Richard and Joe’s guest was Samantha Urban, a tech leader whose career has been varied and remarkable. Samantha was proficient in math, computers and computing at the early age of 10. Fast forward to her present-day company which has developed a significant and balanced approach to computer engineering best practices coupled with sales, marketing and business analytics expertise. Samantha is CEO of Urban Translations, an enterprise software platform for the hospitality industry.

Urban Translations combines a nimble digital menu application, point-of-sale and property management systems and a 10-inch tablet to translate menu options into any language and drive sales. Customers can read menu options, book appointments or reservations and see more of a hotel or resort’s amenities.

Urban Translations was founded upon the mission of helping visitors to other cultures and giving back to several organizations, both philanthropically and by volunteering.

Urban Translations employs 15 people at its main office in Barrio Logan. In 2013, Urban Translations won Connect’s Capital Competition and was part of that incubator. Urban was invited to become a business adviser for Connect.

Urban started her career as a Patent Examiner for Graphical User Interfaces and then a Software Engineer. She then moved into project management for the 3rd largest social network, myYearbook.com (now meetme.com). When that company was bought for $100MM and went public, she transitioned into managing a digital ad agency working directly with Facebook and several Fortune 500 companies.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Listen to a podcast of Samantha Urban’s interview!