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

On October 31, 2012 by ConradEgusa

Medellin, A Center Of Innovation In Latin America

First, many thanks to Alan for allowing us to write this guest article. I have known of Alan since my days writing for VentureBeat, and my opinion of him only grows every day. We’re lucky to have him as an advisor to ESPACIO.

Close to one year ago I arrived in Medellin, Colombia, not knowing what to expect from the city.

From the first day though, I was struck by the openness of the people and the culture of opportunity. Much to my surprise, the ci

ty reminded me of Silicon Valley, which is where I had resided for much of my life.

This month my co-founder, Edinson Alberto Arrieta Aguas, and I launched a co-working space/entrepreneurial center called ESPACIO to help turn Medellin into the Silicon Valley of Latin America.

To those who have not visited the city, the heading “Silicon Valley of Latin America” may come as a surprise.

However, it is not just my partner and I who believe Medellin will become the center of innovation in Latin America. Many notable publications, including TechCrunch (HERE) and the BBC (HERE), wrote about ESPACIO and about Medellin as an innovation hub.

We believe there are a number of reasons Medellin will become a center of innovation in Latin America.

First, there is an organic tech community that is flourishing. Groups such as CoffeeGrid and the Medellin Entrepreneurship Society hold events with countless entrepreneurs to discuss new startups. This startup scene fits perfectly with the entrepreneurial culture that exists in the city of Medellin.

Second, the Colombian government and the city of Medellin have been furthering many initiatives to develop entrepreneurship in the city. Organizations such as Ruta N and iNNpulsa provide countless benefits to both Colombian and foreign entrepreneurs. As one of these entrepreneurs, I have witnessed firsthand this assistance.

Lastly, many of the most promising entrepreneurs, whether they are from the city of Buenos Aires or the Startup Chile program, are moving to Medellin because of the quality of life and the opportunity to grow companies. At ESPACIO, we already have one Startup Chile company in the space and more are on the way.

The culture of entrepreneurship in the city, the budding startup communities, and the movement of foreign entrepreneurs to the city is creating the perfect storm for an entrepreneurial community in Medellin.

The mission of ESPACIO, the coworking space in the heart of Medellin, is to further the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Medellin. We’re looking to take 26 of the most creative entrepreneurs (50% Colombian, 50% foreign), and to be more than an office, but to be a community. In addition to affordable desk space offered, we will be providing classes, demo days, free marketing and PR advice, and more.

If you are looking to build a business, there is no better place in the world to be than Medellin. I say this having spent much of my life in Silicon Valley and New York. If you are planning a visit to Medellin and would like to learn more about the entrepreneurial scene here, we provide a free weekly email with entrepreneurial events and updates (HERE).

About The Author

Conrad Egusa is the Co-Founder of ESPACIO and the Founder of Brownstein & Egusa. He is currently a Mentor at The Founder Institute. Conrad was formerly a writer at VentureBeat, and had earlier founded an angel-investor backed company in Silicon Valley.
On October 31, 2012 by TropicalGringo

I’m back

Wow. It’s been a while. I’ve been working on a number of initiatives this year that seem to be coming to fruition shortly and I’ll be posting more religiously once I settle into my new routine. There’s a lot happening in the startup front in Latin America and, now, in Colombia. Nonetheless, Colombia certainly has a lot of catching up to do especially when compared to peers such as Brazil and Argentina (the leaders) without mentioning up and comers Chile and Mexico.

One thing that’s happened is that a fellow writer from VentureBeat named Conrad Egusa moved down to Medellin from New York City several months back and he recently set up an amazing coworking space in that city called Espacio. I’ve asked Conrad to write a guest post which will be appearing shortly.
On September 14, 2012 by TropicalGringo

How about a smart phone that’s always charged?

I’m finally back posting to my blog after a several month hiatus while I was running the Founder Institute in Bogota and Medellin.

I can’t even count the innumerable times that I’ve felt the frustration of walking around with an uncharged iPhone in my pocket. That’s why I was intrigued when I met Liz and Dan Salcedo during my trip to San Francisco this year and watched as they took advantage of my shopping spree to do more research for their startup called Everpurse, which integrates an iPhone charger into women’s handbags.

We were meeting because Dan and I had hooked up thanks to finding out that we’ve had similar experiences (e.g., Colombian background, startups, Founder Institute, etc.). Fortunately, Dan brought along his lovely wife, Liz, and I came to know a truly impressive founding team. I came to appreciate Liz’s thoroughness and decision-making prowess after conversing and after she helped tremendously during my shopping excursion.

Instead of trying to solve the smart phone (starting with the iPhone) battery life problem by creating a better battery, Everpurse is allowing women to take their charger with them while staying fashionable. As the below video shows, just slip the smaller purse with charger installed into any handbag and you’re ready to go. Just watch the reaction of potential consumers.

The Wow effect. Blind, first-time reactions to the Everpurse. from Everpurse on Vimeo.

In the short time since they started their venture, they have been featured in a number of publications and are more than half of the way through their $100,000 KickStarter fund raiser. There are a lot of things to like about this team not the least of which is their ability to execute on a world-class level.

The product looks great and I’m sure they’ll get quite a bit of traction. If you get a chance, I highly recommend giving them a serious look, especially if you’re looking for a distinctive gift for a loved one.
On May 14, 2012 by TropicalGringo

Reflecting on the state of the Colombian startup ecosystem

It’s been tough to find the time to write during the last several weeks, but after an eventful trip to Silicon Valley and other activities, there’s a lot to reflect on. In a few hours, I launch the 2012 Founder Institute semester in both Bogota and Medellin. It’s the culmination of a lot of time taken on the part of local and international mentors as well as support from sponsors (CO Internet, Ruta N, Microsoft) trying to guide new entrepreneurs in Colombia along their paths to (hopefully) success. Already five of the nine Founder Institute Bogota 2011 grads have lined up funding for ventures that they are running. I thought this was as good time as any to reflect on the state of the Colombian startup ecosystem (some might debate that we could even call it that).

There is certainly a lot of work to do here in Colombia to get this ecosystem off the ground. Sometimes it seems that, compared to countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Chile, there’s a level of inertia that needs to become overcome here. As I mentioned previously, there are some lights and a core group of people who want to see things improve. For example, there are a small number of talented entrepreneurs making headway (some of these from the Founder Institute) while a lot of the country culture, simultaneously, seems to be in a state of suspended animation with the world passing it by.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Silicon Valley attending a number of Founder Institute events and having some meetings. I’ve written about some of the meetings such when I had that great breakfast with an impressive and all around great guy, Ranjith Kumaran, co-founder of YouSendIt and founder of PunchTab. He’s had an enviable knack (talent) for acquiring millions of users (also some companies) and turn a segment of these into customers. This is the type of talent that we are bringing to bear here in Colombia not to mention the CEO of Bundled and Director of the Founder Institute Seattle, among other things, Dave Parker.

Aside from this, we have the CEO’s of companies such as Process Maker, SnappyGo, VivaReal, Voice123, PagosOnline, Kactoos, Zio Studios and others ready to guide the next batch of startup founders not only coming out of the Founder Institute, but also from other accelerators. One of these is Wayra of which, as I’ve written, I’m a tremendous fan. I recently participated in the activities leading up to selecting the next 10 startups selected to be “accelerated.” I’m actually an advisor to one of these called Opination, a company dedicated to making surveys fun and disrupting to market research industry.

There’s still a lot of components of the ecosystem that need to be improved. A few days ago, for instance, I was speaking at a breakfast given by Microsoft for it’s hardware manufacturers about the transition that we’re experiencing and the impact of the cloud, mobile apps, etc. There is indeed interest, but, and they may be right, the impression one gets is that such stuff is far removed from this market at the moment. A few days prior, I had spoken to 413 small business owners about a similar topic and, although many were interested, it’s apparent that the local market has a long way to go in order to adopt the powerful and accessible tools available to them.

Finally, and one of the areas I hope to remedy in the near future, is the lack of local Angel investors. Money is not lacking in this country, but an interest and understanding of the potential in the web/mobile sector is still quite faint. There are ways to address this and I hope to make this my future project. The easy thing would definitely be to “forget about it” (remembering the Sopranos), but I guess it’s the Don Quixote in me that keeps on truck’n.