Sensei

A language tutor in your text messages.
Not an app.

Bao, Founder. Tokyo. AG1 Batch 3 application.

Sensei

Text Message

Thu 7:51 AM

Morning. You practiced eki yesterday. You’re going to Shibuya today, right?

Try this with station staff:

Shibuya yuki wa dono densha desu ka.

Voice call · 2 min 14 sec

Your notes from this morning’s call.

Today’s notessensei.app/bao

The channel is wrong.

Apps are abandoned.

Education apps are among the worst retained products on a phone. Most learners quit within days of installing.

Tutors are scheduled.

A human in Japan costs 3,000 to 6,000 yen an hour, and you have to book them.

Speaking is scary.

Anxiety is one of the best documented blockers in language acquisition. A stranger on a video call does not help.

You need a tutor who texts you.

Texting is already open. A number in your contacts is a relationship, not an icon. And unlike every app, this tutor reaches out first.

Sensei

Text Message

Thu 7:51 AM

Morning. You practiced eki yesterday. You’re going to Shibuya today, right?

Yes. 10:40 train.

Try this with station staff:

Shibuya yuki wa dono densha desu ka.

The loop is a conversation.

  1. 1 Text the number. No signup.
  2. 2 It gauges your level and goals in chat.
  3. 3 It teaches over messages, files, and materials.
  4. 4 Call anytime for speaking practice.
  5. 5 It remembers, and texts you first.
  6. 6 A web portal holds history, memory, grades.

Sensei

Text Message

Tue 7:42 AM

I’m your Japanese tutor. What level are you at, and what’s your goal?

Just moved to Tokyo. Beginner. Daily life: trains, konbini, neighbors.

Toward N4. I’ll text you first.

Sensei

Text Message

Tue 7:42 AM

I’m your Japanese tutor. What level are you at, and what’s your goal?

Just moved to Tokyo. Absolute beginner. Trains, konbini, neighbors.

Wed 8:04 AM

Today’s word:

えき · eki · station

Try asking: where is the station?

Close. You left off the last syllable:

Say it: eki wa doko desu ka.

Thu 7:51 AM

Morning. You practiced eki yesterday. You’re going to Shibuya today, right?

Shibuya yuki wa dono densha desu ka.

Voice call · 2 min 14 sec

Your notes from this morning’s call.

Today’s notessensei.app/bao

Two curves just crossed.

Realtime voice became a conversation.

Memory became cheap enough to give everyone a tutor that remembers.

The channel was already there. That is the point.

The beachhead is 89 billion yen a year.

1.9M

JLPT applicants in 2025. A record.

4.1M

Foreign residents in Japan. First time past four million.

42.7M

Inbound visitors last year. A record.

That is 1.9 million JLPT applicants at 3,900 yen a month, before counting the residents and visitors beside them. Then Japanese learners of English, inside a nearly 800 billion yen language business. Then any language, on any messenger.

Priced like a tutor. Not like an app.

3,900 yen a month

Unlimited text. Sixty minutes of voice included, which is where nearly all of the cost sits. Everything else is close to free to serve, so gross margin lands near seventy percent at launch and widens every quarter as voice and model prices fall.

One hour with a human in Japan is 3,000 to 6,000 yen.
A month of Sensei is that one hour, spread across thirty days.

The landing page is the product.

Text your tutor now.

The demo is the funnel. Trying it is sending one text.

Sharing it is sharing a contact.

Founder-led video on TikTok and Instagram, a channel already running for Inku. Partnerships with language schools and relocation services in Japan.

Sensei

Text Message

Now

Hi

I’m your Japanese tutor. What should I call you?

Bao

Nice to meet you, Bao. What level are you at, and what’s your goal?

We are not a better app.

Apps
Humans
ChatGPT
Sensei
You open
an app
a calendar
a chat
nothing
It reaches first
a notification
no
no
a text
Price
cheap, then forgotten
thousands of yen an hour
cheap, no curriculum
monthly, like a tutor
Memory
a streak
their notes
this thread
your life
Speaking
tap to talk
scheduled, scary
if you ask
call anytime

We removed the app.

Three months in, it holds every mistake you have made and everything it has learned about your life. A competitor starts at zero.

Tokyo.

Learners of Japanese, on LINE and SMS. AG1 opens doors to LINE, schools, and partners.

Then reverse.

Japanese people learning English. The same product. The same rails. The eikaiwa spend is already there.

Then the world.

WhatsApp is the default messenger for the largest language-learning markets on earth.

Bao

Solo, Tokyo.

Learning Japanese. Building the product he needs every day.

Inku, live.

A Japanese-learning iOS app, on the App Store today. inkujapanese.com

AgentReach.

AI agents doing paid client work in production every month. Proof I can make AI reliable for paying customers.

Ten weeks.

  • Week 3Live tutor on one platform.
  • Week 520 beta users.
  • Week 7Paid plan live.
  • Demo day50 paying users, with retention data.

A tutor in your contacts, for every language on earth.
Starting from Tokyo.

Bao, Founder. Tokyo. bao@sansu.ca