All posts tagged acsendo

  • Startup CEOs that think big!

    tropicalgringo-portfolio-2018It’s been more than a year since I’ve written an update on the TropicalGringo Portfolio, the five startups where I am an advisor and shareholder.  There is really big news from all of these companies from multimillion dollar rounds raised to Silicon Valley and other US investment activity.  Though there is a lot of work to be done to advance the Colombian startup ecosystem as a whole, these companies and their founders join  a growing list of Colombian startups that are incredible role models for the future startups in this country.

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  • Discussion on Latin American Investment

    tropicalgringo-investment-eventA couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak on a panel about Latin American investment thanks to a gracious invitation by the Los Andes University.  I answered a number of questions about investment in Latin America compared to other regions as well as how Colombia stacks up in comparison to other countries in Latin America.

    I spoke about the startup investment environment in Brazil which I consider above and beyond most of Latin America in terms of the size of the deals.  I’ve had the opportunity to visit the startups and some of the investors in this country a number of times and even analyzed an investment (while at Intel Capital) in a startup from Rio.

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  • Tropicalgringo Startup Dinner 2017

    Tropicalgringo dinnerLast night, we had a great dinner with some of the startups from the TropicalGringo Portfolio (others were traveling). In the photo above, from left to right are Juan Salcedo (co-founder of Tappsi and TPaga), Arnulfo Ospina and Roxana Vergara (co-founders of Vendty), Javier Cardona and Nicolas Duran (co-founders of 1Doc3) and Andres Gutierrez (co-founder of Tappsi and TPaga).  Missing were Felipe Chavez and Sergio Pachon (co-founders of Kiwi Campus) and Carlos Santana (founder of Acsendo).  Needless to say, it was a night to remember!

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  • TropicalGringo Portfolio continues to ROCK as 2017 rolls in

    TropicalGringo Portfolio 2016I can’t believe we’ve reached the end of the year already. It’s either that I’ve had too much fun this year or that I’m getting older; I’ll choose to kid myself and think that it’s the former.  My work within BBVA’s New Digital Business unit has been incredibly rewarding this year.  Besides working on an important deal with some incredible startup founders, I’ve met startups in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

    Fortunately, during some moments of downtime (e.g., at night, etc.), I reap tremendous satisfaction from being an Advisor and shareholder of four awesome startups that each have exciting news (e.g., one closed a Series A round of funding and all are growing internationally with one of these launching in UC Berkeley): 1Doc3, Vendty, Acsendo and Kiwi Campus (I maintain close contact with a fifth one, Tappsi, that already had an exit). As readers of this blog know, I presumptuously call this group of startups the TropicalGringo Portfolio.

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