All posts tagged punchtab

  • Silicon Valley Culture

    Nivi Angel.coI just got back from Silicon Valley where I spent more than a week.  I was able to take the ten startups that are going through the acceleration program that I am running in Bogota and show them around and introduce them to key players.  We had fireside chats with investors and entrepreneurs such as Nivi (co-founder of Angel List), Ranjith Kumaran (co-founder of YouSendIt and PunchTab) and William Hsu (CodeEval).  We also spoke with investors such as Mike Hennesey and Dan Bragiel. As usual, I was able to count on help from some great people including Jeannine Jacobson from the Founder Institute in Los Angeles and the above mentioned people in Silicon Valley in addition to a host of others that I’ll thank privately so as not to make them so public without their consent. :)

    We also visited successful companies such as Facebook, Google and Evernote to understand their innovation cultures and how the built these from their start as small startups  to big companies.  We were able to also meet with the CEO and co-founder of Xactly Corporation, Chris Cabrera, who spoke to us about the opportunities in creating SaaS companies.   During all of these visits, we heard about the innovation cultures ingrained in these startups as well as the founder vision behind each of these organizations.

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  • Great Visit from Founder of YouSendIt

    Ranjith Kumaran in ColombiaI really enjoyed Ranjith Kumaran’s visit last week here in Bogota. Ranjith came to mentor at the Colombia chapter of the Founder Institute.  He also spoke at the alumni association of one of the most prestigious universities in Colombia.  As you’ll hear if you play the streaming version of this presentation he lays the blame on my doorstep for leaving him with little time to work on prettying up his slides after the several social engagements we had.  Also, Ranjith, very intelligently, stopped by the coast and experienced the amazing atmosphere in Cartagena before arriving in Bogota.

    It’s been about two months since the Founder Institute semester started here in Bogotá and it’s been so gratifying to see the impact that it’s been having on the local ecosystem.  It’s tough to put into words the different levels on which the Founder Institute is starting to transform things here. Something I’ve really enjoyed is the observing the founders as they realize that people like Adeo Ressi and Ranjith Kumaran and the local mentors (building this group has been one of the best things about the Founder Institute for me) are so incredibly accesible and fun to be around.  My impression of Colombia is that, in some respects, it’s quite a formal society, and, because of this, many expect people who have earned a certain level of success to build a wall around them.

    Ranjith and AlanI have to say that the interest in technology startups is accelerating at a rapid pace here in Colombia.  There are really big organizations and companies (some multinationals) who are interested in nurturing this environment.  Nonetheless, it’s the Colombian startups such as CO Internet (Platinum Sponsor) and the regional “Paypal” called Latin American Payments that understood how transformational the Founder Institute will be in this country and decided to sponsor this initiative in Colombia.  Between these sponsors and the local mentors, the energy and interest in giving back has been the common denominator in supporting this initiative and that characteristic is obviously present in people like Adeo and Ranjith.

    While he was here, Ranjith was also able to stop by the Caracol Radio station for an interview.  The Founder Institute session was excellent and, along with local mentors Camilo Gomez and Christian Boelke, Ranjith was able to review a number of the ideas from the Colombia founders.  Ranjith was also able to talk about his new loyalty startup called PunchTab which recently closed a $850k funding round.  Aside from specifics, it helps local entrepreneurs to hear HOW Silicon Valley entrepreneurs even talk about different aspects of their business from customer acquisition to customer development.

    Aside from the impact that these external mentors have on the local environment, it’s great to see the impact that Colombia has on these mentors.  If you listen to any of the interviews, Ranjith comment about the fact that he travels around the world and he quickly felt like Colombia is one of those places where he could spend quite a bit of time in the future.

  • Emprendedor Digital en Colombia – YouSendIt

    Ranjith KumaranQue bueno ha sido conocer hoy a Ranjith Kumaran, fundador de YouSendIt y fundador de la nueva empresa llamada PunchTab la cual acaba de anunciar una inversion por USD $850.000 hace unos dias. Ranjith llegó anoche a Bogotá y hoy estuvimos recoriendo algunos lugares de Bogota mientras conversabamos sobre una variedad de temas.

    Yo admiro a cualquier emprendedor ya sea de EEUU o de America Latina por su capacidad de ejecutar.  Los emprendedores de todos los paises son ante todo ejecutores.  Los que combinan esto con una vision poderosa y una capacidad para inspirar a otros, tienen una ventaja adicional.  La conversacion con Ranjith hoy fue bastante candida y abierta.

    Ranjith and Alan

    Mañana, él estará hablando en Uniandinos en la mañana (patrocinado por .CO Internet), luego en Caracol en la tarde y en el Founder Institute en la noche.  Ranjith ya me adelantó que sus presentación son bastante como las conversaciones que tuvimos hoy con el mensaje que no hay que ser superdotado para lograr gran impacto en el mundo digital.  El estará hablando sobre lo que él ha hecho bien y lo que no ha hecho tan bien para demostrar que seguramente muchos en Colombia y America Latina pueden lograr el éxito que el ha logrado.

    Update: Los fundadores en el programa del Founder Institute encontraron increiblemente valiosa toda la informacion que compartiió Ranjith.  Adicionalmente, junto con Christian Boelke y Camilo Gomez (dos mentores), Ranjith analizó varios de las ideas de los emprendedores. Luego salimos y nos tomamos unas cervezas y hablamos mas relajadamente sobre temas varios.

  • Silicon Valley llega a Bogota

    Ranjith KumaranSon las 6:30am y estoy en Medellin preparandome para salir corriendo a dar una presentacion sobre las futuras tendencias de tecnologia (todavia juro que puedo predicir el futuro :)).  Sin embargo, me dije a mi mismo que hay que volver a la rutina de hacer mis posts en mi blog y es importante hablar sobre varios temas.

    Primero, el titulo de este post tiene que ver con la llegada de Ranjith Kumaran quien nació en Canada y ahora reside en Silicon Valley (California).   Fuera de ser presidente de la junta y co-fundador de YouSendIt, hace un par de meses creó una nueva empresa llamada PunchTab la cual consiguió inversion ayer por USD $850.000.  Pues, para los que son o están interesados en ser emprendedores y/o los que están interesados en ser inversionistas angeles en emprendimientos, ahora tienen la oportunidad de conocer a alguien con experiencia muy relevante registrandose (haciendo clic en esta frase) para la reunion con él en UniAndinos este martes.

    Otra razon que pongo ese titulo es porque el Founder Institute ya lleva un mes con las sesiones en Bogota (la primera vez en America Latina). Comenzamos con 34 emprendores y emprendedoras al comienzo y ahora contamos con 17 de estos.  Todos han aprendido mucho de los excelentes mentores con 17 de ellos ya con ideas mucho mas pulidas al igual que su capacidad para expresar las mismas.

    Fuera de esto, les comento que estamos al comienzo de una epoca muy importante para America Latina y Colombia.  Es una epoca dificil por problemas economicos en algunos paises (EEUU), escasez de recursos naturales, etc.  Sin embargo, yo soy del pensamiento que hay cambios profundos en como las organizaciones y los individuos interactuan y hacen negocios.

    Son estos cambios que abren un abanico de oportunidades para personas con talento (de cualquier pais) que quieren entrar a la jugada.  Dentro de los paises hay que crear el ecosistema y el nucleo de personas que entienden este nuevo mundo.  Increiblemente, no pienso que requiere grandes sumas de dinero ni nada parecido sino una manera de pensar muy sincronizada y, dentro de mis actividades, veo esto pasando en America Latina (esta semana he estado en contacto con personas en Argentina, Bolivia y Colombia).

    Ouch. Se me fue el tiempo. A correr a la presentacion!