How I got into the translation market by accident

Gleef wasn't built by translation experts or created to chase a business opportunity. We were simply solving our own problem. Before founding Gleef, I worked as a Product Manager at a fintech, and that's where the idea really took shape.

Localization, getting your product into multiple languages for multiple markets, was painfully inefficient (IMHO) with existing tools like Phrase, Lokalise, and Crowdin:

• Constant context switching and copy-pasting: Managing localization keys, translations, and reviews always involved copying between Figma, Jira tickets, locale files, or ChatGPT
• Missing context: Unless you manually attached it yourself
• Poor AI translations: These platforms bolted AI onto their existing workflows as an afterthought, and it showed
• Unclear ownership: We never knew who in the organization owned each step, and responsibilities kept shifting

You could master these tools for marginal improvements, but it wasn't enough.

I never set out to build a localization company. But once you see talented people wasting hours on broken workflows, it's hard to look away. We left our comfortable jobs and launched Gleef in March 2024 with early backing from Antler.

Our (not so secret) strategy

1. Build a workflow that actually works
2. Craft with a B2C mindset
3. Close the existing gaps

1. Build one localization workflow that actually works

Every product team is different, and their localization workflows often reflect that. Most teams have cobbled together their own solutions: custom Figma plugins, automation scripts, AI agents, Slack notifications to keep everyone in sync.

But does it really need to be this custom?

In software engineering, certain practices have become standard because they work: write code locally, commit to a branch, create a pull request, review, merge, test, and release.

So why isn't there a comparable standard for localization?

The software production workflow always follows the same pattern:

Ideate → Design → Implement → Test → Deploy

We believe translation should integrate smoothly at each step, without teams needing to invent their own systems.

That's what we've built at Gleef. After working with hundreds of teams, we developed an opinionated workflow that just works while providing the flexibility your team needs.

2. Craft with a B2C mindset

Most legacy SaaS, localization tools included, delivers a terribly painful, suboptimal user experience.

We heard it phrased countless ways during our first discovery calls:

• "The interface looks terrible"
• "It's incredibly difficult to set up"
• "I can never find what I'm looking for in [redacted]"
• "Using [redacted] makes me feel stupid"

UX gets short shrift in traditional B2B SaaS. In B2C, this would be fatal; users would spend five minutes in your app and leave. But with enterprise software, we're stuck. We've already paid for it, and figuring it out is literally our job. It doesn't feel good, but there's no alternative, so we wade through documentation and call customer success.

At Gleef, we’re working hard to build better experiences, even though we're B2B. We want to make localization so seamless that teams forget they're using specialized software.

Here are some small details that make the difference:

• Batch translation review: Translations need to be reviewed together to make sense. We designed compact rows with a live preview so you can check related translations side by side.
• Smart translation tagging: Tags help add context and enable filtering (e.g., all translations from the login flow, or from a specific Jira ticket). But they pile up. After a few months, thousands of tags become unmanageable. With Gleef, you can create named categories to keep things organized.
• Quick ignore in Figma: Accidentally translated something? The ignore button excludes any text element. Want it excluded everywhere, even in duplicated frames? Just add an underscore to the layer name, and that element will always be ignored.

3. Close the gap

Gleef started with a free Figma plugin because that was the biggest workflow gap. Existing plugins were painful: full of copy-pasting and manual layer naming. Teams struggled to generate in-context translations, create localization keys, and preview their UIs in other languages. Figma was the perfect starting point.

‍

The second gap was the review workflow. Even when you provide AI with perfect context, guidelines, and a smart translation memory, human review can improve the final copy. But only if reviewers have context. Reviewing UIs as Excel sheets full of disconnected words is difficult and error-prone, yet manually attaching screenshots, links, or descriptions to every key isn't sustainable. The Gleef review flow solves this by giving you an instant preview of the Figma frame while you review translations.

‍

The third gap was UX writing. Content guidelines are often created by experts for teams to follow. Unfortunately, memorizing all the rules—especially when they change frequently—is unrealistic. In practice, product designers, translators, and PMs get frustrated and can't check guidelines for every piece of interface copy. That's why we created Rules, letting content experts define how AI should translate and keeping all guidelines in one place. The Gleef Figma Plugin will soon check that these rules are applied in the source language and advise product designers directly in Figma (coming soon).

‍

Gleef also works for smaller teams, filling the gap left by enterprise software that's only worthwhile "at scale." With Gleef, take only what you need. No one to review AI translations? Publish instantly. Not designing in Figma before implementation? Translate straight from the CLI.

Addressing pain points for smaller teams matters to us because:

• We build trust early. When things actually work, they spread the word, and they're tomorrow's enterprise customers
• Smaller teams move fast, benchmark aggressively, and are picky about their tools. Their feedback helps us build the best product
• Their limited resources mean we must deliver maximum value at a fair price, keeping us aligned with the market

‍

Building a startup isn't glamorous. You fight for everything: the best product, competitive advantage, funding, revenue, and the best team.

But sometimes, it feels good when:

• A team thanks you because they're saving 20+ hours per week
• After a demo, the only comment is "it seems so easy to use"
• Big accounts outside your ICP reach out because they have the same problems

The funny thing about solving your own problem is realizing you're not alone. Hundreds of product teams have shared their localization horror stories with us, and each one confirms we're onto something real. If you're tired of cobbling together Figma plugins, automation scripts, copy-pasting, and Excel reviews just to ship in multiple languages, you're exactly who we built Gleef for. Come try it and tell us what we're still missing.

‍