Failure Culture in Start-ups
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la In the technological entrepreneurial culture, it is well known that most start-ups fail. The number is very high: 3 in every 4. The reasons can vary from running out of funding or losing a founder, to determining there isn’t a big enough market for your product or service. Either way, failing in Silicon Valley is one of the least terrible things that can happen to you. When we start a company, fear of failing can be...
read moreFinding talent, the new start-up challenge
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la The amazing growth of Start-ups emerging in Latin America has given way to new challenges to overcome. Finding the right people to work with is most definitely one of the most common ones, a challenge that Silicon Valley has faced for several years. One of the most valuable things of Silicon Valley is that it is crowded with entrepreneurs, designers and developers eager to start their own projects or join an interesting...
read moreGlobal Entrepreneurship Week strikes Mexico
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la As many of you know, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) was from the 12th to the 18th of November and every year it is celebrated around the world with activities aiming to foster the entrepreneurship culture. Mexico wasn’t the exception, and this year there were several activities happening around the country. Startup Weekend, in particular, has been very popular this year. With the opening of its regional offices,...
read morePayments, a common problem among start-ups in Latin America
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la Many of the new methodologies for start-ups promote putting your product or service in front of your customers as soon as possible, with the purpose of understanding their needs faster. It is also recommended that you charge from day one. This is a technique that probably works well in the US, but what about Latin America where some countries have such a low credit card penetration as only reaching 24% of the...
read moreLatin America takes over Silicon Valley
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la Last September a couple of events with heavy Latin American presence took over Silicon Valley to introduce some of it best start-ups and show some of the increasing entrepreneurial culture in the region. As we have mentioned before in this blog, Latin America has been gaining recognition as a fertile ecosystem for innovation, entrepreneurs and investors. NXTP Labs, the most important incubator for early stage start-ups in...
read moreA bright future: Latin America readies for start-up, tech boom
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la In Opinno’s August 20 post we looked at what 500 Startups’ acquisition of MexicanVC means for Mexico. A few days later, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that Alta Ventures, an investment fund created by Rogelio de los Santos and Paul Ahlstrom (Nail iIt, Then Scale It), announced the creation of a 70 million dollars fund to aid start-ups in the region. Additionally, we learned that JP Morgan Asset Management has...
read moreSmooth sailing ahead for Mexican start-ups, local and foreign investors
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la When it comes to entrepreneurship, the big news in Mexico lately has certainly been the mergerofMexicanVCand 500 Start-ups. In prior posts, we looked at how, from the time it started operations a little over a year ago, MexicanVC has been one of the country’s mostimportantaccelerators. Founded by DavidWeekly, SantiagoZavala and CésarSalazar, MexicanVC made waves from the beginning. It seemed as if a coalition of...
read moreMexico’s first government-sponsored seed fund debuts
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la One of the constant grumbles among entrepreneurs in Mexico is the lack of public resources when staring a new business. The Mexican Economy Secretariat has put forth an effort with projects like Mexico Emprende and Nacional Financiera (Nafin), the federal organization responsible for supporting the financing of small- and medium-sized businesses. The latter has been of the most active organizations in terms of modernizing...
read moreChange the ratio: empowering women entrepreneurs
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la Several years ago, while working at her start-up,ShaheroseCharania noticed that most women she knew in tech were smart, hard workers and for some reason, scarcely founders of the projects they collaborated with. You find amazing, talented women leading teams in big corporations so why aren’t they starting their own companies? The motivation of empowering other women by providing them with resources and promoting a...
read moreInternet playing a large role before Mexican elections
By Celeste North (@celestenorth) of emprende.la These last few months, the presidential election on July 1st has been the main topic of conversation throughout Mexico. The digital space has not been spared either and it has been interesting to observe the different reactions that have appeared on the Internet. Yo Soy 132 (I am 132) Without a doubt, one of the election’s most reactive phenomena has been Yo Soy 132, a student protest movement started by those at the...
read moreBanners
