All posts tagged piola

  • Hernan Aracena y Su Experiencia con el Founder Institute

    Luz al final del TunelComo sabén, la semana pasada estuve conversando con Hernan Aracena, CEO de Piola, y escribí un post sobre su viaje a San Francisco (Silicon Valley).  En el proceso, lo invité a asistir al Founder Institute en Silicon Valley y despues de ir a una sesion, habló con Adeo Ressi, el creador de esta incubadora, para ir a otra sesion unas millas al norte en San Fransisco.  Escuchar la emocion con la cual Hernan habla de estas dos experiencias hace mas para comunicar el valor del Founder Institute para Colombia y America Latina y, por eso, incluyo el video de la entrevista abajo.

    En la entrevista, Hernan habla sobre el gran valor que le encontró asistir no solo a una sino dos sesiones del Founder Institute.  Realizó varias veces su “pitch” o explicación sobre lo que hace su compañia, Piola.  Despues de cada vez de hacer su “pitch” recibió retroalimentacion muy utila para pulir esta. Hernan dice que uno de los ejercicios mas valiosos fue cuando realizó su pitch a 10 de sus compañeros de clase.   De los comentarios de ellos recibió las mejores sugerencias las cuales Hernan ya está en proceso de implantar!

    Una de las sugerencias fue de enfocar sus esfuerzos en un problema mas enfocado (en este caso, emprendedores haciendo “pitches”) y asegurar que estas dando un gran valor.  Luego de tener este exito, se puede tratar de solucionar problemas mas grandes.  Sin embargo, esta solo fue una de las varias recomendaciones que Hernan estará implementando (es mas, ya los está implantando).

    Al final de la entrevista le pregunté a Hernan porque entró a este camino de ser emprendedor.  Hernan habló de crear cambio en el mundo y realmente tener “la mejor experiencia en el mundo.”  Despues de la entrevista, Hernan y yo hablamos un poco mas y me dijo que una de las cosas que mas le gusto es que cada sesion fué bastante interactiva y la energia de las personas apoya al mejoramiento y, especialmente, la toma de acción.

    Afortunadamente, no es necesario transplantarse a Silicon Valley para tener esta experiencia. Solo hay que aplicar al Founder Institute Colombia.

    Watch live video from aracena1 on Justin.tv

  • Piola Brings Meetups and Barcamps Online

    Hernan & Tim O'ReillyThe other day, I had a great conversation with Hernan Aracena, co-founder of a startup called Piola offering an web conferencing solution for meetups and events such as virtual barcamps.  Lately, he hasn’t spent more than two months at a time in anyone country.  He’s been to Madrid, Miami and San Francisco (where he’s living now) going to hackathons and entrepreneurial events.

    Piola has gotten quite a bit of use in Latin America from radio stations such as RCN in Colombia as well as organizations that promote startups in the region.  The other day, Tim Draper from DFJ, spoke (using Piola) at a Brazil Tech Valley event.  Hernan and the Piola team know they were onto something when, in 2009, their first event generated over 5k realtime viewers without much marketing.

    After testing his product in Latin America, Hernan is ready to promote it to a more global audience and take his company to the next level.  Although he’s lived in Venezuela and Chile, he moved out to the valley because that’s where he feels he has to be to achieve his objectives. He’s already been working with a medical organization and a part of the UN as potential customers.

    After hearing Hernan’s story, there are some characteristics that, in my mind, make him a talented entrepreneur:

    1. Outlook and energy. From the outset, it’s obvious that Hernan is an extremely positive person as is evidenced by his demeanor (see interview below) and comments.

    2. Talent. Hernan likes building and working within a team.  He refers to his co-founding team members as “artists” and measures their talent, but also their commitment to the project before bringing them on.

    3. Product Development.  From the get-go, Piola has iterated its product numerous times working out the kinks and developing an API that helps customers and partners deploy the solution.

    4. Customer Development.  As the below photos show, Hernan took a road trip throughout Latin America meeting with all kinds of users of the Piola platform. The photos below give a sense of Hernan enjoys his work (check out the last one with Hernan and Tim O’Reilly). :)

    5. Willingness to learn and seek guidance. At a suggestion from his friend, Andres Barreto, he moved over the San Francisco to connect with everything that’s happening in the Valley.  The company has been focused on product and customer development, but are now trying to get some help in deciding on a business model that makes sense.

    Talking with Hernan, I was kind of reminded of the talk that the CEO of Airbnb gave at Y-Combinator a few months back about their search for a business model and a product/market fit that could take his company to the next level (he’ll also be checking out a session of the local chapter of the Founder Institute this week).  If that’s a valid comparison, then I think Hernan and his team have what it takes and believe that we should be hearing interesting news about Piola and Hernan in the near future.


    Watch live video from aracena1 on Justin.tv