There’s a saying that goes, “Move fast or get left behind.” It’s as true in business as it is in a foot race — and nowhere is this more evident than in the world of AI. DeepL, a translation company that went from zero to a $2 billion valuation in a few short years, is the proof in the pudding. They didn’t just build a good product; they built it fasterthan everyone else. And that made all the difference.
From Struggle to Domination
Let’s go back to the beginning. Jarek Kutylowski, DeepL’s CEO and founder, grew up in Poland at a time when access to tech lagged behind other parts of the world. Imagine a place where tech was rare, the Cold War still echoed in the background, and ambition was something whispered rather than shouted. That scarcity, though, didn’t stop the founder from dreaming big. Moving to Germany at a young age — without speaking a word of German — planted the seed of a vision: language matters. It’s not just about words; it’s about belonging, about survival, about opportunity.
Breaking Down Language Barriers
Fast forward to the mid-2010s. AI and neural networks were no longer just academic buzzwords; they were exploding into real-world use cases. DeepL saw an opportunity: they could bridge the language divide using…
