The Not-so-pretty Story of Growing a CompanyㅣIYUNO CEO David Lee

Right way is not very difficult to define because if you can build a flying car, that should be the right way, right? They're obviously maybe technological or realistic constraints, but I think the key success to optimism is those repeated small successes. The more confidence in smaller successes enable you to build that resilience, so through challenges maybe you become more optimistic.

正确的方法并不难定义，因为如果你能建造一辆飞行汽车，那应该就是正确的方法，对吧？当然可能存在技术或现实的限制，但我认为乐观成功的关键在于那些反复的小成功。越多对小成功的信心将使您建立起坚韧的心态，因此通过挑战也许您会变得更加乐观。

Yeah, my name is David Lee, I'm the CEO and founder of I You Know It. We are by far the largest media localization company in the world with the boom of video streaming services that went global. It's not just a translation that we do. Through this localization, we need to make the viewers laugh, try, or even scream. It's really the recreation of the emotions, the context. We work with Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Viacom, Sony Pictures, HBO, and we on an annual basis produce around 600,000 running time hours of localization services per year.

嗯，我叫大卫·李，是我知道它公司的CEO和创始人。我们是全球最大的媒体本地化公司，在全球视频流媒体服务的繁荣中崛起。我们所做的不仅仅是翻译。通过本地化，我们需要让观众笑、尝试，甚至尖叫。真正的是情感、背景的再现。我们与Netflix、亚马逊、迪士尼、维亚康姆、索尼影业、HBO合作，每年生产约60万小时的本地化服务。

I'd probably want to go back to my elementary school days when I was in first grade actually. My dad was, I guess, really supportive and he bought me this computer. So I was one of the early adopters, if you will. When I was in college, I think my passion was to major mechanical engineering in graduate school and probably and hopefully work at NASA. But in Terrem period, I somehow started this in Terrem career, which became my permanent career.

我可能想回到我上一年级的小学时光。那时我的爸爸非常支持我，给我买了一台电脑。所以可以说我是早期的先驱者之一。当我在大学时，我热衷于在研究生阶段主修机械工程，并希望在NASA工作。但在Terrem时期，我某种方式开始从事这项职业，并最终成为了我永久的职业。

I somehow got myself in doing some part-time work for this translation company, very small. And it's funny because this owner wasn't paying very well. My colleagues who were working at that small company, we decided, let's just do our thing. Let's go out. I had about six months before I would fly in for graduate school and it was a very modest start. Three founders paid up about $2,000 each by cash advance and we just got this very small off. It was only going to be a six to eight month career. The first business we got was subtitling for DVD.

一些时间以前，我不知怎么就自己给这家很小的翻译公司做了一些兼职工作，有点有趣，因为老板报酬不太好。我和我的同事都在这家小公司工作，我们决定，就自己干吧，出去创业。距我去读研究生还有大约六个月，我们只是很谨慎地开始。三位创始人每人预付了2000美元现款，我们的生意规模也很小。这只是一个六至八个月的职业，我们的第一个生意是为 DVD 制作字幕。

I guess because of my engineering background and my computer geek background, I was developing these small pieces of software that would automate some of the processes and that work. How I used to subtitle, because I was a subtitler, was I put a VHS tape in the machine. I play rewind because you can't really hear at once, right? Obviously that was a very inefficient process. Linear broadcast environment, we're moving on to non-linear, which is computer files. It was obvious for me to develop a software whereby we would record that VHS tape into a file, load it up to the software, and then press a key that would punch into time codes.

我想是因为我的工程背景和计算机极客背景，我正在开发一些小软件来自动化一些流程，让它们更加高效。我曾经是字幕员，我会把VHS磁带放进机器，然后播放倒带，因为一次听不清，很明显这样效率非常低。线性广播环境正在向非线性广播环境转变，也就是计算机文件。对我来说，开发一种软件很明显，我们可以把那个VHS磁带记录到文件中，加载到软件中，然后按下一个键，打入时间代码。

And then you just type your subtitle and you would send that file where now the client who receives those files would then be able to just feed it in and the subtitles would automatically be in the place where they should be. That was a very small problem that we solved, but we reduced about 30% of the time and cost that was put in. And we were very successful in a way, but after eight months, we realized we were losing a lot of money.

然后你只需输入字幕并发送该文件，接收该文件的客户就可以将其导入，字幕会自动放置在应该放置的位置。这是我们解决的一个很小的问题，但我们减少了大约30%的时间和成本。我们在某种程度上非常成功，但八个月后，我们意识到我们正在损失很多钱。

Of course, you may ask me, why did you lose so much money when you were successful, but they weren't paying very well. And I guess things are different in Korea now, but back then, there were a lot of clients that were. And then I lost all my employees because they went out and they built another company. We decided that we're not going to do DVD subtitling anymore. I thought broadcasts are bigger, so we moved over to cable broadcasters and luckily they paid a little bit better at DVD companies. When it was about eight years since I started, even with cable broadcasters, we weren't very profitable.

当然，你可以问我，为什么你做得很成功，但是却亏了这么多钱，因为他们付钱不够吗？我想，现在的韩国情况可能已经不同了，但是在那时还有很多客户。后来，我的全部员工都离开了，他们去建立了另一家公司。我们决定不再做 DVD 字幕了。我认为广播更大，所以我们转到有线广播公司上，幸运的是他们付的钱略微更多。即使是与有线广播公司一起工作了八年，我们的利润也很低。

And the price competition was still pretty intense. I guess a little bit cruel. We had an exclusive contract with this client and I didn't go to his wedding. I mean, not his wedding. His mother-in-law's funeral. We somehow started losing business. The business was going down. They were giving it to another competitor. And I was chasing and he was answering my calls. And one day he popped up and he said, I was very disappointed you didn't show up to my mother-in-law's funeral. And that was the reason we got cut off. And they were 50% of our revenues.

价格竞争非常激烈，有点残酷。我们与这位客户签订了独家合同，但我没有去参加他的婚礼。我是说，不是他的婚礼，而是他婆婆的葬礼。我们开始失去业务，生意开始走下坡路。他们把业务交给了另一家竞争对手。我一直在追，他则在接我的电话。有一天，他突然出现了，说他非常失望我没有去参加他婆婆的葬礼，而这就是我们失去合同的原因。他们占我们收入的50%。

I don't think this should be broadcasts. Because I don't want to offend Korean viewers. I'm sure it's a lot different now, but it was a much more demanding market and highly competitive market because Korean people are very passionate. What we then decided was that we would go international because we couldn't really see ourselves as a single language provider. Our only international client then was Discovery Asia. They were based out of Singapore. It was pretty obvious for me to head to Singapore as next step.

我不认为这应该广播。因为我不想冒犯韩国观众。我相信现在情况有所改变，但当时市场很苛刻，竞争也很激烈，因为韩国人非常有热情。我们后来决定走向国际市场，因为我们不能只提供一种语言。我们唯一的国际客户是Discovery Asia。他们的总部位于新加坡。对我来说，前进到新加坡是显而易见的下一步。

I think I did right was for myself to relocate there rather than sending someone there. I think for you to live that difference is very important for you to start building that openness. Even the people who you might think are open that are not exposed to that international business practices tend to think very locally.

我认为选择自己搬到那里是正确的决定，而不是派别人去。对于你来说，住在那里体验不同的文化差异非常重要，这有助于你建立开放心态。即使是那些你认为心态开放的人，如果没有接触过国际商业实践，也往往会思维局限于本地。

Leverage that difference to build a core or unique company culture rather than building a company culture and forcing that to the different parts of the world where they have different practices. Usually that results in resistances and failures. And for you to build that openness and really be able to communicate globally. And that's not just with your employees. Any business, any size, the leader has to be a salesperson, right? So either sell to the investors or sell to the clients or sell to the employees.

利用这种差异来建立核心或独特的公司文化，而不是建立一种公司文化并将其强加于世界各地具有不同做法的地方。通常这会导致抵制和失败。并且你需要建立这种开放性并真正能够与全球通信。而这不仅仅针对你的员工。任何企业，任何规模，领导者都必须成为一名推销员，对吧？所以要么向投资者推销，要么向客户推销，要么向员工推销。

To build that embracement for different is the key factor in that enabled us to access that client. So I think that physical presence for any business is very important. By the time about 10 months after I moved to Singapore, Sony was launching a channel that was going to only air Korean contents.

建立对不同的接受是我们能够获取客户的关键因素，所以我认为无论哪个行业，实体存在非常重要。大约在我搬到新加坡后的10个月，索尼推出了一个只播放韩国内容的频道。

The problem they had was they had to somehow transfer these very, very heavy video files which are very high resolution over to Singapore. I offer them that if you guys use us, we would have our Korean office take your files. We would use regular internet to transfer those files to Singapore and then deliver you in forms of portable hard drives. So for about two years, I was delivering portable hard drives to Sony, which was five minute, ten minute distance from my home. But that got us the deal.

他们的问题是要想办法把这些非常大、分辨率非常高的视频文件传输到新加坡。我向他们提供了一个方案，如果你们使用我们，我们的韩国办事处将帮您传输文件。我们将使用普通互联网将这些文件传输到新加坡，然后交付给您便携硬盘的形式。于是，在接下来的两年里，我一直向索尼交付便携式硬盘，这距离我家只有五分钟或十分钟的路程。但这也为我们赢得了交易。

And they first launched in Malaysia. Initially we used a vendor Malaysian company to do localization. And then within about three months we decided let's launch our own office. That somehow became our playbook to win the business first. Use a vendor and then with that profit we would build our own operations. And then I would go to another client and say, now we have a Malaysia office. We're providing Malaysian services.

他们最初在马来西亚推出。最初，我们使用了一家马来西亚公司的供应商来进行本地化。然后，在约三个月的时间里，我们决定自己开设办事处。这成为了我们赢得业务的剧本。使用供应商，然后用这些利润来建立自己的运营。之后，我会去另一个客户那里，告诉他们，现在我们有了一个马来西亚办事处。我们提供马来西亚服务。

I think that playbook somehow within about four to five years took us to Asia's strongest player. And we became known to the other parts of the world as a strong Asian player as well. I think the second wave was when Netflix was going global. So when Reed Hastings announced that they would launch in 100 something countries, we got into those opportunities and we successfully delivered it. So we became a very strong service provider and partner. And that really brought us to the next level.

我觉得那本策略手册在四到五年内让我们成为了亚洲最强的玩家。我们也因此在世界其他地方被认为是一个强有力的亚洲玩家。我觉得第二波浪潮是在 Netflix 全球扩张时出现的。当里德·黑斯廷斯宣布他们将在一百多个国家推出服务时，我们抓住了这些机会并成功地实现了。所以我们成为了一个非常强大的服务提供商和合作伙伴。这真的让我们达到了一个新的水平。

By the time we were scaling up as an Asian regional localization company, we decided we couldn't do these with spreadsheets anymore. So we started developing our supply chain management software, which is really a cloud-based platform where that would visualize our different offices and where the workflows are.

当我们成为一家亚洲地区本地化公司时，我们决定不能再用电子表格做这些了。所以我们开始开发供应链管理软件，这其实是一个云平台，可以可视化我们不同的办公室和工作流程。

There were competitors who were a non-cloud-based, but it was very obvious for us to build a cloud platform because we were internationally operational. And to maximize the utilization of our resources was very important for us. Office in Singapore to be able to, if they're low on volume to support other offices, wasn't the right optimization, right? So for that to happen, it had to be a one workplace for every office to plug in, access and share those workloads.

我们有一些竞争对手没有基于云的平台，但是对我们来说建立云平台非常明显，因为我们是国际化运营的。而且最大化利用我们的资源对我们非常重要。在新加坡设立办公室，如果他们的容量不足以支持其他办公室，那么这不是正确的优化方式。所以为了实现这一点，必须为每个办公室提供一个工作场所来插入、访问和共享这些工作负载。

The first piece of subtitling software that I developed was offline software. But the problem I faced when we were really small was that these translators are normally part-timers, and we have due dates to our clients. So we give the work to a subtitler and all of a sudden he shuts down his phone. He would never answer, right?

我开发的第一个字幕软件是离线软件。但在我们很小的时候，我面临的问题是这些翻译人员通常是兼职人员，而我们对客户有截止日期。所以我们把工作交给一个字幕翻译员，但突然他就关机了，他永远不会接电话，对吧？

This translator had the script, and that was the only script. I drove to the home at 10 p.m. and pressing on the doorbell, and then she came out and gave me back my script. Obviously, it's very irresponsible. They could just say, no, I don't want to do it and send it back. Then we get into chaos.

这个翻译员手上拿着那唯一的脚本。晚上十点我去了她家，按了门铃，她出来还给了我脚本。显然，这非常不负责任。他们本来可以直接拒绝并把脚本还回来，这样我们就不会陷入混乱了。

So for us to be able to visualize what he's doing was very important. And that was the main reason I wanted to build a cloud software, because in a cloud software, it's like Google Docs, right? If you're typing something into Google Docs, I can see it. Every business is different nowadays, right? There's growth-themed businesses, but our business is pretty straightforward.

所以，我们能够清楚地看到他在做什么是非常重要的。这就是我想要建立云软件的主要原因，因为在云软件中，就像谷歌文档一样，对于你在谷歌文档中输入的任何信息，我都能够看到。如今，每个企业都是不同的，对吧？有很多以增长为主题的企业，但是我们的企业相对来说比较简单明了。

You can't do quantum J curves in our business. You get a certain amount of revenue. Normally, you can expect that. And then it's all about cost-optimization, because that's the only way you can make profit. So you could either use technology to make yourself efficient and make sure your resources are all utilized, right? The nature of the business is get the best price and to optimize your cost.

在我们的业务中，你不能做量子J曲线。你会得到一定的收入，通常情况下可以预期。然后，关键在于成本优化，因为这是唯一赚利润的方法。所以你可以使用技术来提高效率，确保你的资源都被充分利用了，对吧？业务的本质是争取最好的价格，优化成本。

When we became the strongest player in Asia, we had to go to Europe or US. In US, we had a small office back then. So obviously, Europe is a very different world. And we didn't think it was easy to go organically into those regions. So the right path was to go there through acquisitions. We were confident that if we buy a studio, we could plug them into our platform, because we had technologies that could do things very efficiently. And they would provide some client access and somehow we were thinking of those synergies.

当我们成为亚洲最强大的玩家之一时，我们不得不前往欧洲或美国。当时我们在美国只有一个小办公室。因此，显然欧洲是一个非常不同的世界。我们认为自然而然地进入这些地区并不容易。所以正确的道路是通过收购去那里。我们有信心，如果我们购买一个工作室，我们可以将它们插入我们的平台，因为我们拥有非常高效的技术。他们将提供一些客户接触，并且我们考虑到了这些协同效应。

I was a very close friend with JP, who now heads soft bank ventures. And he was impressed with accomplishments that we've done. So that was our first funding, which was in 2018. So we started in 2002. So it was about 16 years of organic growth. Then followed by a mega merger with this European player called BTI. BTI was a much bigger company. It was about three times bigger than us in terms of revenue. Eventually it became a sort of a one-to-one swap merger. Then becoming one of the two global players. The other player was SCI, and there was us.

我和JP是非常亲密的朋友，他现在是软银风险投资的负责人。他对我们所取得的成就印象深刻。这就是我们在2018年获得的第一轮融资。我们开始于2002年，经历了大约16年的有机增长，然后与名为BTI的欧洲公司进行了一次巨额合并。BTI是一家更大的公司，其收入是我们的三倍。最终，它成为了一种一对一交换的合并，成为两个全球玩家之一。另一个玩家是SCI，而我们是其中之一。

And then came COVID. I was always meeting up with the owners of SCI back then, who during COVID-1 to sell the company. By then, we brought in soft bank vision fund. They trusted the story. They believed in the story of consolidation. And they came in and effectively funded the acquisition of SCI. So we merged and we became the biggest down player. So like I said, now we become a much bigger platform. Because we have access to the biggest clients around the world. We have very strong technology bases. Economy of scale. So we're cost-efficient in terms of providing centralized back-end functions like finances or technologies. So our playbook is to acquire these studios and continue to build capacity as well as if we're not providing a certain language for a client. It's very obvious for us to acquire a studio that's well established in a region and propose that service to a client and grow ourselves.

然后COVID来了。当时我经常与SCI的老板们见面，他们正在COVID-1期间出售公司。那时，我们引进了软银愿景基金。他们相信这个故事，相信整合的故事。于是，他们来了并有效地资助了SCI的收购。所以我们合并了，成为了最大的下游玩家。所以就像我说的，现在我们成为了一个更大的平台。因为我们可以接触到世界上最大的客户。我们拥有非常强大的技术基础。规模经济。因此，在提供集中化的后端功能，比如财务或技术方面，我们很有成本效益。因此，我们的策略是收购这些工作室，并继续建设能力，如果我们不能为客户提供某种语言，那么我们很明显要收购一个在该地区建立良好的工作室，并提供该服务给客户，以发展自己。

Right way is not very difficult to define because if you can build a flying car, that should be the right way, right? If you think video streaming over internet is better than delivering video tapes through packages, I mean, if you think about the ultimate of things, right? They're obviously maybe technological or realistic constraints, but those paths are pretty obvious in whichever industry you're in. For us to be able to connect people through accessibility to other languages and to deliver the original content creators intent effectively is our vision. I guess those are pretty obvious, but once you're in that journey and you go through these small successes or big successes, I think naturally you get more confidence in what you do and the more confidence and smaller successes enable you to build that resilience. So through challenges, maybe you become more optimistic. And in a way, those experiences enable you to be less burdened by those responsibilities.

定义正确的方式并不是很难，因为如果你能制造一辆能飞行的汽车，那应该就是正确的方式，对吧？如果你认为通过互联网视频流传输比通过包裹传输录像带更好，我的意思是，如果你考虑事物的终极目标，对吧？当然，在你所处的任何行业中，可能会存在技术或现实上的限制，但这些路径的选择都非常明显。我们的愿景是通过让人们能够方便地连接其他语言，并有效地传达原始内容创作者的意图。我想这些都是非常明显的，但一旦你开始了这个旅程，并经历了这些小成功或大成功，我认为自然而然地你会更有信心，更多的信心和小成功可以帮助你建立那种韧性。因此，通过挑战，你也许会变得更加乐观。从某种意义上说，这些经历使你不再被这些责任所压垮。

I think any entrepreneur either overly confident or their way to incompetent, but I think the right balance is always important. It's important to be humble, but then if you're in an industry for a lot of years and you understand the dynamics very well, and you know where this industry should head and you know your capable of delivering that. Well, obviously we're in a really good position now to become that strategic partner for our clients and I think that's going to deliver a lot of growth for the company. On the other hand, there is a lot of other media that require localization, which may be the YouTubers, the e-learnings, the games. So for us to be able to be that front runner were in the process of developing a more platformized where you can plug in your contents and then it will run through the engines and the resources in an automated manner. It won't be a highly tailored creative service like for the major, major broadcasters.

我认为，任何创业家要么过于自信，要么不够能干，但我认为保持正确的平衡非常重要。谦虚很重要，但如果您在某个行业里工作多年，并且非常了解其中的动态，您知道这个行业应该往何处走，您也知道自己能够实现这一点。显然，我们现在处于一个非常好的位置，成为我们客户的战略合作伙伴，我认为这将为公司带来很多增长。另一方面，还有许多需要本地化的其他媒体，可能是YouTubers，电子学习，游戏等。因此，为了能够成为领先者，我们正在开发更多平台化的方法，您可以插入您的内容，然后它将以自动化的方式通过引擎和资源运行。这将不是像大型广播公司那样高度量身定制的创意服务。

10 years down the road, maybe it will become continue to become the world's largest media localization player, but at the same time, we'll have a significant amount of business in the content distribution world. We'll also have a significant well-established platform where anyone, literally anyone can, and then you guys as well can plug in your content and it will come out with localized versions. I think entrepreneurship isn't master art. You gotta be mastering everything, right? You gotta be your superman. It doesn't mean that you're going to solve all the problems like I said, to bring in the best people that are smarter than you, that are better than you, is important.

十年之后，或许我们会继续成为世界最大的媒体本地化服务公司，但同时，我们也将拥有相当数量的内容分发业务。我们还将拥有一个重要的、成熟的平台，几乎任何人都可以在其中插入自己的内容，然后它将有本地化的版本。我认为创业不是一门大师的艺术。你必须掌握一切，对吧？你必须成为你的超人。这并不意味着你要解决所有问题，就像我说的，带来比你更聪明、更优秀的最佳人才是很重要的。

Am I happy? I'm very happy. I'm very happy. After all those years where we are and where we're headed, it's still going to be a very exciting journey. I know we have a lot of problems every day and any company should have a lot of problems, but we're getting better. Over those years, I tend not to be urged about things as long as we're getting better. Slow and steady wins the race. Has been my game. And this company's already pre-begin. So as long as we do our things right day to day and that's the part of the journey, I mean, it's meaningful because it comes after those challenges.

我快乐吗？我非常快乐。经过这么多年，我们在哪里，我们的未来在哪里，这仍然是一个非常令人兴奋的旅程。我知道我们每天都会面临很多问题，任何公司都会遇到很多问题，但我们正在变得更好。在这些岁月里，只要我们变得越来越好，我就不会被事情吓唬。缓慢而稳定的赢得比赛，一直是我的口头禅。而这家公司已经开始发展。只要我们每天做得对，那就是这段旅程的一部分，我觉得这是有意义的，因为它是在那些挑战之后出现的。

And if I was in my 20s, I don't know. I mean, like I said, it wasn't my whole passion to start the business. I was sort of brought into this fate. No matter how small or how big the business is, it's very difficult for 100% of everyone to be aligned to your thoughts or your directions or your vision, right? Everybody has different thoughts. And I don't think that's bad because those other opinions tend to balance out and correct if in case the directions or the tactics or the strategies are wrong.

如果我还在二十岁的时候，我不知道。就像我之前说的，创业并不是我的全部热情，我更多是被命运带到这里。无论企业是多大，多小，要让1​​00%的人与你的想法、方向或愿景保持一致都非常困难，对吧？每个人都有不同的想法。我认为这并不是坏事，因为其他的意见往往可以平衡并纠正错误的方向、策略或战略。

But I guess delivering for people to be excited about the journey, that's a very important thing for morale. And morale is everything. I think culture is everything, right? Obviously, that vision has to be shareable and understandable by the employees. You can't just say off thing that nobody's going to, what are you talking about, these sort of things, right? So vision to be detailed and in line with the interests of the employees is very important. Their personal career and personal interests is very important. And of course, your vision, obviously growth, has to be in line with that. How you get there is more strategic and that vision to come with the details of your strategy and getting there, I think, is important.

但我认为让人们对旅程感到兴奋是非常重要的，这对士气来说是至关重要的。而士气则是一切。我认为文化是一切，对吧？显然，愿景必须能被员工分享和理解。你不能只是说些无人理解的话，这样会导致什么问题，对吧？因此，愿景必须详细，并与员工的利益保持一致。他们个人的职业和个人利益非常重要。当然，你的愿景显然要与之一致，即增长。如何到达那里更加战略，而愿景必须随着你的战略和实现目标的细节而来，我认为这很重要。

Now, once you've formed that story, one of the core roles as a CEO is to repeat your story. Again, again, again, and again, right? Whether those are investors or employees or clients, that's my daily job. What your surprise is, especially when your multicultural choice, that your vision doesn't really deliver as per your expectation.

现在，一旦你塑造出那个故事，作为一名CEO的核心职责之一就是不断重复你的故事。反复、反复、再反复，对吧？无论是投资者、员工还是客户，这是我的日常工作。你会感到惊讶的是，特别是在你选择了多元文化之后，你的愿景并没有像你期望的那样得到落实。

So people may not join the town hall. People are just not engaged. The only way out of it is just pure repetition. So internal communication is very important for our company. And we've had numerous experiences while we've announced something, but it was never delivered. And honestly, the best solution that we've come up with was to repeat it. Again, and again, and again.

可能有些人不会参加市政厅会议，因为他们对此不感兴趣。改善这种情况的唯一方法就是纯粹地重复宣传。因此，对我们公司而言，内部沟通非常重要。我们曾多次宣布过一些事情，但最终未能实现。说实话，我们找到的最佳解决方案就是不断重复宣传，一遍又一遍。