Search Results for: crossing borders

Ep 35 Nestor de Haro: Building the Alibaba or MercadoLibre of Auto Parts in Mexico

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast, Mexico
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Nestor de Haro grew up in Guadalajara, where he learned about the auto parts industry from his father. After obtaining a B.S. Degree in Industrial Engineering, Nestor co-founded Rigs Inc, an online marketplace for selling auto parts in Latin America. We talk about his inflection point from an underperforming business model to a new marketplace model and his advice for other entrepreneurs who are just getting started. If you speak Spanish, be sure to stay tuned after the normal outro, as I am testing a new segment where I put new content in Spanish after we finish the English section of the podcast. I hope you enjoy this conversation I have with Nestor de Haro.

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Ep 33 Advice for Foreign Entrepreneurs Doing Business In Latin America

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast, Latin America Startups and Investing
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When I first got to Chile in 2010, it took me five years to understand all the nuances of how business was conducted. There are several important cultural differences between LatAm and the US that foreign entrepreneurs should pay attention to if they want to be successful. There are also very important differences across Latin American countries that should also be accounted for. Here is a distilled list of what I’ve learned about doing business across borders. This podcast is based on a talk I gave to Start-Up Chile and the subsequent blog post that I wrote called Advice to Foreigners Running Startups in Latin America.

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Ep 30 Amanda Jacobson, Solving Problems in Education, Agriculture, and Fintech in Latin America

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast, Mexico
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Being able to open a bank account, exchange currency, open a credit card or have access to business credit in something that we take for granted in the United States. I know I did before moving to Latin America.

In the US, most people can easily open bank accounts, apply for loans, and transfer money digitally. But that’s not the case for the bottom 80% of income earners in much of Latin America. It took me 3 years to get a bank in Chile to allow me to open a business account when all I wanted to

Village Capital is a global VC firm with offices in Mexico City that finds, trains, and invests in entrepreneurs solving real-world problems, like the Fintech problems I just mentioned. VilCap works to build communities around entrepreneurs and their ventures to improve opportunities for growth and success. In this conversation, I’m speaking with Amanda Jacobson, Regional Manager for Latin America for the Village Capital team. She explains how VC is changing the way people live and work in Latin America and how Fintech in Latin America is one of the biggest areas of focus for them right now.

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Magma Partners: Supporting Latin American Entrepreneurs

Category : Latin America Startups and Investing
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In 2014, I was sitting in a Manhattan office tower, asking an experienced venture capitalist for advice about Magma Partners, our new seed stage fund that finds the best entrepreneurs in Latin America and helps them launch and scale their US incorporated startups in the states.

The VC’s advice? Leave Latin America. Come back to the US. “You’re going to lose all your money!” Nearly all of my entrepreneur and investor friends said the same thing.

Since 2014, my partners and I have invested $2M of our own money into a portfolio of 32 fast growing companies founded by entrepreneurs from 9 countries that employ 300+ people from 13 countries. All for less than a typical Silicon Valley company’s seed round.

The diverse founders we support are building real US incorporated businesses that generate eight figures in annual revenue. And they’re 90% more capital efficient than Silicon Valley startups. (more…)