Company description
Based in San Francisco and backed by individuals who gave birth to cloud computing, including Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, Cloudwords is poised to revolutionize the translation industry. Our team is comprised of individuals who have worked at Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Yahoo, Cisco Systems and various translation vendors– and all of us are passionate about empowering customers with tools that make their lives easier.
Cloudwords is not a translation vendor or Localization Service Provider (LSP); rather, it is a Translation Management Platform that enables the customer to select and interact with the translation vendor, and centrally manage all translation projects.
At Cloudwords, we believe that the innovative way to buy translation services begins with transparency. The current approach pits buyer and vendor against each other. The vendor holds all of the information and the buyer becomes suspicious, often times resulting in both parties being dissatisfied with the experience.
Cloudwords levels the playing field through total transparency. Buyers and vendors share all the same information and we make sure that they are getting exactly what they want most in the transaction. Buyers want knowledge of how prices between vendors compare, and a central place to view and manage all of their translation projects. Vendors want a steady flow of project opportunities. Cloudwords delivers to both.
In essence, Cloudwords is the internet's first translation specific marketplace designed to help the customer navigate the proverbial "black box" of translation. In order to join our network, a translation vendor must have at least 5 customer references and be accredited and in good standing with LISA and GALA, the leading industry associations. Once vendors are in the system and active, they will be rated/evaluated by the client at the close of each project. These feedback scores are what will drive business to the best vendors, as clients will review vendor profiles prior to selecting a partner.
Cloudwords makes managing this process easy and fast. Through our innovative platform we deliver visibility, control, and centralized project management. Finally!
Team
Michael Meinhardt — Co-Founder, President/CEO
Cloudwords is led by Michael Meinhardt, a sales & marketing professional in the translation and localization industry working with public companies and start-up organizations. During his tenure in the localization industry, he has held leadership sales positions, introduced new products and services, and designed innovative marketing strategies leading to multi-million dollar customer relationships. He's worked with organizations across various industries localizing their product, marketing, and training materials for the first time, as well as enterprise customers, including Cisco Systems, Hitachi Data Systems, Apple, and Symantec, who wish to improve and streamline their global translation strategy. His ability to design, develop and communicate disruptive strategies in the localization industry will enable Cloudwords to emerge as the leading provider of OnDemand/SaaS applications.
Michael graduated from Santa Clara University in 1998 with a degree in Finance, and in 2005 graduated from the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University with a Masters in Business Administration.
Scott Yancey — Co-Founder, CTO
A major technology differentiator for Cloudwords will be the industry's first pure multi-tenant SaaS platform built by a ten year software development veteran from salesforce.com. Scott Yancey was a key architect on the salesforce.com platform and applications, and his technical leadership and expertise helped grow salesforce.com from 2,000 customers to an industry titan with 77,000 customers and $1.5 billion in annual revenue. His experience on the R&D frontlines during both the earliest and most explosive growth phases of salesforce.com forged a unique set of technical skills, best practices, and historical knowledge that is extremely rare in today's software industry and perfectly suited for making Cloudwords a success. His roles included architecting and delivering mission critical areas of the salesforce.com service and he provided technical leadership at both the team and organizational level. He has 9 patents pending from his tenure at salesforce.com.
Scott graduated cum laude from Santa Clara University in 1999 with a degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Neuroscience.
Prior to joining salesforce.com in 2001 Scott performed functional MRI research for a Neuroscience lab at New York University.