Tag: Ecuador

Deepak Chhugani, Nuvocargo: Using Software to Modernize Trade between Mexico and USA, Ep 116

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast
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You can now find the full show notes of the Crossing Borders podcast on LatamList.com’s new podcast section. I’ll still post the audio of the podcast on my blog and I’m planning to start writing more again on my blog, like I used to.

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Thanks for listening to Crossing Borders all these years! If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to reach out here, or contact me on social media.

Outline of this episode:

  • [1:46] – About Nuvocargo
  • [2:40] – A multicultural upbringing
  • [4:15] – An Indian immigrant in Ecuador
  • [6:50] – Choosing entrepreneurship
  • [8:55] – Pivot into Nuvocargo
  • [17:40] – Investing in the team
  • [20:36] – Deepak’s unfair advantage
  • [23:03] – Import-export process in US-LatAm
  • [27:00] – Trade market size
  • [29:16] – Nuvocargo’s fundraising process
  • [32:50] – Books, blogs, & podcast recommendations
  • [34:14] – Advice to Deepak’s younger self
  • [35:44] – What’s next for Nuvocargo?

Show notes on Latamlist.com.

E-Commerce in Ecuador: Following the Footsteps of YaEsta.com

Category : Ecuador
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YaEsta was one of the first sites to pioneer the Ecuadorian e-commerce market in 2012. When Alejandro Freund returned to his native Ecuador after studying in Argentina, Italy, and the US, he was shocked to see that there was virtually no way to purchase goods online. Freund had grown used to buying many commodities online while abroad from sites like MercadoLibre in Argentina. So, with funding from Kruger Labs, Freund and his co-founder, Martin Jara, decided to help grow the Ecuadorian e-commerce market from scratch and started what would become YaEsta.    

If the most significant challenge to e-commerce in Ecuador today is convincing customers to buy online, one can only imagine what YaEsta faced six years ago. Freund and Jara originally built a site similar to Groupon, but eventually moved on to selling home goods, apparel, and appliances at a discount. At the time, YaEsta was called Revolucionatuprecio.com and mostly helped small producers sell their products online and reach a wider audience.

Fast forward to today, YaEsta now has a team of 25 people in Quito and is generating over US$3M in sales each year. Having raised a US$3M Series A round last year, YaEsta is taking on a strong position in the Ecuadorian e-commerce market. If you want to learn more about YaEsta, you can listen to my interview with Alejandro Freund on the Crossing Borders podcast.

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Ep 11 Alejandro Freund, Pioneering Ecommerce in Latin America

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast, Ecuador
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Alejandro Freund - Ecommerce in Latin America

Many people who do business in the United States don’t realize that there are burgeoning and viable markets in Latin America. After being educated outside the country, my guest, Alejandro Freund saw that his homeland of Ecuador was ripe to become the hub for a leading ecommerce company in Latin America.

This conversation with Alejandro is a look into the start of a Latin American ecommerce company from zero, including how Alejandro and his partner raised capital, what they did to find products to sell through their ecommerce platform, the tech challenges, beating local competition, the governmental regulations, and more. Anyone who’s interested in ecommerce will learn a lot from his ground-up journey.

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