Apply to SpeakAbout this role
As go-to-market lead of the Mandarin countries, you will be responsible for growing our main line of business, launching new countries, and full owning execution and strategy in-market. Speak has rapidly become the #1 English app in Korea by almost every measure and the business line has well surpassed $10M in annual revenue with nearly 4% of South Koreans signed up to date. 2023 is already our most exciting year of growth to date with a huge slate of initiatives and new markets scheduled to launch + grow.
As GTM, you will be in charge of leading and growing our Mandarin efforts, building on what works in existing markets and adding localized marketing and strategy to succeed with a new audience.
At Speak, we believe strongly in the idea of having a strong local leader who can autonomously execute our strategy in a way that is highly localized to the market. As a result of this, it’s crucial this person has a strong relationship with our leadership team in SF and is able to be an effective bridge between central resources and local execution.
This role is highly entrepreneurial and therefore it’s likely the candidate will have previously started a company or may be interested in starting something in the future.
What you’ll be doing
Identify the biggest growth opportunities and lead strategic initiatives for Mandarin countries
Own the performance of Mandarin countries across all key metrics
Formulate a cohesive market strategy and spearhead the effort to grow the Mandarin market and launch new individual regions
Lead the quarterly planning process and be responsible for performance goals
Serve as the link between the Mandarin team and the SF office (headquarter)
Communicate product needs to HQ, work closely with product/engineering to deliver on them
Build strong relationships with cross-functional global teams
Establish policies that promote company culture and vision
Coach, mentor, and develop team members to achieve business objectives and ensure team motivation
What we’re looking for
Should have at least 7-10 years of experience in tech startups
Must be fluent in verbal and written communication skills in both English and Mandarin, including the ability to cultivate internal and external relationships
Strong track record of achieving goals and exceeding business expectations
Experience being involved in high-growth, high-impact projects
A demonstrated ability to establish, maintain and grow business relationships successfully, with an emphasis on marketing and business
Start-up experience strongly preferred
Able to be comfortable with ambiguity
Strong leadership qualities with the ability to build high-performance teams.
Someone who is passionate about the problem and mission we're trying to solve
Willing to travel as needed to HQ (San Francisco, CA)
Why work at Speak
Join a fantastic, tight-knit team at the right time: we're growing super quickly, we just raised our Series B and an additional extension from some of the top investors in the valley, and we've achieved product-market fit in our initial markets. You'd join at a magical time when a single person could significantly change the course of the company.
Do your life's work with people you’ll love working with: we care strongly about our craft and want every person at Speak to feel like they're growing every day. We believe in the idea that working with people you both enjoy and have respect for makes everything better. We hire thoughtfully and only work with people we admire deeply.
Global in nature: We're live in over 30 countries and launching in a number of new markets soon. We have dedicated offices in San Francisco, Ljubljana, Seoul, and Tokyo, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk to users in each of these regions on a regular basis as well as travel.
Impact people's lives in a major way: Learning a language is one of the single most life-changing skills one can learn, and right now 99% of people never achieve their goal because the process is broken. We’re helping millions of people achieve their goals and improve their lives.
Speak does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Our mission is to become the de facto way people learn foreign languages. We begin by teaching the next billion people English and Spanish.
English is the global language of business, culture, and communication, and over 1.5 billion people around the world are actively trying to learn right now. Others dream of communicating with the half-billion native Spanish speakers across the globe. The problem is that it's nearly impossible to learn to speak a language without constant access to a speaking partner. Grammar and vocab apps don't really help – you need to actually converse with someone.
Speak is on a journey to fix this. We're creating an AI-powered experience that replicates the flow of a conversation, without needing a human on the other end. The goal is to make it radically more accessible to be able to have conversations in a foreign language and eventually help hundreds of millions of people gain fluency who otherwise wouldn't be able to.
We started on this journey over four years ago and we've still got a long ways to go. We're thoughtfully adding new team members only when we think they can truly play a big role in our mission.
Speak is currently live in South Korea where we have quickly grown to become the top grossing education app in the country. We recently launched in Japan as well and are expanding to more markets in the coming months. The company is well funded, raising a recent Series B backed by investors like OpenAI, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, Lachy Groom, Josh Buckley, and others. We’re a team of just under 40 based primarily in SF, Seoul, and Ljubljana.