Disenchanted with web advertising, ex-Googler starts real-time language learning site Fluentlee

For years, David Bebko, a lifetime marketer, harbored the dream of starting his own company. Yet in 2011, he ended up joining Google as the head of business marketing for Asia-Pacific, believing that if there’s one big company with an entrepreneurial spirit, it’s the search giant.

But everyone knows that in Google, engineers are king, and they do all the really fun stuff. Everyone else is secondary:

In my particular role, I came to realize that my dreams weren’t going to be fulfilled at Google. Great company, great people, but not for me.

David has a strong desire to build. As a marketer at IBM, he worked hand-in-hand with engineers to create a product roadmap. At the same time, he has also grown disenchanted with internet advertising, which has begun to dominate search engine results pages and social networks.

“I started caring more about making a difference, and I started caring less about advertising. Yes, I believe marketing has a role to play in the economy, but I wanted to do something noble,” he says.

So David left Google in 2012 to start Crowdworks, a Singapore- and Boston-based company with the long term vision of enabling real-time connections between learners and experts. Their first product is Fluentlee, a pay-to-play language learning site that’s like Craigslist and Skype combined.

David picked language learning through a mix of practicality and passion. For crowdsourced, real-time video lessons to work, a platform will need to keep out the creeps and ensure users feel secure. Unfortunately, that means fewer males.

Language learning, David finds, caters to both male and female audiences, with a slant towards the latter. Other skillsets, like plumbing or changing a flat tire (insert engineering here), are more likely to be dominated by male experts.

And since learners often prefer to seek out native language speakers, that means almost all the transactions are cross-border in nature, which minimizes the harm creeps can cause.

David himself is an avid language learner. A Singapore Permanent Resident whose family resides in the island state, he is getting his two daughters to learn Mandarin. Yet, he finds the lack of opportunities to have a conversation on everyday topics is a big obstacle to language learning.

While there’s an obscene amount of language learning tools online, Fluentlee’s conversational aspect sets it apart from the field. It aims to replicate the experience of immersing oneself in a village in China or going to a foreign supermarket to purchase groceries.

The site is designed to complement popular apps like Duolingo, which helps users learn a language by acting as translators. Also, users are best served if they already know a little bit of a language, since conversations can’t happen without foundational knowledge.

No free stuff

David wants to stay in Singapore, but…