All posts in General

  • 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.

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  • February 7, 2011

    Super bowl Sunday in Bogota Colombia

    Superbowl 2011About 15 years ago, when I first moved down here to Colombia from Silicon Valley, one of the biggest culture shocks was the fact that it was pretty much impossible to find a bar where I could watch the Super bowl.  After checking out numerous places, I was just unable to find any place that was showing the game (most didn’t even know what the Super bowl was).  This is in stark contrast to how things are today where one has a host of options where to, not only watch the Super bowl, but to really enjoy it.  By the way, my brother and I are the two on the left side of the photo (guess who is who).

    This may not have anything to do with anything, but last night, while watching this at the local Irish Pub, I couldn’t help thinking about how things have changed.  A lot of expats really are enjoying Colombia and this is just one of many reasons why they choose to stay.  In the last few weeks, I’ve been amazed by the amount of Colombians living abroad (Diaspora) who are either moving back here or considering it. Almost all of these are focused on the tech start-up market.

    Well, on a personal not, last night was also the end of a three week trip that my brother and his friend, Tim, have taken here in Colombia.  It was great to see how much they thoroughly enjoyed their trip and referred to it as the “trip of a lifetime.”  It seems that this isn’t just a case of a couple of guys who enjoy remote places.  This morning I was having breakfast with a super sharp entrepreneur, Camilo Gomez, CEO of Mantaraya Travel and he mentioned an article in the New York Times with it’s readers naming Colombia as the second highest rated travel destination. Also, check out this article from the Huffington Post on why it’s Colombia’s time.

    Well, it was quite wild time last night. Here’s a quick video I took during the game (interviewing Tim, but also with my brother, sister, Matt, Thomas and Daniel!):

    2 Comments / English, General /

  • January 30, 2011

    Fun times in Colombia

    ChinacotaI just had a great time visiting a place in Colombia called Chinacota.  This was actually the place where my mom was born and where I spent some great vacation days as a child when we’d come down to Colombia from Pennslyvania for summer vacation.  My brother insisted that I hook up with him and his friend, Tim, who was also visiting.

    Not only was it a bit nostalgic, but it was great fun and gave me some much needed rest as well as an opportunity to disconnect from the daily routine.  It was really great to get away and just relax, have fun and a bit of drink and cigars (my favorite).  My brother had an interesting contraption called “la caja china” shipped over and we roasted a pig inside a box (which was really an oven).

    Colombia has a ton of great points including the way it’s people like to have fun and enjoy life.  it was wonderful to see this through the eyes of my brother’s friend (Tim).  He has been having a blast, going to the local country club and playing golf and tennis while at night he enjoys the gettogethers that everyone attends.  There’s just an amazing love of life down here that shows up especially in these smaller towns (away from the capital).

    Now it’s back to work and things seem to be coming together nicely with the Founder Institute initiative.  We alrleady have 30 applicants in Bogota and 400 people registered for the conference with Adeo, the creator of the Founder Insititute.  I’ve got a number of options in terms of venues and need to decide which one makes the most sense.

    2 Comments / English, General /

  • January 14, 2011

    Building from the core

    coreI had a great conversation yesterday with someone, like me, who isn’t originally from the region (Latin America), but who has found a new home here.  He was visiting Colombia and has been an entrepreneur in Latin America for more than four years and had some really tough going, but like any excellent entrepreneur, he stuck it through.  The result is that, today, both he and his original angel investors experienced a nice exit as his company was sold to a much larger one.

    This is a great story, but it’s just great to sit down and talk with people who are super sharp and, at the same time, down-to-earth and open.  Within this journey through the start-up scene in Latin America, it’s been incredibly heartening to discover a core group of amazing individuals, who are also great people to be around.  Some are originally from outside the region, but not all and all.

    A common thread is that we all see amazing opportunities for creating start-ups in Latin America as well as the potential for developing a new seed fund to nurture more and more of these start-ups.  He, correctly, mentioned that we should somehow coordinate our activities more among different countries in Latin America.  It definitely makes sense to think about building a core group of sharp individuals in Latin America interested in, among other things, funding and developing new start-ups. We’ll see how this develops.

    Additionally, yesterday, I had great video conference with a smart and funny colleague in Argentina about his interest in expanding his company footprint throughout Latin America.  Also, I chatted with some buddies in Austin about an upcoming panel over there on the start-up environment in Colombia (I’m rounding up some interesting panelists).  Well, gotta cut this short, because I’m off to Barranquilla this morning to visit another interesting company.

    2 Comments / English, General /
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