Pivoting in Colombia
I had a great coffee the other day at one of the many Juan Valdez locations here in Bogotá with an entrepreneur named Daniel Dominguez. His company is called i-Azul, which was focusing on QR codes in general, and is pivoting by offering a more complete ticketing solution with Tickqr. It goes a bit further than ticketing solutions such as Eventbrite in that, among other things, it makes better use of mobile devices (sms or smartphones).
Daniel, who has a Masters in Robotics, is still in the process of pivoting his company. Although, there’s still quite a ways to go, he’s shown persistence and tenacity in becoming a start-up entrepreneur as he’s been at this for a couple of years. He’s got a great quality that I think will help him tremendously, which his interest in learning and getting guidance from the right places. He’s been to Silicon Valley to get a feel for the start-up environment there and will be applying to the Founder Institute here in Bogotá.
There is definitely an entrepreneurial culture in Colombia, but what I feel has been lacking is the development of high impact businesses. In other industries, there are some great examples such as BodyTech, Andres Carne de Res and others. Nevertheless, I believe that this country really needs to connect with the rest of the world and expand its start-up and investor networks to include Silicon Valley and other places and that’s one of the things that I hope that the Founder Institute will help with. Apply here.
Great. I think it’s important to debate these issues, but also, it’s key to take action (e.g., Founder Institute) to help things out down here.
What's with all the pivoting in this post?
Good call on my trying to make too many points all at once. Keep me honest!