The Next Great Startup Will Be a ‘Unicornio’

http://techcrunch.com/2015/08/01/the-next-great-startup-will-be-a-unicornio/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=cb_daily&utm_campaign=email

by bpolania • 11 years ago

32 12 11 years ago

techcrunch.com

porker• 11 years ago

If I, as an individual, wanted to invest in the Mexican startup scene -- are there any VC funds that function as investment trusts?

Devthrowaway80• 11 years ago

The author of this piece runs one. Article worked as planned, I guess.

shopinterest• 11 years ago

500Startups' fund "500Luchadores" would be the closest one in Mexico, their fund for new ventures was recently 'completed' (read: depleted) so this is a good time if you want to invest on seed stage. Series A and beyond, hard to tell.

personjerry• 11 years ago

I think it's great to look at different possible places to invest. However, this article comes off as a more of a rant, full of subjective and anecdotal evidence. For example:

Mexican founders are excellent. Just as in Israel and India, Mexican entrepreneurs develop a grit early on as they defy the immeasurable odds of functioning in a business environment riddled with corruption, insecurity and monopolistic uncertainty.

Even the seemingly data-based parts are useless without comparison to relevant data from other countries, for example:

The huge internal market potential is undeniable unless, somehow, the millions and millions of Mexican smartphones will never buy or bank.

My interpretation that this is a rant stems from the personal attitude with which the author has written with, indicated by lines such as :

China and India’s hottest venture-backed startups are mostly copycats.

He sounds personally upset that the bigger VCs preferred China and India to Mexico. I think a better path would've been to actually do the research, write an article with citations and statistics, and prove that he is right. Or perhaps he'd find out that China and India are indeed better places to invest, and consider working there instead. If he does not wish to work there, I think the correct thing to do is to persevere and attract those VCs anyway, instead of complaining about it.

volaski• 11 years ago

How to read a Techcrunch article in 2015: 1. Check if it's from a guest writer 2. If so, check their bio 3. Read the article

calciphus• 11 years ago

Another day, another place claiming to be the next Silicon Valley.

yawn moving on.

newobj• 11 years ago

At first thought it mean that it was going to be a company with a ".io" domain name...

capkutay• 11 years ago

I thought this was a nod at .io domain names. That article would have been more interesting...

chipuni• 11 years ago

I used to live in Mexico in the early 1990s.

Wonderful place. Incredible people. I'd be glad to live there. But at the time, there wasn't the emphasis on education that there is in China and India. (And Mexico's top university, UNAM, doesn't place high in international rankings: http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2014.html .)

Unless that changes, I don't expect Mexico to become the next Silicon Valley.

(Important note: My means of measuring countries may be wrong. Notice that India has very few top universities, as well!)

Pinatubo• 11 years ago

I am the great unicornio! I need VCs for my cash hole.

jorgecastillo• 11 years ago

Yeah ... I doubt it!

koolhead17• 11 years ago

I see same issue with Nepal, so much of potential and thriving startups, talented engineers but funding being a biggest pain point.

The Next Great Startup Will Be a ‘Unicornio’

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