All posts tagged investment

  • June 25, 2018

    Discussion on Latin American Investment

    tropicalgringo-investment-eventA couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak on a panel about Latin American investment thanks to a gracious invitation by the Los Andes University.  I answered a number of questions about investment in Latin America compared to other regions as well as how Colombia stacks up in comparison to other countries in Latin America.

    I spoke about the startup investment environment in Brazil which I consider above and beyond most of Latin America in terms of the size of the deals.  I’ve had the opportunity to visit the startups and some of the investors in this country a number of times and even analyzed an investment (while at Intel Capital) in a startup from Rio.

    Read more

    No Comments / English, General /

  • January 12, 2015

    Colombia: Pais en la mira de inversionistas de startups.

    Schroeder Andreessen No es todos los días que uno comienza una hornada nocturna (con los niños al fin dormidos) y se encuentra con, posiblemente, el inversionista de startups mas famoso en el mundo, Marc Andreessen, enviando un Tweet sobre Colombia.  Mi plan esta noche no era escribir otro post pero no pude dejar después de ver este Tweet del eje de Silicon Valley sobre un articulo escrito por Chris Schroeder y Mach Kolarich sobre Colombia.

    El articulo habla sobre lo que ha pasado en Colombia durante los últimos años  en términos de startups y sobre una iniciativa de Startup Angels de venir para este país en Marzo.  He seguido la carrera de Andreessen desde cuando yo vivía en Silicon Valley y el estaba fundando su primera compañía , Netscape.

    Read more

    No Comments / Español, General /

  • March 8, 2011

    Getting Ready for SxSW

    SxSW Tech SummitI haven’t started packing yet for my trip to South by Southwest (SxSW), but I am running around trying to get everything in order here in Bogota, Colombia before I leave.  I’m going to be moderating a panel at the SxSW Tech Summit (this is the first time it’s being held) on the startup/investment ecosystem in Colombia.  At the same time, I’ll have a chance to visit SxSW and meet some interesting people.

    There are tons of presentations and I’m sure there will be some interesting ones, but I’m more interested in meeting people and talking with them, which is probably why the parties are so famous (for meeting and talking with counterparts).  I’m going to take my video and camera equipment and blog to my hearts content.  In part, to let others know how this experience is stacking up and, also, as a public note-taking exercise.

    If you’ll be there in Austin this week, I’d certainly enjoy meeting you.  Please let me know either at @acolmenares or emailing me at alan [at] tropicalgringo [dot] com  We’ll see how things go. :)

    No Comments / English, General /

  • February 28, 2011

    The Tropical Future

    Tropical FutureIt’s been quite a week.  I was finally able to write about a VC round closing in Colombia.  A local VC actually closed a $1.3M series A round with social gaming company, Zio Studios, based in Colombia.  This has been the talk of the town down here since VC investing is pretty non-existent here (although, private equity investing is pretty well-established).  It’s really another example of how things are changing making geography less of an obstacle and more of a choice of life.

    Last week, I also wrote in a local portal called KienyKe about the stuff going on in the Middle East with the toppling of Mubarak in Egypt and the turmoil in the other countries.  In this new world we’re living in, if entrepreneurs aren’t connected to other world-class entrepreneurs and investors, it’s almost becoming a matter of choice.  As I said, geography is becoming less of an obstacle.

    Even within the Latin American region, digital strategies that target the whole region used to emanate from countries such as Brazil and Mexico and, on occasion, from Argetina (Mercado Libre) or Chile.  Nevertheless, now companies such as PagosOnline with their Latin American Payments (see video) strategy and VivaReal are targeting Latin America all from a headquarters based in Colombia.

    No Comments / English, General /
← Older Entries