How Liz Elting Built a Billion-Dollar Company (Without Outside Funding)

What does it really take to go from a dorm-room idea to the world’s largest language solutions company? In this energizing conversation, Jenna sits down with Liz Elting, co-founder of TransPerfect, philanthropist, and author of Dream Big and Win: Translating Passion into Purpose and Creating a Billion-Dollar Business—to break down the mindset, systems, and day-to-day actions behind her billion-dollar success.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Bootstrapping over fundraising: Why Liz skipped venture capital, prioritized sales first, and treated revenue and profit as the only true validators.

• From $0 to $1M (the hardest leap): Tactics for landing the first clients, over-delivering on value, and turning one project into a durable relationship.

• Goals → actions → discipline: How daily, measurable activity goals (not vague wishes) create compounding results—and why writing and sharing goals matters.

• Build a sales engine, not a solo act: The difference between a great entrepreneur and a scalable company—and how Liz built a world-class, 600+ person sales org.

• Incentives that create owners: Comp plans that never sunset, entrepreneurial P&L ownership for teams, and celebrating wins to fuel a high-performance culture.

• Results > hours: Why managing to outcomes beats clock-watching—for productivity, morale, and leadership modeling.

• Leadership that scales: Hire for complementary strengths, succession-plan every role, and promote integrity + “own it” as non-negotiable values.

• Women, culture, and choice: Liz’s decision to build the culture she couldn’t find in finance—and how economic power becomes social and political power.

• Building while parenting: The honest realities of “guilt on steroids,” and practical fixes (backup plans, family leave, boundaries, and results-based management).

Liz’s story is equal parts playbook and pep talk, packed with concrete frameworks (goal setting, compensation design, sales process) and candid lessons learned. If you’re serious about scaling, without surrendering control, this episode is your blueprint.