Tropical Gringo | Digital Innovation In Latin America By Way Of Silicon Valley

On July 4, 2011 by TropicalGringo

El Acelerador Para los Startups de America Latina

Desde que llegué a Silicon Valley hace unos dias, hoy fue el primer día que pude relajarme y disfrutar con un paseo a Sonoma para tomar unos vinos con unos amigos. Sin embargo, como todos somos apasionados por lo digital y, especialmente, por los startups en America Latina, pudimos comparar notas sobre las oportunidades en la region. Tambien, finalmente, conocí el famoso garaje del Founder Institute.

Antes de salir para acá tuve el gran privilegio de ofrecer mentoría a los participantes en la seleccion de Wayra en Colombia, iniciativa de Telefonica. No solo conocí unos emprendedores y emprendedoras impresionantes sino tambien excelentes personas provenientes de españa y, junto con su equipo en Colombia, los responsables por asegurar que Wayra se lanzara tan exitosamente en este pais. Fue extremadamente gratificante ver el potencial que hay para desarrollar emprendimientos digitales de alto impacto y el apoyo que hay hoy en dia para los emprendedores.

Despues de dicha mentoría salí a media noche para acá donde he tenido la oportunidad de reunirme con una gran variedad de personas de mucho exito en Silicon Valley y otras partes del mundo. Dentro de los temas que mi co-fundador y yo hemos tocado con ellos ha sido hablar sobre nuestra incubadora, Tayrona Ventures. Algunos están muy emocianados con lo que estamos planeando, algunos no lo ven como prioridad para ellos y varios han dado sugerencias muy utiles.

Dentro de las actividades, tuve la oportunidad de visitar a 500startups, incubadora famosa de Silicon Valley. Allí conocí varias personas muy interesantes de Brasil. Entre estas estuvo Anderson Thees, CEO Apuntador, con quien quedé completamente impresionando y contento de haber conocido por su inteligencia, conocimiento y estilo abierto y calido.

Hace unos dias, tuve oportunidad para hablar sobre todo esto con la gran escritora, Anna Heim quien escrbio un articulo sobre estos temas en el portal The Next Web. Todavia tengo otra semana de reuniones entonces mejor me acuesto ya que son las 3am y debo conservar mis energias.
On June 27, 2011 by TropicalGringo

The Silicon Valley Impact

It’s only been two weeks since I got back from my trip to San Francisco and I’ll be going back this week. It was really a blast last time not only attending the Founder Institute activities, but also hooking up with an old friend (and crashing at his place). The Founder Institute has been amazing in terms of the energy and the impact the program offers. Nevertheless, for me it’s Adeo Ressi, its creator, and his team, especially Cindy and Gopal, who all make it all so worthwhile thanks to their openness and great personalities.

Also, thanks to them, countries such as Colombia, South America have a bridge to Silicon Valley. This country isn’t on the map for many in the US, but the impact that this program is already having and will have on this country is difficult to describe. Nothing else happening in this country on the start-up front (and there is quite a bit happening) has the potential to create as big of an impact.

One of the activities that I attended was a luncheon to honor the top contributors (mentors) at the institute. I was looking forward to talking to one of the mentors, David Weekly, and his fund in Mexico. I had met Cesar Salazar, who handles the fund activities in Mexico, a few months back at SXSW. Needless to say, I’m sure I’ll be talking with David. Like so many who have had success in the digital start-up space, he’s a super open person.

In that vein, I had the good fortune to sit next to Jason Johnson who, among other things, has set up the Founder’s Den as a unique place for a select group of start-ups. it was really interested to hear that he had traveled to Costa Rica (and enjoyed it immensely) and had actually had experience with programmers in that country. I really enjoyed our conversation which touched into topics such as family, travel and start-ups. While we spoke, something that could only happen in Silicon Valley was occurring in the background. Another impressive dude, Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, was walking around the room in robot form as he joined the event (and received a much deserved award) all the way from Spain.

Among the other activities that Adeo had lined up was the biggest (I think) Founder Showcase ever with excellent keynotes from Naval Ravikant and Mark Shuster. At the event, a number of start-ups gave their pitches and the networking at the event was super productive. The general consensus seems to be that there is definitely a bubble that is about to burst. Nevertheless, it might be wishful thinking, but it seems more like some isolated cases of overvaluations (Color, Twitter, some early stage deals, etc.) than a general bubble along the lines of what Ben Horowitz has eloquently (and with more gravitas than I could bring to the table) written about in his blog.

Well, next week, I’m off to the valley once again with some great meetings lined up. This time I’ll be accompanied by my co-founders in an initiative to bring funding to some select start-ups in Latin America and, especially, those with operations in Colombia.
On June 12, 2011 by TropicalGringo

Proximo Taller de Innovación Digital en Julio

Hace dos semanas tuvimos otra sesion del taller de Innovacion Digital y fue excelente. Ahora llegó el momento de tener la proxima sesion que será el 19 de julio en las oficinas de Microsoft Bogota. Una de las cosas que mas me ha gustado es escuchar el impacto que ha tenido los aprendizajes del taller en las vidas de algunos participantes. Es tan gratificante escuchar estoy y les comparto dos de estas experiencias (Andres y Tuyo) abajo (en video).

Despues de tomar el Taller de Estrategias de Innovación Digital, se le abrirá un nuevo mundo de posibilidades y oportunidades. Si quieres participar mas activamente en discusiones dentro de su empresa actual, buscar una nueva forma de explicar las ventajas del mundo digital a sus clientes ó quieres explorar oportunidades para crear su propia empresa, deberás asistir.
On June 12, 2011 by TropicalGringo

Great Visit from Founder of YouSendIt

I 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.

I 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.