Taylor Nieman (Toucan) - Browser Extension Businesses, The Power of Partnerships, and Her Unique Approach to Fundraising

Our guest today is Taylor Nieman, founder of Toucan. Toucan is a free chrome extension that helps you learn a language without even trying. It's pretty cool, I've been using it for the past few months and The Consumer VC owns the word "episode" on the platform. We discuss the opportunity in browser chrome extension businesses, the insight she had when founding Toucan and all her different monetization avenues, which I must say are pretty amazing and wide ranging.

You can follow Taylor at @taylor_nieman. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

One book that inspired her is Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink.

Here are a few questions I ask Taylor

1. What initially attracted you to technology? What were some of the learnings as an early employee at Headspace? Why did you decide to take the leap and found Toucan? One of your main strengths has been to form partnerships. When your company is young and scrappy what is some advice you might have for founders when trying to form partnerships?
2. Take us behind the scenes when it comes to the multiple strategies and business models you are pursuing with Toucan? Gamification is a trend we've heard in social, commerce, how does gamification relate to education? What was your process raising capital?
3. What is one thing you would change when it came to venture capital? What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? What's one piece of advice that you have for founders?