When Liz Elting was a college student living in a dorm, she identified a significant gap in the translation industry and set out to fill it herself.
As autumn arrives, we pull on our sweaters, enjoy the changing leaves, and sip warm chai lattes with friends. It’s also a time when countless first-year college students step onto campus. Those initial months are often when we start envisioning our future and how we can leave our mark. While some of us explore various majors before settling on a path, others are determined from the start. We’ve all heard inspiring tales of entrepreneurs who began their journeys in college dorms — think of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Liz Elting.
Liz Elting founded TransPerfect, now the largest translation firm globally, in her NYU dorm room back in 1992, all without external funding. Her goal was straightforward: to deliver top-notch language services to prestigious organizations across the globe.
Today, the company generates over $1 billion in revenue and has a presence in more than 100 cities worldwide. In her new book, “Dream Big and Win: Translating Power Into Purpose and Creating a Billion-Dollar Business,” Liz shares her insights on building a company from the ground up.
From a young age, Liz was passionate about languages, studying Portuguese, French, Spanish, and Latin. After graduating, she landed a job at a translation firm in New York but soon realized improvements could be made. “A client would ask, ‘How long will it take to translate this five-page document?’ I’d say a week, but I knew it could be done in a day or two if needed,” she explained. “I also envisioned a global company with local offices to serve our clients better.”
After attending business school and a brief stint on Wall Street, she decided to create her ideal translation business. However, raising funds was a challenge. “We weren't in a position to seek funding. We needed to focus on sales, not elaborate business plans,” Liz noted. That’s what she did from the start, making 300 calls a day and working 120-hour weeks until the company could afford office space and hire staff.
Tune in to learn about the qualities Liz sought in her early team, her reasons for avoiding venture capital, and the lessons she gained from eventually selling the business to her former fiancé.
