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Comment by andreshb | Hacker News Reader

Hugo, where do you come up with the capital? Ive seen this model attempted in other parts of Latin America and even in Miami. However, the problem is always that the people wanting to start these great programs, are not the ones with the capital.

I believe this will only work if the managing partners are the ones with the capital (like PG) and not only well-intentioned entrepreneurs managing other people's money.

I want this to happen in Mexico as well, the talent is fantastic (our highly talented entrepreneurial dev team is in mexico) but we need Angels that have done it before; created and sold a tech startups.

Do you have any candidates?

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Andres,

Thank you for your comment. Originally I am using personal funds, mostly because as you mentioned, I am willing to bet on the local talent. We will try to get as many people with the relevant experience as possible, but as you know, that can be limited so we will have to figure some things as we go along (like PG did the first time around, but with lots of references from the Lean Startups/Customer Development methodologies and the experiences we've had with our own businesses). Besides this, do you have any more recommendations? Regards,

Hugo

Ok with the component of the managing partners being angels with experience in the whole sale process as a given in the equation, my number 2 recommendation would be to try to:

Not necessarily focus on emerging markets exclusively. You can build a global product, for a US+Euro market from Latin America. Example: Zoho is mostly built in India, Ustream is mostly built in Hungary, there is no good reason why there could not be a 37signals built in Guadalajara, or a Salesforce in La Paz, a good number of SaaS apps are not built in SV or the US.

Instead of doing an SMS system for Mexico, or a Yelp for Tampico, build a SaaS, that does not depend on Advertising, or multiple rounds of funding to earn revenues.

Finally, it helps to have some sort of Business Development in the U.S. in essence, a hybrid model.

I think funding those types of business models can provide the best outcome overall, because they can be very profitable without depending on round after round of financing from SV.

Andres,

Thanks again for your comment. Just to be clear and not mislead anybody, I have not sold a business, but as I mentioned, I believe the collective experience of the people I am trying to involve is the closest you can get to here in Mexico.

I agree completely with your second recommendation, the main point being that it needs to be a competitive product no matter where it ends up being used. Thanks again for your comments, they are quite useful. Regards,

Hugo

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