Year in Review: 2023 Milestones

2023 was the year Orientspeak grew from a small translation boutique into something more like an international agency. Quick numbers:

• 520+ projects delivered
• 14 active full-time linguists, up from 9
• Expanded our document-service partner network
• First multi-year contract with a Korean streaming platform
• Added stronger linguist vetting and review documentation

What we learned

Our biggest single lesson this year: the bottleneck on quality is reviewer availability, not translator availability. Hiring a senior reviser is harder and slower than hiring a translator, but it is the difference between scaling and breaking under volume.

We also learned to say no faster. Three projects this year were ones we should have declined; in each case, the timeline or specialisation requested was outside what we could deliver well. We have updated our intake process to flag these earlier.

Looking ahead

2024 priorities: deepening our process documentation, building dubbing capacity, and strengthening our consular partnerships. Thank you to everyone who worked with us this year.