All posts tagged tappsi

  • March 2, 2015

    Startup hiring. First, get this right.

    Source: Crimson Tide (Buena Vista Pictures)

    There’s a topic I’ve been thinking about for quite a while and that topic is startup hiring. Yesterday, I decided to write this post after reading a post by one of the people’s who’s thinking I thoroughly respect on startups.  I’m talking about Hunter Walk’s post a few days ago on Hiring Momentum.  It’s hard to overstate the importance of this activity when building a successful company.

    People who have built successful startups and those who have invested in these companies talk about a number of factors that contribute to startup success. The fact of the matter is that research has shown that product/market fit is the top determinant of success.  Just to drive the point home, no less of a figure than Marc Andreessen famously wrote on the subject a number of years back.  At the Founder Institute, we spend quite a bit of time analyzing (along with experienced startup CEOs) each entrepreneur’s idea and getting them to validate some of their key assumptions. Thanks to this effort, the results in Colombia have been pretty phenomenal.

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  • January 3, 2015

    What I’ve been up to.

    working It’s been far too long since my last post.  As  you can imagine, I’ve had my head down and my nose to the grindstone for the last six months.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m an advisor and shareholder in a number of startups and during the past six months, I’ve been working full-time at one of these called Tappsi, the leading cab-hailing app in Colombia.

    As I wrote in April, the company, founded by a pair of talented entreprenuers, has grown to become quite a powerhouse.   I became the company’s advisor when it was still a two-man operation after they had launched the app and experienced incredible growth.  In those days, we talked about the different ideas for getting more drivers, what the company’s mission was in addition to other topics.

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  • March 28, 2014

    Great Founder Institute Bogota Pitch Event

    Founder Institute BogotaWe had a great Founder Institute Bogota pitch event last night.  In attendance were Founder Institute mentors, Francisco Garcia, co-founder of Data Traffic, Juan Salcedo, co-founder of Tappsi and special guest Paige Brown, CEO and co-founder of DashBell.  Each one of these founders generously shared their experience growing their specific startup and talking about the genesis of each.

    Paige spoke about here time at TechStars in Boston and the road since then after multiple angel financings.  Francisco spoke about the thesis that was the original plan for Data Traffic and the creation and growth of the company since then.  Finally, Juan spoke about how Tappsi started from a problem that he and his cofounder (Andres Gutierrez) encountered in trying to hail a cab.  Later, Juan gave a more detailed presentation detailing the creation and growth of the company.

    Afterwards, a number of the founders present, gave their pitches and heard feedback from myself and the audience.  It was an incredibly interactive session with great interest and energy in the room. During the event, I announced the extension of the enrollment deadline for two more weeks in Bogota, Colombia. We already have a great group of founders with excellent aptitude enrolled in the program.

    For those still interested in enrolling, simply fill out the few fields in the following application link: http://fi.co/join.

     

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  • November 6, 2013

    On thinking bigger and executing “smaller”

    TropicalGringo Puntaje Nacional

    Yesterday was a fun-filled day of meeting with the startups that are starting the 14 month program at the accelerator where I’m Program Director.  This cohort of companies seems to be filled with founders who are passionate about what they are doing and interested in giving it their all.  This makes all the difference, in my mind, not only in terms of their chances for building great businesses, but in terms of the joy and interest in help guide them in any way I can.  I noticed, along the way, that I was offering my feedback on their long term vision while pushing for short term results (more on that later).

    Also, I was delighted to meet the founders of a very interesting educational startup from Chile called Puntaje Nacional (see photo).  These founders have a startup which seems to be killing it in Chile and is now looking to expand to Colombia. One of the metrics I remember is that of 450k users.  Also, any of the startups I usually speak with in Latin America would be happy to have their revenues (won’t divulge number ’cause I didn’t ask permission) and the growth opportunities they have in front of them.

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