Note: A version of this article originally appeared as a column in Spanish in El Mercurio, one of Chile’s largest newspapers.
Many entrepreneurs dream of solving a problem, providing great service to their clients and ideally doing something that makes the world a better place when they start their company. One of the side effects of a successful startup is that they might make lots of money. (more…)
Two years ago my friend Diego introduced me to Francisco the head of one of Chile’s family offices. Francisco told us that he wanted to invest in startups and high growth small businesses not only because he thought Chile needed a fully private early stage startup fund to help entrepreneurs be successful, but also to potentially change how Chilean investors look at startups by showing them the way forward.
After working together for about six months, Francisco, Diego and I announced our first two investments, officially launching Magma Partners, a US$5M early stage investment fund powered 100% by capital from the three of us.
Our original plan was to invest in 4-6 companies per year, but we were inundated with qualified companies that needed capital, monitorship, connections and feedback from people who’d done it before. We received over 150 applications (more…)