Okuuchu. How two girls from Bishkek created a digital platform for modern language teachers

Aemiliya Ydyryssova and Asyl Suleymanova shared how they created a platform for language teachers and discussed how the Russian language hinders the study of foreign languages in Central Asia.

Asyl Suleymanova, city — Bishkek, Co-founder and CEO of Okuuchu

Aemiliya Ydyryssova, city — Bishkek, CPO of Okuuchu, education expert, teacher

How It All Began

Aemiliya. I teach English and started my career even while studying at university by launching my own online IELTS preparation course. In the summer, I learned about the call for participants in a Hackathon and decided to give it a try. I reached out to Asyl to learn more about the participation process. During our discussion, we immediately found common ground and came up with ideas that could serve as the foundation for a future project. That’s how we decided to create this startup together.

It’s one thing to teach a language to four or five students, and quite another to create a tool that helps teachers make their work easier and more engaging. This would allow them to effectively teach 25–30 students. That’s exactly how our startup gradually transformed into the product it is today.

Asyl. I work as a product manager and am increasingly convinced that the education system in Kyrgyzstan faces serious challenges. 

When Amelia shared with me the problems faced by individual tutors, I realized I wanted to contribute to solving them. That’s how we began developing this product together.

The Team

By participating in the acceleration program and conducting user interviews, we realized that teachers lacked the necessary tools. After creating an MVP, we understood that we wanted to further develop this product. We assembled the team organically, as enthusiasts solving a real problem.

Incubation Programs

Aemiliya. We went through incubation at Prosperity Cup, which was our first experience. It lasted seven weeks and was very intensive. Before that, I had no experience working with startups, so during this time I learned a huge amount of information, which I tried to pass on to the team. We made it to the top 30 and successfully completed the incubation. During the process, we adapted our idea, clarified exactly what problems our platform should solve and how it should look. We also conducted CustDev, spoke with teachers, and received valuable feedback.

We are still considering expanding our target audience to include language schools, where we might develop corporate offers. Developing this idea became possible thanks to the incubation, which provided an active and intense atmosphere that allowed us to truly unlock the project’s potential.

After that, we were offered several investment options, but we decided to focus on maintaining our autonomy. We want to fully develop our vision and structure before accepting external investments. We understand that if we attract investors, we will have to report to them, and this could influence our decisions. Therefore, for now, we have decided to postpone this step and preserve our independence.

Target Audience

Asyl. Currently, our platform is focused on tutors and private English teachers, but in the future, we plan to add other languages. Our next steps are expanding the range of languages. The target audience consists of teachers who want to effectively manage their schedules, systematize the learning process, and create educational content. 

Challenges

Asyl. The main difficulty is the desire to include many features in the product before launching it. You need to make the application both functional and simple, and this always causes difficulties at the initial stage.

We didn’t want to overload the platform, but at the same time, we aimed to address the core needs of teachers. Another potential challenge is the need to talk more about the product and communicate its value to users. But for now, I think we are handling this well.

Aemiliya. I would also like to highlight another difficulty we face when working with teachers. Currently, our main target audience is private teachers and tutors, and one of the key problems is the lack of a unified community. There is no place where they can come together, share experiences, and gather the necessary resources.

We face difficulties conducting CustDev because we have to collect information one-on-one. However, this gave us the idea that our platform could become more than just an automation tool in the future.

Achievements

Asyl. It’s still early to talk about achievements; we are proud of the results we have already achieved. We are actively creating Reels on Instagram, continuing to develop the product, and already have a large number of people on the waitlist waiting for the launch.

Aemiliya. At the moment, our main achievement is the successful formation of an excellent team that unites people from different corners. We were able to quickly establish workflows and solve tasks flexibly and efficiently. We believe this is the key success at this stage. As Asyl already said, we look forward to sharing even more news with you very soon.

Plans

Asyl. We aim not only to expand our presence in the Kyrgyz market but also to enter the entire Central Asian and CIS markets. In the future, we plan to add more tools for teachers and not limit ourselves to just language courses. Our priority is to adapt the platform for the Kyrgyz language.

Aemiliya. We want to create the opportunity to learn English without using Russian, especially for Kyrgyz-speaking teachers. Many believe that to learn English, one must first master Russian, and this problem affects not only English but also other languages.

Our plan is to remove this barrier, starting with the Kyrgyz language, and then expand to other languages in Central Asia. We see that this is a common problem for the region and believe that entering the Central Asian market is a logical step. We also plan to participate in accelerators from Astana Hub and MOST in Kazakhstan.