We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lee Green. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lee below.

Lee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Over the past 14 years, I have traveled and lived in more than 40 countries across the globe. In the early days of my journey, I taught English abroad and it was through this experience that I discovered something profound: English language proficiency is directly tied to economic advancement. In many societies, fluency signals status, opportunity, and upward mobility.

What troubled me most was the inequality of access. Quality English education was largely reserved for those who could afford it, while countless others were left behind. I witnessed students desperately preparing for the IELTS exam, not for career ambitions, but to escape persecution or simply to find a better life. I sat with families who had sold their possessions to fund their child’s lessons. For most, access to quality language education remains entirely out of reach.

Years later, while working in South Africa developing AI-powered customer service voice agents, the idea struck me. If I could train a model to handle nuanced human conversation in a customer service context, why couldn’t I apply the same methodology to teaching English? The technology was already in my hands, it simply needed a new purpose.

That realization became the foundation of NativePal.ai, a platform built on the belief that quality language education should be a right, not a privilege.

Lee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Lee, and I am a digital nomad, technology student, and entrepreneur. For many years I built a career in international business, traveling the world and engaging with diverse cultures and industries. But about four years ago, I made a pivotal decision to pursue technology. That shift was sparked by a chance encounter with a cybersecurity professional I met in Croatia, whose insights into the digital world fascinated me and ignited a desire to explore further.

From that moment, I immersed myself in technology with intensity and purpose. Through years of dedicated self-study, I developed the ability to build production-ready software from the ground up. I have always been someone full of ideas, and for the first time, I had the skills to bring those ideas to life.

That is how NativePal.ai was born.

NativePal.ai is an AI-powered language learning platform designed specifically to help learners prepare for the IELTS exam. The platform supports over 60 languages, addressing one of the most common barriers in language education, the inability to find English teachers who can communicate in a learner’s native tongue. With NativePal, AI instructors can guide early-stage learners in their own language, providing a bridge until they are confident enough to transition fully into English.

The platform also integrates Web3 technology, allowing learners to download it as a desktop application and continue studying even without an internet connection. This is a game changer for those in rural areas or regions with unstable connectivity.

Affordability was central to the design. The average private tutor costs around $25 per hour, which can amount to hundreds of dollars each month, well beyond the reach of most families in developing nations. NativePal.ai is accessible from as little as $19 per month, and I am actively developing technology to bring that price down even further.

What I am most proud of, however, is the platform’s ability to truly adapt to each individual learner. NativePal does not simply respond to inputs. It builds context over time, learning each student’s habits, strengths, and learning style to deliver a genuinely personalized experience. I invested countless hours training the AI agents to feel as human as possible, because I believe learners should feel just as comfortable with their AI tutor as they would with a real person sitting across the table from them.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

The initial capital for NativePal.ai is being funded by a non-profit organization in Uganda, which has agreed to sponsor a pilot program for learners who have fled Sudan due to the ongoing war. Their objective is to help these refugees find a pathway to a better life, and passing the IELTS exam is a powerful step in that direction.

We are currently running a three-month pilot, and its outcome will determine our eligibility for further funding.

Interestingly, this was not my original plan. I initially pitched the platform to venture capitalists in South Africa, but I ultimately decided that partnering with NGOs was a far better alignment with my mission. My goal has always been to solve a real problem for people who truly need it, and NGOs are directly connected to those communities. Because our missions are so closely aligned, their funding becomes a natural fit, supporting both their humanitarian goals and the growth of the platform, while removing the need to chase traditional investors.

This approach also allows me to capture high-quality, real-world feedback from the very learners NativePal was built to serve.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

For most of my early career, I believed that building a successful business meant chasing investors. The conventional wisdom is simple: find venture capital, raise as much as you can, and scale fast. So when I started NativePal.ai, my first instinct was to pitch to VCs in South Africa.
But I had to unlearn that.

What I came to realize is that funding should follow your mission, not the other way around. When I shifted my focus toward partnering with NGOs, organizations whose goals were already aligned with mine, everything clicked. I wasn’t bending my vision to fit an investor’s expectations of returns. I was building exactly what I set out to build, for the people who needed it most, and the funding followed naturally. Unlearning the “investors first” mindset freed me to stay true to the actual problem I was trying to solve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nativepal.ai/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leegreeniii/
• Other: https://www.33nexus.com/ This is my company website