Female Founders: Karyn A Koven of Language Bird On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
You will work harder for longer than you ever have. The sheer hours, travel, talking, meetings, thinking, and creating. Most of it I find fun but there is no secret that a lot is just getting work done. It’s work. Find some joy in about 50–80% of it, the rest is grit.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Karyn A. Koven.
Dr. Karyn A. Koven founded and directs LanguageBird. Curriculum building, best practices in college counseling, teaching and articulation with universities across the world has been her niche specialty for nearly two decades. Dr. Koven has been a high school administrator, counselor and teacher. She has visited over 100 colleges domestically and internationally and has helped thousands of students get admitted to the top universities in the world.
World language courses are required for acceptance into four-year colleges however, in her experience, she witnessed a lack of options for her own students and online courses for world language learning simply do not work as well without the conversation component and a teacher interacting spontaneously with the student. She believes firmly that learning a language requires constant interaction and speaking not just listening and repeating. LanguageBird® was born from the concept of providing live instruction from high quality teachers but with the convenience of an online classroom. The goal is for students to have high quality, personalized, standards-based, college-preparatory world language classes anywhere -even out of their own home.
Dr. Koven earned her undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from UCLA.
Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’m a life-long learner and educator. I always wanted to work with kids and teach. I used to round up the neighborhood kids who were playing handball and riding bikes and sit them in my pretend classroom in our family living room. My parents always laughed that I somehow got kids to sit and pay attention, and even do homework, rather than play outside! I’m a caretaker and I love learning.
I attended the University of Wisconsin and majored in English and Journalism and had a few experiences in broadcast news and advertising. My heart was always in teaching and when Los Angeles schools had a teacher shortage and started a program to get credentialed as you worked, I jumped out of advertising with the opportunity to work with high school students.
I started as an English teacher at a comprehensive high school where I also taught writing and journalism. I found myself helping my students with college essays and really enjoyed assisting them with the college application process. I love to be a part of the transition period between being a teen to making decisions like where to go to college, what to major in and how to pay for it as a young adult. I decided to enter a certificate online program at UCLA in college counseling. Online learning in 2002 was not the same as it is now! I just really wanted to know how to best help my students get to college and at the time, knowing more about college admissions was key.
I met mentors who selected me for the opportunity to be part of the founding faculty of High Tech LA, a charter school in the San Fernando Valley. For over 15 years, I enjoyed working very hard as a teacher, counselor, college counselor, training and hiring teachers, writing curriculum, starting an internship program, and fundraising. I was fortunate to try it all! I learned from truly great educators and thrived with a passionate staff and a common vision for education. What I didn’t know at the time was that the work we had been doing in founding the school was entrepreneurial and a school is a business. I loved creating new programs to best serve students. I just didn’t know at the time that it could lead me into the business world.
During my time at High Tech LA, I pursued my doctorate in Educational Leadership from UCLA. I was interested in online learning and initially proposed my dissertation on the topic as it related to secondary studies. At that time, there was little research in the area and my committee urged me to change my proposal. I strongly believed that online learning would soon play a huge and influential part of secondary education. I switched my research to a college counseling focus and how to create a college-going culture for students who were first generation to colleges in the U.S. I was always drawn to online learning as a solution for the problems schools were facing in a new digital age of trying to best prepare students for the future.
One of the things I discovered was that even at a distinguished school, we were limited as to course and program offerings in particular languages. This was due to space, budget, and staff. Many of our students were taking Spanish when they already spoke that language at home. When I tried to put them on approved software to expand course offerings, I saw they were not learning the language due to lack of engagement. Learning a language is not the same without interaction and the ability to see how it can be fun and practical in the future.
I thought, “What if I could bring experienced and high-quality instructors to these students via video chat for a more personalized and immersive experience to learn language and culture?” I started outside of my school by writing a Spanish curriculum, hiring two teachers, and going through the process of approval and accreditation. I soon enrolled a few students. I think my goal was 10 students that first year. The process of accreditation is not easy. They certainly take you to task, but it is assurance of a high-quality academic program. I transitioned to working part time at my school and once I earned the highest marks for accreditation, I decided it was time to leave my school to pursue growing LanguageBird full time.
It’s hard to believe that only 7 years later, we have served over six thousand students!
They love the effective, one-to-one personalized and flexible instruction LanguageBird offers and the choice of 15 world languages. High school course offerings can’t compare to our options or individualized program. Our teachers enjoy the flexibility and relationship building with students to share their language and culture. Word of mouth spread, and we took off from there. The pandemic accelerated our growth by making online learning more accepted as a viable and even preferred way for many students to learn. LanguageBird was named a fastest growing company in America, and we continue to expand in terms of offerings and partnerships.
My motivation comes from providing a great educational solution to kids and helping to expose students to languages and cultures they otherwise wouldn’t be able to study. I also love that I can provide fantastic teachers all over the world with the opportunity to teach from anywhere and improve their practice through our professional development opportunities.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
The people I have been meeting along the way have been the most interesting to me. I have the good fortune of working with educated, cultured, international people who speak multiple languages and many times have lived in multiple countries. LanguageBird teachers are exceptional at what they do, but they are also interesting people! LanguageBird focuses on building a relationship between the student and teacher for the most effective instruction.
The first teacher I hired is an Argentinian scientist, artist, and doctor living in Spain. She works late nights and loves to connect with our students about their similarities and differences. They talk about their dogs on the farm and her artwork. The second teacher hired was in the Venezuelan military. He didn’t have much teaching experience, but he was a natural. Over the years, his role has evolved into a mentor teacher for some and a technology leader for others. Another teacher is Italian and lived in Brussels where she learned French and married her South Korean husband. She now lives in Seoul and is a television celebrity there. She teaches our students because she loves to teach Italian and French. There are many life stories within our organization’s staff that are fascinating to me. I love to hear about people’s paths and passions.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I reached out on LinkedIn very early on to the founder of a very large school. I thought they would be the perfect partner for LanguageBird. I thought, “I’m going straight to the top. They need us to offer better options for their students and this will really get LanguageBird going!” I look back now and think how incredibly bold I was to have not had many students or the staff to support a partnership like that and to have just reached out to the founder. She informed me she was still involved but had sold the school. We continued the conversation, and I am so grateful I met her. She has been instrumental in my confidence and success. The school partnership hasn’t happened yet, but I did make a great friend and mentor by reaching up and out. I learned that when you make connections and have something of value and high quality that helps people, people will help you. I also learned the importance of reaching out before you are ready and when opportunity comes, you will figure it out.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My parents have both been encouraging to me. My dad has experience in his career of starting his own school years ago which aligns in many ways to what I’m doing now. Also, my late mentor, Roberta Weintraub, encouraged me to apply to my doctoral program. I wasn’t sure why I should do it and she said, “You need to go because you will need it someday and now is the time do it.” She pushed me and always had confidence in my abilities and future capabilities.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
In the past, I don’t think there were as many examples or stories about female founders. Very generally speaking, women may be more mission focused than money focused. Reframing thinking to be about the mission that can be accomplished with funding rather than what can be done with funding is crucial. In other words, put the mission before the money and it may be more meaningful to many women.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
Overcoming any obstacles depends on education, more support, funding, and opportunities for women that start earlier in their lives. I also think it’s important for women to be role models and mentors for other women. All my mentors are/were women and I’m currently a member of Women Presidents Organization (WPO). The ability to bring questions to the table when everyone sitting at the table is a woman completely changes the dynamic. Women are excellent mentors and learning from the real-world experiences and connections of others is key to anyone’s success.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder, but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
It’s important to have women contribute to all areas of society. It goes without saying that different points of view are critical to creating all products and services. Women have a unique perspective and different experiences that they can bring to the table to make meaningful change and support society.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
There may be the idea out there that founders are less involved. That may be the case for some or at some point, but I am deeply involved and committed to every part of my business and to every member of my team. I think about it all the time. There is always a new challenge, something to grow, and something to create and analyze. I love creatively solving problems and learning new things. I think those are key characteristics to enjoying the ride of being a founder.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I don’t think everyone should be a founder. You can be a significant and impactful leader without being a founder. Every founder needs the support of very knowledgeable and hardworking hands. One of the things I acknowledge is that I need to have a team around me of people who are much better than me at certain things. Many people want to be a part of something they believe in that is larger than themselves, where they can create and make a difference. You don’t need to be a founder to do that.
Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- You will work harder for longer than you ever have. The sheer hours, travel, talking, meetings, thinking, and creating. Most of it I find fun but there is no secret that a lot is just getting work done. It’s work. Find some joy in about 50–80% of it, the rest is grit.
- You will care more about this project than you ever thought you would. You will not carry your idea to success without a deep belief that what you are doing is meaningful and important. I’m also motivated by helping others to learn, as well as mentoring employees and teachers to be better at what they do.
- You will learn more skills from this experience than you ever did in school. You hopefully learn how to think, analyze and ask good questions in school. There are just so many areas to learn and tend to in a business. You can’t master them all. Work with a great team and learn enough to know what they are doing to help you.
- Find a singular focus and dig deeply there for a while. I love to brainstorm and think of all the fun things we can do but it scatters your attention at times. Most often, it’s been helpful to focus on one or two things at a time to see if they have legs. Focusing on too many things keeps you too shallow and you need to dig deep to see if something works.
- Continue to read and learn from others. I think it’s clear I’m a life-long learner. I love to read and listen to podcasts. I have so much to learn from others and often they say things in ways you can adapt to what you are doing that are incredibly helpful.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I love what I have created with LanguageBird and what we do every day. We are helping people gain a broader world perspective and enable them to connect with each other. Our students are primarily middle and high school students and their interactions with our teachers are some of their first exposures to other languages and cultures. I’m proud LanguageBird offers languages they can’t find in their traditional schools. This enables them to explore a heritage language or an interest in a culture and people far from what they know. I think travel and interacting with people from different parts of the world expands your creativity and worldview. I hope LanguageBird students will be inspired to continue to learn languages and reach out to people who are different than themselves.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
It would be a movement to be open to changing, growing, and learning at any age and throughout life. LanguageBird attracts learners of all ages and I’m incredibly motivated by adults who come wanting to rekindle studies and travels they took or wanted to take in the past. Also, there is clearly a relationship between language learning, travel, culture studies and being open-minded and aware world citizens.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to have a conversation with Luis von Ahn, the founder of Duolingo. I think we are obviously like-minded, and I really respect his mission-driven company and dedication to change language learning globally and give everyone a chance to learn for free. Democratizing education is an important value to me. I would love LanguageBird to work with Duolingo in the future to provide the one thing they don’t provide, live, real-time interaction with an instructor in the language to take skills to the next level. I think our services are complimentary and our missions are aligned.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Karyn A Koven of Language Bird On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.