Category: Argentina

Ep 7: Nora Leary, Launchway Media

Category : Argentina, Colombia, 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.

If you’re new to the podcast, be sure to check out Episode 2 with Adrian Fisher, founder of PropertySimple, who went from selling hotdogs to raising $3m and Episode 5, with Devin Baptiste, cofounder of GroupRaise one of the most diverse startups in the world.

My guest today is Nora Leary cofounder and Head of Marketing and Business Development at Launchway Media, a marketing agency that works with global startups launching in the US.

Nora and I talk about her journey from the US to Africa to Latin America, to leaving a job in Latam to starting her own business. Nora lived in Buenos Aires and started her business there with two other female cofounders, and then moved to Medellin to continue to expand the business

We cover cultural difference between doing business in the US and Latin America, what it’s like being a woman in tech in Latin America, practical tips for getting PR in the US, getting into a US accelerator from Latin America, and tools and tricks you need to be successful launching in the US market. And also emojis.

I’ve been working with Nora and her team for a few months now and it was great to finally get to connect outside of a pure business context. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

I’ve had a great time talking with Nora and I hope you enjoy her story as much as I do. If you do, please subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher, leave a rating and tell your friends!

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!

The Opportunities and Challenges of Doing Business in Argentina

Category : Argentina, Latin America Startups and Investing
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I’ve written extensively about doing business in Chile, and since Argentina, the country next door, has been making a lot of noise, I decided to write up an overview of opportunities in Argentina. Argentina has the third largest economy in Latin America (after Brazil and Mexico), and the 2nd highest GDP per capita in the region in PPP terms (after Chile).

You may have heard the saying, “As rich as an Argentine,” a phrase that was coined to describe Argentina’s wealth and prosperity in the 1800s-1929. Argentina had the 4th highest GDP per capita and was one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Between 1890 and 1930, the capital city of Buenos Aires transformed from a colonial town to the sprawling, mammoth of a city it still is today.

Unfortunately, the Great Depression followed all of that prosperity and then decades of political turmoil. Over the next few decades, Argentina borrowed from foreign banks and ran hefty budget deficits. In the 1970s, Argentina’s credit rating dropped so low that leaders resorted to printing more currency, leading to the Argentinian Peso’s steady decline.

Argentina next went through a period of hyperinflation and political instability which lasted until the 1990s. By the 1990s and Dot Com Bubble era, the government launched new initiatives to reopen the country, and Buenos Aires became the birthplace of some of Latin America’s most successful technology companies. A group of Argentine Internet pioneers founded companies like MercadoLibre (the eBay of Latin America) and OfficeNet (which was eventually acquired by Staples). (more…)

My first guest is David Lloyd, cofounder and CEO of The Intern Group, an education company that has helped more than 5000 students from more than 125 countries around the world find top internships abroad.
We’ll talk about how David left his job at a city of London investment bank to start The Intern Group, how he came up with the idea, started the ball rolling, and his journey to build The Intern Group into a global powerhouse with more than 30,000 applications for the Intern Group Program and more than 2,000 participants in 2016.
We’ll also cover the strategies his team uses to work globally from offices in 12 different countries around the world and some of the advantages of running a global business with operations in Latin America.
David and I first met back in 2011 on the soccer field in Santiago, Chile and have been great friends ever since. I really enjoyed our conversation and hope you will to.

If you liked this podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher and check out the first five episodes with other top entrepreneurs doing business in Latin America.