Product with Panash Building a B2C app & community with 20M registered users | Tobias Dickmeis (Tandem)
#14: Tobias Dickmeis, CPO and co-founder at Tandem, sits down with Axel to talk about the journey of building Tandem, a language exchange app with over 20 million registered users.
In this episode, we talk about Founder-Product fit, the challenges of acquisition and network effects in the context of a B2C app. We also touch on the tenets of community building and experimentation opportunities with a large user base.
Where to find Tobias
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dickmeis/
Where to find Axel
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/axelsooriah/
About Panash
We provide training and coaching programs to help product professionals unlock their true potential and become high performers.
You can learn more about our programs here: https://www.panash.io/
Our blog contains articles and free resources on key topics for product managers and leaders.
Check it out here: https://collection.panash.io/
Referenced in this episode
- Tandem language learning: https://www.tandem.net/
- Silicon Valley Product Group: https://www.svpg.com/
- Reforge blog: https://www.reforge.com/blog
- Polyglot conference: https://polyglotconference.com/
- Stratechery by Ben Thompson: https://stratechery.com/
- Brighteye VC: https://www.brighteyevc.com/content
Show notes and highlights
(01:27) Tobias' background
(02:28) Tandem's origin story
(05:26) Building a 20M strong community
(06:47) Nailing paid marketing is not easy
(07:30) Founder-Product Fit
(09:22) The flipping moment for Tandem
(12:07) Network effects and growth
(13:17) How does Tandem make money
(14:04) Language learning insights from Tandem
(16:59) Tandem's biggest product challenge
(19:15) How Tandem is planning to address this challenge
(21:17) How to build for a diverse group of users globally
(23:09) Leveraging user base for experimentation
(26:38) How is Tandem organised internally
(27:30) Tobias' Treasure Chest
Mentioned in this episode:
Elevate your product career
Do you feel stuck, not knowing how to tackle a problem? Are you looking for a solution to help your team members grow in their craft? Either way, check out www.panash.io Panash works with product leaders to bring expert insights and proven frameworks you can use to truly deliver impact in your role. Companies like Atlassian, Contentsquare and Mirakl ALL choose Panash to provide the right level of training and coaching to their product teams, so they can perform at their best. Whether you’re a product leader or an individual contributor: head to www.panash.io, book a seat to one of our many programs and raise your product game today. Check out https://www.panash.io.