All posts tagged platzi

  • January 12, 2016

    Platzi closes $2.1M seed round

    Platzi seed roundI’m happy to report (as did the Wall Street Journal) that Platzi has closed a $2.1M seed round.  It’s CEO and co-founder, Freddy Vega, is pictured above during my recent interview with him in Colombia.  Freddy is Colombian and his talented co-founder, Christian Van Der Henst, hails from Guatemala. Nonetheless, both are true blue global startup guys (citizens of the world).

    I’ve always felt that these guys are valuable role models particularly for entrepreneurs in the region because of their having been able to bootstrap their business through sheer talent, desire and hard work.  I see this as extremely valuable in terms of a model that a large portion of Latin American entrepreneurs (that don’t have access to initial capital or highly placed business connections) can emulate.

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  • June 19, 2015

    Do you really want to boil the ocean?

    Boil the oceanThroughout my professional career, I’ve observed how those with tons of resources and outsized ambitions, try to execute Hail Mary initiatives with very limited results. On the other hand, focusing on high quality, low quantity results (e.g., get a few fanatical users of a product versus thousands of site visitors), is much more effective. Later, they are able to build upon these successes.  Startups should really resist the temptation and pressure to ignore this key principle in pursuit of the “boil the ocean” strategy.

    I’m still surprised by the strong voices that startup founders hear leading them down a road that will dilute their efforts and produce negligible or incredibly costly results.  These voices take the form of their own desires, of criticisms for not being ambitious enough or “thinking too small.”  My personal experience has been anecdotal, but there are actual studies that confirm this even more.

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