myAmigos

myAmigos removes language barriers for travellers and expats by putting a bilingual friend in their pocket. We save them time, money, and stress by connecting them with live, friendly interpreters over video chat in our app. We make their time in Spain safer, easier, and more fun.

Michael had the idea for myAmigos in about May 2021 after repeatedly needing help from friends to get things done in Spain due to his language and cultural skills not being good enough. Having been here for a while this was getting embarrassing! Also, some times friends aren’t available, or don’t want to travel, or things come up. He thought it would be better if helpful bilingual people were always available to help and you could rely on them and not feel like you were imposing because they were getting paid?

He built the prototype of the video chat app over a weekend and then asked Carla (his Spanish teacher, and a friend I had relied on in the past) if she liked the idea and would help run the business and serve as the first amiga in the system. She said yes! Pablo came on board to help us out with more of the technical side of things (because he is great at managing IT projects, but also because it gives us an excuse to explore what Michael and he had bonded over initially a few years back – Spanish food and wine!)

Michael has since recruited some more of his friends to become interpreters (amig@s) for the system. These amig@s come from different backgrounds and countries originally although they all have three things in common – they all live in Spain, are fully bilingual, and love helping people.

If you are an English-speaker in Spain, get by with a little help from our friends.