About 6 months ago I left my job to start my own company and make a language learning tool I always wanted to build (https://www.langturbo.com), It's something I use myself and I see real value in it.
I'm fully bootstrapped and I have some months left of savings to try this out. If this doesn't get traction then I guess I'll have to get a "real" job again :).
This is nice! Going to try it out for a while. Could potentially expand to TV shows on YouTube, there are tons of free ones for my target language (Chinese). Also, this might be challenging, but would be nice to see Chinese divided into Cantonese/Mandarin and simplified/traditional characters, although it's not a big deal for intermediate learners to just choose podcasts that use their target language themselves.
Very cool idea. Probably also needs an app to really gain traction (maybe just start with a webview and not a full native app?). I think lots of people are listening to podcasts on smartphones.
Agreed, I am also working on a react native app for iOS and Android. I decided to release it on the web first to avoid the extra cut Apple and Google will take and to iterate faster on a single platform, but as you mention, most people expect to have a native app for these B2C apps.
I'm fully bootstrapped and I have some months left of savings to try this out. If this doesn't get traction then I guess I'll have to get a "real" job again :).