early access as soon as they asked for a feature on quick pitch because who doesn’t want that peace of mind…

Syntax are giving quick pitch readers fastpass to the front of the early access waitlist and a 25% discount on first-year subscription fees.

Building a company is hard, make your life easier by cutting out the stress of your tax return

Meet the founder

• Founder (technical) and CEO, Tom Standen: Ex UCLA and Manchester University (MSc Physics). Ex IBM and McKinsey & Co.

The Market

• The language learning market is both large and in high growth and because of this it’s crowded but users are still tired of the lack of progress using popular apps.

This startup is solving one key problem:

• Language learners find that despite months or years of engagement with popular apps, they still struggle with real-world conversation.

• "I've got over a 2000 day streak on Duolingo, and it's been really useful at keeping my French up for five years, but I don't feel confident with conversations or speaking." Extract from customer survey.

Sylvi is a language learning app focusing on conversation, built for both AI and social messaging.

We get a tonne of applications from founders who want to be featured but either don’t quite make it.

We also speak to lots who want to to meet our network but don’t want to be public about their fundraising.

So, we’re thinking of providing you with a biweekly newsletter of all these startups and the most important bits with the option to get an intro.

This will be a paid newsletter but we want to see if there’s demand. Let us know below 👇

Quickfire

Traction Metrics: 

• Launched paid subscriptions on the app stores in July-24, now with:

  • >1k subscribers

  • >£50k ARR

  • >30% MoM MRR growth

  • 4.7/5 rating on the App Store, >200 reviews globally

• Creator-led marketing established as a key customer acquisition strategy. Highlight: Julia - @thepeliroja_

  • Views: 5.5m

  • Installs: 21.8k

  • CPI: £1.84

Competition

Competitor types:

• AI conversational tools (e.g. Praktika, Jumpspeak)

  • Sylvi provides more than just AI practice - practice with humans too

• Language exchange apps (e.g. HelloTalk, Tandem)

  • Sylvi lifts the barriers on traditional language partners - practice with anyone regardless of language and proficiency

• Popular existing apps (e.g. Duolingo, Memrise):

  • Sylvi serves a different market - intermediate and advanced learners looking for conversational practice, compared to beginners seeking low effort education and vocab expansion

Our take

Let the people decide

Last feature’s results

• The people have spoken: Our readers are undecided on Facture Vote in the poll above to see how your decision stacks up against thousands of founders, investors and operators.

• Here’s what you guys had to say: “More a personal interest investment”