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January 31, 2018 | 3-minute read (541 words)
Being lost in translation has happened to everyone while traveling—and that's exactly how the idea was born. Waverly Labs is at the convergence of wearable technology and machine translation, developing the world's first smart earpiece language translator.
https://youtu.be/ZAHfevDUMK4
Using the latest technologies in speech recognition and machine translation, and the advances of wearable technology, their smart earpiece allows wearers to speak different languages but still clearly understand each other. Simply put, when one person speaks, the other hears it in their language. Science fiction has called it many things, but they call it Pilot.
Going viral
In 2016, Waverly Labs released a teaser video leading up to a crowdfunding campaign with a $75,000 goal. The video went viral. With more than 45 million views, excited backers swarmed their IndieGogo campaign, investing $1 million in 2.5 hours.
Waverly Labs began shipping Pilots in December 2017 and are taking orders now for the next shipment later this year.
Working with Early Growth Financial Services
Andrew Ochoa, CEO of Waverly Labs, met David Ehrenberg, CEO of Early Growth Financial Services, at a coworking space. Impressed by David’s attention to collaboration and networking, and by Early Growth’s financial services and assistance, Andrew reached out to Early Growth after the crowdfunding campaign launched.
Early Growth began assisting Waverly Labs with accounting, bookkeeping, financial projections, document reviews, and audits. “They’re instrumental in our success,” says Andrew. “We’d be lost without them. When we had a small team and a small workload, we were self-managing, but then we began taking orders and adding new operating costs. It was evident that we needed to bring on a financial team.”
“Working with them has been great. I’d heard so many success stories about them, and I immediately felt very comfortable with them.”
In addition to the obvious solutions Early Growth offered, Andrew said they’ve consistently added value in surprising ways along their journey:
Now with a manufacturing facility in Asia and orders continuing to roll in, Waverly Labs expects to rely on Early Growth’s services even more. “We’ve got more complicated tax valuations and compliance requirements, international issues, product classifications…We’re going to be counting on them to help us keep growing.”Taxes
: Between taking orders and crowdfunding, the waters are murky and confusing. Consultation with an Early Growth CFO has guided Waverly Labs new territory. Education
: Early Growth has helped explain financial processes, including document preparation, review, and audit; financial projections; and communicating financial health to investors. Consultation
about new investment streams: While exploring other opportunities for investment, Waverly Labs leaned on the expertise of Early Growth’s CFO, helping them maximize investments. Networking
: Early Growth’s CEO David Ehrenberg was instrumental in introducing the founders of Waverly Labs (an East Coast company) meet with VC firms and angel groups in Silicon Valley. David helped bridge the different ecosystems, allowing Waverly Labs to build important relationships and a robust network.
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