Today we’d like to introduce you to Cal and Brittany Brunell.
Cal and Brittany, please share your story with us.
We met in college and both went to Northeastern University. After we graduated, Cal took a job working for a consulting firm helping tech companies launch new products… and I worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist. He had always wanted to start his own company and I was working closely with my students on the iPad, and felt I could do better than what was out there. So we ended up combining both of our backgrounds to start Everyday Speech.
We started with an app idea I had to teach social skills to students on the Autism spectrum. Over time, we built and released 5 apps but the focus of the company evolved into video lessons. These lessons were first in our apps but have grown into their own video library which users subscribe to on our website.
We now have over 275 social skills video lessons, along with offering online games and a database of worksheets that Speech Pathologists and schools use.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road has been surprisingly smooth, not to say we haven’t had challenges along the way. We’ve certainly grown and learned so much over these past four years, but it’s been a constant evolution. We did make a big decision about two years into the company to pivot from an app-based business to taking our company outside the app store and handling everything on our website.
From a business standpoint, the economics of the app store is incredibly tough – the expectations for quality are extremely high, and the price expectations are extremely low. We felt a bit boxed in by the rigidity of the app store, and felt we could deliver a much better, more scalable experience by transitioning our content from app-first to our own website.
We still have products in the app store, but that is really a compliment to what we have outside of the store and not the core of the business. We talked to our customers every step of the way and were able to create a much better experience. We never really “risked it all” in the pivot, we always protected our downside risk, but it was still a big move for us to make.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
As we’ve mentioned we’ve created an online library of video lessons teaching social skills to children and adolescents with social learning challenges. We’re one of the very few companies out there that offer video modeling as a teaching method. Our subscribers are able to use our lessons anywhere, from a desktop computer, laptop, or tablet so they can take our materials on the go with them.
We’re really proud of the connection we have with our users. We often check in via our mailing list or online forum to hear new ideas for lessons or different types of materials people are looking for. We also update our collection of therapy material constantly so each month users get new video lessons, games, and worksheets.
Another fun way to connect with our users has been a feature we call “Material Mix Monday”. Every Monday we send out a collection of brand new therapy materials sent right to their inboxes so they start off the week armed with new worksheets to use.
We feel the value we give our customers is way above and beyond what else is out there – gone are the days when teachers and therapists are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a static workbook. We are constantly evolving and updating our materials to improve the experience for our customers.
What were you like growing up?
Brittany always knew she was going to go into a field that worked to help care for people. Early on she knew she was interested in working with children and people who have disabilities. She was part of the Best Buddies organization in high school which helped lead her to the field of Speech Pathology. Personality wise she’s always been quiet at first but warm and overall just loves people in general.
Cal is also pretty quiet when you first meet him, but after getting comfortable with people has an outgoing and a fun personality. We work really well together because we both know our own strengths and weaknesses, and kind of stay in our own lane – we understand who is in charge of what.
Despite being generally quiet, we think we are both somewhat type A personalities – we’re constantly striving to improve ourselves and the company. We think one of our biggest assets as a company is that we’re never satisfied with what we have, which has motivated us to keep pushing further and further. Hopefully, this sounds confident but not arrogant :), but we feel that we’re doing things in the field that no one else is doing, and we’ve still got quite a ways to go.
Pricing:
- Subscription is $9.99/Month or $99.99/Year
Contact Info:
- Address: 28 Rockwood Lane
- Website: everydayspeech.com
- Phone: 6175640587
- Email: cal@everydayspeech.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everydayspeech/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverydaySpeech1/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/everydayspeech/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/everydayspeech/
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