We did something awful but we got customers." That's how Christian Arno, the founder of online translation company Lingo24, knew he was on to something when he launched a rudimentary translation website while still at university.

His idea was to use the web to entice corporate customers looking for low-cost translation - because he had access to "cheap" language students to do the work.

"It was the dotcom boom and I looked at what was happening in the translation space, and the answer was not very much."

His first website, by his own admission, was "shocking".

"It was in Motherwell FC colours, claret and amber. I've nothing against Motherwell but they are not my team," he says.