The pitch that forgot its manners

The role the investment assigned him had its first outing: needing users, testers, and fast iteration ▸ 44:41, they walked unannounced into the language school where he once studied English, offering students Severo free for months in exchange for feedback ▸ 44:55. The opening was a self-graded disaster: straight into “tengo esta aplicación,” everything he wanted, no greetings, until he caught himself mid-sentence and reset, “mucho gusto, yo soy Juan Pablo, ¿cómo te llamas?” ▸ 45:47, because the fast version sounded like aggressive sales ▸ 46:18.

The objection he met is one worth writing down, because every school will raise it: their business is teaching languages, and an app that teaches languages looks like their replacement, a concern he calls entirely valid ▸ 46:52. His counters: face-to-face teaching won’t be matched by AI’s feeling anytime soon ▸ 47:20, and Severo is a reinforcement between classes, not a substitute ▸ 47:41. Julia’s assist landed better: it’s not linear like Duolingo, and real life won’t offer you options A through D ▸ 48:43. Verdict: call back mid-February ▸ 48:12, which he reads honestly as more no than yes ▸ 49:52. The best argument arrived on the walk home: the school has never had an app, so Severo could be the extra in their student package, the thing that differentiates them from rival schools, “hubiera sido bueno decirlo en el momento” ▸ 50:17. Next: other schools ▸ 49:24.

el mejor argumento siempre llega en la caminata de vuelta →

The day’s other correction was internal. At the morning meeting the socio looked so demotivated, talking mostly about his outside opportunities, that they wrote him off ▸ 51:41, and then he spent the entire day pinging fixes and improvements, “se puso las pilas” ▸ 53:16, enough that the plan is now to hand him the backend, “no van a tocar a mi severito” ▸ 54:11, and buy more hours for user-hunting. People, once again, refusing to be predicted…