Thomas Allier Viajala Podcast
Published in
3 min readAug 21, 2017
Thomas Allier is the cofounder of Viajala, which I like to call the Kayak of Latin America. Originally from France, he moved to Chile for Start-Up Chile and then moved to Colombia where he received investment from Mexican and Colombian venture capital firms.
Outline of This Episode
- [0:12] Who is Thomas Ailler?
- [4:10] Why Latin American airlines don’t share their data.
- [6:19] How Thomas decided to attack the problems he’d experienced in travel in Latin America.
- [8:22] Why Thomas was attracted to Startup Chile even though he was from France.
- [13:50] The beginning states of the company in Chile and Colombia.
- [20:43] What it is like day to day in Medellin, Colombia (where Thomas is based).
- [25:17] Recruiting and finding talent in Medellin.
- [28:19] The expansion efforts made to move into Mexico.
- [33:54] Doing business in Mexico and Brazil as a Colombian company and why it’s better for a startup to keep things simple and centralized.
- [36:50] The steps taken to expand into Brazil and Argentina.
- [40:17] The reaction of Thomas’ family when he announced he was moving to Colombia.
- [41:57] Thomas’ advice to American companies or founders considering Latin America.
- [46:30] The challenges and strategies of working with a distributed team.
- [50:37] Thomas’ advice to his younger self if he were starting over.
- [55:04] Advice to those considering a startup.
- [57:45] Resources Thomas recommends to other entrepreneurs.
Resources & People Mentioned
- https://viajala.com.co/ — Thomas’ company
- Startup Chile
- Rakuten
- JetSmart
- Kickstarter
- Azul — Lowcost airline in Brazil
- Flybondi — Lowcost airline in Argentina
- Parallel18
- Sebastian Vidal
- Expedia
- Accent Capital — Colombian fund
- Velum Ventures
- BOOK: Remote by Jason Fried
- Basecamp
- FirstRock Capital
- Rappi — Colombia grocery delivery app, A16Z invested
- Cornershop — Mexican/Chilean grocery delivery app, $21M investment
- Indie VC — Investing in real businesses in the US
- Kayak
- BOOK: Steve Jobs
- BOOK: Let My People Go Surfing
- Patagonia
- Lessons from Latin American Entrepreneurs
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