The lowest prices possible for translators. The ability to talk to anybody, anytime, anywhere, without breaking your bank account. This was the idea of founder Chas Watkins.

One day Chas found himself in the middle of Central America with his family. He was in a bank trying to communicate with one of the tellers. Everyone knows communicating in a bank can be trying. For Chas it was worse. He spoke no Spanish, and no one in the bank spoke English. There he was, trying to get his bank wire in order to feed his family and continue their journey to another world. His daughter was crying, his son was hungry, and his wife? She was ready to kill him.

After almost 5 minutes of jumping up and down, smiling, pointing at his wallet, he thought he would never get his money. Then there was a small tug at his arm. He looked down at an elderly woman with a kindly smile on her face. “I speak English.” She said to him. “Let me help you.”

In less than 2 minutes Chas received his money. When he turned to thank the woman who had helped him, she was gone. “Damn” thought Chas. “Why can’t all translations be that easy? Why does someone have to hire an expensive translator just to do simple things? Anyone should be able to talk to anybody, anytime, anywhere.”

The more he thought about it the more sense it made. Big companies hire translators all the time. “What about the rest of us?” He thought. “Why shouldn’t we be able to communicate with the world? Why should it cost a small fortune just to say hello to the other side of the world?”

It made Chas mad to think that in order for him to get his money from a bank, to buy something off a webpage, or even surf the net for his business, he would have to pay these ridiculously high prices. There had to be a way to smash the prices of translation and bring it to the people.

“Why not use the web?” Chas got excited. “What if he could develop a new technology that would let people communicate across the world in any language – by live chat, phone, text messages, messenger, email?” He was no stranger to startups and Silicon Valley. He had done this before and he was ready to do it again. In 2006 Chas took out the first patents for his new technology. He hired a programming team in Argentina to start developing his program

Funny Chas should choose a South American country. He doesn’t speak Spanish. That didn’t stop him! It made him more fired up. Everyday became a small battle living and working in a Spanish speaking environment without the language. Sending an email became monumental. A text message was impossible. “Life should be easier than this.” thought Chas. Professional translation services made him angry. They wanted $90 an hour to do live translations. Worse than that, the translators make almost nothing and they do all the work. Sending an email should not have to cost $20! Translators should be paid what they are worth. He vowed to make this reality for all the people who need a translator and all the translators who were out there working.

Chas saw himself on a one man crusade to bring down the price of live translation. “I want to make it easy for people to communicate. Anybody should be able to talk anytime, anywhere for a reasonable price." Chas was not going to stop until people everywhere would have the opportunity to communicate in whatever manner they wanted. 

And now they can. Using Lingtastic. You can talk to anybody, anywhere, anytime. Without breaking the bank.