All posts tagged tayrona ventures

  • TropicalGringo Portfolio Update 2015

    TropicalGringo Portfolio 2015

    Well it’s the end of the year and it probably makes sense to talk about the last year.  So as not to be so broad, I decided to focus on the companies that I advise.  I am an advisor to and shareholder in five startups.  I, presumptuously, call this group of companies, my “portfolio.”  Obviously, I’m bullish on each and every one of them.  Fortunately, all five have plenty of runway (funds) left for the foreseeable future and I expect them to continue increasing in value.

    One of the startups (Magnolia) is based out of Peru (although it is regional) and the others are headquartered in Colombia.  Some of these companies are much more well-known and several have already gone on to close a seed round.  When I began working with them, they either only consisted of the founders (Tappsi and Kiwi) or only had a few people working for them (1Doc3, Acsendo and Magnolia).  Identifying talent (especially in startup founders) early on is a very difficult thing to do and, in Latin America, it’s even tougher.

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  • FAIL: I just fell flat on my face

    TropicalGringo Fail

    Well, I just got a gut-wrenching notification that the Colombian government decided against a proposal that I presented, along with some local partners, to help create Tayrona Ventures and I’m still reeling from the this.  My local partners in the proposal were creating an early-stage Colombia fund to address opportunities in several industries (e.g., construction services, etc.) while leaving us (Tayrona Ventures) as a sidecar fund with a lot of freedom to pursue early stage deals with digital startups.  I thought (wrongly, as it turns out) that this would satisfy the government’s needs to support a number of sectors while also creating an amazing early stage technology fund with likes of Silicon Valley insiders Paul Bragiel and William Hsu.

    Before going on, I want to congratulate the three groups that will be receiving funds from the government (these include my current partners at Socialatom Ventures – an accelerator we own jointly).  All three of these groups have sharp people and the good news is that Colombia and Latin America will have more sorely-needed investors.

    So, I’m always telling my son that it’s not a question of falling down, but whether and how you get up.  Am I going to be a hypocrite (and ball my eyes out) or suck it up and keep going? It’s so much easier to give advice than to be coherent with that advice when things happen to you.  :)

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  • What do you think of this new design for TropicalGringo?

    TropicalGringo DesignHi everyone. I found an amazing WordPress expert, Hans, who is helping me get my new site up and running. We actually were waiting to launch this, but because the other site had never been upgraded (version of WP, etc.), we’re going to work on the improvements right on the live site.
    I’m going to take advantage of this fact and ask you to give your comments on the design, layout and anything else of which you can think. I would really appreciate and all of your comments.
    I’m launching this new site at an important juncture for TropicalGringo (the brand and myself). Though I’ve been tapped into the Latin American startup scene, it’s been way too focused on Colombia. I do work with startups in other countries in the region (and am an advisor for one in Peru), but I want to get a lot more visibility into what’s happening in other countries (you may have noticed this from recent posts).
    As I’ve written, I continue to make headway on launching my fund, Tayrona VC, with Paul Bragiel and William Hsu and with some partners called Vanguardia. Launching a fund takes a lot of effort in many areas and we’re only at the beginning stages, but I’m very optimistic. Also, I’ve seen some really cool deal flow from everywhere including Chile and Peru though I need much more visibility into interesting early stage deals in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico (I’m working on this).
    Additionally, this year, I’ve had two guest posts: one from someone in Argentina and another from an expat friend who lives in Medellin. I was thinking about this recently and feel that I should look for some really high quality analysis pieces on startups, etc. and have more people start posting on TropicalGringo. Finally, I’m seriously considering only writing in English which will make my job a lot easier and my target audience around the world probably can read in English quite well.
    With all of this said, please send me comments either below in the comments section, through twitter or through email. My email is my first name on this domain name. As you’ll see, the design that I selected is very content/text friendly. Also, if you are interested in getting help on your WordPress site with someone who works with US companies, I recommend Hans and his team at Permalink Group.

  • Lots of stuff happening at once

    fi-photo

    As readers of this blog will note, I haven’t been able to keep up with my writing.  It’s not for a lack of topics to write about, but more because I’ve felt so overwhelmed with so many activities.

    I continue to work towards my goal of creating an early stage fund for Latin America called Tayrona Ventures (new website coming soon).   Along the way, I’ve brought the first international digital incubator (Founder Institute) to Colombia, founded a new ecommerce startup with very hands-on local angels and became a General Partner in a new startup accelerator.

     

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