Thru the last couple of months we have seen a lot of good things happening in Mexico. A couple of months ago we create an article summarizing the last couple of years and how Mexico was becoming a great country to become an entrepreneur, well to put that in perspective the last 12 months have been as good as the last 3 years.
Thru Startup Grind we had witness some great changes, first from the outside, people is becoming interested in Mexico, second from the inside, Startups are growing, and becoming more serious about creating global projects.
In the last couple of months we had the honor to host two great entrepreneurs Dave McClure and Bob Dorf, obviously the experience was amazing! Dave have been interested in Mexico since they acquired Mexican.VC a couple of years ago, he had invested in a great amount of startups in Mexico and he have a winner team here. About Bob, he came to Mexico to launch his highly successful program “leanstartups” In a partnership with the Mexican government to aid and assist startups thru lean startups principles.
The fireside chat with Dave was long, fun and refreshing, I think it was a great way to hearing someone telling us as Mexican entrepreneur´s that the biggest thing between us and a big homerun nad creating our own success stories is our ability to believe in ourselves.
Take a look to the interview yourself: Dave McClure in Mexico
Bob was clear, specially about lean startup and how this is a great way to reduce risk, not a formula for success; we had the chance to talk about how he and Steve Blank spent hours crating the Startup Owner's Manual, how startups fail , but entrepreneurs don't, you just become "wiser".
Take a look to the interview yourself: Bob Dorf in Mexico
It's amazing how we just started seeing a ton of Silicon Valley companies starting to look at Mexico, and by that I mean building offices, representations, events, etc. Among them you can find: Platzi, Pretzi, Sendgrid, Zendesk, 99designs, Softlayer, just to name a few. For me this is a sign of awareness that we didn’t have 2 years ago.
The two biggest accomplishments in the Mexican entrepreneurial ecosystem are, first money is available, amazing projects will get funded locally or regionally, and the second one, is we are starting to see entrepreneurs migrating to Mexico from other parts of the world; if you take a look to the last batches of Wayra México (Telefonica Accelerator) and 500 Mexico, you will find a ton of different nationalities, two years ago this was not like that at all.
In the next couple of months Mexico will be playing at a top level, and I really mean it, Sam Altman will be speaking in Mexico City, Isaac Saldana will be speaking in Monterrey, we will see Bob Dorf speaking in Mexico City, Ash Fontana and Chris Anderson in Guadalajara, and Mexico will be hosting the STARTUP NATIONS SUMMIT.
Mexico have more than 150+ startups operating and growing at a good rate, we have over 30+ real VC’s firms and one of the most ambitious public financing programs for entrepreneurs, including guarantees, direct investment to startups, investment thru VC firms and much more.
Last but not least let me share with you a couple of startups doing some amazing things:
Boletia - Online ticket selling made awesome. https://boletia.com
Sr Pago - Mobile payments platform for unbanked in Mexico. https://senorpago.com/
Intrinno – Innovation management and development platform. http://intrinno.mx/
Skydrop - Market place for delivering products. http://www.skydrop.com.mx/
CREA Muebles - Biggest Ready-to-assemble furniture ecommerce in Mexico http://creamuebles.com/
Enviaflores – Biggest flower ecommerce in Latin America. http://www.enviaflores.com/
Novelistik - Wattpad with a social network and interactive books. https://www.novelistik.com/
Grillo - Disaster notifications for developing countries http://grillo.mx/
Kinedu - Personalized early developmental activity plans http://www.kinedu.com/
If you are interested in Mexico and Latin America, don't forget to visit www.mexico.startupgrind.com we built a video library with the Startup Grind's of the most amazing entrepreneurs and investors from the region!
STARTUP GRIND MEXICO VIDEO GALLERY
