The Start:

Taylor Nieman, the founder of Toucan, had a rich background in technology and startups before venturing into language learning.

She previously worked at Headspace, where she gained valuable insights into consumer-facing tech products, and had also been involved in other tech ventures, honing her skills in product development and user engagement.

The Problem:

Taylor realized that traditional language learning methods were often time-consuming and ineffective for many people.

She saw an opportunity to create an immersive experience that seamlessly integrated language learning into users' everyday online activities.

With this vision, she launched Toucan, a browser extension that translates selected words on web pages, helping users learn new languages contextually and continuously without interrupting their normal browsing habits.

Getting the first customers:

The initial version of Toucan offered a terrible user experience—it could only translate the word “the” from English to Spanish, and even that wasn’t accurate.

To validate their idea, Taylor and the team visited coffee shops in LA, asking random people to download the Toucan browser extension, use it, and provide feedback.

After gathering initial feedback from these encounters, Brandon, Shaun, and Taylor went back to develop the product further.

They created an initial dictionary of 200 core words, instead of just one, allowing the extension to sprinkle these words throughout the user's browser.

This helped people learn a new language in the context of content they were already reading and interested in.

Taylor also targeted popular subreddits, contacted moderators, demonstrated the product, explained exactly what they intended to do, and requested feedback. Additionally, Taylor actively shared their progress and development on Twitter.

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