10 Years of Mondly | 10 Stories – Story 1: Test & Learn

Dobré ráno. Jak se máte? Děkuji. 

Nothing about the Czech language was familiar. Working for IBM on his first assignment outside of Romania, Alex wanted to socialize outside of work, to travel to smaller towns, to build a beautiful life in a new place.  

Quickly followed by a second assignment in the Netherlands, he surrounded himself with MP3s and books about the methods of language learning. 

“Those few years sparked the idea that language learning didn’t have to be this super serious endeavor — there was a need for something that was easier to use and a little more informal”, explains Alex.  

A computer and an idea  

His return back to Romania coincided with the explosion of the smartphone.  

Both computer scientists by background, Alex and Tudor were fascinated by new technology, especially Steve Jobs and the iPhone. 

“Computer software was dominated by established players like Microsoft and Adobe,” remembers Alex, “but those giants weren’t really present in the AppStore in a meaningful way.”  

“The iPhone reset the field. Anyone with a computer and an idea could make something happen”. 

Thanks Mom 

In 2013, iPhone apps could only be built on a MacBook, and that came with a €1000 price tag.  

Alex and Tudor borrowed the money from their mom, then got to work.  

Working late into the evening around their day jobs, they read tutorials, quickly learning about the new technology and refining their edutainment app concepts. 

The first experiments  

One month of late nights and the brothers launched their first app, Coverfeed, in April 2013.  

“We started with simple language learning apps,” remembers Tudor. “Digital word and phrase books where you could play the audio, record yourself and listen back”.  

“By building small, simple apps we were able to understand not just the technology, but the market and the competition.  

“We could see there were things we could do better, so we set ourselves a goal: build the best language learning app in the world”. 

Going all in — fast 

With their initial experiments, Tudor and Alex had become the number one paid app in Romania. 

Having a steady revenue stream meant the brothers could leave their day jobs to work full time on their business, renting a one-room office space and taking on their first employee, Adrian Raduca, in November 2013. 

The newly formed team got together around a big piece of paper, sketching out a rapid development and launch process.  

Mondly would be ready in one month according to Alex — three if you asked Tudor.  

Mondly is born 

Six months later in May 2014, Mondly was officially launched. 

Available for iPhone and iPad in French and Spanish, those extra few months had been used to imagine and create many of the features you still see in the Mondly app today.  

From its design to its features, Mondly stood out compared to other apps on the market, quickly reaching 400,000 downloads by Christmas 2014. 

Dedication & passion 

The Mondly journey had begun, and for the dedicated team behind it, launching was just the start.  

“Adrian and I would wake up at 4 in the morning and be in the office by 5am to do the server migrations,” remembers Alex Negrila, who joined the team in November 2014. 

“If we wanted to launch something tomorrow, we’d stay up until 2am to make it happen. It didn’t feel like work – we were just having fun, learning new things. I’m glad to have been a part of that”, he concludes.  

Amazing foundations  

In less than two years, Mondly went from an idea to a fully functional app supported by a passionate team of eight in Brașov with half a million users around the world. 

“It was a few years of full amazement,” recalls Co-Founder Alex Iliescu. “We were amazed by what we came up with, then that we managed to do it, then to see people using it.” 

Initially a series of separate apps for each language, there were times when Mondly’s rising popularity turned the AppStore orange.   

“You’d go on the AppStore and just see orange icons everywhere. There were times when 25 of the top 50 apps were Mondly apps.  

“We broke the system”, he finishes. 

The journey towards being the best language learning app in the world had begun.  

THE MILESTONES 

• Coverfeed app launches (April 2013)  

• First employee (Nov 2013)  

• Mondly’s official launch (May 2014) 

• 400,000 downloads, 8 employees (Dec 2014)