Show HN: The pitch deck we're raising $800k with (localizejs.com)

17 points by cj ↗ HN
I believe strongly that information should be shared as freely as possible. This is one of the big reasons I started Localize, to make it an order of magnitude easier for information or knowledge to transfer from person to person, despite a difference in language.

On openness, we've decided to share things companies normally don't share.

We're starting with the pitch deck we're using to pitch investors for a $800k seed round we just started raising, plus snippets of our traction and growth charts.

Why do this? The more we share, the more exposure other people have to our work. If our work is good, they can learn from us, if our work isn't good, we can learn from them! It's a win-win.

So check out our video pitch, our deck, and let me know what you think.

8 comments

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I believe strongly that information should be shared freely. This is one reason I started Localize, to make it an order of magnitude easier for information or knowledge to transfer from person to person, despite an incompatibility of the languages they speak.

Given this, we've decided to share things companies normally don't share.

We're starting with the pitch deck we're using while raising our $800k seed round, plus an overview of our traction and growth charts that have been confidential up until now.

Why do this? The more we share, the more exposure other people have to our work. If our work is good, they can learn from us, if our work isn't good, we can learn from them! It's a win-win.

So check out our video pitch, our deck, and let me know what you think.

I wish more startups and companies shared their pitch decks. Knowing what VC's want to hear can be hard to know for first-time entrepreneurs. There are no rules for this kind of thing, and pitches are mostly done in secret. Thank you for doing what so many do not, and putting yourself out there publicly like this.
I think there is a lot of demand for this kind of thing, although there are also other start-ups in this space so it could be hard to differentiate.

There is another startup I saw on here that is semi-automating the translations. I think the cost saving that you could get by doing that well, by reducing the human input would be a place to get a distinct advantage.

The devil is in the detail, and if I were to choose a tool like this vs. a competitor, it would be in how easy it is to integrate with existing code, how good it is at finding all the possible captions in advance even if they are rarely shown, and if it can work on other platforms like native mobile, C#, ruby, java etc.

Unfortunately many companies neglect to localize, thus thumbs up for your service. International markets offer huge potential and you are taking on the biggest issue to get started with localization. You should also check out this service https://getslang.com/ - slightly different approach as they do not offer a marketplace of translators. As far as your deck goes, I would list the key competitors in the deck and highlight how you are different. Your potential investors will research the market anyways and by giving them a list of other companies out there, you are saving them time.
It's a convincing pitch and got me to spend some time on your web site. I suggest you consider adding a small free tier to give people more time to get accustomed to the product before committing money.

I appreciate the approach of managing translations outside your backend code, but I wonder about whether the translated content can be indexed by search engines.

I suspect the translations cost too much to have much of a free Tier
Aren't they just records in a database? Assuming Localize has a scalable architecture, it shouldn't be too hard to support sites with little traffic and few phrases.
Most products I know in this space (souce, worked for one years and years ago) were hand translated.

So it was: User types stuff.. stuff goes in a database... a translator gets notified that there is new work.. and he would do it and insert back into the database.. which would eventually make it out to a site.

Google translate style is OK for google results, but not for a professional website.