Week 47: May Habib, Qordoba

With the rise of social media and communication tools like WhatsApp, we’re now more connected than ever before. It’s easy for me to contact family, friends, and coworkers no matter where I am across the globe. Yet there (thankfully) are still cultural differences that make each locale unique, and language sits at the heart of this. An example recently popped up in my life when I was last in London. I had only been there a few days until a friend teased me after I asked him where he went to college, rather than university. Back in the States, another friend found it odd when I referred to my new “flatmate” rather than roommate, even though the former was a much more accurate description of my living situation. While these may seem like minute discrepancies, they highlight the difference between becoming a local versus a tourist — and that’s when we’re speaking the same language. Another layer of complexity is added in when one tries to translate his or her native tongue to another language. In this growly connected world, where personalization remains a key component to brand strategy, how do companies go about ensuring that their products are well positioned across various markets? I sat down with May Habib, founder and CEO of Qordoba, to learn more about how her company strives to fix this problem.

Qordoba is a localization platform that aims to make it easier for any product to be understood in any language. What Qordoba really brings to companies is empathy for their audiences and a way for them to communicate and connect with their end users. Not only does May understand the importance of knowing the needs of her customers, but she also strives to understand those of her employees. As May puts it, building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint, and losing key personnel during this time is not an option. The company’s loyalty ultimately comes back to Qordoba’s mission, and to finding employees that connect with what they’re building. It’s no surprise then that the bulk of the team actually consists of international transplants who understand how important communication is. One only needs to look to what’s happening with Spain and Catalonia to see how language is the backbone of culture. In an increasingly globalized world, I’m excited to see Qordoba help companies understand the importance that localization can have on their customers.

Stage 👉 Series A
Location 👉 San Francisco
Industry 👉 B2B Software

“It was surprising, realizing that people could give up. That wasn’t part of my upbringing. I was taught you kept going until it is successful.”

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How May’s travels to Asia while living in Abu Dhabi inspired the creation of Qordoba, in addition to growing up as a non-native English speaker
• Why the company is named after the historic Spanish city Cordoba during the time of the Enlightenment, and examples of how language has continually unified people
• How being the oldest of eight children prepared May for being a CEO and allowed her to embrace her feminine leadership traits
• Moving from Lebanon to Canada with her family at the age of five, and how her parents’ entrepreneurial behavior became second nature to May
• How seeing the hard aspects of her father’s venture taught May some of the most important tenants of business
• How May inspires loyalty at Qordoba among her employees, and how having an international team creates empathy

At the end May shares the San Francisco startup she loves (and uses at Qordoba) and the founder she most wants to interview (hint: he’s one that crops up a lot on this show).

P.S. Thanks to Kara Nortman for the introduction!

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