All posts tagged startups

• February 17, 2013

  Fifth week at Socialatom Ventures

  We 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.).

  During 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.  Additionally, 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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• February 8, 2013

  Week three and four of Socialatom Ventures

  We just finished our third and fourth week here at Socialatom Ventures and a number of the startups are showing notable progress.  Others are rethinking their original ideas in order to attack bigger markets, emphasize a core differentiator or come up with a more realistic Go-to-Market strategy. At the beginning of the week, we got another visit from investor Sergio Romo (InvestoMex) who had a deeper discussion with some of the startups.  Also, we had a short visit from some members of our alliance partner, NXTP Labs.

  Last week, during our Wednesday midnight meeting, we got paid a visit from Cesar Cortes, who recently moved from Silicon Valley, and from Luis Felipe Guzman from Connect Bogota.  It’s always great to have the startups present in front of new guests and get objective feedback on their progress.

  In terms of progress, those Wednesday meetings are essential. With so much written and spoken about mentors, I think there’s a lot to be said for the learning that goes on between startups.  For instance, during the last Wednesday night progress meeting, it was clear that some of the companies are much more focused and are getting clear cut results.  This not only serves to motivate the rest of the startups, but gives the latter a model of how they should be spending their time and the types of activities which produce results.

  After this first month, most of the startups now have a clear direction (some always had it) and now we’ll be focusing more on delivering clear cut results each week with specific metrics.  This is an extremely important month since it’s the time when these startups can really focus on their company metrics and results, which is really impresses and inspires their co-founders and collaborators as well as potential investors.

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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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• January 20, 2013

  Socialatom Ventures ends first week with Hackathon

  Well, it’s been quite a week.  We kicked off the Socialatom Ventures startup program on Monday with 12 initial companies.  Andres Barreto (co-founder of OnSwipe), one of my partners, has been here in Bogota and it’s been great for the startups getting his point of view on their individual startups.  He’s not only got experience with his own startups, but has been contributing quite a bit to the Latin American ecosystem in general.

  Some of the startups are going through a government “consolidation” program called AppsCo where the Ministry of Telecommunications and other incubators besides us had a hand in selecting the specific companies.  Additionally, there are two other companies that we selected and invested in (thanks to our partner NXTP Labs) and will be doing all we can to accelerate the growth of all of these companies in the coming three months and a half.

  During our one-on-one meetings with each startup, we try to get them to take a serious look at what they’re doing and how they’re going about doing it.  Andres has been instrumental in getting everybody to “think big.”  A tool that we are using to reinforce this is the New York City trip we’ve planned with some pretty amazing mentors.

  On Wednesday, we had our first status meeting at 10:10pm in the evening.  We chose this date and time for the progress meeting for a number of reasons with one of these being that of inculcating the reality of startup culture into the founders.  Each startup pitches and also provides status on milestones in order to make sure they are learning and progressing.

  It’s great to see the amount of activity in the Colombian startup ecosystem although there’s still a long way to go to even be on a par with the Brazilian and even Argentinian ecosytems.  It’s great to work on this acceleration phase.  Two years ago, when I first brought the Founder Institute, a pre-idea incubator,  I saw (and still see) a major need for a program that could help founders develop their ideas into viable companies (that can later get “accelerated” if necessary).  Accelerators such as Wayra and Socialatom Ventures really need a wider selection of companies from which to select their startups.

  As if all of this wasn’t enough, it’s Sunday evening and I’m sitting here at Socialatom Ventures at a great Hackathon that Andres set up with some of our developers and host of other talented developers who were handpicked to participate.  There are a number of interesting project such as a platform for asking mayors from different cities questions to a simple gifting app based on Facebook likes.  In general, we’ve done everything we know to get these startups in the right frame of mind to accelerate their progress.

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