Ken Carroll is the founder of ChinesePod. He has 6 years of experience as a radio host in China. A native of Ireland, he received a BA in Politics and Philosophy in 1981 from University College Dublin. Visit the company blog here.

What inspired you to create Chinesepod?

People are are still unaware of how the Internet is marauding and vaporizing stuff. This is true in my own field (language schools, audio-books, etc). I got scared about 2 years ago and decided I had to do something about this Godzilla. In the summer of 2005, I went into a studio in Shanghai and recorded some podcasts, despite not knowing what podcasts were. Since then, 'podcasting' has become one of my favorite things/words. I say it a lot now. 'Podcast'. Let me explain why.

Podcasting in the language teaching context solves dozens of learners' problems. It's on-demand and time-shifted, which frees learners from the night-school schedule; it's mobile, so they can consume the lessons whenever and wherever they wish; it's fresh, because there is a new lesson recorded and published every single day; it's relevant, because we can base lessons on learners feedback, and it's cheap because it's really, really scalable. Not only this, but podcasting is 'human' in a way that language learning software (the black box approach) is not.

We've combined podcasting with blogs, and other web 2.0 tools to create a of learning platform that, I think makes ChinesePod unique. The dynamic is flexible enough to give the learner the freedom to learn whenever he wishes, but active enough to give him a good reason to come back every day. That platform is highly social and we've seen a community of really motivated learners clustering around our service.

When we launched we had nothing to compare it to, so we were flying blind. Except that we weren't! From the day of our first podcast (we launched with just one lesson) and pretty much obsessed user feedback to build from there. Now I'm so glad we didn't spend months building the thing before launch only to find that it was irrelevant. As the ancient Chinese Taoists used to say 'Release early and often'.

What are some of the challenges you've experienced so far?

There are 2 types of entrepreneurs. One is the guy who had the genius to plan it all out from the beginning. The second is the one who tells you the truth: this stuff is unknowable. There's no way anyone can predict much at all these days. You just start with a direction and cling on for dear life. It's like someone said "Ladies, hold on to your petticoats - we're about to go through hell'. Some people find that challenging.

There's never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. The new web 2.0 tools are opening up unheard of possibilities every day. It's incredibly fun and exciting, but it's also hard. Here's why: whatever it is you're building, it must create super-fast growth. You have to embed stuff into the design/structure/ethos that enables a virulent WoM. It's even hard to say that, 'virulent WoM'.

As for 'issues' there's been thousands of them - money issues, tech issues, hair loss, and the rest. Let's face it, if you're not absolutely determined to succeed, it doesn't matter which issues are involved, you're just dead. I can't even remember the stuff that was crushing my soul with a fear of failure last week - this week it's something entirely different.

What does the web scene look like in China?

The Chinese are definitely embracing the web and doing so in their own ways. (The BBS format, for example, is still more popular than blogging in many contexts.) At the level of development, however, there isn't that much new going on here. The Chinese educational system is designed to churn out conformists. They'll get there, but it'll take a while.