“I grew up in a very agricultural town in northern Colorado that is very divided economically between those who speak English and those who don’t,” says Erin Janklow.
When she studied abroad in Italy, she thought about how she had become fluent in the language after a year in the country. She asked herself which resources enabled her to succeed, and the seeds for her startup were planted.
It was a job at TripAdvisor after college that helped cement the idea for Entrada ESL, a language learning program that works with employers in the hospitality industry to help non-English-speaking employees learn a new language during work hours via audio devices. The focus is currently on native Spanish speakers.
“At TripAdvisor, I was exposed to the challenges that hotels face by having two very different sets of communication styles – front of house and back of house staff,” said Janklow, founder and CEO of Entrada. “General managers would often say it was challenging to implement new initiatives and to sustain existing operations because the staff wouldn’t necessarily understand, or perhaps they would not and would say they understood.”
Janklow saw how she could help solve a “very tangible need in the service industry” and uplift workers at the same time. “Not only is Entrada empowering staff to engage more in their communities and take more of an independent stance at work, but it’s making management more efficient at the same time,” she said.
Entrada’s TalkBack Method creates confident English speakers in 100 days, at 30 minutes a day, Janklow said. It works best with roles that involve repetitive tasks often done in isolation, she said, such as housekeeping.
Instructions are delivered in Spanish and learners talk back in English. “If you picture a housekeeper making a bed, she’s also essentially wearing our hardware, listening to our software and talking back to the program at the same time.”
“I think when you go for something really bold and audacious, you get the support that you need from people.”
While elements of the program are licensed from an undisclosed audio-language company, Entrada added additional support that specifically suits its targeted demographic. On-the-job engagement is key; managers are encouraged to provide assistance and boost morale. Entrada boasts a 70 percent completion rate, compared to the average completion rate for self-guided language programs of less than 15 percent.
The help of a Halcyon fellowship (Janklow still works out of the Halcyon space), a friends and family round of funding and a leg up from Rent the Runway helped elevate the platform. Last summer, Janklow was selected to participate in Rent the Runway’s Project Entrepreneur, an incubator program for women founders that provides grants and mentorship. The online clothing and accessories rental company implemented Entrada's program in its dry-cleaning space, which it says is the largest facility of its kind in the country.
Janklow said the accelerators and partnerships put Entrada in a position to increase sales and build up a team in 2019.
“I think when you go for something really bold and audacious, you get the support that you need from people.”
