Bootstrapping an Evergreen Business From Oregon: Kirstin Quinlan, CEO of Certified Languages International (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What is the current thinking now that you’re approaching $30 million? Many companies at your stage start thinking about selling a portion of the company…

Kristin Quinlan: There has been a lot of interest in our company from outside. We’ve been through two exercises on what that would look like. That was about three years ago. It occurred to us over the course of these exercises that it would be absolutely crazy to sell. First of all, we’re growing so strong. We’re finally having a whole bunch of fun. I can’t imagine turning what we have grown and developed into a one of the kind in this industry and then turning it over to some big corporate clog who’s just going to swallow it up and make it part of a large corporation. Our mentality here at CLI is very unique.

Sramana Mitra: You want to keep running the company. You’re enjoying it and you want to continue doing that. Is that accurate?

Kristin Quinlan: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: There is a trend in the industry right now of companies wanting to do that. There are investors who would work with you if there was any interest in taking off some portion of the money off the table. There are investors who would work with you not to sell the company but more as minority investors.

Kristin Quinlan: I’m well aware. They’re brought to my attention frequently. At this time, there doesn’t seem to be a reason to do so.

Sramana Mitra: You basically just want to keep going. You’re in Oregon?

Kristin Quinlan: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: Anything else that you want to add?

Kristin Quinlan: It might be interesting to note that our industry, at large, is growing at a rate of about 6%. Our company is growing between 25% to 30% annually. It’s not because the breadth of hospitals is expanding. It’s the reach and importance of language services. The companies who speak the language of their clients is growing exponentially. As a result, their client retention is greater.

Insurance, banking, and telco are relatively new. They didn’t utilize interpreting services back in the early 2000. We are seeing growth in travel and tourism, hospitality, and retail. We’re seeing emerging markets in the video remote interpreting field where live interpreters are on iPad and iPhone. All this is driven by technology and companies understanding that by speaking the language of their consumers. The return on investment is generally realized very quickly.

We are not just sitting here, plugging away, and growing the healthcare sector. Our company is consistently looking at not only the breadth of the potential client base out there, but at how to continue to leverage developments in technology. The ability to incorporate remote-based interpreters to a video remote platform. These are all areas of, what I see, significant growth.

Sramana Mitra: Nice talking to you Kristin. It was a pleasure.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Bootstrapping an Evergreen Business From Oregon: Kirstin Quinlan, CEO of Certified Languages International
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