Mingles, a new start-up making a strong entrance, for practising languages in a fun way.
Thanks to my classes at EAE Business School I’m meeting lots of entrepreneurs, and one of those who approached me recently is the co-founder of Mingles, Gabriel Pazos, whom I am mentoring.
What is Mingles?
Like any good start-up, it sets out to solve a problem, a very common one: learning a language properly, losing the fear of speaking it and gaining confidence and fluency. What’s more, there are 3 groups who benefit…
MINGLES aims to bring together the needs of students, teachers and bars, with technology playing a very important role. Through a simple platform you can manage your Mingles sessions and learn whenever and wherever you like. The “wherever” is mainly some pretty cool bars, the best place to socialise.
Its benefits
PROFESSIONAL: Small conversation groups (5 people) at a similar level, where you’ll chat for an hour about a current topic. The difference is that they are led and guided by a native teacher. The teachers have extensive teaching experience; they will correct your main mistakes and they will encourage and liven up the conversation. They also send you the “topic” the day before so you can prepare.
SOCIAL: MINGLES takes place in the coolest bars in Madrid (for now, more cities soon) with a DRINK included, which makes it an ideal way to practise languages, meet new people and share personal and professional experiences. In short, what I like most: being able to do some professional networking too.
FLEXIBLE: Unlike traditional language schools, they give you the option of signing up whenever you want and wherever you like best. You just have to go to www.mingles.es and select your preferred date and place. As you might expect, I’ve added AJE Madrid’s garAJE to the Mingles venues and to organising Mingles for Entrepreneurs.
Who benefits
The bars: they get a new audience and are guaranteed drinks from groups of people who will surely stay on after the hour of conversation. Maximum visibility on social media thanks to Mingles and the students. You can offer promotions and discounts to new visitors… Do you have a bar? Talk to them
The teachers: as well as teaching at a language school, giving private lessons or teaching in companies, they can earn extra income, meet new people and have flexible hours, and Mingles takes care of everything.
The students: No doubt about it, and I speak from experience because I’ve tried it. An hour of non-stop talking about a topic you’ve chosen beforehand because it interests you, with a script prepared in advance, led and corrected by a native, professional teacher. I had Amanda, the driving force behind Mingles, who is also from San Francisco. I love this city!!
How much does it cost? Just €10, beer included. A good investment. They also have multi-session passes.
Who launched Mingles?
Three cracking entrepreneurs, a team with real grit. Gabriel Pazos, an engineer with a Master’s in Project Management from EAE, who has worked for several multinationals, mainly in the energy sector, and in several countries.
Then there’s his brother Andres Pazos, also an engineer but in computer science, working hard on an Executive MBA at IE and also working at great companies such as Siemens. Plenty of international experience too.
The third member of the team, who had the idea, is Amanda Wolffenbuttel, the team’s genuine foreigner, born in Silicon Valley, with extensive experience teaching English and also experience at a multinational. She came to Madrid and fell in love with the city.
From the end of 2013 until today they have been doing really well, making noise on social media, building a community, for example on Meetup.com, and in the media.
They are also looking for talent: Mingles ambassadors for Madrid and new cities, so go for it.
Well, if you want to improve your English, your Spanish or other languages, try Mingles, but be careful, it’s addictive 😉
Good conversation and good Networking
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