Rónán is the founder of Deutsch Gym, an online community for learning German. He's making thousands in revenue from his startup which he made after moving to Berlin and wanting to improve his German language skills. Read on for his tips on making a community, marketing and building a marketplace.
Can you tell us about what Deutsch Gym is and your achievements so far?
Deutsch Gym is an online speaking platform for German learners. Members join to practice their German with other learners and also with native speakers. We provide interesting conversation topics everyday so there is always something to talk about.
Members pay a subscription that gives them access to the meetups and the community - they can pay either monthly or yearly. Our members come from all around the world and have moved to Germany for work or other reasons. You can hear great stories from the members about their culture.
My achievements would be it existing! Like many founders I have the scar tissue from many failed side-projects and companies so the fact that this one works and the members enjoy it makes me proud. On that note it is always especially nice when a member emails me unsolicited to tell me how Deutsch Gym has helped their German and their confidence.
Due to copycats I have become fairly tightlipped about sharing numbers - sorry to be boring! I have been living off it full-time for 2.5 years and we run 22 online meetups per week.
Were you solving your own problem when you made Deutsch Gym?
I was definitely solving my own problem - a problem many foreigners have today. When I began to take intensive German courses in Berlin a few years ago, I wanted to practice my German with locals in cafes and bars and the like. I quickly discovered however that they had no time for my broken German - they simply switched to English.
So out of frustration of not being able to practice my German in the wild, I started a free online group for German learners. What started out as being once per week for free grew to the stage where we now have multiple meetups per day, every day, for all levels. A lot of learners in Germany have the same problem I had.
It was an intense experience in the beginning as I led all the German meetups as a moderator, even though my level was intermediate at best. Eventually, of course, I hired native speakers to lead the groups so the learners could get the real experience of talking to a proper German speaker.
// pop-up with indie acquisitions offer