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VerbalizeIt's Frankel on Smartling Acquiring His Company(Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: the Wharton Business School and went on to start a company.
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  Speaker 1: An innovative smartphone app that connects travelers with live translators
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  Speaker 1: all over the globe. Verbalize It has some big news
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  Speaker 1: today and we're very happy to welcome to the show now.
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  Speaker 1: Ryan Frankel, the CEO of Verbalize It, to tell us
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  Speaker 1: about their new relationship with Smartling, ran great to have you,
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  Speaker 1: great to be here, Thanks for welcoming back. Well, so,
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  Speaker 1: first of all, tell people a little bit more about
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  Speaker 1: where you are. I think it's fascinating that you've got
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  Speaker 1: a deal on shark Tank back in that didn't pan out,
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  Speaker 1: but some advice you've got on shark Tank really helped
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  Speaker 1: you focus the company in ultimate raise the funding you
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  Speaker 1: needed to grow this company. We did the experience that
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  Speaker 1: allowed us to pivot from a purely consumer application play
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  Speaker 1: into more and more lucrative and more powerful business internationalization
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  Speaker 1: experience UM short of It, which allowed us to help
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  Speaker 1: companies of all shapes and sizes translate all of their
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  Speaker 1: content over any medium of communication in order to facilitate
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  Speaker 1: international expansion. Hey, Ryan, I was just looking at the
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  Speaker 1: report from the U. S. Bureau of Statistics that says
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  Speaker 1: that the translation industry is expected to grow by forty
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  Speaker 1: two It's the time frame they use is twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm wondering if you could describe some of the
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  Speaker 1: applications some of the customer uses for verbalize it. Sure, so, Pam,
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  Speaker 1: you hit the nail on the head. This is quickly approaching,
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  Speaker 1: actually at forty billion dollars a year industry for outsourced
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  Speaker 1: language translation, and the types of expenditures are really being
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  Speaker 1: driven by companies across the spectrum, So your traditional large
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  Speaker 1: enterprise organizations all the way down to today's startups and
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  Speaker 1: everyone in between. And the types of use case is
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  Speaker 1: really ranged from you know, a company might want to
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  Speaker 1: start translating their marketing documents to evaluate demand overseas, and
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  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, a matter of weeks or
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  Speaker 1: months later, they might need to completely localize their website,
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  Speaker 1: translate their mobile apps, even subtitle and caption their videos.
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  Speaker 1: So it really is that it's an exciting time to
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  Speaker 1: be in that industry. And I just and I just
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  Speaker 1: want to make offer you the chance to make it
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  Speaker 1: clear that we're not talking about some kind of machine
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  Speaker 1: translation algorithm. You're talking about connecting people. It's people to people.
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  Speaker 1: We really believe that the best quality translations, both in
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  Speaker 1: terms of the accuracy of the translation itself but also
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  Speaker 1: the actual context, really does come from from other humans.
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  Speaker 1: And so the platform that is today smartling um that
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  Speaker 1: we are now part of, is really a technology platform
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  Speaker 1: that connects those in need of language translation with a
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  Speaker 1: vetted community of translators all over the group. So how
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  Speaker 1: much do you charge for your service? How how where
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  Speaker 1: is the business now in terms of revenues, a number
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  Speaker 1: of people using it? And how big do you expect
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  Speaker 1: to get? Well, the Smartling company of which we are
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  Speaker 1: now a part is just around a hundred fifty employees
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  Speaker 1: and growing by leaps and bounds. And while we can't
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  Speaker 1: to school with the actual revenue metrics, I can tell
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  Speaker 1: you that there are hundreds of businesses of all shapes
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  Speaker 1: and sizes utilizing the platform for a wide range of
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  Speaker 1: translation needs, ranging from your one off single document translation
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  Speaker 1: to a full on, you know, daily email translation, video
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  Speaker 1: subsideally translation, Ryan, Why sell the company to Smartling? Why
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  Speaker 1: become part of them? Why not grow the company and
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  Speaker 1: go public? That's a great question, paim we Um. We
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  Speaker 1: found the per a partner and acquir in smartling, and
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  Speaker 1: it really enables us to, you know, achieve our longstanding
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  Speaker 1: vision of breaking down language barriers to make the world
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  Speaker 1: a more connected place. And the combination of our businesses
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  Speaker 1: really does bring together what I like to call you
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  Speaker 1: to best in class technology platforms and two rock solid
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  Speaker 1: teams that will allow us to truly make a dent
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  Speaker 1: in the language translation industry. But ultimate really creates the
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  Speaker 1: ultimate platform for helping businesses go global. So how big
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  Speaker 1: is this industry now compared to where it was ten
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  Speaker 1: or twenty years ago? And I'm just curious, is Chinese?
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  Speaker 1: Is that one of the main growth areas. Chinese has
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  Speaker 1: been big? Japanese is huge, Korean, even Brazilian Portuguese, you
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  Speaker 1: know obviously, which has been a big We have got
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  Speaker 1: some upcoming with the Olympics and some strong international development there.
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  Speaker 1: So we're seeing a lot of the same languages being
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  Speaker 1: requested that we're ten years ago. Control also seeing a
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  Speaker 1: really nice uptick in demand for these other languages as well.
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  Speaker 1: Ryan in using a new technology to bring these language
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  Speaker 1: skills to maybe even small and mid sized businesses. What
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  Speaker 1: about incorporating them into actual applications that would run on
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  Speaker 1: a smartphone. How do you see that playing out? It's
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  Speaker 1: a it's a very interesting question of them. We're seeing
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  Speaker 1: a lot of companies today actually looking to translate and
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  Speaker 1: localize their apps. Um. And so we'll see with with
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  Speaker 1: the smart Wing platform is the ability for app developers
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  Speaker 1: and app first companies to literally link into a PI
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  Speaker 1: which is essentially a plug in into the platform that
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  Speaker 1: is Smartling, enabling them to constantly push updates to their
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  Speaker 1: apps and seeing that they receive back translation in any
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  Speaker 1: given language. Finally, any advice to would be entrepreneurs, no
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  Speaker 1: matter what business, no matter what industry they're in. UM,
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  Speaker 1: I truly believe one of the best piece of advice
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  Speaker 1: I ever got was, you know, entrepreneurs, especially those in
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  Speaker 1: lot of our time behind the computer screen and touring
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  Speaker 1: away at allow us to night. But some of the
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  Speaker 1: best things and truly comes from face to face interaction
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  Speaker 1: and being a New York City entrepreneur and ending in
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  Speaker 1: such close proximity to other entrepreneurs and world class leaders.
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  Speaker 1: My advice is to get out their network, meet these
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  Speaker 1: people face to face. It's how we first connected with
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  Speaker 1: the with the leadership team with Jack Welby, a smart
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  Speaker 1: Ling and it's a it's a great example of how
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  Speaker 1: we got to where we are today. Thanks very much.
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  Speaker 1: Ryan Franklin is the chief executive and the co founder
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  Speaker 1: of Verbalize It now being acquired by Smartling International Translation Services.
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