When traveling to Guadalajara
Don’t know if you knew, although I was born in Guadalajara, I feel myself like an expat coming back to Guadalajara and building a career from zero. It has been almost 6 years since I came back after being out for nearly 10 years. The startup ecosystem changed drastically since I left and because I didn’t grew up in Guadalajara I was a stranger to the city with no contacts and had to build my network little by little.
Currently I am the Guadalajara chapter director for Startup Grind and one of the reasons I love this community its the values and how aligned are to mine; Helping others, making friends and giving without asking is what allowed me to meet amazing people and becoming part of a group that is shaping the Guadalajara Startup scene.
It was while reading the book Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City by Brad Feld — in which he mentions about the time he wrote a blog post for those visiting Boulder Colorado and knowing who and what they should do in order to get into the startup scene — that I decided to do my version for the Guadalajara ecosystem.
Upon arriving to Guadalajara, I noticed a lack for spaces to work and cowork like the ones we are now used to. Chapultepec would be what I call the hipster zone, here you can find places Hacker Garage which is still one of the best places to go and look for a community event happening, at the time (6 years ago) that was about everything. The lack of spaces to meet and greet is what inspired me to launch Epicnest a coworking space initially intended only for the tech startups; now it offers services for a wider range of industries. It was while at Epicnest that I became the Guadalajara Chapter director for Startup Grind and Pablo Lascurain who was the Latam region director introduced me to Mak Gutierrez who runs Hacker and Founders in Mexico, he is someone who will be able to connect you with the right people, an influencer and well known in the Guadalajara scene. Like Mak, Andy Kieffer is someone you could say knows Guadalajara better than anyone and has helped countless startups through Agave Lab.
Coworking spaces have since then emerged and you can -in addition to the already mentioned- visit known hubs such as Conectory/Bosch near the Minerva Zone; Another safe bet nowadays is to go to any of the Wework that are located in more upscale areas throughout the city. It was at Conectory/Bosch where I had a fireside chat with Yuvia Lopez co-founder to Protrash and would say is the go to person for anything related with social entrepreneurship.
The academia has a particular interest in developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem. All universities are running great initiatives and I have helped most of them, UDG, UNIVA, ITESO but I would like to point out, the effort of two Universities in particular UP which is gaining a lot of traction in the tech developments and someone who is supporting the development of the students dreams is Arturo Jafet. Secondly, my alma mater, Tec de Monterrey the list of names here is long (specially as I worked here as Director for the School of Computer Science), but would like to name one in particular, Abraham Enriquez as he is part of the team running the coworking and incubator efforts at Tec. It is at Tec de Monterrey that you will also be able to find Janette Damian who runs enlace+ in Guadalajara.
A new zone in Guadalajara is emerging and that is Distrito la Perla currently with its first stage up and running, Biosfera in which many companies are already running their operations there. One of them being Wizeline, founded by Bismarck Lepe, Wendy Johansson, Matt Pasienski and Vidal Gonzalez; among the many Wizeliners I would like to shutout for Ricardo Tapia who has a great network in the public and private sector. StartupGDL a Wizeline sister company, located in Distrito la Perla too, with the leadership of Cindy Blanco who would be the go to person if you want to meet the top shots in the ecosystem, Cindy is always eager to help and looking to develop and scale the impact Guadalajara may have in the globe; Proof of that is her support to initiatives such as Endeavor, leaded by Ileana Jaime Feliz and it is located in the StartupGDL space along with many more amazing startups.
Adalberto Flores will be able to provide you with great insights, him being a tapatio as well, having to struggle and start from zero; he managed to build one of the most successful startups in Guadalajara to this date — Kueski, a financial services company — . Hearing his story will definitely give you an idea of what and how to thrive in this ecosystem.
Guadalajara, the second biggest city in the country is to me and many, “still a very big town”; meaning everyone knows each other and what you do will be known very fast by everyone. Always with a spirit to help and initiatives like the one Jesus Zepeda aka ‘jechu’ runs to share all the communities events at the beginning of the week — you can follow him to see whats happening in GDL— helps by giving visibility to everything happening in our city.
My personal spots in Guadalajara
Whenever am trying to change scene to work remotely and make a change from the daily routine, you will find me roaming the city for a great place to work and meet, depending on my mood and audience is that I will choose.
Coffee places: Trying to replicate the whole Silicon Valley vibe, coffee culture is important in the city; there are many places but in particularly for the purpose of this post I would recommend the following:
- El Terrible Juan — One of my favorite places to go and just work; it has three different locations but it’s main shop is in Av Montenegro in the Chapultepec area. It is a great place to work and have some amazing coffee.(if you want a bite, don’t miss “El terrible bacon”)
- Palreal — This is the place were you want to go if you Are looking to meet and greet people; every time that I go I will find someone who is well known in the city, from government officials to renown business people.
- Matraz — A bit quieter than the previous but the “hipsterish” atmosphere and great coffee makes it a perfect place to go and work.
Plazas: As influenced as we are by USA culture, Shopping malls/Plazas are perfect for meeting; well known, easy to get and get by.
- Midtown Jalisco — One of the newest plazas in the city, with a WeWork complex in it and Starbucks makes it great to go and meet with people trying to run their business. The Starbucks there is packed with business people, foreigners and local people talking about amazing projects.
- Plaza Sania — Central/Bosch is in this plaza and a Starbucks too, its centric location makes it a perfect place to have a quick meeting or just make a quick stop to get coffee and send some quick emails.
- Mercado Mexico — Not only it has a small palreal branch here but it is a place to find amazing food and spots to work and/or meet with people to have a business lunch and then going back to Chapultepec.
- Punto Sur — Located at the south of the city, sometimes difficult to get due traffic, seems to be one of the best places to go if you are meeting someone on that side of Guadalajara.
Afterhours: Guadalajara and Mexico in general is very much social; there are many of places to go and party but in general if you want something quiet and mix business and pleasure; my personal best are:
- Troquet — One of my favorites and where you will find me almost every Thursday of the week to have an ‘apéro’. Great place to meet and have a chat, to discuss future projects or casual social life.
- Juniko — A little bit more upscale than everything else, but if you want to impress and have a great dinner, Juniko will not disappoint.
- Xokol — Mexican food from a very peculiar perspective. Not the typical taco places or touristy restaurant; it is a small place yes but you will have a good time and will be in for a treat.
If you want to know whats going on in Guadalajara, i’ll be happy to help. In this post I only mention some of the most influential people, places I like and frequently go, but there are many many more who could probably help. Let's grab a cup of coffee — I know a few good spots — and see who you could meet. Follow me on Instagram, Twitter or just go over to my website to see how you can get in touch with me.
UPDATED 19/Feb: added the paragraph regarding Adalberto Flores — kueski
