StartUs Presents: interprAID

Describe interprAID in 50 words or less.

interprAID helps bridging language & cultural barriers. We link community interpreters with social organisations via an online booking platform and embedded video calls. interprAID enables equal access to social services for migrants and refugees. Fast, easy, affordable and wherever you are.

Why did you decide to pursue your own dreams rather than someone else’s?

I wanted to wholeheartedly do something that answers a social need. I also really like developing new ideas and innovative solutions, and I enjoy an unorthodox approach to things. Pursuing this on my own terms, unmitigated from the inertia you find in larger organisations seemed the only way. Being an entrepreneur is an adventure. Mission clear, outcome unknown. The difference between being an entrepreneur and working for an organization is that of travelling alone or going on a guided package tour. Although nerve wrecking at times, I do enjoy the risk that is involved in trying. Apart from that, the solution that interprAID offers did not exist, but was clearly needed – so someone had to do it.

Describe your typical working day from coming to the office to leaving it.

At the moment my working day includes every single task (apart from writing code) that needs to be taken care of. I communicate with Laiju (our developer) about the most recent iteration of our code or about new todos. I answer emails from customers and partners, I assist interpreters with filling their profiles. I call potential partners, build relationships, tend to our social media (too little). My current priority is to develop a funding strategy and find investment, as well as building a team, so that in future we will be able to rely on a great team of complementary skills to drive interprAID forward.

7 years from now: How did your startup change the world?

In seven years interprAID will have changed the way services for migrants and refugees are communicated. Language and cultural barriers will no longer need to diminish their quality. Leaving interpreting to friends and family will seem unthinkably irresponsible. Using interprAID for all interpreting needs will have become standard practice in many social organisations across various sectors, saving resources and improving the quality of their services. interprAID will have enabled tens of thousands of interpreter-assisted conversations and will thereby have provided equal access to services for new citizens who in turn enabled them to integrate in hopefully welcoming societies across Europe.

Already pivoted? Did customers use the language service like you imagined it in the beginning?

Of the potential clients (mainly NGOs) we have contacted so far, the overwhelming majority was very excited about our offer and signed up for a free account. However, it does take some time and more communication than I imagined to actually help clients to change their behaviour and switch from business as usual (i.e. improvising and struggling to find interpreters), to using a professional offer. I must admit that the difficulty of creating a market for a product takes more time than I anticipated. Even if the product is entirely convincing and receives great response from users it takes some time to adopt new ways of doing things.

Bootstrapped or financed: What fuels your startup now and what will in the future?

After the early phase of research and sketching the concept of interprAID I knew this will only fly if I put myself 100% behind it. So I quit my job in 2014 and dedicated myself fully to interprAID. So far I have been bootstrapping – essentially living off my savings and being supported by friends and family. With the product ready and some early traction, now is the time to raise capital in order to build a team for a big, concerted roll out. We are looking for an angel or impact investment, but also are looking into other sources of funding.

What is the biggest current hurdle for you?

Interpreting in social services has so far largely been improvised and supplied by friends and family – an entirely unsupportable situation. Lack of awareness of the advantages of professional interpreting and lack of availability of an adequate solution are the reasons for this situation. It is our challenge now to build this awareness and introduce an entirely new service. Triggering this mind shift is our biggest hurdle. Technically speaking a communication-challenge.

With ferocious competition and a booming trend to build new companies: How do you make sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle?

The offer of language services for migrants and refugees is a great need, but it’s not really a market yet. We do differentiate ourselves very clearly from other language services by a) being very much driven by our social mission and targeting exclusively the social sector and b) by providing great choice of freelance interpreters independent of location through our embedded video calls. As a social enterprise we follow the same overarching mission of our clients and help them to achieve their goals. We provide equal access to social services and enable people to utilize the precious resources and competencies they posses. So apart from offering efficient, affordable interpreting services whenever and wherever you are, it is this alignment of mission with our users that sets us apart.

In what ways do you measure your success and how do you make sure you don’t lose track?

Success in a social enterprise is notoriously difficult to measure. In a conventional business it’s profit that counts. In social businesses we have a double bottom line: profit & social impact. The social impact of interprAID can be quantified by the number of interpreting assignments, or the number of clients that were assisted. It can also be quantified by calculating the man hours saved in NGOs that used to be wasted on finding adequate interpreters. Finally, the number of interpreters that find jobs through interprAID and thereby set their language and intercultural skills in value also provide a way to quantify our social impact.

What do you look for in team members?

Complementary skills and full commitment to the cause of bridging language and cultural barriers. As exciting as working on a start-up is, it can also be frustrating, particularly at a time when financial rewards are nil. To throw your weight behind interprAID, you must really want to change the world. So besides the respective skills, I am looking for a good portion of idealism.

Why would a talent join your team?

Because interprAID has the potential to make a real difference on a large scale. Locally embedded initiatives are great, but with interprAID we aim to make a difference at a meta level. If we manage to change how social service offers are communicated to their clients our impact will be considerable. Think of all the migration and integration targeted NGOs, think of assistance for housing, education, employment, health, psycho-social support and then the public services, hospitals, schools etc. If we can build the awareness that communication is key to the success of all these services, and if we can trigger a shift in mindset and have people use interprAID for professional assistance in bridging language and cultural barriers, our impact is going to be BIG.

What was your most memorable moment so far?

Probably when the first interpreter was booked via interprAID. Prove of concept was there. Our product worked. Despite having sobered up a little bit since then and having understood that it’s still a long way until one can call it success, I do enjoy each time I see someone understand the simple logic behind our solution to bridging the language and cultural gap. When people say “Wow, great idea, strange it doesn’t exist already”, I feel we hit the bulls-eye with our service.

What advice would you give fellow founders for their startup?

Its cliché, but the idea alone is nothing. Even a working product does not mean you’ve made it. I am learning every day that the real journey and the real challenge to making your startup successful begins now, in the phase of rolling out and marketing the product or service. I’d probably also say that starting to network early among your potential customers, multipliers, partners, etc. is a good thing. Maybe I have concentrated on building a great product a little too much and could have started earlier to build relationships and network, rather than catching up with this now.