Two and a half years ago, I parted ways with my enterprise employer over a compensation dispute. In the wake of that change, my retiring father recruited me into starting a services-based IT business along with a couple of his long-time colleagues.
After a year of building that business, our go-to-market strategy was not playing out as we had anticipated. In August 2019, I entered my first semester of grad school at California College of the Arts. In October 2019, my father abruptly exited the company leaving the remaining partners unsure about our future. In the wake of our uncertainty, we decided the best path forward would be leveraging my product development background to build our own technology.
Since November of 2019, we've brought together a team of 23 people across three continents, five countries, and eight languages and collaborated closely with nearly half the members of the MBA in Design Strategy class. This amazing group of people has given life to Native, a multilingual communication platform that enables people to read, write, and dictate while communicating with others across more than 100 languages by combining instant messaging with real-time translation into a seamless experience.
In December 2020, we released Native Chats on the App Store and Google Play. We're now publicly validating our technology and preparing for a global launch announcement on February 21st #InternationalMotherLanguageDay.
We need YOU! The future we imagine...one that elevates new voices to the global stage, empowers people to confidently and authentically bring their whole selves to the conversation, and will transform the way we communicate forever...requires us to engage our communities. I know that you all can help our team and product grow into the best version of themselves.
Those of you who know me well know I am not some rich kid funded by mommy and daddy. I come from a blue-collar family and am the only family member with formal education. I spent ten years in the military and national intelligence, including multiple tours in combat as a member of special operations, and have been afforded access to higher education only by way of my service-connected injuries.
I have put everything on the line and continually act to minimize my overhead. I have no retirement fund and no real savings to speak of. I've given up comforts like having an automobile...and I would even sell you the bed out from under my head if it made a difference in our team realizing its shared vision or not.
As we continue to #makeshifthappen, we want to engage people with diverse perspectives and experience, are looking for mentors and advisors with deep domain experience and strategic networks, and are currently fundraising in preparation for executing our go-to-market strategy.
If you feel compelled, please download our app and give Native Chats a try. I welcome your candid feedback and hope that each of you will see this as an opportunity to help propel something special into our world.
You can reach me at ben@nativechats.com and find me on Native Chats by adding me to your contacts +1 (949) 302-5924. Thanks for sharing a few minutes of your time with me, and remember to #chatfluently