Tom Johnson - Chatterbug

Tom studied on Newcastle University Business School’s International Business Management with German BSc programme. During his studies, he undertook a study abroad year in Germany which sparked his interest in the country. After graduating in 2017 he returned to Berlin, where he started his journey with Chatterbug. He became CEO of Chatterbug in 2023.

We connected with Tom to ask him a little more about the business.

Tell us about Chatterbug - what does it do?

Chatterbug is an online platform for one-to-one language tuition featuring integrated self-study tools. Our aim is to be the most efficient way to make real progress in a foreign language through flexible scheduling and our built-in curricula which adapt intelligently to each student.

How many employees does it have?

There are a core team of 10 staff members, followed by a team of c.80 tutors

What is Chatterbug’s 5 year plan?

We're continuing to make learning on Chatterbug more and more effective by building in subtle AI-powered elements into our platform and self-study system. That said, the focus will remain on speaking the language with our human tutors, as we believe this will continue to be the best way to develop natural, real-world language skills.

Beyond that, we're busy disrupting the B2B language learning space, by convincing businesses of the benefits of offering their employees flexible one-to-one tuition over the more traditional corporate group lesson approach.

As a part of this, we recently entered the 'Educational Leave' space in Germany, offering intensive courses to employees who are entitled to time off work to learn. We see scope for becoming the market leader for online language tuition in this niche in the next few years.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to anyone wanting to start their own business?

Know that you'll be more emotionally connected to work than you've experienced before. I believe it's important to regard your own personal growth and development of emotional intelligence as a key part of the job, and that includes giving yourself what you need to steer clear of burnout!

What is the best part of running a business?

For me it's seeing our learners feel fulfilled by the progress they've made by using Chatterbug.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced running a business and how did you overcome it?

Running a business means taking full responsibility for it, which can feel like a lot of pressure when things inevitably go wrong (in our case usually a technical issue). In these situations, I think it's best to recognise when you're trying to control everything yourself out of stress, and instead put your trust in other people and focus on leading with a calmer head.