Translating Love to Success with Isabelle Andrieu

Published: May 31, 2022, 5 a.m.

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Has love ever inspired you to risk it all and start a new business?

Isabelle Andrieu left her home in France to follow her heart and her future husband to Italy. How could they create a company that melded their passions \\u2014 hers in linguistics and her husband\\u2019s in artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science \\u2014 with an investment of $100?

This was the catalyst for Translated, an AI-based translation company that \\u2014 in the 20 years since its inception \\u2014 now boasts 250,000 clients (including Google, IBM, Airbnb, and United Colors of Benetton) in 193 languages and 40 areas of expertise..
Andrieu\\u2019s passion for mentoring women means action. Women have grown their careers at Translated: some starting as interns and climbing the ranks to director positions at the Rome-based company. More than 80 percent of Translated\\u2019s project management team is female, according to Andrieu.

Listen to how Andrieu fosters leadership, paid maternity leave, and is able (and willing) to raise new mothers\\u2019 salaries and to help make their transition back to work humane.

Any woman who is responsible for policies affecting women in the workplace will benefit from Translated as a case study. Though increasing a new mother\\u2019s wage to meet the demands of childcare may cost the company in the short term, the loyalty is reciprocated and paid forward when employees are able to manage a healthy work/life balance.

Learn how Andrieu and her team decided to diversify their earnings and invest in the younger generation of entrepreneurs with Pi School, a dual- entity program with a venture arm, hosting seed rounds for startups, and an educational arm, with a scholarship program that helps to develop AI engineers. The goal: to use AI to foster solutions in various industries.

Tune in to hear Andrieu\\u2019s journey from bootstrapped startup to global translation powerhouse on this episode of SheVentures.

2:18 How did Andrieu and her husband recognize the opportunity for Translated two decades ago?
9:14 How does Translated work and who is their ideal customer?
11:35 Andrieu explains how human translators and AI coexist
14:50 The key challenges the translation industry faces
18:06 How Andrieu\\u2019s childhood shaped the vision for her career
21:53 What other companies could learn from Translated\\u2019s investment in female employees
30:18 Where did the concept of Pi School come from
39:30 Why Andrieu believes women tend to shun careers in AI
40:46 Andrieu speaks about diversity in AI.
42:27 What Andrieu thinks of companies that have IPOs with billion-dollar valuations without turning a profit
49:11 Her entrepreneurial successes and lessons learned
55:39 Andrieu discusses the Italian government\\u2019s support of entrepreneurs
58:25 Where listeners can find out more about Translated.com and Pi School

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