“It’s like if Tinder and Duolingo had a child…we want to be the first app you download when you touch down in a new place.“
Kathryn Handler and Hadley Mantia, both 2026 graduates of ACM’s Global MBA, seek to bridge the gap between formal language learning and colloquial conversation with fluent speakers. “We spent years studying French in middle school, high school, college, and even in our master’s program, but when we showed up to the bar to actually talk to and meet people, the language barrier completely got in the way because they were just speaking language that was different than we learned in our formal education. The human experience is really important to us, so we created Marula,” said Handler.
The idea behind Marula Dating was born while Handler and Mantia were studying at ACM. “We were learning languages and trying to make as many new relationships as possible. Whether or not that was friendly or romantic didn’t matter. We were just really trying to take advantage of our time there and meet different people and build new relationships.”
What started as a casual conversation about the struggles of dating across languages while abroad turned into a concrete business idea through Professor Laura Drewett’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation course. The assignment was this: come up with an innovative solution to a real-life problem you have. Handler and Mantia built out their idea and created a proposal for the final assignment, which was pitching to a group of real investors in France. Following the pitch, some of the investors approached Handler and Mantia with enthusiasm: “This is a really, really interesting idea.” ACM’s Global MBA program uniquely prepared these two entrepreneurs for launching their startup. “I feel really young, but at the same time very well prepared because ACM did such a great job,” said Handler.
Currently, Marula users can learn from five different language modules: English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. The modules focus on the everyday language you need to know to date across cultures and communicate naturally. Users can practice languages using flashcards and save phrases from both lessons and conversations. All of these features are written and translated by native speakers to cultivate an authentic experience. Mantia and Handler “don’t use AI for that, because we believe that humans really know the real slang, and AI has yet to master that.”
Post-graduation, Handler and Mantia spend their days building the Marula app and pitching their business to investors. Marula will launch first in New York City, where Mantia and Handler recently visited to network and meet with people about the launch. “We’re actually talking with NYU right now for a more formal launch event with them (NYU), Columbia, and a couple of other universities in New York City,” said Mantia. “They have a massive international crowd there, and exchange students in all those universities.” After gaining a user base in the U.S., Handler and Mantia are working to launch in major cities across the European Union. “That’s the goal, to be all over the world down the road, offering all kinds of languages,” said Mantia.
Handler cited Professor Nitin Beeharry’s class on Intercultural Management as one of the courses at ACM that best prepared her to run a company that seeks to serve an international audience. Mantia felt that the Global MBA degree prepared her in a tangible way, beyond traditional business courses: “You’re getting out there on all the business visits; you’re meeting people from all over the world. You’re in front of Moroccans, Spanish people, French people, Italians, and just navigating how to speak to different people in different cultures.” The program’s focus on presentations and public speaking made a huge difference for them and their ability to be young entrepreneurs who can pitch ideas with confidence.
Mantia shared a piece of advice she would give to fellow young entrepreneurs: “If there’s any time to try something, now is the time to do it. And if it fails, the amount that you’ll learn from that experience is huge. And also, the amount of connection and networking that you’ll do—I think Kath and I each have now a list of 30 people that we could ask for a job.” Handler noted that it is “really easy now to ball on a budget if you want to make something happen. Like Hadley and I, we’re self-funded right now, but we haven’t spent that much money. It’s like with social media; you can really spread your word out there for basically free.”
Mantia and Handler left ACM’s Global MBA program with more than a degree; they gained practical skills and life-long mentors. Professor Laura Drewett has continued mentoring them through the app launch and startup process. “She’s always helping us out and giving us advice. We have a couple of mentors that we’ve met through her and through the (GMBA) program that we still keep in touch with, and we meet once a month to update them, and they give us advice. I think it’s really helpful to have that international perspective,” said Handler. “Without ACM, we wouldn’t have had those connections and relationships.”
Marula is available to download in the App Store! To learn more, visit their website here: https://maruladating.com/
