The Question Marks Book Spa Otatade Okojie

Join us for a journey of success with prolific entrepreneur,investor and business gambit Ed Balde. A fab businessman with an exceptional portfolio,network and keen eye for trends and knowledge of the market, follow his insights and be inspired by his story.

What is your name and give us a brief about your business?

> I am Ed Balde,  Founder and CEO of UK and US based LanguageTech company Yazyk.

We have been in business since 2015. At Yazyk, we translate, proofread, localize content for offline purpose but also for websites, for organic search, for paid search and for social media.

Why did you start this business?

> There was a growing need to help businesses (large and small) break the language barrier whilst facilitating cross-country communications in the corporate world. This industry has almost doubled in size since we started and it’s not bound to stop as international business and globalization is still very much here despite the global economic crisis we are in.

What is your background?

> I am a French Londoner originally from Paris who settled down in the UK a decade ago. London is where I started my company. I have a sales background and I attended the Leonardo da Vinci University in Paris then I studied e-business at the University of Montreal (HEC).

Before starting my entrepreneurial journey back in 2011 – first as a part-time freelancer – I was a sales manager working for other tech companies in Paris and London.  I have been using both French and English on a daily basis during my sales career which then proved very useful as currently half of Yazyk customers are based in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Canada.

What inspires you?

> I love bringing fresh ideas that will contribute to creating a new segment in the market – and fulfill a need. Opening businesses to the world (which by the way is our catchphrase) is to me a rather fascinating expression in itself. No more borders when it comes to languages in the corporate world. Contributing to reaching this goal does inspire me!

What motivates you when business gets challenging?

> Knowing that whatever happens there is always a possibility to make a way throughout, knowing that by pushing myself to the limits I will find light at the end of the tunnel, a reward, a large contract, great feedback from our customers. That.. makes me proud and keeps me motivated even when facing difficulty.

How do you keep going?

> Innovating constantly, looking for new ways to address the needs of the audience is the key. Managing a company especially in a competitive industry like language services is like a constant fight. It never gets dull. We keep on re-inventing ourselves and that’s how we keep going towards our goals.

What challenges have you faced?

> Competition is always a barrier which we manage pretty well here at Yazyk I must say through competitive pricing and great service all the way. COVID is also a challenge for many businesses these days although it had a somewhat slight impact on our business and fortunately we went through it fine being 100% online based, plus businesses still need to work globally even when there is a pandemic.

Tell us about your brand

> Alongside our multilingual translation, SEO, Pay Per Click and Social Media Optimization offering, we are launching a new software to manage all these services in one place – which we plan to roll out in early 2021.

This revolutionary SaaS language platform will be optimized for both desktop and mobile use,  in the corporate world.

It will use a combination of human interaction together with Artificial Intelligence. The Yazyk team has added a special ingredient that will make us unique in this particular marketplace. Like they say, mom’s the word 🙂  I personally cannot wait for its release as the market is currently very much demanding it!