SPEAK

Hugo Menino Aguiar is co-founder and CEO of SPEAK. He worked as a developer at OutSystems and as a Product Manager at Google, where he was awarded a Google Golden Award. Hugo left Google in 2012 to create SPEAK. Hugo is also a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, he was recognized by UNAOC as one of the top 20 social entrepreneurs in the Euro-Med region, and was nominated Ashoka Fellow.

SPEAK fights against the social exclusion of migrants and refugees caused by social barriers, discrimination, and anti-migrant rhetoric. SPEAK developed a web platform where people sign up to learn or to help others learn a language but the experience happens face to face, in groups, offline. While people learn with each other, they are breaking barriers and making new friends. From this simple service, SPEAK is fostering the creation of spaces where newcomers have the opportunity to share the value they bring and develop meaningful relationships with locals. The team also trains newcomers willing to set up SPEAK in their city, creating their own job. This growth model will allow SPEAK to create a global network of 100 inclusive cities by 2025.

Every week 3 million people move to a new city, and there are several reasons for a family or individual to be forced to leave their home. Whether for a better life or the urgency of a war scenario, the problem of integration arises in the challenges migrants and refugees find in their destination. Language barrier, lack of friends and family and bureaucratic processes are one side of the coin, while ethnic and religious discrimination are the other. SPEAK fights against the social exclusion of migrants and refugees caused by social barriers, discrimination, and anti-migrant rhetoric. Many integration policies fail from the beginning due to their incomplete vision of this complex challenge. Sociocultural integration needs to be understood and worked in each of its causes - thus a holistic approach is required.

There are 272 million migrants worldwide (UN, 2019) -- this is a global problem and the growing political tensions, and climate catastrophes only exacerbate it. Forced displacement is not decelerating, with the number of refugees under UNHCR’s mandate exceeding 20 million in 2018 for the first time (UNHCR, 2018).

SPEAK promotes the emergence of communities where locals and migrants meet to share their culture and develop meaningful bonds by providing a web platform for individuals to facilitate informal language learning environments and community events. 

It follows an Online2Offline model -- members sign up on a web platform to learn or help others learn a language but the experience happens offline, face to face. This experience consists of community-led language groups that meet once a week for 90-minute sessions for 12 weeks, and community-organized events like language exchanges, and international dinners. 

The informal environment and methodology used allow participants to learn with each other, while at the same time breaking barriers and creating meaningful relationships, creating a multicultural community where cultural heritage is cherished. This network has created opportunities for newcomers to get informal recommendations and guidance regarding specific needs and integration challenges. 

SPEAK adopts a bottom-up approach that works only with the participation of its community. Having this bottom-up approach generates a feeling of self-worth, as beneficiaries feel responsible for their own transformation and integration process. Moreover, this builds stronger support networks, and a greater sense of belonging throughout.

At SPEAK everyone can apply to learn or to help others learn languages and cultures: locals who want to learn new languages and connect with different cultures, and newcomers who are in the process of adapting to a new city. SPEAK uses the motivation and need that people have to learn a language to bring together people of different contexts in an informal environment, where they stand as equals, with a high probability of creating strong and meaningful relationships. 

SPEAK is a community-based solution, where both newcomers and locals participate actively in the solution. SPEAK places migrants and refugees as ambassadors for cultural dialogue in their communities, empowering newcomers to take action and it helps mitigating cultural stigma by demonstrating the richness of multiculturalism to local communities.

At SPEAK, while people learn with each other, they are breaking barriers and prejudice. The creation of an informal support network unlocks many opportunities that contribute to a greater social inclusion. For example, members often help each other with job offers or renting a house thanks to the power of their SPEAK community.

The informal environment and methodology used in the language groups allow participants to learn with each other, while at the same time breaking barriers and creating meaningful relationships. By helping to break the social isolation barrier of newcomers, SPEAK is making sure they have the same opportunities as locals. This network has created opportunities for newcomers to get informal recommendations and guidance regarding specific needs and integration challenges. When newcomers have made the first local friends, they go from a situation of total isolation to being comfortable in their new city.

Around 2012, Hugo was living abroad and it became very clear to him that the social exclusion of migrants and refugees was a reality in every city he knew. Back home, he and a group of friends also understood that they did not have migrant friends, despite the fact that there were migrant communities in Leiria, their hometown. That was because there were no opportunities for newcomers to meet with locals in a safe and friendly environment, where they could get to know one another and make friends.

Since the need or motivation to learn a language was the most obvious reason to bring these groups together, that was the tool chosen.

This group of friends started to organize informal language groups, bringing migrants to learn Portuguese and asking them to teach their own language and culture to locals. The success of the impact assessment made in these groups motivated Hugo to start SPEAK in 2014.

Hugo Menino Aguiar, co-founder of SPEAK, was born into a migrant family. He started to be aware of migration challenges when he found out that his great grandmother was expelled from her village due to her religious beliefs, and that his grandfather went clandestinely to France with the hope of providing better conditions for his family. 

Hugo himself and the rest of the team have also experienced the challenges of living abroad to study and work. The team is aware that those challenges become even more severe in a situation of vulnerability as is the case of economic migrants or refugees. With the belief that an inclusive community is happier, richer, and safer, the whole team is totally committed to helping those people.

Hugo Menino Aguiar, co-founder of SPEAK and CEO, was a Software Engineer at OutSystems and a Product Manager at Google, where he was awarded a Google Golden Award. Hugo left Google to create SPEAK. He is also a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum and an Ashoka Fellow since 2018.

Hugo's personal and professional experiences helped him to develop some relevant skills such as leadership, ability to mobilize and passion. Equally important was the need to surround himself with people he admired and he believed had the right skills to tackle the challenges that he would face. That is what helped Hugo build the team.

Mariana Brilhante, co-founder of SPEAK and CMO. Before SPEAK, Mariana worked at IES-SBS developing and implementing social innovation strategies for several companies. Previously, Mariana worked as a Project Director for Oxford Business Group producing investment guides in 4 continents (14 countries) where she was in charge of business development and managing the team. Mariana has an MBA from Nova-Catolica University, she is a mentor at Yunus Social Business and co-founded The Lisbon MBA Entrepreneurship Club.

Pedro Tunes, COO of SPEAK, was the Operations Manager of IES-SBS powered by INSEAD and the Executive Director of AHEAD, where he managed educational programs that reached over 2000 people yearly. He holds MSc in Social Policy and Development from LSE and in Management from Nova SBE

The rest of the team complements the needs of the project with skills ranging from content creation, customer support, and product development.

One of the biggest challenges that SPEAK has overcome was how to scale impact. It was very difficult to find the strategy that would allow SPEAK to grow without neglecting quality and efficiency but making it help more people in a more effective and efficient way. 

In 2017, SPEAK had an organic growth strategy. We quickly realized that this strategy was too slow and expensive.

The solution found was a social franchising model. In 2018 we launched the 'take SPEAK to your city' program, which allows anyone to implement the solution locally, becoming SPEAK founders in their city and helping it become more inclusive. In this model the central team provides constant assistance and training to the SPEAK founders in various areas - marketing, sales, operations, partnerships, etc. 

The challenges in changing strategy were not only the entire design of the program, but also the reorientation of the team and the development of the skills needed to implement the model successfully. To do this, we found the pro pono mentoring of an expert and created a personal development plan with each team member in which we identify skills to be developed and concrete ways of doing so.

Hugo was the first individual to start SPEAK in his city and there are now more than 30 individuals doing the same across 27 cities in Europe and overseas. To scale impact, you must know how to empower people and equip them with the right tools to guide change and mobilize others. To scale SPEAK, Hugo trained and empowered his team to properly manage, mobilize, understand, and lead change. When working with SPEAK founders (franchisees implementing the project on a city level), the team must overcome resistance, deal with reactions to change, and decentralize the way we inspire action.

Alone, no one could build a community of 30,000 people, but by training and mobilizing other individuals and organizations, it becomes possible to build a network of 100 inclusive communities.

Most initiatives trying to tackle this problem limit their impact by not looking at all the causes behind it, resulting in incomplete interventions, such as formal language courses, tackling the language barrier but ignoring the fact that the imposition of the course and its rigidity directly contribute to an increased feeling of not belonging. 

SPEAK, on the other hand, is a community-based solution, offering a language and culture exchange program as a means to bring newcomers and locals together, both participating actively in the solution. SPEAK’s approach:

 1) Places migrants and refugees as bridge builders and ambassadors for cultural dialogue in their communities, empowering newcomers to take action, as they are not only guests or receivers anymore;

 2) Provides an informal support network to newcomers upon their arrival, helping breaking up the systemic vicious circle of isolation;

 3) Mitigates cultural stigma by demonstrating the richness of multiculturalism to local communities in practice.

Rather than language learning, SPEAK measures meaningful relationships and what they represent. SPEAK breaks down the isolation barrier in 12 weeks.

An additional innovation at SPEAK is its Online2Offline model: applications and payments take place online, while the learning and sharing experience is offline, in the real world. This model makes for the most efficient use of resources and is geared toward growth, helping to keep scale and efficiency as priorities and making it easier to launch SPEAK in new cities. In a way, this model is allowing SPEAK to empower communities at scale.

The social exclusion of migrants and refugees is a multidimensional problem that requires a scrutinized analysis of its causes, including the language barrier, discrimination, and the lack of a support networks. 

SPEAK’s theory of change is based on the field-tested hypothesis that the creation of opportunities for locals and migrants to meet with a common objective, and in an informal environment, in which cultures are shared and appreciated, is one of the most powerful tools to foster greater social inclusion. 

SPEAK brings this together in its activities - language groups and community-organized events.

On the short term, the participation in SPEAK activities contribute to the acquisition of the language, the creation of a support network and the increased knowledge about different cultures. On the medium term, these changes lead to a higher sense of belonging to the community and the valorization of the migrant community. Ultimately, these contribute to our long term goal: the social inclusion of migrants and refugees. 

SPEAK measures its impact on the community through surveys sent to users who participated in at least 1 language group. Our impact assessment report shows that, by the end of 12th week of participation in SPEAK’s language groups and events, the participants’ sense of belonging in the host community has already increased by 15% and that language is 30% less of a barrier in their integration process. Furthermore, 73% of newcomers made friends through SPEAK, with72% meeting their friends at least once a month outside of SPEAK activities.

SPEAK is now a community of over 30.000 people from 160 different nationalities who are spread over 26 cities mainly in Europe but also overseas. In Portugal, the government uses SPEAK as the mainstream solution to integrate refugees. So far, our community has completed more than 1,800 language groups and organized over 800 events. In 2020 so far, SPEAK impacted 10,000 people.

SPEAK’s social franchising model is boosting growth. SPEAK wants to be in 50 cities by 2023 and the current growth rate proves this model will get it there. Considering the existing SPEAK communities, this geographic reach means 30,000 people impacted yearly.

In 5 years, SPEAK will be in 100 cities, reaching 80,000 people yearly.

In 12 months:

This program is an opportunity to create jobs for refugees and we should develop its full potential. We are planning to implement a capacity-building program, with the aim of allowing refugees to dedicate full-time to starting SPEAK in their cities while receiving support from an expert. 

In 5 years:

We want to make our social franchising model more efficient, improving performance on a city-level and attracting more founders. Our web platform has a large potential for efficiency gains regarding support and training to founders -- the goal is to improve it as a Software as a Service. 

We have also been looking into the need of developing a mobile app to increase user engagement through push notifications in a strategic and non-intrusive way.

SPEAK offers 2 core activities to its end-user: language groups and community-organized events. 

In the language groups, during the 12 weeks, participants get together to learn a new language with the help of two buddies. The operations team facilitates online workshops, and prepares support materials to help buddies prepare the sessions. SPEAK offers not only a language learning experience, but an opportunity to meet new people, for a symbolic fee of 29 euros. Nevertheless, participants who cannot afford it have free access to SPEAK.

Sales include not only B2C, but also B2B and B2G. SPEAK sells these subscriptions to companies and foundations that pay for their employees who are migrants or refugees, and partners with City Halls that pay for a number of people who can participate and are not able to pay.

Community-organized events are prepared by ambassadors, with the help of buddies and participants and are for free. The community gets together once a month for all kinds of events, like picnics, treasure hunts, or international dinners.

We also offer full access to our technology, as well as cross-sectorial training, to anyone willing to set up SPEAK so that they can help their city become more inclusive and at the same time create their own job. All revenues that come from our franchisees are variable, so that there are no upfront costs on their side.

At the moment, SPEAK relies mainly on grants. In the longer term, our business plan predicts that we will be cash flow positive once we reach 100 cities, which should be by 2025. Thanks to our Online2Offline model, which uses technology to scale operations and crowdsources spaces, SPEAK's revenues increase at a much higher rate than its cost structure, which will allow SPEAK to be sustainable at scale. SPEAK's business model relies on two main sources of revenue:

1. Fees paid by participants enrolled in language groups. The fee is 29 euros for a 3-month language group but participants that cannot pay are given a 100% scholarship.

2. Fees paid by entrepreneurs who want to open SPEAK in their cities - this works as a SaaS / franchise model . The variable fee on applications revenues is 25%, on B2B, donations, and awards is 15% and in B2G is 5%. There is also a fee on fundraising, 50% on the first 10.000 euros raised and 5% on the remaining amount.

Solve can help SPEAK communicate the ‘take SPEAK to your city’ program to the right audience, and that would tackle our first barrier which is finding the right founder. The first step of taking SPEAK to a new city is getting to know individuals and organizations that are aligned with SPEAK’s mission and that would be willing to make it their own. Simply joining the Solve network can unlock very significant scaling opportunities, not only by getting validation on impact and business model from experts, but by actually meeting potential SPEAK founders from around the globe. Furthermore, business development advisory would help us refine our international expansion strategy in the scope of the social franchising model, so as to maximize the creation of jobs and impact on the city level.

• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) would be an important partner in the validation of SPEAK’s methodology, as well as in the worldwide adoption and implementation of the product.

• Microsoft, Google, or IBM are the ideal mentors SPEAK would like to have when developing AI as a service.

• Duolingo can complement its language learning service with the offline experience, while SPEAK gains exposure and user adoption.