Gary Kalaci, Founder and CEO of Apertera, shares how his company built a purpose-built AI translation platform for legal and financial industries—and why organizational context is the real competitive advantage.
What happens when a lawyer-turned-interpreter decides to rebuild the language industry from the inside out? Gary Kalaci has spent two decades doing exactly that—and his answer looks nothing like what most AI vendors are selling.
In this episode:
• Why Apertera (formerly Alexa Translations) rebranded—and what the camera aperture metaphor reveals about their human-AI philosophy
• How purpose-built AI for regulated industries differs architecturally from generic LLM tools
• Why organizational context compounds over time and becomes a true competitive moat
• The build-vs-buy framework Gary uses with enterprise clients evaluating AI investments
Gary Kalaci is the Founder and CEO of Apertera, a Canadian AI-first language solutions company serving the legal, financial, and regulatory sectors. A former interpreter for UNICEF and Save the Children and a practicing lawyer, Gary has spent over two decades building specialized language technology trusted by some of Canada's largest organizations. Apertera's platform combines proprietary AI with dedicated client success teams to deliver translation that learns, adapts, and compounds value over time.
Connect with Gary Kalaci:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garykalaci
Website: https://www.apertera.com
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