I had an email from Ken this morning (suggesting I replace Duncan who has just left TechCrunch :), and totally independently, this morning I found your service and blogged it.

Do let us know how the product goes.

Here they are again, perhaps they will make it this time.

Dry run:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5UxFf42nc1Q

Field tests:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BnVibIKiRpg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wr3fGj2rIQw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1QkT6-P4NMo

I hired my cousin, Greg Sinclair, who was teaching english in China to meet me in Shanghai and test out this idea. I hired a translator, and put her in an office with a phone, then with my mobile phone I ran around the city trying to use a translator on the other end of a mobile phone to negotiate all sorts of situations. I tried buying a sim from a street vendor (who spoke the Shangaiese dialect of Chinese). I tried explaining my symptoms to a pharmacist and buying a specific cold medicine from her. Of course, I tried negotiating a taxi ride too.

When I got back to the US, I found another company, set up by two Harvard MBAs was offering the same service at what I estimated to be my operating cost. So I decided not to pursue the venture further. But my cousin, and by now, my uncle had become very excited by this new idea, and they have run with it, forming Chinaonecall.com.

This video shows me doing a dry run test of the idea before going out on the street. I am on the phone on the right, Greg is on the left. The translator is in the foreground.

The following videos show me stress testing the service on the street. I tried to make the situations as difficult and realistic as possible.

Cheers,

-Lawrence

You can read more about my tech entrepreneur oriented adventures in Asia in my blog http://lws.vox.com.

p.s. I am a friend of Ken Berger.