All posts tagged new york

  • September 10, 2015

    BBVA OpenTalent Mexico pitch preparation

    BBVA OpenTalent Mexico preparationThis week I started a new chapter in my life as the Open Innovation and Ecosystem Builder in Latin America for BBVA (I’ll write a longer blog post about this soon).  I’ll be traveling quite a bit around Latin America (especially, to Mexico) and Europe, which makes me quite happy as I’ve always wanted to get a clearer picture of the great entrepreneurs that exist throughout Latin America.

    Right now, I’m in Mexico, at the moment, before going to the Open Talent competitions in New York and Barcelona in the coming weeks.  Yesterday, we had a great session, organized by Finnovista (who also organized today’s event) with the entrepreneurs before today’s pitch competition where they can win 30,000 Euros and enter an immersion program in London and Mexico with key experts.

    As the picture shows, in the morning, a few BBVA executives (including the Data Science expert shown) gave a quick 10 minute presentation about what they do and we all had conversations with the startup founders.   It was incredibly productive and it was good to see so much interest from both participants (founders as well as BBVA employees).   There are founders from all across Latin America including Chile, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and the US.

    During the afternoon, I was part of a panel of mentors that heard each pitch and gave some feedback offering opinions about the business and about how, possibly, to improve the pitch.  I was really impressed with this group of entrepreneurs.  The judges today will have their work cut out for them.  It’s going to be really tough to select only two winners.

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  • February 27, 2013

    Sixth week at Socialatom Ventures

    TropicalGringo and Governor Deval PatrickIt’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.

    Governor Deval Patrick & TropicalGringo

    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.

    Wayra Demo Day 2013 MapacheBowei Gai & TropicalGringo

    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.

    Andres Barreto & Juan Arenas Socialatom VenturesSocialatom Ventures NYC Meetup

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  • February 17, 2013

    Fifth week at Socialatom Ventures

    TropicalGringo_JaverianaWe just finished the fifth week at Socialatom Ventures and now the teams are focused on getting results (or traction).  A number of the companies have changed their focus and are starting to validate their new assumptions (or hypotheses). Also, we’re starting to practice longer pitches as we get ready for our trip to New York City (NYC). We’re all traveling Thursday night and have a meetup lined up already on Friday night.

    On Wednesday, I gave a presentation at one of the local colleges called Javeriana University.  I really thank my friend Carlos Vanegas, an experienced entrepreneur and excellent writer, for inviting me to speak as it was a rewarding experience.  It also got me out of my comfort zone of taking while using my favorite crutch (slides) as I had to speak off-the-cuff about what brought me to where I am today.  My favorite part of the night was the question and answer period where I got to hear what the students most had on their minds (e.g., how to find a technical cofounder, where to spend the little money they have, etc.).

    Carlos_Vanegas_SocialatomDuring our Wednesday midnight progress meeting (after my presentation) with all twelve startups, Carlos was able to join us. He heard everyone’s pitches and gave his feedback.  AddArturo_Noriega_TropicalGringoitionally, we told the startups in advance that the startups that Carlos saw the most potential in would be highlighted on his blog, which gets approximately twenty thousand visitors a month.  Fortunately, Carlos was impressed with quality of the startups and chose more than one about which to write.

    Aside from that, I got to see my new friend Arturo Noriega, founder and Executive Director of Centro Community Partners, a nonprofit that provides business training to under served entrepreneurs.  Arturo had reached out through email and I met him for the first time last week at our accelerator.  Aside from being impressed by the work he’s done around the world to help people become more successful, I enjoyed hearing him recount his meetings with his professor and mentor, Peter Drucker, who I admired immensely.  It was great seeing him again this week after his trip to Pasto and Quito, Ecuador.  He’s a great role model not just as a professional, but as a human being.

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  • January 27, 2013

    Second Week of Socialatom Ventures

    Solocontratame PitchOk. 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.

    Investomex and Google at SAVOn 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.

    Startups talking at SAVSeveral 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.

    Federico Ortega mentoring at SAVFinally, 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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