Starting my new venture: Startups.com
I started Correspondents in 2015 with the mission to build a bridge between sophisticated international capital and Silicon Valley, mecca of technology investment. Over the last two years we’ve executed investments into the fastest growing, most influential companies in the world. As we looked to expand our platform, a number of opportunities presented themselves, but one caught our attention.
That’s the one I’d like to speak about today.
It led to a partnership placing the execution of our mission into turbo mode, which I’m excited to announce.
But first, let’s take a step back.
The Journey of Correspondents
A global technology market. Massive companies with low expansion costs. 7 billion people in the world, and 6.8 billion mobile phone subscriptions. 2.7 billion people have access to the internet, and the next 4.3 billion are well on their way.
A new tech industry — a global tech industry, but with its society and financial return potential limited to those with access.
Correspondents was started to expand the table of technology investment to include international players, centrally in Latin America, who have financial capacity and domain expertise across industries.
The idea? An expanded table across cultures, across backgrounds, is a table better suited to capture the global technology opportunity that has just begun.
Housed within a set of investment vehicles, we focused on value creation and value alignment, both financial and strategic. The Correspondents network grew and grew, and our group executed SPVs for sophisticated capital sources into a number of high-growth, high-value companies.
We were onto something. Diversification into the right technology investments was in demand, and the investments were returning. Technology companies and venture funds will accept vetted, intelligent, diverse capital and recognize its value on-going. The network was creating and distributing value.
Our team was small, but our mission big.
Along the way, we met and worked with the top business minds, investment advisors and capital sources across Latin America. As the thesis was proved out, it became clear: it’s important to take this to the next level.
Two years ago, I was introduced to Matias de Tezanos, serial entrepreneur and Partner at PeopleFund. A premier cross-border group of serial tech entrepreneurs, PeopleFund has two-decades of starting, scaling and exiting tech companies in the US, Latin America, Europe and now expanding into Asia.
Over the course of our relationship, throughout many discussions and executed investments, and an idea began to emerge.
What if we paired the Correspondents technology investment focus with with the infrastructure, expertise and discipline of PeopleFund? What would it look like? How would it operate? Can we make each other better?
The answer? Yes. The result: a partnership to translate this big idea into big execution. A global platform.
I’d like to announce today the result of those discussions. A new organization, the next evolution in Correspondents: Startups.com Inc.
The Next Chapter: STARTUPS.COM
A channel. A platform. A network. A movement.
Startups.com is designed for international investors to capture the technology opportunity at scale. PeopleFund history and capacity, backing Correspondents access and innovation.
Our organization is focused on investments and education.
The investment team is laser-focused on pre-corns. Aileen Lee coined the term unicorn to describe billion-dollar startups. Pre-corns are those companies on the brink. Companies with growth trajectories to burst through the billion-dollar valuation number. With a long track-record of access to top technology companies and proprietary deal flow, we represent international investors in strategic private placement.
Flexibility in investment structure has proven incredibly important for international capital sources — family office or institutional. The investment team uses flexible infrastructure to minimize all compliance and tax related barriers to capturing the financial value of growth tech companies.
Our education team is focused on supporting the next generation of top venture investors.
For international investment pros, we run in-person and on-line intensive courses on venture investment best practices. In partnership with tech industry higher-education giants like Stanford University and Singularity University, we design tailored programs to demysticize the basics and build adaptive models for the future.
Investment in expertise paired with investments in the future.
Correspondents and PeopleFund are excited to announce the next evolution in technology investment. This is a global movement, a global moment, and a network of the best and brightest.
I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities coming down the pipe, and although I can’t say everything here, be on the look-out for more to come from us.
Pablo
Co-founder and CEO, Startups.com Inc.
