Forget whatever they told you in school, at least the tech part

According to our guest speaker Pablo Larguía, founder of Bumeran and most recently La Red Innova, some of the stuff we've been talking about in this class and were proud of like choosing the right financing partner and that you don't always need that much of money, are all bullshit. Since this guy was able to sell Bumeran for a few pesetas, given that in Spain they really understand about bulls, and since he wants to do business in Brazil where I'm from (who doesn't wanna go there???) I think he's absolutely right.... jejeje

Before we ruin this 12 session course apart, let's comment on what he talked about and see if by the end of this post his comments still make sense. First he talked about how he comes up with ideas, where basically he thinks about how to link customers to what they need, making sure there's a revenue stream somewhere and using the right platforms to promote the idea. To have an idea of the model he draw on the board, please refer to my attached high resolution model prepared with advanced software that follows:

Interesting to see here is that Pablo seems to create his ventures based on models that already exist in the real world, and in the case of La Red Innova he is using the web as only a part of the business, as a channel that supports an event that occurs in the offline world.

Pablo gave us some recommendations, some shared by other speakers (don't throw everything away), in case we decide to become entrepreneurs. They were the following: to generate enthusiasm, and to be a good opportunity for all the ones involved; to look for alternatives to deal with uncertainty, and in startups be prepared for that; to be able to sell your idea in one sentence (the good and old elevator pitch.... wow stop, I wanna get out); to work in teams, he doesn't believe in an one man show (neither do I); and to respect your customers and competitors (my ex-employer used to say that, whether customers and competitors believed/did the same... that's anoooooooooooother question).

Last, Pablo talked about selling Bumeran to Terra and getting extra pesetas. After starting in 1998 and being the first job portal in Latam, yes, he believes in first mover advantage (so does my ex Strategy professor Luis Diestre), Bumeran was approached by Monster, a Bank and Terra. According to him he wanted to do the deal with Monster that was in the same industry and both were working together and learning (ops...CONTRADICTION... who said you don't choose your partners???) but his partners ended up opting for closing the deal with Terra for other reasons (that I will not mention, since I think you know enough already). Here he also gave us some advice when dealing with investors, such as creating a demo that they can see and give you feedback (if you pick the ones who add value obviously, GOT YOU AGAIN!!!!); allowing them to know that you're talking with others as well and give them a sense of urgency (read my post about Roberto Saint-Malo and toss a coin); remembering that in the end VCs are people with incentives behind (I also pray for them everyday); and not taking too much time to close a deal you think is good (they change their minds fast).

Well chicos y chicas, that's it. I think this was a good session to contrast with the last one. I hope Fabio Gastaldi doesn't write anything that disappoints our next guest speakers since we'll have our very last session this Friday, even though in Spitznagel's mind we will be managing Tech Startups in Semana Santa.

Saludos, tapas y vino a todos ;)