All posts tagged colombia

• April 1, 2013

  Founder Institute Medellin Ideation Bootcamp

  Hace unas semanas, Dario Palacio, Director del Programa de Founder Institute Medellin, varios mentores y graduados del programa hablarán sobre como escoger una buena idea para su startup.  Hace dos semanas, Dario dirigió un evento informativo sobre el Founder Institute para interesados en el programa.  Registrase para este evento acá.

  Este año, Ruta N será aliado del programa de nuevo.  Gracias a esto, los que desean aplicar al programa lo podrán hacer al precio mas accessible en la historia de Founder Institute Colombia.  El año pasado, el Director del Programa ganó premio como mejor Director Internacional.  También, este año, contaremos con excelentes mentores locales y siete mentores internacionales, estos ultimos serán seleccionados de los cien mejores mentores del Founder Institute.

  El Founder Institute es la incubadora mas grande en el mundo con muchos de los graduados de este programa encontrando fondeo y apoyo para seguir como lo consiguieron graduados del Founder Institute Medellin 2012. Los que decidan tomar el examen psicotecnico para aplicar al programa en este momento no tendrán que pagar los US $50 de dicho examen y lo podrán hacer acá: http://www.fi.co/join

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• February 27, 2013

  Sixth week at Socialatom Ventures

  It’s been quite an eventful week.  As I, and the startups that we’re accelerating at Socialatom Ventures, head to New York City (NYC), there’s a lot on which to reflect.  On Tuesday, government agency Innpulsa Colombia and ourselves hosted an innovation event at Socialatom Ventures.  Guests included a number of leaders from the Colombian startup ecosystem (public and private sectors) as well as dignitaries from the government of Massachusetts including the Governor, Deval Patrick. It was great to see all of this come about as it was only about a month ago that some of these people reached out and mentioned their tentative plans for a Colombia trip.

  During the event, I announced that Socialatom Ventures would be moving to a new location called the Atom House located a few blocks away.  Before this announcement Catalina Ortiz, CEO of Innpulsa Colombia and myself had the opportunity to introduce the Governor to the three startups that are going through our Atom Accelerator program.  We are running two programs in parallel.  A government program called Apps.Co and our own program called Atom Accelerator where we invest US $25k in each startup in addition to our mentoring them.

  

  The companies we presented to the governor included JustContract.me which provides an alert service that matches government contracts with the specific skills of service providers who sign up; LegalJump which is a Chilean startup with a model simlar to LegalZoom, but for Latin America, and, finally, Oja.la which offers programming courses online to Spanish-speakers.  The Governor really seamed to enjoy speaking with these startups and also the general vibe from all of the startups from the Apps.Co program as well.

  After this event (and a reception at the Ambassador’s residence), we had our weekly Wednesday progress meeting at midnight.  Some of the startups are really progressing and it showed during this meeting.  Not all of them are progressing at the same speed, but I think that it really helps the slower ones to watch the progress of the faster ones.

  Today, Thursday, I had a quick meeting with a top global Google executive named Nelson Mattos and then headed to the Wayra Demo Day to hear the pitches of some of the startups.  I’m an advisor for Mapache and was really happy with the pitch that Ricardo Jimenez gave that day.  I’ve also been working with two other startups called AgentPanda and CodeTag and was happy with their pitches, also.

  

  Coincidentally, it turned out that I was flying out to NYC at the same time that Bowei Gai of the World Startup Report was arriving in Bogota so we set up a meeting at the airport.  It was great chatting with him (he sold his startup to Linkedin) about what he’s doing and about the Colombian startup ecosystem.  Tonight, it’s off to NYC on the read eye in order to attend tomorrow night’s meetup.  It should be an eventful meetup with movers and shakers within the NYC tech scene and I’ll try to post one or two pictures and write some more at the end of this post.

  

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• February 17, 2013

  AgentPanda takes the pain out of planning group trips

  Several months back, Daniel Artunduaga, CEO of AgentPanda, was trying to plan and coordinate a trip with some friends.  After numerous emails, links and images being shuttled back and forth, he came to grips with how painful this process really is.  Nonetheless, after being accepted into an incubator in Colombia (Wayra) and obtaining US $50k in investment, he and his team were trying to get a ride sharing application (yes, another one) off the ground.  His heart just wasn’t into it, though, and he remembered his previous experience and decided to create a platform for group trip planning and coordination called AgentPanda.

  AgentPanda provides a platform where friends sign up and choose a communication channel (email, facebook, etc.).  Users can share links for lodging and flight options as well as ideas on things to do once they arrive at the destination.  Each user can then vote on each option.  Finally, AgentPanda will connect users directly to flights and other sites (TripAdvisor, etc.) where they can book lodging or travel.  The finally itinerary shows when each person arrives and where they’ll be staying in addition to agreed outings.

  According to some statistics, group travel is a $30B+ market in the US with travel agencies handling much of this work.  Nonetheless, groups tend to assign coordination to one person who then is tasked with interfacing with the travel agent.  Other startups such as GatherBall have also launched with a little bit different take on the problem.  Nevertheless, the space is still fragmented and there is no clear leader.

  

  Julio Pinzon, Daniel Infante, Daniel Artunduaga

  Daniel (right in the picture) started the company with two co-founders.  Daniel Infante (middle in photo), CTO, has been developing software for a number of years as has Julio Pinzon (left in photo).  The team has worked with more than one UX designer and is looking to have someone with deep UX expertise join the team soon.  The founders have plans to move to Silicon Valley in the near future and are applying to a number of the top acceleration programs in the Bay area.

  AgentPanda is currently in public beta and is working with users to understand how to improve this initial version of their application.  User response has already been extremely positive and the trio are working hard to iterate quickly.  Also, Daniel is meeting with travel companies of all types looking interested in referral traffic and tighter integration with the site.

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• January 27, 2013

  Second Week of Socialatom Ventures

  Ok. Week two is “in the can” and things continue to progress.  Some of the startups are intensely working on improving their product, some are mainly focused on customer acquisition and others are still working on their general value proposition. Last week, during out Wednesday 10pm progress meeting, we got a visit from an active early stage investor from Mexico called Sergio Romo of Investomex.  Also in the room was Francisco Solsona who is one of Google‘s Developer Relations mangers for the region as well as Andres and David Cifuentes from eForcers, a strong local Google apps partner. Note: Andres Cifuentes was one of the graduates from the first semester of the Founder Institute in Colombia.

  On Friday, the whole group was able to hold a great video conference session with an experienced Venture Capital investor in New York.  Several of them were able to get some interesting insights into the mind of an investor when hearing their individual pitches.  Others were able to ask general questions such as the importance of incorporating their company in the US. Other mentors such as the talented Sergio Martinez of Vulcan Estudios were able to talk with some of the startups about their user experience and how to improve it.

  Several of the startups have been making great use of the incredible work space we have set up here at Socialatom Ventures.  Aside from the physical space, this gives them a chance to talk with each other as well as with mentors and any other visitor that comes to check us out.  Also, they can have a quick chat with Andres or myself and interact in a bit more relaxed format. The rest of the Socialatom team has been instrumental in making things run smoothly.  This includes Felipe Betancourt and Karen Acosta.

  There’s a lot to be done before our trip to New York City. The founders will be meeting with mentors and investors and will also get to experience the NYC startup scene.  There’s a lot to be said for the vibe you can get from a particular startup ecosystem. I’ve personally lived and traveled quite a bit to Silicon Valley.  Nonetheless, many years ago, when I was a young man (many, many years ago) one of my first jobs was an Electrical Engineer for a defense contractor in New Jersey and I absolutely loved getting into “the city” and walking around Manhattan.  The vibe then was absolutely electric.

  Finally, on Thursday, we had an excellent session with all of the startups and Product Mentor, Federico Ortega.  It’s tough to find someone as passionate about digital products and about what goes into making them as Federico.  Not to mention the incredible experience he has on the subject having worked for El Tiempo, Zemoga and, now, VivaReal. The session was an extremely interactive one with a barrage of questions and anecdotes about prior experiences.

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