Tongue Swap: A Language Exchange App

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Eric Helms

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

100000

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

4

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

An app that connects people who want to practice a new language. If you speak X and want to learn Y it will match you with someone who speaks Y and wants to learn X and assist in setting up a chat.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No Dependencies

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

No

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

I am a big fan of open source and previously, everything I have produced for the Cardano Community has been open source. However we want to make this product a success so while getting it off the ground, we may not open source it. All materials we produce such as language guides, homework, study guides, etc will all be open source and free for the Cardano Community to use in any way they like.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Tongue Swap is a web app that connects people who are interested in practicing a language with native speakers. There are many of us who are currently learning a new language but do not have many opportunities to practice. Either because they are not currently in a country that widely speaks the language we are practicing or perhaps they are shy and do not like to strike up conversations with strangers. That is where Tongue Swap becomes a valuable service. 

If you speak English and want to learn Spanish it will match you with someone who speaks Spanish and wants to learn English. The system will match you and assist you in scheduling a video chat where you speak 1 language for the first half and the other language for the second half. A list of questions and talking points is provided to guide the conversation and keep things interesting. If you and your match enjoy the conversation and would like to keep going that is great, keep scheduling time together to practice your languages. If you did not feel like it was a great experience no problem at all. Go back to the app and keep matching until you find the perfect practice partner. Or practice with a new person every time, whatever your preference is. 

Learning a new language is difficult. Its something that requires daily effort. But memorizing words and phrases, learning grammar rules, and watching TV in your new language isn’t sufficient. To truly excel and become successful in your language journey you must PRACTICE SPEAKING. There is just no way around this. I can tell you from my personal experience that my language learning did not really begin to take off until I started having regular speaking lessons. After a month or so of this it was like a light switch turned on and I could finally start speaking comfortably. And while these lessons to practice speaking are extremely helpful, they also cost about 6 dollars each for the most affordable options. 3 times a week and this starts to add up. This is what sparked the idea to launch this service so that our community can practice and learn while helping each other. 

V1 Minimum Viable Product (MVP) 

The first version that we are trying to fund through Project Catalyst will contain the following features and functionality. 

Account Creation

You will be able to create your own account with an email or have the option to login with your Cardano wallet. This is the first step to connecting with other language learners. 

Setup Profile

In order to get matched correctly, you must fill out your profile information. It is just a few basic questions so we understand which people to match you with and which times would work the best.

Receive Matches

The app will then match you with someone who matches the same criteria that you do. If you are an English Speaker who wants to learn Spanish, it will match you with a Spanish speaker who wants to learn English. The reason for this is the native speaker can help correct you if you need it and listening to native speakers is priceless during the learning process. And since you are both learning a new language together, there is not the normal embarrassment that comes with practicing with total strangers in everyday situations. You are both in the same boat, no need for embarrassment. An email will be sent to both of the email addresses that you have provided with a prompt for you to schedule your meeting within the timeframe you entered. The learners will then schedule a Google/Zoom Meeting and start practicing your language with a native speaker. 

Create Weekly Schedule

The app will create a weekly schedule off times available for your matches. Time zone will be auto-converted to your time zone to make everything clear. This will allow users to schedule times more easily. 

Zoom/Google Meets Integration

Once you have scheduled your language session, the system will automatically create a zoom meeting invitation and send it to both you and your matches email. 

Send Messages Between Matches

Users will be able to send text messages between their matches. This can be done to help with reading and writing in your native language or also to help coordinate for practice sessions. 

Send and Receive Voice Memos

Can be used for quick daily practice, coordinating meetings, etc. 

Professionally Prepared Content

We will have content for the participants to utilize during their practice sessions to help guide it and make it as effective as possible. Participants will not be expected to just chat and discuss their days. There are guiding questions to get you thinking and speaking in your new language in ways you might not have thought of normally. These will be created by a professional language teacher with several years of experience and hundreds of different lessons taught. 

How the Practice Sessions Run

Each practice session is scheduled for 30 minutes, although both participants can do it for longer or shorter if they prefer. Half the session will be held in the first language and half the meeting will be held in the second language. Included in the email that scheduled the meeting will be a guide for running an effective and educational meeting. It will include basic ice breaker information, guided questions, tips for how to help or correct your language partner, and fun games or exercises that you can play to help perfect aspects of the language. These have all been created by an expert language teacher with years of experience and thousands of successful online language classes taught. 

Few things to note:

1. There is zero expectation to turn your camera on during the meeting. If you both want to that is fine as it can improve the conversation, but there is zero expectation or pressure from either side.
2. We recommend that you give no personal details during the conversations. You can use a pseudonym instead of your real name, say your country but not specify your specific address or even city.
3. If you enjoyed the session you can continue to schedule language practice sessions together.
4. If you did not enjoy the session or thought it was not a good match, that is OK. Different people have different styles. Go back to the app and try to match again with someone new. There is no pressure or expectation to keep matching.
5. This is not a dating site. You are here to practice languages.

V1 Spanish Language Only

The V1 Minimum Viable Product (MVP) will be for English/Spanish only. These are two of the most spoken languages in the world, so that is our focus for the first version to keep things simple but still make a large impact. According to Busuu there are 1.13 Billion English speakers and 534 million Spanish speakers in the world. 

English being the most spoken language in the world, there is a large demand to learn and practice this language. Again according to Busuu, Twenty-two countries over four continents have Spanish as one of their official languages, and it’s already the second most studied language in the world. And that within three generations, 10 percent of the world’s population will be able to communicate in Spanish. So with English and Spanish being the top two studied languages in the world, it is a clear choice for the V1 MVP.

One of our team members has been teaching Spanish for years and is developing the course work and conversation prompts that will guide the participants and ensure they are able to maximize their time and get as much benefit from the process as possible. Once this has been mastered for English/Spanish, she will begin expanding the course work to other popular languages. 

Monetization

This is a very important concept that is often overlooked or left out entirely. How do we plan to monetize this?

Free Basic Version: The most important thing for an app like this is building users. If there are only a handful of people using it, there are not many people who you can be matched with and the product is not very useful. So there will be a basic version of the app that will be free to use. It will allow people to match with others but that is about it. It will also limit the number of matches or meetings you can have in a month. If people are enjoying it and getting benefit from it, there will be two other paid versions that they can consider which will also provide additional features.

Monthly Subscription: We would need to do a detailed estimate of all of our costs to know exactly what we would have to charge, but the plan is to be something low at 5 dollars or less per month. The benefit of this is that it provides access outside of just the Cardano community. The more people who are using this product, the better it is. Limiting it to only the NFT holders would limit the number of people you are able to match with. Also, part of the goal is to promote and grow the Cardano network. A product like this can bring in people who are unaware that it has any affiliation to blockchain technology and are simply looking for a way to practice their language. But then from interacting with the site, they can see the connection to Cardano which sparks further interest and starts them down the path to blockchain adoption. 

However, there will also be an option to pay with ADA instead of with fiat. The ADA price will be set at 50% of the fiat price, encouraging all of these people who use the app to look into Cardano, purchase ADA, and create wallets in order to receive the discount. This has the benefit of increasing ADA transactions but also, once they are in the ecosystem it can lead to them utilizing many of our other wonderful dapps and products. 

LifeTime NFT Access: The last options will be to purchase an NFT that will grant lifetime access to the application and to all features. An additional benefit is we will have learning materials created that people can work on in there free time that help them learn the languages. Similar to exercises or homework that can help you along your path to language learning. These would be stored in a token gated folder that you can only access if you hold the NFT.

Marketing

We want this product to be a success and bring tons of new users to Cardano. And to do this, we cannot simply rely on the current Cardano Community to use this or spread it by word of mouth. We need to actively promote it outside of our normal channel and reach people who are not currently involved in Cardano or crypto. We are reaching a vast market of people who want to practice a new language, and through our service they will end up learning about Cardano. 

To achieve this goal, we plan to advertise on popular social media channels such as Instagram, Youtube, Tik Tok, or Facebook. All advertisements will show our product but also make it clear that this is a Cardano product. So every dollar we spend on advertises helps our product, but it will also help put Cardano in front of thousands of new people who might not have been aware of it otherwise. Killing two birds with one stone. In addition there will be educational articles posted on Medium about the product and how to use it, tips for a better experience, explanations of its usefulness, and things of that nature. And of course posts from our own Twitter account and to the Cardano Reddit account. 

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

In what way will the success of your project bring value to the Cardano Community? 

First off, this project will have a positive impact on Cardano by brining in new users. The key to brining in new users is to create useful products that solve real world problems. The average person does not need the most cutting edge DEX because they do not hold any crypto. But as we have already demonstrated, there is a huge number of people who are currently learning languages and are looking for tools to make that easier. By providing and marketing something they can use to achieve that goal, we are bringing them into our ecosystem and they do not even have to be aware of it. Once they are there and using the app they can see its connection to Cardano which can spark further interest in seeing what else this ecosystem has to offer.

And speaking of marketing, we included xxx in the marketing budget. This will go to ad campaigns on Instagram or other popular social medias. The adds will advertise our product but will also mention Cardano. We are not building something just for the Cardano ecosystem here (although they can definitely use it). We are building something that your average person has a need for. This is how we bring in new users to Cardano. By targeting people who are not currently into crypto with something that can actually improve their lives. 

Secondly, Cardano is a global community. We have people in hundreds of countries all over the world. Having something like this will strengthen our community, allow us to collaborate and learn together, make new friends, learn about new cultures, and improve our ability to speak a new language.

How will you measure this impact?

Here are some KPIs' that we will use to measure and assess the impact our project has made.

Number of daily/monthly unique visitors: This will be one of the most important metric we use to measure the impact of this project. How many daily/monthly visits we are getting to the app. The higher this number is, the more people are seeing our product and becoming more aware of Cardano. Our goal would be to have over 10,000 per month for the first 6 months.

Number of accounts created: This is another extremely important metric. People visiting the app is important, but them actually making accounts and using it is crucial. Our goal would be to have 100 new accounts created per month for the first 6 months.

Monthly Milestones completed on schedule: As this is a Catalyst Project, we will be completing milestones each month to stay on track. Our goal is to meet every milestone listed on schedule.

How will you share the outputs and opportunities that result from your project?

We plan to share the outputs and opportunities that result from our project on Twitter, Medium, and on the Cardano Reddit. The methods we will use will be Medium articles, Youtube Videos, Tweets, Reddit Posts and anything else that seems appropriate.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

I have been participating in Project Catalyst for over 3 years now (since February 2021). During that time I have been funded for 4 separate proposals in three different rounds (5, 6, 8, & 11). And I am proud to say that 3 of those projects were completed and delivered and 1 is still ongoing and has met every milestone on time. The close out videos are copied below to evidence this. So I would start answering this question by looking at my track record in previous Catalyst rounds to show that I have been delivering on my proposals with high levels of trust and accountability for years now.

In addition to participating in Project Catalyst as a proper, I have also been a Community Advisor (assessing Catalyst proposals and assigning a score) since 2021, I have been a Milestone Reviewer (reviewing and approving Statement of Milestones and Proof of Achievements for funded proposers) Since F10, and am currently participating in the Catalyst Working Groups as a host (event May 22, Please join if you like: https://lu.ma/q69deuq8).

NOTE: If you look us up using the LIDO Nation tool, you will see a few other projects that we are associated with. These are things like the Audit Circle or of Token Vesting Dapp. This is something that one of our team members helped out with and so is included on the proposal but that we do not collect funds from.

F8 Close out video:

https://youtu.be/8nZIGvcoqpg

F5 Close out Video:

https://youtu.be/aG22acr_8HY

F6 Close out Video:

https://youtu.be/EfS-eBq6zyg

In addition, I am a CPA who has over a decade of experience. I am extremely financially literate and excel at creating and sticking to budgets, making financial plans, managing money, and all of the other skills needed to ensure that these funds are properly managed and spent.

How do we intend to validate if our approach is feasible?

This project has been well planned, giving clear milestones of what will be delivered and when. But we have also done extensive research on the language learning market to confirm that there is demand for what we are trying to build.

As you can see in the above image, according to Global Market Insights  the market for language learning in 2022 was $52.7 Billion Dollars. And it is expected to grow over 20% from 2023 to 2032, with a 2032 projected market size of $337.2 Billion Dollars. This is clearly a lucrative market that is growing bigger each day. In addition, Techcrunch.com states “Roughly 1.2 billion people worldwide are currently learning a foreign language.” Again, this illustrates the massive size of this market and number of people who would be interested in this product. 

The above bar graph shows this growth visually along with the growth for specific languages that we expect to see over the next decade. You can see from the graph that English and Spanish are the largest two languages forecasted for the next ten years. And these are the languages that our team speaks natively and can provide the most direct support and materials early on. However, the plan is for the app to serve all languages so that it is open and available for all. 

We hope that this demonstrates the viability of our product. The market that we are building it for is massive with literally a billion people who could use this service. This is not some small niche. We believe that this fills a real world use that is desperately needed and could become extremely popular. 

Source: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/language-learning-market#:~:text=Language%20Learning%20Industry%20Analysis,for%20employees%20with%20language%20skills.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

This first Milestone will be getting everything ready to launch and kick off the project. It will involve forming the LLC that will be the legal entity for the project and securing the domain that we will be using for the web application.

Delivery Time: End of Month 1

Milestone Outputs: 

A: Form LLC for project 

B: Purchase Website Domain for project

Acceptance Criteria: 

A: An LLC has been formed in the United States complete with Articles of Organization

B: Web domain for the app has been purchased

Evidence of Completion:  

A: The receipt from the Secretary of State showing the LLC has been filed and paid, and the Articles of Organization for the LLC will be provided using a google doc or google drive. 

B: The receipt for the website domain will be provided using a google doc or google drive. 

The second milestone will be the delivery of the main functionality of the app. With this milestone, most of the key features and functionality will be completed and available to test.

Delivery Time: End of Month 2

Milestone Outputs: 

A: Create account

B: Select languages spoken

C: Select languages learning

D: Get a list of people to invite to match

E: Receive matches

F: Send messages between matches

Acceptance Criteria: 

A: A user can create an account

B: A user can select which language they speak

C: A user can select which language they are learning

D: A user can receive a list of people to invite to match

E: A user can receive matches

F: A user can send messages between matches

Evidence of Completion:  

A: A demonstration video showing an account can be created along with the link to the test version will be provided.

B: A demonstration video showing a user can select which language they speak along with the link to the test version will be provided.

C: A demonstration video showing a user can select languages learning along with the link to the test version will be provided.

D: A demonstration video showing a user can get a list of people to invite to match along with the link to the test version will be provided.

E: A demonstration video showing a user can receive matches along with the link to the test version will be provided.

F: A demonstration video showing a user can send messages between matches along with the link to the test version will be provided.

The third milestone will be delivering more of the key functionality of the App

Delivery Time: End of Month 3

Milestone Outputs: 

A: Cardano Wallet + pin login

B: Send and receive voice memos

C: Create a weekly schedule of times available, which are auto converted for the other user to see in their time zone, allowing users to schedule times more easily 

Acceptance Criteria: 

A: A user can login to the app with their Cardano Wallet

B: A user can send and receive voice memos

C: The app can create a weekly schedule of times available which are auto converted for the other user to see in their time zone.

Evidence of Completion:  

A: A demonstration video showing a user can login to the app with their Cardano wallet along with the link to the test version will be provided.

B: A demonstration video showing a user can send and receive voice memos along with the link to the test version will be provided.

C: A demonstration video the app can create a weekly schedule of times available which are auto converted for the other user to see in their time zone along with the link to the test version will be provided.

The final milestone will be to deliver the completed app, along with the zoom or google meets integration, and submit the final project completion report and video which officially closes out the proposal.

Delivery Time: End of Month 4

Milestone Outputs: 

A: Zoom or Google Meets Integration

B: A final project completion report and video which meets all the Catalyst requirements for time, length, and content.  

Acceptance Criteria: 

A: The app has integrated Zoom or Google Meets to assist in scheduling meetings between matches.

B: The project completion report and video must meet all Catalyst requirements for time, length, and content. 

Evidence of Completion:  

A: A demonstration video showing the application has integrated Zoom or Google meets to help with scheduling meetings between matches along with a link to the rest version will be provided. 

B: A link to the closeout report which is hosted on google docs will be provided along with the URL to the video which will be hosted on YouTube. 

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Eric Helms - Eric is a Certified Public Accountant who has spent the last 10 years working in Corporate Audit from both the public and private side. He is passionate about blockchain and its ability to make society and business fairer and more transparent for everyone. He has been a Community Advisor (assessing Catalyst proposals and assigning a score) since 2021, a Milestone Reviewer (reviewing and approving Statement of Milestones and Proof of Achievements for funded proposers) Since F10, and is currently participating in the Catalyst Working Groups as a host (event May 22, Please join if you like: https://lu.ma/q69deuq8). He is also the founder of Smart Contract Audit Token, a project that has been active in Cardano since 2021 and was funded in Project Catalyst starting in Fund 5. https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-helms-cpa-97866a3b/

Oliver - Oliver has a background of working with multinational enterprises finding solutions for their IT needs and automating processes. In his free time, he is an active investor in traditional Stocks & ETFs, and an economics nerd who listens to too many podcasts. https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-watts-sydney/

Diana Lizcano - With over five years of dedicated experience in teaching Spanish, Diana has conducted over 3100 private lessons, shaping a dynamic and effective approach to language instruction. Holding a professional background in Marketing and International Business, complemented by a master's degree in Innovation and Business Development, she brings a unique blend of expertise to the realm of education. Her commitment to excellence is evident in my consistently high average review rating of 4.8, reflecting the satisfaction and progress of my students. Her teaching philosophy revolves around empowering learners by addressing their individual needs and filling knowledge gaps, ensuring a personalized and impactful learning journey. Her primary focus remains on motivating students to embrace the Spanish language, fostering a deep understanding of its nuances, cultural richness, and practical applications in today's global landscape.

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

App Development - $15,000 38,961 ADA

Time – 4 months $3,750 per Month

This is this cost to develop the MVP of the app. The MVP will plan to have the following functionality.

• Create account

• Cardano wallet or email used for login/account

• select languages spoken

• select languages learning

• get a list of people to invite to match

• receive matches

• send messages between matches

• send and receive voice memos between matches

• Create a weekly schedule of times available, which are auto converted for the other user to see in their time zone, allowing users to schedule times more easily 

• Zoom/Google Meet integration

Language Guided Materials - $1,500 3,896 ADA

Time – 4 months/16 weeks, 20 hours per week @ 4.68 dollars per hour 

We are not only providing the app to connect language learners. There will also be materials to help facilitate the meetings and guide the conversations, as well as general study materials that can assist in studying your new language. As mentioned above, this first version will be focusing on Spanish/English only and then expand to additional languages. The cost here is for a professional Spanish teacher to create these materials. 

Project Management - $4,000 10,389 ADA

Time – 4 months $1,000 per Month

This would include processing monthly expenses for costs that we

incur (servers, domain fees, etc) as well as doing the monthly bookkeeping for

these. It would also include the time spent attending Catalyst meetings, preparing

our monthly Catalyst reporting, preparing close out reports and videos, and

everything else related to that. As well as monitoring this project, the people

participating in it, and ensuring everything stays on schedule and on

budget. 

Marketing - $12,000 31,169 ADA

Time – 6 to 12 months

6 to 12 months is included as the time frame because the marketing for something like this doesn’t end at the end of the proposal when the app is delivered. That is when it really begins in full force. To achieve this goal, we plan to advertise on popular social media channels such as Instagram, Youtube, Tik Tok, or Facebook. All advertisements will show our product but also make it clear that this is a Cardano product. So every dollar we spend on advertises helps our product, but it will also help put Cardano in front of thousands of new people who might not have been aware of it otherwise. Killing two birds with one stone. 

Costs to Advertise with Various Social Medias 

Instagram Average Cost per Click $0.20 to $2.00

TikTok Average Cost per Click $1.00 ($500 minimum per campaign)

Facebook Average Cost per Click $0.44

In addition there will be educational articles posted on Medium about the product and how to use it, tips for a better experience, explanations of its usefulness, and things of that nature. And of course posts from our own Twitter account and to the Cardano Reddit account.

Operating Expenses - $6,000 15,585 ADA

Time - 6 months $1,000 per month

This would include the costs to keep the platform up and running. Platform fees, server fees, Domain Registration, and ongoing support for end. The proposal has 4 months to be delivered and then we have budgeted 6 additional months to cover operating expenses before requiring additional sources of revenue. 

Price of ADA = .385

Total ADA = 100,000

$38,500

Note: We used a Price of ADA of $0.385 in the calculation of this budget, which is about 17% lower than the current price of ADA at the time of writing (0.45). Since ADA price is always fluctuating and our expenses are in USD, we calculated with this buffer to ensure we could complete the project as promised if the price of ADA continues to drop. During the last 6 months we have seen a low of.335 and a high of .79, but it has been on a downtrend since it hit its high and it is possible it can continue to drop. With a budgeted price of .385 we are confident that we would be able to continue and complete what we have promised here regardless of what the actual price of ADA reaches over the next several months as we are completing the proposal. 

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

We believe that what we are proposing here represents a high value for the funding we are requesting. I have already outlined the market size that something like this reaches and the benefits to Cardano by brining in new users who would not normally be looking for a lending app or NFT store or typical products that you would find in blockchain. So now let me comment on typical costs for the wages in our countries. 

The two main people who will be working on this project live in Australia and the United States, which are both extremely high cost of living areas. We have budgeted $3,750 for 4 months for a developer to be working full time in building the app. The average annual salary for software developer jobs in Australia ranges from $95,000 to $115,000 per year according to Seek (https://www.seek.com.au/career-advice/role/software-developer/salary). At $3,750 per month that would equal $45,000 dollars per year, or less than half of the low end of the range. 

For the project Management. The other items such as Project Management, Operating Expenses, and Marketing have all been calculated to provide what we need but at the lowest possible cost. The costs for the Spanish materials have been calculated with an hourly rate of $4.68 per hour. The teacher typically charges $5 per hour for private lessons, which is typical in Colombia, so has offered a discounted rate from what they would normally charge.