1-. The Idea is Worth Zero (Part I)
Hi there, reader! What’s up? My name is Javier Velasquez (“Javi”) and, together with Juan Pablo Zorrilla (“Zorro”), we founded Resuelve.mx some years ago. The goal of this monthly column is to tell you stories (good, bad, and horrifying) about this rollercoaster of being entrepreneurs.
I must warn you that I’m a little foulmouthed, I’ll curse, and use a lot of sarcasm (to the extent that Entrepreneur will allow me…); here’s hoping that the final product comes out almost without censorship. I’m also great at nicknaming, you better catch up; assuming that you’ll turn into recurrent readers of my column and that it won’t be canceled. Once in a while, I’ll look for lost entrepreneurial souls to tell us about any topic they find relevant, hoping that their anecdotes would be better than ours, and, above all, more constructive.
In spite of this, and from the bottom of my heart, for those about to start: Get on with it! The jacuzzi is warm! We hope that more than scaring you, we give you a complete and real vision of the good, and bad things of starting a business in Mexico or “Latin Africa,” as my former professor “Chava” called it.
Let’s start with a little bit of context, just a little so that I don’t seem to be so carried away by self-promotion. “Resuelve” is a Fintech company in which works on restructuring consumer credit, and digital accounting solutions for SMEs. In 9 years, we’ve grown to 1,200 collaborators in Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. We have 50,000 active accounts, and we’ve restructured more than 1 billion of Mexican Pesos in clients’ debts. In other words, if your business’ debt or accounting is a hassle, we work it out for you. If you want to learn more, you can visit www.resuelve.mx
Zorro and I founded Resuelve in September 2009, after graduating from our MBA in Standford University. If you think I’m bragging about studying at Stanford, you’re right, but rest assured it’s not for the reasons you imagine. It’s just to be sure that, if in future columns when someone thinks “how dumb is this guy,” they can remember I’m not that dumb.
I intended to graduate from my master’s and get a great job in finance in the United States, specifically in private equity. I had visions of me living the Wall Street dream. How wrong was I! To my bad (or good) luck, our MBA coincided with the 2008 financial crisis, so the odds of landing a job, in that area, were close to zero.
Plan B was to become an entrepreneur (I had no choice!). Before the MBA, I was an Investment Banker: worst job ever! And with some of the most arrogant people on earth (if any bankers are reading this column, let me remind you: the billions of dollars you manage ARE NOT YOURS! THEY BELONG TO SOMEONE ELSE haha),
My closest example of an entrepreneur was my dad (nicknamed “Don Malo” or “Mr. Bad” by my childhood friends). Don Malo was a traditional entrepreneur, who had had several small businesses: some good ones, some regular ones. Thanks to this, we never lacked anything at home, and he had time flexibility. It seemed as if he was living the life, even with some thin years when one of the businesses wasn’t doing very well.
“Personally, I didn’t have any particularly innovative idea, and I believed that starting a business was only for the rich.”
The life waiting for me was that of a banker “wannabe,” with a fixed income, climbing the corporate ladder. To be honest, my Plan B was more of an excuse for my married friends ( “Zorro,” “Abuelo,” and “Chichili”) to have their wives’ permission to go out for a beer and “talk about business”; than a serious attempt to start something. The only free spirit like me, in those times, was “Pantera.” More on them later.
During those business brainstorm “simulations,” we explored several different things. This was before the avalanche of Apps, and mobile solutions; the first iPhone had barely come out (2007), so our ideas weren’t that techy:
Idea number 7: Buy Mexican sugar refineries to produce ethanol. That sounded like “green energy.” However, cars in Mexico don’t run on ethanol (unlike other countries such as Brazil), and the government controlled the price of sugarcane.
Idea number 33: Medical tourism in northern Mexico for American patients. This seems to be gaining traction lately, but it was new when we first analyzed it, and the war against drugs in Mexico had just started; so we agreed: no.
Idea number 108: “Real,” partly cooked, Mexican food for Latinos in the USA. The bad thing is that Latinos in the USA prefer things more like Americans do, not so much as we do. They’re far more on that side (that explains why many of them voted for Trump).
Idea number 199: Independent network of ATMs (we were unaware of the Mexican baking oligopoly).
Idea number 226: A network of cafeterias with areas for little children. Imagine a Starbucks with a “fishbowl” where you can put your child so the mothers can watch them while catching up.
We were visionaries!
“Resuelve” was not a product of this “highly sophisticated” process. So, how did we come up with the idea? Due to space constraints set by Entrepreneur, I’ll have to continue the story in next month’s column. I’ll also explain why the title: The Idea is Worth Zero. Although I’m aware this is too much of a cliche, and I’m not teaching anyone to reinvent the wheel, I’ll give you my opinion on this concept.
If you have any comments, questions, and suggestions; you can nag me on Twitter. Find me as @Javivelop.
P.S. Never in your freaking difficult and bitchy life surrender!
