Founders’ Story: Founded in 2012 out of the Harvard Innovation Lab, myLINGO is the brainchild of siblings Adam Polak and Olenka Polak. Inspired by their Polish-speaking parents, the brother and sister team turned to technology to find a way for multi-lingual families like theirs to have the full experience of enjoying movies together. Adam and Olenka began the process of courting Hollywood studios to provide the foreign language audio tracks (dubs) they already create for international distribution, and use them for the growing US population that speaks another language at home but still wishes to enjoy movies at the theater. MyLINGO makes the movie going experience more accessible by removing barriers related to language, hearing and audio preference.

About: myLINGO is an easy-to-use movie audio synchronization app for iOS and Android mobile devices that is breaking the language barrier in cinema. Theater guests can enhance their movie going experience by playing an alternative track in their preferred language – including enhanced, controllable english audio – through their smartphones and earbuds or headphones. The audio tracks, which are produced at the highest quality from the movie studio, play in perfect synchronization with the film playing in the theater. Once the trailers have finished and the feature movie has begun, myLINGO uses the microphone on a moviegoer’s device to “listen” to the audio. Using a proprietary algorithm, myLINGO then matches the unique audio signature to its precise place in the movie, and plays back the alternate audio track through personal headphones in perfect synchrony with the film. The audio file will only play if it hears the movie, and once the movie is over, the file self-deletes from the moviegoer’s device. The company has raised an aggregate of $2 million in seed funding from undisclosed investors.