This is the story of TheaterEars

A story of two Latinas who wanted to take their beloved ‘Tata’ to the movies.

It all started with Virginia her mom Maria... 

Virginia loves movies.  Growing up in Cali, Colombia, some of her fondest moments of her childhood were going to the movies with her mom, Maria, affectionately called by the family, ‘Tata’.  Virginia had big dreams and graduated from the prestigious La Universidad Santiago de Cali or USC (La Santiago) with a degree in Finance and International Business Administration.  Post-graudation, Virginia came to the United States and put her education to work developing a successful career.    

After getting married, she wanted her mother back in Colombia to come and live with her in Florida.  Like Virginia, her mother loves the movies.  Unlike Virginia, her mother does not speak English.  As time went, Virginia and her husband had a daughter named Niki. Niki Kawa imagines the world around her in wonderful and creative ways. She see things not as what they are but as what they could be. Her creativity is only rivaled by her unending work ethic.

So whenever the whole family would go to the movies, ‘Tata’ would stay home.  Whenever she did go to the movies, she would often not understand much of what was happening on screen. Not being able to share those moments with her grandmother, drove Niki to tears. However, she refused to accept that nothing could be done to help her grandmother. That's when Niki and Virginia came up with the idea of making an app that would allow ‘Tata’ to come with them to family movie night.

Together, they set out to solve the problem that they faced in their own lives. What they found out was that millions of Latinos across the United States faced a similar problem. Family members who do not speak English get left at home when the family goes out to the movies.  Our mission is to make that practice history. We believe that movies are a shared communal experience that should be enjoyed by all, regardless of language.

It is Virginia’s love for her mom that drove TheaterEars to have the social impact that it has had in the United States and Puerto Rico, and it is that same love that will make movies available to everyone, everywhere. Niki has taken an active role, managing social media content and promotion of the language app. She has optimized advertising money in terms of Return on Investment (ROI), in addition to helping reduce acquisition cost per new user. She holds meetings to consult with her team regarding website design and brainstorms ideas for patent designs.

Niki is passionate about helping bilingual movie goers at screenings in theaters, and helping users/audience at screenings to download the app, as well as organizing and planning movie screenings.