- Tim Allen joined Babbel as CEO last week. He previously helmed Vimeo, Ask.com, and Care.com.
- He says he's learned not to share all his new ideas immediately, saying it's best to listen first.
- Allen said AI will complement the work of Babbel's human language instructors, not replace them.
Since joining Babbel as its new CEO last week, Tim Allen has made a point of avoiding a leadership mistake he said he made earlier in his career.
Instead of barreling in with his ideas for the language-learning company, Allen (the executive, not the actor) said he's been going around the office asking employees for their insights on the business.
"The biggest lesson I've learned is to give space to some of the emotional undercurrents that have to happen with change," Allen, who previously helmed U.S. companies Vimeo, Ask.com, and Care.com, told Business Insider. "That is something that I think people who are new CEOs at times can miss."
Incoming leaders who announce plans for upheaval at a company the moment they come on board can create unnecessary stress for workers, warned Allen.
"What ends up happening is people just feel the whiplash of the change," he said.
Like many other companies, though, privately held Babbel is undergoing a transition period due to the artificial-intelligence boom. It recently added its first AI tool to its platform, which lets users practice their conversational skills with bots in select languages. Previously, users had to sign up for classes with live instructors to practice those skills. Babbel has said it plans to deploy more AI tools later this year.
In May, Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Babbel rival Duolingo, faced social-media blowback after he described in a LinkedIn post plans to make his company "AI-first" and said that it would "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle." (He later walked back those remarks, saying in a follow-up post that he sees AI as a tool that can accelerate the work that Duolingo's employees do.)
Allen told Business Insider that at Babbel, AI will complement the work of its human language instructors, not replace them. The technology will "accelerate the starting point of the humans who are experts in their field on creating course content," he said.
Babbel was formed in 2007. Initially, its three founders set out to build a music platform but quickly pivoted after a casual conversation about learning Spanish sent them looking for an online solution that didn't seem to exist.
In 2021, Babbel shelved plans to go public, citing unfavorable market conditions at the time. Allen said he isn't reconsidering an initial public offering.
"We're growing and we don't need capital to execute our strategy," Allen said. Remaining private "gives us freedom to stay focused on all of the learner outcomes we want and not the short-term market noise of what we would've had to contend with."
Today, Babbel is also cashflow positive and it's sold more than 25 million subscriptions to its platform, which range in price from $17.95 for one month to $107.40 for a year.
Allen, 47, is taking over the reins at Babbel from co-founder Markus Witte, who is now executive chairman. He said he learned about the job when he received a call earlier this year from a recruiter with executive-search firm Egon Zehnder.
Now living in Berlin after relocating with family from Texas, Allen said he can read German, but doesn't yet speak it fluently. He expects that to change over time because he's using Babbel's platform to help him level up.
"I can count to 10, which I think is a big milestone," he joked.
While Babbel's several hundred employees represent more than 80 nationalities, Allen said many of his new peers have already teased him about having the same name as the star of the American '90s sitcom "Home Improvement."
"It's actually a really good icebreaker," said Allen. "They know that show."
