Democratizing translation: What to expect from local startup Keego

When Valentina Farallo and Rodrigo Galindez met in San Francisco two years ago, the last place they thought they’d end up was Cincinnati.
 
Farallo, who is from Italy, and Galindez, who hails from Argentina, had spent their lives traveling the world and living in large cities like London, Paris and New York. When they began thinking about applying to The Brandery, they'd never heard of Cincinnati.
 
The idea that brought them here is called Keego, a multi-functional translation service for the professional world.
 
“Our wanderings around different countries with different cultures made us think how valuable communication between different people is, and how challenging (it) can be to try to eliminate any obstacle to it,” Farallo says. “Our vision is to remove the language barrier by democratizing translation.”
 
Farallo, who speaks four languages, and Galindez, a design expert, describe Keego as a marketplace where bilinguals and professional translators can work together to solve language barrier issues.
 
Since working with The Brandery, however, Keego’s idea has expanded even further. The company is now in the process of creating a product that connects to content creation programs like MailChimp, WordPress or Intercom, time at pulls the translatable content and then immediately returns the content to the particular program.
 
“Forget about emails, attachments or missing files,” Galindez says. “Our product will solve the biggest pain point of the translation industry, making translation easy for companies and individuals and, in the end, helping our clients reach new markets easily.”
 
While this product is in development, Keego currently offers certified translation for immigration, business documents translation and website translation, among other services.
 
Since they graduated from The Brandery last fall, Keego has been recognized by big players in the startup world. The Rise of the Rest Road Tour, spearheaded by investor and entrepreneur Steve Case, selected Keego as one of its startup finalists.
 
And while Farallo and Galindez never envisioned themselves in Cincinnati, they've embraced it fully since moving here.
 
“Since the first day we arrived to Cincinnati, we were overwhelmed by it,” Farallo says. “We were so pleasantly surprised to be able to create … a network of connections with people from all kinds of backgrounds.”
 
Farallo and Galindez commute to their office by bicycle every day and try different cuisines during their lunch break. Though their workdays are often long, the two took full advantage of the Fountain Square concert series over the summer, even if it meant heading straight back to the office afterwards.
 
“Cincinnati is a very inspirational environment for building a company,” Farallo says.