Our Story
Ryan Frankel was traveling in China when he fell sick beyond his wildest imaginations. Staggering to a local pharmacy, Ryan tried explaining what meds he needed. Unfortunately for him, the pharmacist did not speak a word of English. After trying for several minutes, Ryan stumbled back to his hotel room without his meds, and as sick as ever.VerbalizeIt
During a trip to Europe, Kunal Sarda found himself in serious trouble in Paris. In his cab ride from Gare de Lyon to his Parisian hotel, Kunal realized that all of his cash, credit cards and room key had been swiped. After alerting the cab driver that he’d lost his wallet, he was promptly dropped off in the middle of Paris with no idea how to get back to his hotel.
Hear their story.
Our Team
Ryan Frankel, CEO, Co-Founder
Ryan co-founded VerbalizeIt while pursuing his MBA at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. An avid traveler, Ryan found himself in an unfortunate circumstance where he could not communicate overseas due to the language barrier. Previously, Ryan was a private equity financial analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York City. An ex Haverford College baseball player, Ryan founded a web-based community to support the college athletic recruiting needs of student-athletes and college coaches. Ryan is an endurance enthusiast who has enjoyed competing in an Ironman triathlon and a marathon. He enjoys conversing in foreign languages, traveling the world and . . . eating.
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Kunal Sarda, COO, Co-Founder
Kunal has traveled to twenty five countries, speaks four languages, and has faced many interesting (and sometimes horrific) experiences in foreign lands due to the language barrier. Kunal co-founded VerbalizeIt while pursuing his MBA at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. As an engineer and a management consultant in his prior life, Kunal advised clients ranging from seed-stage to Fortune 500 companies, but quickly gravitated towards startups. It was only a matter of time before his love for travel, language and startups culminated in VerbalizeIt.
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Kevin McElhinney, Developer
Kevin is a technologist, perpetual student, and midwesterner turned Colorado native. Kevin has held various technical roles in the higher education and startup arenas. When not actively breaking down language barriers, he loves chasing flying discs, DIY projects and watching his young son take his first steps.
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Zach Dicklin, Developer
Zach is a software developer, Purdue graduate, and recent resident of Boulder, CO. His role models are Nikola Tesla and Ron Swanson. He's an unapologetic nerd, with cats named malloc() and strcat(), a resistor tattoo, and the ability to recite most of the first season of Futurama. When he's not on a keyboard, he's on a snowboard, a mountain bike, or a rock face.
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Damla Dokuzlar, Community Manager
Damla gained her first taste of living in NYC while attending Pace University. Since then she has developed her professional experience while working in the market research industry and then the world of media sales. Attracted to the notion of breaking barriers, she continues to expand her career as a Community Manager for VerbalizeIt. Meeting new people and traveling to new places are some of her favorite things. Oh, and Samoas (the Girl Scout cookies). Who doesn’t love those?
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Mark Harrison, Director of Marketing
Mark has a passion for writing. Prior to VerbalizeIt, Mark held marketing and campaigning roles with LRN, GreenOrder, Climate Counts and Obama for America. Mark is a graduate of Dickinson College where he majored in English and played basketball. He works in Manhattan, resides in Brooklyn, and spends as much time as he can in the great outdoors.
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