Interview with Tappsi CEO Juan Salcedo
It was quite a treat last week to interview someone that I’ve gotten to know a lot better during the past couple of years, first, as Advisor to the company he co-founded called Tappsi, makers of the leading taxi hailing app in Colombia, and more recently as an Executive Vice President at that same company. During this interview, part of a series for Startup Grind, I asked Juan about his journey towards becoming a successful startup founder (from Colombia to Canada and back) and the challenges of being the CEO of a startup that gets to compete with well-funded giants such as Uber.
When Juan told me about Tappsi more than two years ago and introduced me to his co-founder, Andres Gutierrez, I had never seen growth numbers in Colombia such as the ones they were sharing with me (nor since). It was absolutely phenomenal. As Jerry McGuire might say, “you had me at 5000 downloads.” I became their advisor when the company consisted only of the two co-founders. Today, the company now boasts more than 80 employees.