Polyglotte made it to the Unicode Conference this year! We made great contacts and learned a ton.
We were even featured on their Website!
Polyglotte Inc.
Polyglotte Inc. - a benefit corporation
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
¡Instructables!
We published our first Instructable four days ago and already have over 400 views. Our next Instructable will include a PolyKeyboard DIY kit, so you can try our keyboard at home!
"Phones have gotten smarter. Shouldn't keyboards be smart, too?"
Monday, August 18, 2014
Polyglotte was featured in Tech Page One!
Polyglotte's PolyKB 1.0 USB keyboard, which is available
for Windows operating systems.
PolyKeyboard: The app for polyglottes
Daniela Semeco’s PolyKeyboard app, which launched in October 2013, allows multilingual people to switch seamlessly between various keyboard formats.
“The job market was pretty miserable, and when I was listing all my skills while applying to jobs, I thought about my language skills and realized I knew all these different keyboard layouts by heart,” Semeco told Tech Page One. “I couldn’t write that on my résumé as a skill, but it does take a lot of energy and memory to switch.”
A keyboard that could automatically switch to different language formats would solve that problem, she thought.
“I thought it was kind of silly that the keyboard hadn’t changed in 150 years,” said Semeco, who knows four languages fluently: English, Spanish, French and German. She’s learning Italian, Portuguese and Russian as well. “I was going to solve that problem. A light bulb went off.”
Semeco put her idea in motion
Semeco started by printing layouts of keyboards from different languages on computer paper, laid them on top of one another to see the commonalities. Fitting all the characters on a single, universal keyboard simply wasn’t feasible — each key would be overcrowded and difficult to read.
So she consulted her father, a computer scientist who lives in Atlanta, to find out how difficult it would be to build an app or device that would allow users to change to different keyboard formats.
Once they figured out a plan for what became PolyKeyboard, Semeco booked a one-way ticket to San Francisco in March 2011. She didn’t know anyone and had very little money.
Fast-forward to January 2013, Semeco founded Polyglotte as a benefit corporation. “Polyglotte” is derived from the word polyglotism, which means the ability to speak many languages.
That year, PolyKeyboard launched as an app that allows users to switch seamlessly between 17 different languages on their touch-screen keyboards. It became available for free on the App Store Oct. 31, 2013. The keyboard only works within the app for now, and Semeco is working on integrating it with various operating systems. Polyglotte also offers a 1.0 USB keyboard for Windows operating systems for $199.
Semeco has attended various networking events in San Francisco, including July 29’s Tech Cocktail, and is looking for opportunities to put the product on display. On July 31, the startup featured its prototype at Freespace in San Francisco, and on Aug. 7, the team showcased the keyboard app at the Women 2.0 City Meetup.
Given its large international community, San Francisco is the perfect place for her company to be based, Semeco said. According to a 2011 study by the U.S. Census Bureau, 44 percent of California’s inhabitants speak a language other than English in the home. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the state, but Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese are present as well.
Relaying the Polyglotte’s vision
Semeco has had success fundraising through crowdfunding websites such as Indiegogo. In the future, she’d like to hire a full-time marketing director to communicate her vision.
Polyglotte’s greatest challenge has been conveying the need for PolyKeyboard, according to Stanley Osborne, one of Semeco’s mentors who helped build Craigslist.
“An awful lot of people in the United States are culturally unaware of how multilingual computing needs to be improved,” Osborne said. “We’re still struggling to get that message across.”
The Europeans who Semeco has met understand the importance of PolyKeyboard right away, she said, given that they know many more languages than U.S. residents. About 19 percent of Europeans are bilingual; 25 percent are trilingual and 10 percent speak four or more languages, according to the 2012 Eurobarometer Report “Europeans and their languages.”
Because the product is so unique — PolyKeyboard is the only keyboard app with more than a dozen language formats on it — it has been difficult to explain how it works.
“I’ve heard a lot of excitement from people about the product, but there’s a learning curve,” Semeco said. “When something is new, people compare it to things that already exist. It’s hard to explain because it’s not like anything they’re used to.”
Despite these challenges, Semeco is pushing forward with her product, as she realizes there’s a need for a keyboard for polyglottes like her.
“Daniela is very quick to get over things and move on,” Osborne said. “Along the way, [entrepreneurs] have to learn skills [they] didn’t have, and she has the resolve not to give up.”
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Polyglotte Keyboard exhibit @Freespace
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Polyglotte Launch Party video recap
For those of you who weren't able to make it to our launch party, you can watch our short video. Our new product, a multilanguage USB keyboard called the PolyKeyboard, is now available for sale at:
P.S. The chameleon you see in our video is real. Special thanks to the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley!
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Want to know how the PolyKeyboard works. Watch our new demo video!
Get your very own PolyKB for $199.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Keyboard exhibit
After our launch party, we'll be hosting a keyboard exhibit at '6th on 7th gallery' in San Francisco. Come play with our prototypes and have a look at our beautiful keyboard art!
Friday, June 20, 2014
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Polyglotte startup story
We've updated our startup story on SlideShare!
http://www.slideshare.net/Polyglotte/polyglotte-startup-story
http://www.slideshare.net/Polyglotte/polyglotte-startup-story
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Entrepreneurship and chaos - lessons learned
The mark of a successful entrepreneur is adaptability. The fate of a startup in the beginning depends on how well and how quickly it can manage risk. Small companies usually go through a trial period, which some refer to as the 'Valley of Death', where most startups go to die. During this time, dogged determination and fast-paced problem-solving skills are critical. My humble advice: Embrace chaos. What won’t kill you will make you stronger, so don’t cry over spilled milk. No time for that.
As solo founder and CEO of a startup, I’ve learned to pick myself up after a fall. On November 22, 2013, a skateboard accident landed me on my head, which resulted in a concussion, four stitches, and an out-of-body experience. This was followed by a month of dizziness, during which my company, Polyglotte Inc., launched an Indiegogo campaign. It wasn’t successful, but we learned so much, it didn’t matter. We learned what it was to organize weekly SCRUMS, to work with a small team of volunteers and contractors. And all the while, I didn’t know which way was north. I knew however, where we were going. And most importantly, we kept going. Lesson number one: Never stop. We had planned to do this crowdfunding campaign, and we were going to do it no matter what. Although it didn't go perfectly, Polyglotte gained more exposure and a helluva lot more experience. Now we have a clear inventory of what we should and shouldn’t do for next time.
A month later, the chaos began to settle. Would it burn off like San Francisco fog? Actually, it started raining cats and dogs, and with the rain, a tree fell on my house. PG&E cut the power lines the tree had fallen on, and everyone on the block had electricity except us. This lasted a week, and suddenly I was obliged to spend more time outside of the house. No more early morning tweets from my bedside and occasionally working from home. Second lesson: Force majeure; an entrepreneur has to be prepared for anything, including natural catastrophes.
A week after the electricity was restored, another event caught me by surprise. I was at my part-time job as a tour guide, driving a little bus, and we’d stopped at Twin Peaks. As I got out of the vehicle to take pictures of my tourists, somebody pulled up in a car, broke the front window of the bus, and stole my bag. Luckily, they didn’t steal my phone. Third lesson learned: back up and encrypt your information, because there's nothing like peace of mind. Also, if you’re driving in San Francisco, never leave anything in a parked car. That day, I had a $700 loss. Luckily, I had enough money in the bank to buy everything back and pretend it never happened.
So again, a few lessons for budding CEOs: Wear a helmet, never stop moving forward, adapt quickly to crazy situations, and try to always have a little savings in case something unexpected happens.
We're ready to launch a Kickstarter campaign, and we're kicking it off with a Launch Party and a keyboard exhibit in San Francisco! Locations and times to be announced. We're excited to show you our new physical keyboard!
Stay tuned for more information:
Daniela Semeco
CEO/Founder
Polyglotte Inc.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Polyglotte ist eine Berlinerin!
Polyglotte was featured in the Berliner Zeitung. We just finished translating the article to English. Feel free to comment!:
http://www.polykeyboards.com/#!press/c1616
http://www.polykeyboards.com/#!press/c1616
Photo courtesy of REUTERS
Thursday, April 17, 2014
We've applied to MassChallenge!
Check out our profile and help spread the word!
Elevator Pitch:
Our innovative PolyKeyboard (patent-pending) makes it easy for you to type in up to 17 languages with the same keyboard layout. It is currently available for iPad only. Languages supported include Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Welsh. We plan on making many versions of the keyboard based off of different scripts. We're also building a physical keyboard for more serious typing!
Indiegogo campaign video
On January 17, 2014, we launched our first ever Indiegogo campaign. We offered keyboard stickers as our main perk. The campaign didn't do so well; we realized that our potential clients were more interested in buying an actual physical keyboard than the stickers. We're now working hard to build you a physical keyboard infused with the PolyKeyboard technologies (for Windows, Mac & Linux). Stay tuned for our upcoming launch party!
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