Strings translated without context
A single word in a spreadsheet can be a noun or a verb, a button or a heading. Translating a string list with no screenshots or context notes produces interfaces that are grammatical and wrong.
Industry
A product does not enter a market. Its words do.
Users judge a product in the first screen, and a translated interface that reads like a translation fails that test before the feature set is ever evaluated. Localization is the work of making the product sound like it was built there.
Tech, SaaS & Startups
What we support
STIB supports technology companies, SaaS providers and startups with localization and translation — product interfaces and documentation, the materials used to raise money, and the compliance content that a Brazilian launch requires.
The distinction that matters here is between translation and localization. Translation moves the words. Localization adapts what the words are attached to: string length in a fixed button, date and currency formats, address and tax-ID fields that differ by country, the tone a market expects from a product rather than from a document.
What we translate and interpret
- App and product UI strings — where character limits and context matter as much as meaning
- Pitch decks and investor materials — documents whose job is persuasion, which rarely survives literal translation
- Privacy policy and compliance documentation — content shaped by the legal framework of the market it is published in
- API and technical documentation — developer-facing content where consistency beats elegance
- App Store and Play Store listings — constrained fields with their own discovery mechanics
- Marketing and help centre content — high volume, ongoing, and best handled against a maintained glossary
Failure modes
Where language actually fails in this sector
Not theory — these are the recurring ways a language workstream costs a project time.
Layout broken by length
Portuguese runs longer than English. A translated label that was fine in the file overflows the button in the build, which is why localized UI needs to be reviewed in the interface, not in the file.
Product names and features renamed in passing
If a feature is called three things across the app, the help centre and the marketing site, support tickets multiply. A product glossary is cheaper than the tickets.
Live settings
Where we interpret in this sector
Engineering and product reviews
Remote simultaneous interpreting for distributed teams across time zones.
Investor meetings and demo days
Consecutive or simultaneous, with the deck and the product vocabulary studied in advance.
Training and onboarding sessions
Interpreting or subtitled recordings, depending on whether the audience needs to ask questions.
Regulatory context
Bodies and frameworks in play
Launching and operating in Brazil brings technology companies into contact with the following frameworks.
ANPD (LGPD)
Brazil's national data protection authority, which oversees the LGPD — the framework that shapes privacy policies and consent language for the Brazilian market.
ANATEL
Brazil's telecommunications regulator, relevant to connected devices and communications services.
Straight answers
Tech, SaaS & Startups: questions we are asked
What is the difference between translation and localization?
Translation renders the text. Localization adapts the product around it — string length in fixed interface elements, date, number and currency formats, local field structures such as tax IDs and addresses, and the register a market expects. A product can be perfectly translated and still feel foreign if only the words were changed.
Do you need the product context to localize UI strings?
Yes, and it is the single biggest quality factor. Screenshots, a staging build or context notes per string prevent the most common localization defects, because many short strings are ambiguous in isolation.
Can you localize App Store and Play Store listings?
Yes. Store listings are constrained fields with their own discovery mechanics, so they are adapted rather than translated literally, working from the keywords that actually apply in the target market.
Do you handle ongoing localization as the product ships?
Yes. Continuous content is best handled against a maintained glossary and translation memory, so that each release stays consistent with the last rather than drifting.
Can you translate a privacy policy for the Brazilian market?
Yes. Privacy and consent content is shaped by the framework of the market it is published in, so it is adapted to Brazilian requirements rather than mirrored from another jurisdiction. Legal review on your side remains the final word, and we will say where that is needed.
Other sectors
We also work in
Tell us what is on the table.
The documents, the meeting, the dates and the languages. You get a scoped proposal from the team that will run the assignment.