Category: Costa Rica

Maricel Saenz, NextBiotics: Defeating the Next Superbug, Ep 76

Category : Costa Rica, Crossing Borders Podcast
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Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest global threats that most people don’t know much about. It has the potential to take us back to the days when a small cut could kill you. Maricel Saenz is tackling this problem head on with NextBiotics, a company creating new tools to kill antibiotic resistant bacteria.

If that wasn’t enough, she’s taking on antiquated stereotypes of Latin American and female founders. Have you ever heard of a male entrepreneur getting asked if he is dating his female co-founder? Maricel Saenz was advised that she should disclose that she had no personal relationship with her male co-founder near the beginning of her pitch. Maricel has bigger battles to win: specifically, the battle against drug resistant bacteria. Originally from Costa Rica, Maricel has worked in Canada, the US, Asia and South Africa to try to solve big global problems; listen in to learn how she decided to cofound NextBiotics, her most recent endeavor.

I sat down with Maricel Saenz in this episode of Crossing Borders to talk about her experience in entrepreneurship, her decision to solve hard problems, raising finance for a biotech startup in Silicon Valley, and her decision to study at Singularity University. Maricel also offers advice to female and Latin American would-be founders to help them get their first endeavor off the ground.

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Pura Vida: Pros and Cons of Doing Business in Costa Rica

Category : Costa Rica, Latin America Startups and Investing
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Costa Rica, literally “Rich Coast” in Spanish, is a fitting name for a country with diverse geography which ranges from tropical rainforests to vast oceanscapes. Five million people call Costa Rica home, and the official language is Spanish. Costa Rica’s GDP is US$74.9 billion with 72% attributed to imports and exports like coffee, sugar, and fruit. The average wage for Costa Ricans is about CRC654,059 (Costa Rican Colón) or US$1,150 per month.

Costa Rica is a prime location for entrepreneurs because of its proximity to the United States and because of its many free trade agreements. Its largest foreign investments come from the United States, which led to a 2016 marked a trade surplus of US$1.6 billion between Costa Rica and the US.

In the past few years, large tech companies like Amazon have invested in the Costa Rican market. One of the strong qualities of Costa Ricans, locally known as “Ticos,” is their literacy rate of 97.8%, The country has placed education as a top priority, and English is common among the young population. (more…)

Ep 6: Jose “Caya” Cayasso CEO Slidebean

Category : Costa Rica, Crossing Borders Podcast
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Welcome to Crossing Borders with Nathan Lustig, where I interview entrepreneurs doing startups across borders and the people who support them, with a focus on companies that have some relationship to Latin America.

My guest is Jose “Caya” Cayasso, a Costa Rican entrepreneur who is cofounder and CEO of Slidebean, a software company that helps people stop wasting time wrestling with presentation design. Slidebean’s product, presentations that design themselves, is used by thousands of people around the world, from students to business executives.

We’ll cover Caya’s journey from Costa Rica to New York to launch his first business, what he learned in his first startup and how he used that experience to create Slidebean, which now has 20 employees in Costa Rica and 2 in New York City. We’ll talk about the fundraising process and Caya’s journey to raising money from Start-Up Chile, 500 Startups, Carao Ventures, Firstrock Capital and of course Magma Partners.

Be sure to listen for Caya’s tips on how to run a business with two offices in different countries, how he thinks about scaling a SaaS business and why he invests time in creating investor updates.

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Caya over the past year since Magma invested and it was great to be able to talk more in depth for the podcast. We had a few technical difficulties with the sound at the beginning, but push through, I think it’s worth it! Without further ado, Jose Caya Cayasso.

Be sure to check out his blog post/case study about how he used growth hacking to increase revenue 20x in 12 months.

I had a great time talking with Caya and I hope you enjoy his stories as much as I do. If you do, please subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher, leave a rating and tell your friends! Check out past episodes with David Lloyd, Adrian Fisher, Devin Baptiste, Nicolas Shea, David Basulto and David Assael.

If you have questions, think there’s something I should improve or have recommendations for guests you’d like me to interview, please let me know in the comments!