A method of building a text-to-speech (TTS) system from a small amount of speech data includes receiving a first plurality of recorded speech samples from an assortment of speakers and a second plurality of recorded speech samples from a target speaker where the assortment of speakers does not include the target speaker. The method further includes training a TTS model using the first plurality of recorded speech samples from the assortment of speakers. Here, the trained TTS model is configured to output synthetic speech as an audible representation of a text input. The method also includes re-training the trained TTS model using the second plurality of recorded speech samples from the target speaker combined with the first plurality of recorded speech samples from the assortment of speakers. Here, the re-trained TTS model is configured to output synthetic speech resembling speaking characteristics of the target speaker.