All posts tagged brazil

  • November 9, 2011

    Smart Money Diving into Colombian Internet Companies

    brandsbag launchWhen my friend, Jorge Pulido, from PriceWaterHouse invited me to a launch party, I never expected it to be such an impressive launch of an Internet company for the Colombian market. The company is called BrandsBag and it’s entering full speed ahead into the Colombian market with a flash sales site targeting women who love fashion.

    What’s most interesting about this new endeavor is that it is a mix of impressive entrepreneurs from Brazil, Argentina and Colombia that have decided to start their Latin American strategy from Colombia.  As I mentioned previously in a NYTimes article, the Brazilian Internet market is on fire and more and more US VC’s are investing in that country.  Nevertheless, witnessing the impressive launch tonight of BrandsBag confirms our confidence in Colombia as a country from which to launch Latin American-wide Internet initiatives and funding these initiatives through our new Micro VC fund,  Tayrona Ventures.

    alan delioI had the chance to meet the leaders of BrandsBag such as Diego Rodriguez and Delio Epaminondas (with me in the photo on the left).  These are sharp business people who are extremely serious about transforming the shopping experience in the region and see Colombia as an excellent lauchpad to achieve this objective throughout Latin America.  The country boasts a growing middle class, internet penetration and ecommerce increasing at above 40% and a market with overpriced fashion items (sometimes more than 100% markup above prices in other countries).

    As Marc Andreessen mentioned in a previous WSJ article, software is indeed eating up industry after industry as digital innovation takes hold. In countries such as Colombia, the potential is even greater since competition in markets such as retail is much less ferocious allowing incumbents to charge an arm and a leg.  These types of companies are ripe for disruption and make Colombia an ideal market to provide new (digital) offerings that can be incredibly profitable and still undercut the established players.  BrandsBag is betting big on Colombia and in the process has a chance to showcase the potential of this country as a profitable gateway/launchpad to the rest of Latin America.

    1 Comment / Case Studies, English /

  • February 10, 2011

    Argentina’s Smowtion On Facebook Approved List

    A few months ago, I wrote about “Mover & Shaker” Santiago Pinto, a successful Argentinean Angel investor and entrepreneur who’s backing ad network, Smowtion.  I wrote about Santiago and about Smowtion’s success at building its publisher and customer base.  Now, Facebook has just announced that they are part of its white list of approved ad networks. While I see tremendous opportunities in targeting the Latin American market and will be talking a bit about this at the SxSW panel in March, I believe that companies such as Smowtion and Brazilian company BT Buckets (mentioned in a vieo in a previous post) are great examples of entrepreneurial teams who think big and tackle global challenges. Yesterday, I was talking to a US journalist about trends in global start-up investing (at least my take) and it’s definitely a reality that top start-up talent knows now geographical boundaries and can be found world-wide.  Latin American start-ups and entrepreneurial teams are maturing at an astonishing pace and companies such  as Smowtion are leading the way.

    No Comments / English, General /

  • February 3, 2011

    Movers & Shakers: Fisgo

    Yesterday, I had an excellent conversation with the impressive group of guys behind Brazilian real estate and automotive aggregator service Fisgo.  Brazil has been experiencing more than 20% growth in both markets and the World Cup and Olympics are sure make things even more interesting.
    The team, based out of Rio de Janeiro, includes Federico Alves as CEO as well as Eduardo Rodrigues and Helio Lemos.  This group has previously worked at Buscapé, QueBarato and other Internet sites.  As mathematicians and experienced developers, they definitely have the chops to give Fisgo the technological tools (e.g., cloud computing, etc.) necessary to have a high performing site.
    The big challenge in my mind is marketing and branding.  Although, they mentioned that new traffic is increasing by over 80% in monthly visitors, they definitely have a substantial hill to climb to get users to go to their site first instead of established players such as Zap in real estate (or new players such as VivaReal).
    However, if they are able to establish their brand, the aforementioned companies in addition to Mercado Libre and others will most likely become Fisgo customers looking to get quality lead traffic driven to their sites.  The real competitors are companies such as TrovitBrasil, a division of Trovit, an aggregator in a number of countries.
    The performance of the site is quite fast and the user interface is well designed although the choice of including banner ads is interesting as it could detract from the focus of getting users to other sites.  Needless to say, I’m sure a savvy investor (or investors) will see great potential in this business when they dig further.
    Since it just launched a few months ago, this phase is more focused on proving the model and they seem to have good data to show this.  With investment and guidance, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone take advantage of the platform that this team has built to expand into new geographic markets, new segments such as group deals and other areas.
    The company plans on talking with investors in a few months and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about them in the near future.

    FisgoYesterday, I had an excellent conversation with the impressive group of guys behind Brazilian real estate and automotive aggregator service Fisgo.  Brazil has been experiencing more than 20% growth in both markets and the World Cup and Olympics are sure make things even more interesting.

    The team, based out of Rio de Janeiro, includes Federico Alves as CEO as well as Eduardo Rodrigues and Helio Lemos.  This group has previously worked at Buscapé, QueBarato and other Internet sites.  As mathematicians and experienced developers, they definitely have the chops to give Fisgo the technological tools (e.g., cloud computing, etc.) necessary to have a high performing site.

    The big challenge in my mind is marketing and branding.  Although, they mentioned that new traffic is increasing by over 80% in monthly visitors, they definitely have a substantial hill to climb to get users to go to their site first instead of established players such as Zap in real estate (or new players such as VivaReal).

    However, if they are able to establish their brand, the aforementioned companies in addition to Mercado Libre and others will most likely become Fisgo customers looking to get quality lead traffic driven to their sites.  The real competitors are companies such as TrovitBrasil, a division of Trovit, an aggregator in a number of countries.

    The performance of the site is quite fast and the user interface is well designed although the choice of including banner ads is interesting as it could detract from the focus of getting users to other sites.  Needless to say, I’m sure a savvy investor (or investors) will see great potential in this business when they dig further.

    Since it just launched a few months ago, this phase is more focused on proving the model and they seem to have good data to show this.  With investment and guidance, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone take advantage of the platform that this team has built to expand into new geographic markets, new segments such as group deals and other areas.

    The company plans on talking with investors in a few months and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about them in the near future.

    4 Comments / English, Movers and Shakers /

  • January 19, 2011

    Movers and Shakers: Marco Vanossi

    Marco VanossiThanks to blogging, I’m able to meet some incredible human beings.  In some cases, such as with Marco Vanossi, founder of Sao Paulo-based mobile visual search engine, Pe2, it’s still only through digital channels, but the impression I have is outstanding. He’s got youth (20’s), intelligence (interesting IP developed by him), persistence (more on that later) and the human touch (as so many Brazilians do).  Come to think of it, I think I hate him.  Just kidding. :)

    A few months back, Marco took the time to tell me his story and I was blown away by a number of things not the least of which was his ability to stick to his guns.  Apparently, he’s had some opportunities to make some deals, which would have helped him advance with his company, but, which he felt was not in his long term interest.  It takes a lot of “cojones” to stick to your guns like that.

    Since our first conversation, I’ve seen Marco travel to Silicon Valley and become much more visible on the web.  He’s preparing to announce something exciting in the near future.  Either way, I’m sure I’ll be writing more about him in the future (as will the media in general).  This is an intelligent, talented and persistent entrepreneur who is a mover and a shaker and definitely “someone to watch!”

    On a personal note, it was great to pick my twin brother up at the airport last night for his yearly visit. We’re psyched for Thursday, which is the day we’ve chosen to spend time together.  Twin power!

    2 Comments / English, Movers and Shakers /
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