MEXICROWD, LISA COHORT 1 winner raised 1.2 million USD through crowdfunding leasing platform
LISA’s 1st COHORT incubated 25 ideas in the second half of 2020, as it joined hands with Stanford Rebuild — the 8-week Innovation discovery sprint to solve the remarkable number of challenges, as well as an important set of opportunities that emerged from the pandemic to build new approaches, grow new businesses, and create new realities. LISA started as a conduit for the discovery sprint, dedicating its efforts on the ideas emerging from within the Stanford LEAD community, and extended the program to an intensive 10-week journey, where 4 winners were identified as promising MVPs. Mexicrowd from Mexico is one amongst the 4 winners and continues to grow and disrupt the local market ever since. We caught up with Alvaro De Murga Pardo to speak to him more about his entrepreneurial journey thus far!
Alvaro De Murga Pardo and Javier Salas de Murga — Mexicrowd
“LISA made us realize that we didn’t need money to launch Mexicrowd, because that will come with the customers.”
Alvaro and his partners Javier, Rodrigo, Ignacio, Bernardo , Jose Luis , Juan Pablo, Patricio and Jorge Armando at Mexicrowd were selected as winners for LISA’s first cohort,- and faithful to their belief of giving back to the local community today they are disrupting the leasing sector in Mexico. Their crowdfunding leasing platform reduces the gap between savers and investors providing better interest rates for both. In the early 9 months of operations, Mexicrowd connected 191 savers and founded 35 projects raising 1.2 million USD in total.
LISA encouraged Mexicrowd’s team to aim for disruption — and proved to them that a well-designed prototype can be enough to attract your first customers — there is no need to invest a lot of money. The LISA founders encouraged them to look for market failures — these are the innovative ideas that spark breakthrough-innovations.
“In the early 9 months of operations, Mexicrowd connected 191 savers and founded 35 projects raising 1.2 million USD in total.”
LISA TEAM: Hi Alvaro, introduce yourself to LISA community
Alvaro: I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. The main belief of myself and my cousin and business partner Francisco Javier Salas de Murga — has always been that — “we don’t choose who we are born into, and it is our job to give back to the community especially coming from a privileged position”. Indeed, the purpose of all our business has always gone beyond money — and is aimed at helping and giving back to the local community.
For 45 years my family has owned a plastic factory that employs more than 1.000 employees. After my studies, Javier and I asked his father and my uncle — the main shareholder — if we could join the company. Instead of hiring us — he came up with a different proposal “Why don’t you come up with a brand-new idea for me to invest in?” And with my uncle´s insight we founded
14 years ago our leasing company we are very proud of — Más Leasing — that made 3 securitisations and secured a line of credit with the IFC.
“We are disrupting the market; our competitive advantage is our market knowledge from the leasing company.”
LISA TEAM: Tell us about Mexicrowd
Alvaro: At Mexicrowd we believe that the inequality in the world today is alarming. Mexicrowd was founded with the mission of being a disruptive crowdfunding platform and to reduce the extreme income class gaps in Mexico.
We are not targeting high-end customers, but rather middle-low income class. Borrow money from a bank is too costly — but at the same time people’s savings on the checking accounts pay nothing. We are a platform that links unattended savers and companies in search of a better alternative to maximize the productivity of their operation, through the use of assets and liquidity for working capital. We are disrupting the market; our competitive advantage is our market knowledge from the leasing company. Last, but not the least, with Mexicrowd we also want to educate people to better manage their savings. We believe that Mexicrowd can be a tool to activate economic activity by allocating assets in an efficient manner, paying better returns to investors which in turn have more money to spend and complete the economic growth cycle.
LISA TEAM: How does the platform work?
“We think that there is a real opportunity to lend cheaper — especially to many SME that represent the biggest source of employment in Mexico today.”
Alvaro: Today in Mexico the IRR for leasing companies is around 25–30% on a yearly basis. We think that there is a real opportunity to lend cheaper — especially to many SME that represent the biggest source of employment in Mexico today. To the companies, we offer competitive rates to incorporate technology goods into their process to boost their productivity and maximize their profits.
Savers can open an account with only 10 USD and get attractive compounded rates of return, around 14% generated from sustainable projects with impact on society. We partner with Ekatena that allows Mexicrowd to create reliable credit analysis through the platform and get a pre-authorization in just 2–3 hours.
They get a right on the asset related to the amount invested and can take their money back whenever needed. With Mexicrowd, they pass from getting almost nothing from their checking accounts to an interest rate of 10%-14%: The platform earns the spread between active and passive rate.
LISA TEAM: How was the performance of this first year of operations?
Alvaro: We managed to start our operations in April 2020. In 1 year, we invested no more than 25.000 USD as we were able to leverage many assets from the leasing company, and to manage our operations with just 2 employees. As we realised the need to integrate IT competences in the company, we recruited an IT partner for a total of 9 partners now.
As of today we have 191 investors in total, founded 35 projects and landed more than 1 million USD.
LISA TEAM: Can you Illustrate your Journey through LISA Cohort 1 and LEAD program?
LISA has been like “a compounded LEAD program”
Alvaro: Mexicrowd idea came about 5–6 years ago but at that time I was not able to dedicate enough time to develop it. As I wanted to drive innovation in my businesses and see Mexicrowd come alive I decided to apply for the LEAD program. In almost all LEAD courses we used Mexicrowd example for my assignments, and this helped us to further develop and refine the original idea.
LISA has been like “a compounded LEAD program” — also my business partners worked with me on LISA, and it was just amazing how it opened our minds.
First of all, LISA helped us to organize the process and adopt a stage gate model, we learned that in order to get to the next step you have to fulfil all the requirements of the one you are in first. This means analyze all the details and solve one problem at a time. For example: they forced us to reflect upon: what happens if the customer does not pay? How can we make it work to give investors a chance to withdraw their money?
What contribution did LISA (LEAD Incubator & Startup Accelerator) make to your journey as an Entrepreneur?
LISA made us realise that we didn’t need money to launch Mexicrowd, because that will come with the customers. They made us realize that just a simple prototype can be something valuable to show to the market. And this was a real eye opener to me.
Last but not least, LISA encouraged us to be disruptive, LISA founders and mentors kept asking us “What else can you do”? You have the asset; you have the client? What else can you do”?
LISA TEAM: What are Mexicrowd current growth opportunities?
Alvaro: This is a complicated and easy question at the same time. The current growth target is around 1.000–2.000 savers and we cannot yet go public because we are in the process of fulfilling current Mexican fintech law requirements. However, our platform could grow as much as we’d like — this will depend only on our capacity of selling Mexicrowd’s value proposition. At the same time, this will require us to run all the appropriate checks to keep the risk low for the investors. We want to be really conscious on how we use people’s money and how we deal with the asset owners.
“Our platform is about selling a better service at a better rate. In Mexico, companies don’t grow because the interest rates are too high. We are committed in our efforts to reduce this gap.”
At the end, our platform is about selling a better service at a better rate. In Mexico, companies don’t grow because the interest rates are too high. We are committed in our efforts to reduce this gap. This is our dream and mission. Mexicrowd could grow exponentially but we feel the responsibility of lending people’s money and want to be careful and conscious at the same time.
LISA TEAM: Do you have any advice for Lisa-cohort 2 members?
Alvaro: Be yourself and don’t compare to others. Be patient — no need to rush. Take your time, allow yourself to make mistakes, it takes some time to gain confidence. It can be easy to generate ideas for your business, but you have to treat them carefully, like you would do with a baby and respect their pace.
Go step-by-step — try to create an MVP first, it doesn’t need to be perfect but just enough to show your idea to someone else. This will be sufficient for the market to tell you if you are doing something wrong or not.
LISA opened my eyes about the fact that -
“When you love your ideas, you are passionate about them but the people to whom you show them are just people — and they won’t get passionate about them as you are. “
Whenever you realize the market is making a mistake — that could be a great idea for LISA. Mexicrowd idea came because we were already in the market and understood how it works. So, start from a self-assessment: what is your background, your specialty, and then go further by asking yourself- what can I do better than others, than the market? This could be a great idea for LISA — to offer a module on self-assessment for the COHORT members and guide them through the journey!
Thank you, Alvaro, for your inspiring insights. Do you have a closing message for the LISA community?
It was a great pleasure to have this conversation with the LISA community. Mexicrowd is part of LISA, and we want to be accessible for this community and support as much as we can.
More info on LISA — GSB-LEAD-LISA
Contributed by:
Martina Nicodemo, Deepti Pawha
