THE BOOK
«A promising startup pushes its product into a new, non-english market. The code is done, the marketing is ready, and the metrics dashboard is lit up. Then the bug reports start trickling in.
The sign-up button, meticulously designed in english, is a mess of truncated text in german. Date formats are causing errors for users in Japan. The payment gateway they hardcoded is useless in Brazil. Within hours, the “global launch” devolves into a frantic scramble of hotfixes and apologies.
We get it.
The most painful localization problems have nothing to do with translation. They are symptoms of a deeper issue, buried in the product’s architecture and the company’s strategy.
This is why we are seeing the end of “translation” as we know it.
The next generation of defining companies will be global from day one. Not by accident, but by design.»
"It was written to give founders and product leaders the playbook I never had. It’s the guide to help you avoid the tax of “later” and build a truly global product from your first line of code. It’s a strategic playbook for building a company that is ready for the world, right from the start."
Adelina Cristóvão
Adelina Cristóvão is a localization leader whose mission is to help companies transform localization from a reactive task into a proactive, automated system that drives business growth. With a career spanning roles at Personio, Wolt (Doordash), and trivago, she has a proven track record of designing the cross-functional systems that turn a cost center into a strategic advantage.
Now, she’s expanding that systems thinking into an agentic layer—using AI to intelligently support product development so global readiness is built in as the product evolves, not bolted on later.
A frequent speaker at industry events like LocWorld and a guest lecturer at the University of Washington, Adelina shares the playbook for building the teams, processes, and technology required to go global from day one.
About us
We connect startups and scaleups with the right knowledge, tools, and people to optimize product strategies for multi-market expansion. We provide founders and teams with the expert skills and guidance needed to support their companies' international growth.