WhatsAppen met Gezi Fu

19-04-2018 (13:25) - Appen met

Digitaal Bureau GRRR investeert ook in start-ups, zoals in Ananas, de app waarmee je als een soort Tinder mensen kunt ontmoeten om een taal te leren, in plaats van naar een saaie cursus te gaan. De app is sinds kort online, en ook genomineerd voor allerlei prijzen. Genoeg reden om contact op te nemen met eigenaar en oprichtster Gezi Fu.

 

WhatsApp-status: Alles ist möglich!



Hello there!

Hihi good morning beautiful!!! How are you?


Yes doing great. So let's start. Could you tell me about how you started with Ananas?

I started Ananas in November 2016, and the company was registered with kvk in February 2017.
It is a language app that functions similarly to a combination of Tinder and Airbnb.


Yes, I guessed it was a little Tinder-like too. 
Great way to meet new people.
So we have language exchange (which is similar to how Tinder works that people meet and exchange their languages for free ) and PRO lessons (which is similar to airbnb where people can offer their native language for a price).


I did read all about Ananas being nominated for the Accenture Innovation award.
We were nominated not only for accenture but also PWC. And recently we were also nominated by Product Hunt. 


In what way has the Amsterdam Agency GRRR been instrumental? Have they invested in the app, too?
 Tell me how it went, did you contact them?
They created the brand identity, designed out website, and the app itself. Yes, i googled ‘top 10 digital agency in Holland’, and they were in the list. I called 5 of the agencies, and met up with 3, grrr was the last one I met with. 


Nice!

It was kind of a experience back then tbh. Most of these kind of top lear digital firms are very expensive including grrr, and they are usually not interested. 


So how did you convince them?

I lived in 5 continents, and has always been a international/expat my entire life. So i had a lot of insight and experience in this topic. I know how it can work. So I approached grrr with the app’s idea and why I think it is going to be a success and a road map with all the markets i am planing on entering and targeting. Which helped Grrr see the long term benefit and potential of Ananas locally and internationally. When I approach all these digital firms, my goal was to as them to start working on Ananas with a friendly price and I pay them little by little. But when I ask Grrr’s owner, Rolf Coppens, what is the price to start the Ananas project, he smiled and told me I wont be able to afford it. :) but the next thing he said was he would like to invest. 


Very nice.

They are. We are a very tight team. Grrr and my developers. We work closely together and come up with plans and objectives for Ananas. Currently, we just went live for 3 and half weeks, without any major marketing we have now 1300+ downloads. Although we still need more locals (Dutch friends) to join the Ananas Club to help internationals in town to learn Dutch while earning some cash.


And your buisnessmodel is to make money via the paid language lessons? Taking a part of the fees?

I really want to encourage the potential friendship that might occur during the meet ups. For example, if after my dutch lesson with you, you feel that you enjoyed the time talking to me, then you might decide not to charge me at all and I will just pay for your coffee. In that case, we created a international friendship, which is my main mission of the app. So the business model of the app is: That PRO profile owners(people who gets paid for teaching), pays us €3.99 per month( which is the price of a cappuccino) and they are free to have as many lessons as they want and earn as much cash as they want. The more lessons they held, the more cash they can earn, and the more internationals can get helped. 


Well the app looks really nice and useful and am looking to improve my French so you never know :) 
Many thanks for your time!
No problem. Thank you for your interest in Ananas.