Translation Software for Startups: Enterprise Security Without Enterprise Pricing

when I was fundraising, I had to translate a term sheet from German to English at 11pm the night before a board call. I pasted it into Google Translate.

I didn't think about it. I didn't ask whether Google would train on my investor's offer terms. I didn't check whether the term sheet would be logged somewhere. I just needed to know what the liquidation preference said.

it wasn't until weeks later — when we were building noll and thinking deeply about data handling — that I realized what I'd done. I'd sent confidential deal terms to a third party that might use them to improve their translation model. my investor's NDA didn't cover Google.

this post is the guide I wish I'd had. for founders who need to translate things quickly and don't have time to evaluate enterprise vendor portfolios.

When startups need translation

startups translate more than they think. especially once you start operating across borders:

fundraising: term sheets, investment agreements, shareholder agreements, side letters. if you're raising from international investors, these documents arrive in multiple languages.

hiring: employment contracts, offer letters, benefits summaries, company policies. if you're hiring across the EU or globally, translation is constant.

sales: client contracts, proposals, RFPs, NDAs. selling into new markets means translating commercial documents.

product: privacy policies, terms of service, user documentation. if you're launching in multiple markets, you need these translated.

IP: patent applications, trademark filings, technical documentation. protecting IP across jurisdictions requires translation.

every one of these document types contains confidential information. and every one is typically translated by pasting into whatever tool is fastest.

Why free tools are especially risky for startups

"but we're a 5-person startup. who cares about our data?"

this is exactly the wrong way to think about it.

Stealth mode leaks

if you're pre-launch or in stealth, the information you're protecting is your competitive advantage. your product architecture, your go-to-market strategy, your pitch deck — if this leaks through a translation tool's training pipeline, your stealth mode is fiction.

Investor confidence

sophisticated investors do data hygiene diligence. they ask: "how do you handle confidential information?" if the answer is "we paste things into free tools," that signals how you'll handle customer data, IP, and trade secrets post-investment.

IP exposure

if you're translating patent applications or technical specifications through a tool that trains on your input, you may have created a prior art problem. your novel technology described in a training set is no longer novel.

Future compliance obligations

startups grow. the tool you use at 5 people becomes the tool used at 50. the casual habits you establish now become the entrenched practices that your future CISO has to unwind. starting with a secure default is cheaper than fixing bad habits later.

What 'enterprise security' actually means (and what you can skip)

enterprise security is a spectrum. not every control is relevant at every stage.

what you need from day one:

• no training on your data — non-negotiable. your content should never become training data
• defined retention window — the shorter, the better. 30 minutes is ideal. "we delete it eventually" is not enough
• EU data residency (if you operate in the EU) — keep things simple by choosing a tool that processes in the EU by default

what you can add later:

• SOC 2 / ISO 27001 certification — valuable for enterprise sales, not critical at seed stage
• custom DPAs with specific SLAs — important at scale, overkill at 5 people
• API integration and automation — useful when translation volume justifies it

what you can skip entirely:

• translation management systems (TMS) — built for localization teams, not for translating a term sheet
• per-seat enterprise licenses — you don't need a $50/seat/month subscription to translate 3 documents a week
• glossary management and quality customization — nice to have, but not your priority when you're trying to understand what a contract says

Cost models that work for startups

the pricing model matters as much as the price.

Per-seat subscriptions

DeepL Pro, Google Workspace add-ons, Microsoft 365 translation features — these charge per user per month. at $10-25/user/month, a 10-person team pays $100-250/month regardless of whether they translate 0 documents or 100.

when this works: consistent, high-volume usage across the team.

when this doesn't work: sporadic usage. 3 people translate occasionally, 7 never do. you're paying for 10 seats.

Usage-based pricing

noll and API-based tools charge per document or per page. you pay for what you actually translate.

when this works: startups with variable, unpredictable translation needs. you might translate 20 documents in a fundraising month and 0 documents the next month.

when this doesn't work: extremely high volume where a flat subscription would be cheaper per unit.

Free tiers

most tools offer a free tier. the question is: what are you paying with?

if the free tier trains on your data, logs your translations, or retains content indefinitely, you're paying with your confidential information. for marketing copy and public content, that's fine. for term sheets and contracts, it's not.

noll's free tier doesn't train on your data and still deletes after 30 minutes. the paid tier gives you more pages, not more security.

Quick-start guide: translate your first document securely

step 1: go to noll. no account needed. no signup form. no credit card.

step 2: drag and drop your document (PDF, DOCX, PPTX). select the target language.

step 3: wait ~30 seconds. download the translated document.

step 4: the source and translation are automatically deleted within 30 minutes. no history. no dashboard. no way to recover.

that's it. you just translated a document with enterprise-grade data handling in less time than it takes to sign up for a free trial of anything else.

Takeaways

• startups translate constantly: term sheets, contracts, employment agreements, IP filings
• free tools are especially risky for startups: stealth mode leaks, investor confidence, IP exposure
• you need three things from day one: no training, defined retention, and EU residency
• usage-based pricing fits startup patterns better than per-seat subscriptions
• you don't need a TMS, glossary management, or enterprise certifications to translate a term sheet securely
• start with good habits now — they're cheaper than fixing bad ones later

Further reading

• Why Your NDA Doesn't Protect You From Translation Tool Data Leaks
• Which translation services should I use for sensitive documents?
• Why noll exists
• No-Account Document Translator
• How your data is handled