About Monty

Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.

EasyTranslate Q&A: Frederik R. Pedersen, CEO

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Monty

Welcome to Mob76 Outlook, Frederik. Please tell us about EasyTranslate

Thanks for the invitation. We enable customers to create and translate quality content at half the price of any other service, by enabling generative AI and LLM technologies. As a result of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT, the translation industry is about to change forever.

We believe that combining AI-GC with ‘humans in the loop’ will enable businesses to create company-specific language models in any language. We won’t translate anymore, we will do ground-up content creation in any language.

We make complicated AI/LLM technologies accessible to everyone, so that customers can utilise the latest AI-technology hassle-free in their content process without any need of prompt-engineers or machine learning engineers.

This enables the customers of any size to communicate engaging content in any language in a single infrastructure that is scalable and future proof.

Wow, that’s a big change, you sound like you’re ahead of the curve

ChatGPT and other AI-GC models are the biggest hype since the start of the internet. Already, 100s of start-ups are getting built, but what it takes to add real and unique value to the customers is still not 100% clear.

Current models are still general in its wording and would need training for each customer to learn their language and by then create real value.

We have created one flow for all of a customers’ content, so they can make engaging content that is optimised towards SEO and we train on the human edits so they can stand out in this content-overload world.

Moreover, we’ve recently reached the finals of the LocWorld Process Innovation Challenge, a highly prestigious competition that awards the most innovative companies in the localisation industry. The winner will be unveiled in Malmo next month.

You recently raised your first funding for Easy Translate?

We decided that we wouldn’t go through the normal investment cycles and bootstrapped the company for a decade. However, as the industry was being fundamentally changed by generative AI products, we raised more than $3 million in January this year.

The funding coincides with the launch of an innovative integration of LLMs that provides automated content generation and translation services. The new funds create room for further development of the new functionality and add to the ambition of accelerating EasyTranslate’s organic growth. In addition, this strategic partnership enables EasyTranslate to grow its market share by realising strategic acquisitions.

We believe that training customer specific LLMs by including copywriters in the loop in any language enables a better and more localised content output which will increase customer engagement and improve organic search ranking.

By challenging the current state of translating content we will see a major shift in the industry towards generating content with trained LLMs within the customers tone of voice and question the need of translation in many marketing content aspects.

From the fine-tuning of GPT-engines, EasyTranslate is planning to build out their own infrastructure of mini-LLMs trained on customer level to reach better levels of accuracy and less hallucination than using OpenAI’s GPT4 out of the box.

What about the early days of the company?

EasyTranslate was founded in 2010 as an online translation agency. We were recognised as one of the fastest-growing companies in our industry in our first 6 years and the youngest company to enter the list of 100 biggest Language Service Providers.

The industry was facing major pressure on pricing as all language service providers sell words and have a mark-up on the freelancers.

In 2020 we decided to do a full pivoting of our market positioning and decided to build our current platform solution where we give away our marketplace of verified freelancers and seamless training of AI enabled in a software that streamlines all those content processes across platforms.

How long have you been in business?

We are a small Danish startup in Copenhagen. We serve customers from 21 different countries across three continents and our tech team is located in Skopje, Macedonia. We have more than 10 years’ experience in running marketplaces with a mission to make custom language accessible for everyone for free.

We will do this by enabling AI-GC training on the fly from the edits human copywriters are doing. These trained models can be used cross-service, which means they will also do foundation for customer specific machine translation when needed. Two birds, one stone.

We have taken all our knowledge from creating a quality marketplace for localisation and content creations in combination with AI-technologies. We will be the first company to support ‘out of the box’ AI/LLM learning from edits that creates customer-specific models in any language.

These models will work cross functionally, so that customers have the ability to increase quality in both AI-GC and machine translation. The technology will be tailored to create SEO content as well.

We grew our SaaS business by 250% from 2021 to 2022 and we are expecting to reach the same level of growth in 2023. We are handling more than 11,000 projects and more than six million words per month.

What is the problem EasyTranslate is solving?

Quality multilingual content at scale. We are creating more content than ever before. From 2020 to 2022 the global online content grew by more than 50% (33 zettabytes

It’s the closest to an infinitive amount of content as 1 zettabyte is equal to 1 billion terabytes. One terabyte is equal to 83 million pages. To stand out in the content overload, we have to create quality content that is worth engaging with and not ‘just content’.

Please walk us about the user experience

We have put our faith in a product-led growth strategy. This means, we are obsessed with the user experience from sign-up to creating the WOW moment. We provide our product as a Free/Freemium offering, so all users can expect to see value before they need to pay for our service.

We have around 300 company freemium signups monthly and they have the full self-service option to build their team of freelancers, integrate plug-ins to their CMS, PIM or directly to their Github repository to ensure the content flow runs smoothly and automatically without human interaction.

Customers can get started on a paid plan within our product without any interaction with sales reps. Starting price is 25 Euros per month for the annual subscription option.

We are educating customers about creating content in any language from ground up instead of translating content every time. One of the biggest challenges in the translation process is “garbage in, garbage out”.

The problem with low quality translation is often based on low quality source content. The end goal is to exit to an AI-GC or LSP, so we will need to make them aware and recognise that they need us to continue delivering value to their customers.

Why are you better than the other guys and who are your competitors?

We are the only one combining the ‘Human in the loop seamlessly and at a cost price’ that enables the seamless build up of a custom AI that is future-sustainable and makes our product critical infrastructure for our customers.

Easytranslate is up against potential competitors for free/cheap Machine Translation such as Google Translate, DeepL, Microsoft translate or Language Service Providers including LanguageWire and TextMaster. Then there’s translation management software such as Lokalise, Crowdin and Phrase.

But more recently, our real competitors are major generative AI tools, such as Jasper.ai.

Thanks, Frederik, it looks like great days are ahead for EasyTranslate. Prepare yourself for a trance of inbound from potential acquirers!

Thank you, Monty, a pleasure to have shared with your audience.

WEB3 BOOK REVIEW: The End of Business-As-Usual

Posted on May 10, 2023 by Monty

Web3 is the new old technology. While all the chat and the hype in yet another technology cycle is all about ChatGPT and its overlord generative AI, there is another revolution that has been brewing even longer.

The Web3 buzzword is known by many, yet really understood by few. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It is the metaverse? Is it crypto?

In this book by G C Cooke (ignore Graham’s use of his initials, it’s worth it), this coming, and already here, wave is nicely interpreted for those who know and those who are yet to know.

Whether it’s FinTech, entertainment, social networks or plain disruption, Cooke lays it out for us in easy-to-read, yet never simplistic, terms. Using heavily the business book of The Innovator’s Dilemma as the template for his ideas, it shows how we will all be affected.

There will be those who will profit by spotting the Web3 wave and those who will proser immensely by riding the wave, while others will sink below the surface, terrified of change, as much as I’m terrified by my overuse of water metaphors.

It also lays out what’s going to happen in Web 4 after explaining how we’re going to get there via the first two iterations. First there are protocols and then there are apps that run on these protocols. Web1.0 and Web3 are the same as are Web2 and Web4. Protocols followed by applications. Same as it ever was.

As somebody who has previously been a lunchtime adopter instead of an early adopter, in this case, as I suggest other readers of this book will find out, I have become an early adopter.

Moreover, there is no use of the C-word here, only explanations of AI and how it has a role to play in Web3. Personally, I think generated AI is the work of the devil (the use of such a term mean the machines have marked me down as a enemy and my days are numbered).

In the interim, before out mutual assured destruction, even by machines or water metaphors, I recommend this book, one that will have you swimming to your next success, come hell or high water. Boom!

Reimaginez Q&A: Therese Gedda, Founder

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Monty

Welcome to Mob76 Outlook, Therese, please tell our readers about Reimaginez

Thank you so much! It’s an honor to spend this time with you.I would love to invite you to take a moment and imagine your company filled with thriving High Achievers, all striving towards greatness, lifting each other towards new heights, and scaling a culture of high performance and excellence. This is the reality of the work we do.

Reimaginez is an award-winning company specialising in successfully designing, redesigning and scaling culture. We help founders, CEOs, and leaders keep, attract, and lead High Achievers while living as High Achievers themselves. Areas we cover include One-on-One High-Performance Programs with Founder and Executive Coaching, Cultural Design and Cultural Transformation, and Cultural M&A Integrations.

Over the last 20 years, the Reimaginez team has served 1,000+ Founders and C-Suite clients and impacted 30,000+ company cultures globally.

I believe you are Swedish. Are you based in Europe or the US, and why?

I grew up in Sweden, and today my primary base is in the city that never sleeps – New York City. The city is a great hub to serve our US clients and close enough to work with our European clients. It’s an incredible place where I feel most inspired and grateful to be surrounded by so many people working hard to realize their visions.

For years, I lived out of my suitcase, and today I still spend a significant amount of time on the road since we work with clients all over the world.. A fun fact is that one of my longest trips included stops in Rome, Stockholm, London, New York, Toronto, San Francisco, Lisbon and back to New York.

You work with startup and high-growth companies’ CEOs. What value do you offer them and how long do you work with them for?

Working with amazing people on a mission to bring something empowering and innovative to the world is incredibly fulfilling. We specialize in aligning, designing, and scaling a high-performance culture. The essence of the delivery is centered around aligning your people around your vision, effectively championing your best people, removing toxicity, and amplifying your impact by designing and building a high-performing culture.

Reimaginez believes in championing High Achievers. Therefore, we have specific programs designed to develop and lead High Achievers, boost their performance, champion their future talents, and allow them to thrive through the leadership philosophies of tomorrow while attracting, recruiting, and onboarding High Achievers.

When you invest in yourself, your people, and your culture, magic happens. I’d love to share some examples of what we have achieved alongside our clients:

• 3x Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
• 45% revenue increase during the height of the pandemic for an 18-year-old company
• 10x average deal sizes
• Saving a 9.7 million USD ARR subsidiary from collapsing
• Designing his best life after a successful company exit

For our cultural transformation programs, we typically become a long-term partner for the company, whether they are early-stage or approaching an exit, and follow them through the different stages of their development. We have seen many of our clients through many stages of their evolution.

Another sought-after initiative is our High-Performance executive coaching program for impact-driven and High Achieving Founders and CEOs. Over 20 years, I’ve personally had the pleasure of working directly with over 1,000 founders, CEOs, and C-level clients. And since Founders and CEOs are innovative, I’ve been given many creative titles over the years, including “Yoda,” “Master Teacher,” “Founder Therapist,” and “Stand-in Cofounder” by founders and CEOs.

Mental health is a huge issue since the start of the pandemic. How did your clients react?

One way of describing how it feels to be a founder is living on a rollercoaster in the mountains. I recently delivered a speech for a conference in Boston capturing it more in detail. The thing is, when we empower founders with a vision, on a mission, we empower change.

Let’s acknowledge their reality.vWe know how hard it is to stand alone. To sit there by yourself at 2 AM making a decision that can make or break your company. We know walking the path of the Founder often feels like driving a Formula One car while playing chess with ten different opponents whose only job is to focus on this game. On a road that is winding and full of unknowns,

We know the power of having someone to call, someone to text, someone to reach out to who knows your story and understands why you do what you do. Because just like there will be moments of darkness and doubt, there will also be moments of celebration and joy.

Moments where you will feel a deep sense of achievement of building something just from an idea, driven by the ambition of creating positive change, and you will stand strong in the clarity that you can be a force for good in the world. Having a Founder’s Tribe has never been more important. We believe that together, we can make a difference.

I have found that most founders are very resilient, but having a founder’s tribe can make all the difference, including for their mental health. I’m, therefore, grateful to be part of many tribes as a trusted advisor and champion.

Did you see any trends for the growth of companies in 2022?

Yes, Reimaginez has seen a greater level of awareness and investments in building and growing a thriving culture. We work with many companies in health (BioTech, HealthTech, Medtech, and Digital Health), impact (including ClimateTech), and tech more generally.

Prioritising initiatives for personal and professional development is in increasing demand, especially in areas connected to well-being (including meditation, workout routines, and mindfulness practices) as well as leadership and performance programs.

Some investors are also more focused on culture, even if they typically use language like ”we invest in the team/the founders” over the actual word ‘culture.’

Another trend is the rediscovery of face-to-face interactions that enable deeper opportunities for relationship building and serendipity, especially over dinners, walks, and more intimate events.

What are the biggest opportunities for Reimaginez in an uncertain world?

There is a shift in awareness and focus on the impact of a brilliant, mediocre, or even toxic company culture. This means that culture is now at the forefront of many high-performance individuals when they are looking for their next adventure. It also means that companies, especially in the US, are prioritising the investment in a brilliant culture where their High Achievers thrive.

Another opportunity for the next few years is in connection to M&As, which typically increase during uncertainty. However, there are certain things that are often forgotten in the M&A process. When two companies merge, attention and focus typically centre around the merger’s financial, legal, and IP aspects.

However, aligning culture and leadership is essential for the new environment’s successful future. Reimaginez’ proprietary methods and processes for facilitating the integration of different cultures work in parallel with our proven programs for establishing trust, focus, and a shared vision across all teams in order to achieve short- and long-term success and growth targets.

Outsized opportunities for consistent and dependable M&A performance reside within tightly focused and broadly-shared alignments of value, impact, and purpose throughout the organization. This dependable, and repeatable, journey begins with an impact and value-focused Cultural Due Diligence followed by the implementation of bespoke achievement-focused Cultural Integrations and ongoing support.

What are you looking forward to in 2023?

I am excited to continue my work empowering high achieving founders, CEOs, and leaders (we call them High Achieving Empathic Givers) who are making the world better by building, growing, and investing in great companies.

Any insights that you can share with our readers when it comes to growth and
building a successful company?

Invest in a well-designed culture. As the saying goes, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Culture is a way to drive behavior. Culture impacts everything from productivity, engagement, and customer loyalty to talent retention, speed of innovation, growth, and, of course, profitability.

Invest in your High Achievers. Remember that High Achievers thrive alongside fellow High Achievers, and they attract one another. It has been said that High Achievers outperform the average worker with 10% in productivity, 20% in sales, and 30% in profitability. By investing in your High Achievers you are more likely to keep a thriving culture that creates, and achieves, outstanding results.

Invest in alignment. The impact of bringing teams, whether the whole company or the management team, together for company retreats and offsites to align on vision, goals, and strategy on an ongoing basis can’t be overlooked.

When you bring people together and provide peak experiences where members of the team espouse deep alignment on the direction and key initiatives for the company, remarkable results will follow. The power of alignment strengthens creativity, connection, and growth and the importance of this cannot be overstated.

How can people contact you?

Visit the Reimanginez website to learn more about our work. Alternatively, feel free to reach out with a message on LinkedIn letting me know you found me here on LinkedIn.

Thank you for the interview. I am very excited to share the Reimaginez story with your readers.

Metaverse Q&A – Javier Perez, Group Sport

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Monty

Welcome to Mob76 Outlook, Javier, could you tell us more about Group Sport?

Thank you for the invitation! Group Sport is a sports, entertainment and technology company. We are revolutionising the sports fan experience by introducing Web3 and the metaverse.

According to FIFA there at 5B football fans around the world. The best players from around the world come to play in Europe, bringing their fans with them. This means the fanbase for European football is worldwide.

However, fans in China or Indonesia and other places far from Europe are unlikely to ever visit the home ground of their favorite European teams. We can give this ‘home ground feeling’ to fans via digital twin stadiums and cities via Web3.

Within the metaverse we are able to have fans engage with their favourite team, interact with their favourite players, and be involved with day-to-day decision making for the team they follow.

By introducing NFTs for our fans, our fans will have a voice in the overall club experience. Group Sport plans to replicate this across multiple sports, including international football/soccer, basketball, hockey and Major League Baseball.

You have had an extraordinary career in football. Can you explain to our readers?

My career in football began as a US National team and professional player, then I transitioned to a career as a Marketing Executive for 28 years in international sports in general.

I spent 14 years of my career working in International Football/soccer with the Federation, European leagues, European teams and Top athletes in sports that include International football/soccer, tennis, golf and basketball.

NFTs are having another moment after the hype of Version 1.0. How are you doing things differently?

The way NFTs have been sold in the past was that NFT owners would own something that was digital, something they may see on their handheld device or computer, but otherwise had no value. What makes us different is that our NFT holders own a real asset. They are an integral part of the sports club/team. The NFT owner may be involved as much as they want.

Depending on which NFT they own, they may be a season ticket holder, attend private team events, or even travel with the team. They may be part of the group that makes decisions on the team’s uniform colours and design for the upcoming season.

Every NFT holder has access to the metaverse where they can watch a match in our digital twin of the real stadium, interact with other fans, and even players from the club at pre and post-game events.

So you can have the experience of attending a match on the team’s home ground even if you live on the other side of the world. These are a few of the ways we are doing things differently than NFT version 1.0.

What makes your football metaverse better than any other one out there?

The Metaverse is very new and innovative. The quality of the animations are photo realistic, really incredible next-level just on the visual level. So your experience watching a game in the digital twin stadium, or even walking around the team’s home city, will be exciting.

You will be able to shop, attend music events, or even have your own apartment in the digital twin city. We are designing fan experiences with team sponsors. They may engage with the new Apple, Samsung and Sony products or test drive the new Electric Audi or BMW and best of all interact with the team superstar pre and post-game.

We have created the fan meet and greet with the team players. The fans may engage with players from any of our teams from any sport we have available. It’s going to be a place where our fans will want to visit often, where they will make real friends, and share their love of their team.

When will your NFTs be available?

Our NFT drop is happening in phases and we expect a great turn out over the next few weeks. There are only a limited number, we are keeping our Group Sport NFT community very select, so if you’re interested don’t hesitate to get involved!

After Argentina’s World Cup victory, global interest in sport has never been higher.

We have seen extreme interest in South America, China, Japan, the Middle East and Russia. We thank all of them for their support! One way we are celebrating the exciting World Cup final is to hold a drawing, once our NFT sale has closed, for a signed Lionel Messi Argentina jersey with a certificate of authenticity.

Where do you see the next area of growth? North America?

North America has always had an appetite for new and innovative NFTs, and professional soccer there is growing by leaps and bounds. We also expect new NFT holders to come from the UK, Europe and Latin America.

What are your expectations for Group Sport in 2023?

Group Sport is on track to own four clubs/teams in 2023. Teams/clubs in International Football/soccer, NBA and NHL. We are currently in negotiations with five teams. It is a great start for us here at Group Sport. For the latest information be sure to visit our website at www.groupsportltd.com, there’s going to be a lot happening in the coming year.

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Previous Q&A on Mob76 Outlook

Pathway Launches Manchester-Based Virtual Production Innovation Lab

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Monty

pathway

Pathway has launched a Manchester-based LED VP Innovation Lab and Production Facility in Partnership with HP.

The company brings to market a 6,000 square foot offering dedicated to the development and production of in-camera visual effects that utilise real-time technology and includes moving image R&D and digital cinema production for filmmakers.

In partnership with HP, the new studio will also provide Virtual Production skills and training offerings that are designed to amplify knowledge transfer to filmmakers. HP will facilitate Pathway’s studio with the latest hardware such as Z-series workstations and scalable digital workspaces via the Engineering Emmy award winning HP Anyware.

“It’s been incredible to see how the film and media industry is moving towards virtual production, and the capabilities Pathway have to offer with the Z by HP suite of solutions for its clients means it’s exciting times ahead, both for commercial users and the young filmmakers of the Future,” said Richard McGuinness, Advanced Compute and Solutions Lead Workstations and Thin Clients, HP UK.

Pathway’s Trafford Park site consists of a 5k square foot soundstage, in-house Virtual Art Department, make-up, wardrobe and dailies room. The new studio’s LED stage technology is powered by ROE Visual Ruby LED panels, MoSys StarTracker, MegaPixel VR Helios processing platform and Unreal Engine.

Speaking about their launch, Pathway co-founder Nathan Newman said:

“It is a delight to have the innovative support of HP in our mission to make virtual production more accessible and an even greater creative experience for filmmakers.

We are also thrilled to welcome Amanda [Nevill] to our advisory board who bring’s to Pathway a wealth of hard earned experience from working at the very heart of the British film industry.”

Newman’s eclectic career spans two decades across the video games industry, viral marketing globe trotting, immersive technology and award-winning moving image production.

Former BFI Chief Executive, Amanda Nevill CBE said:

“Pathway’s contribution to the industry will make it possible for more filmmakers to produce content with the very latest technology and to chase down new ideas for LED wall produced cinematography. During this time of industry growth and change, Pathway’s plans will be a big win for Manchester.”

Nevill’s impressive background spans helming the British Film Institute as Chief Executive for 17 years and is currently a strategic advisor to the international screen business.

Pathway’s £1m facility has been invested in by business partners Neuron Audio Visual, a Manchester based AV solutions company with an international reputation for creating extraordinary experiences at events and through venue installations. Neuron’s impressive client list includes festivals such as Glastonbury and Parklife and brands such as Redbull and Beats.

Speaking about the direction of the new studio, co-founder Alex Wareham said, “Virtual Production isn’t just about recreating old ways of producing content, it is about discovering new heights to moving image product development for our clients.” Pathway’s clients include agency Collective, fashion photography house Chris Davis Studio and creative powerhouse Arrow International Media.