Our Experience, So Far, With the LetMeGo I18N Challenge

In this guest post, Leonardo Suarez, Business Development Manager with LetMeGo and Torrenegra Labs, share some insights on his experience, so far, with the LetMeGo I18N Challenge.

The first time I heard the saying, ‘Get big fast’, was back in 1998, shortly before the dot-com bubble was about to explode. Back then, I dreamed of being part of ‘The Internet Industry’. Today, I feel lucky to have accomplished this milestone. I am now proud to be part of a globalization process!

When I asked @torrenegra, in one of our meetings back in 2008, “How will LetMeGo reach the next level?”, he repeated, “We must get big fast!” I still remember the confusing feelings at that moment; some of them as a result of the belief system that I, as human being, created to avoid “uncertainty”.

After several meetings, and doing our research about Internationalization (I18N) and Localization (L10N) processes, in particular for Internet companies, we came up with a conclusion: There is no “Golden Path“, and we must create our own method to test this idea and customize it based on our resources. In such cases, “creativity” and “flexibility” become very important, to avoid self-imposed limitations set by older strategies.

The Original Idea

The LetMeGo I18N Challenge is not the first time Internationalization (I18N) has been attempted by a Torrenegra Labs venture; last year we made a similar experiment, offering a share within a proven business model (Voice123), with the same objective of “growing in different markets understood as languages”, but aimed at a completely different industry. This experience allowed us to learn from our mistakes and identify where we have to be more detailed.

Based on this previous experience, we definitely agreed that the #letmegochallenge must be most innovative, challenging, and attractive; attempting to catch as much attention as possible from a wide range of profiles from experienced and consolidated serial entrepreneurs, to young and inexperienced, yet very capable geeks. This range will be dramatically reduced when the essence of the task at hand is identified by the applicants. We are definitely NOT looking for 8am-5pm employees. We are looking for risk takers, go-getters, analytic and pragmatic individuals, who are able to manage their resources to achieve long-term goals, and everything else that defines an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs… NOT WANTED?

One lesson learned during this process was that job marketplaces and social networks are not very eager to promote these types of opportunities. The words “opportunity”, “entrepreneurs”, which are included in the subject of the original AD, in addition to a non traditional job description, have resulted in many headaches and being banned from websites such as craigslist and computrabajo, to several emails with innovative explanations as to a “head hunting process”, and it almost made me nuts.

In the end, I learned that I have to be more conservative if I wanted to a) have the opportunity posted, and b) attract a wider range of attention. We decided finally to change the original subject to “Regional Manager for Spanish- or Portuguese-Speaking Markets“. Initially I thought, “boring, redundant”, but there was no other way to post it. Fortunately, some advanced websites allowed us to include a logo, a video, and some HTML reducing the tedium of plain text. So, I crossed my fingers expecting that the right profile would read our ad and understand that we DO NEED ENTREPRENEURS !

Finally, as result of several days of hard work and dealing with the limitations from being in a company that offers job opportunities to people able to perform a job from remote locations, we were finally able to post the ad in a considerable amount of places. You can see here the list of places where we posted the job opportunity: LetMeGo challenge (P.R., job marketplaces and networking groups).

Looking for A Needle In A Haystack

The headhunting process is always a difficult job. The job seeker is occasionally fishing on a bridge over troubled waters, and they apply to any position that they might think can fit totally, partially, or just want to get a foot in the door. This made our innovative and attractive head hunting process a virtual madness, because some market places have their own version of “one-click to submit” methods of applying to jobs i.e. the hiring process. This innovation explains perfectly the pareto principle applied to our process.

*A detailed analysis of this data will be posted after the deadline of the #letmegochallenge.

Today, three days away from the deadline to apply for the LetMeGo challenge, we have already accepted 60 challengers that will move on to the next stage of the selection process. We are ready to receive more applications, especially from people eager to demonstrate their abilities and knowledge and that firmly believe in their entrepreneurial drive. Do I already have your application?

Leonardo Suarez (@leonardosuarez)