Intern Spotlight with Jamie Linton

/in /by

Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. 

What do you aspire to accomplish in the future?

I am currently majoring in International Management and Marketing at Menlo College. My ultimate goal is to have my own international chain of hotels all around the world.

How did you hear about Manos Accelerator?

Menlo College has a platform, Careerlink, which easily enables students to search for available jobs. I became interested after seeing all the wonderful things that Manos is undertaking.

What was your role at Manos?

My role as the recruitment and marketing intern was planning the Manos Tech Venture Summit that brings startup and students from the Silicon Valley and Latin American countries.

How has Manos helped you grow personally and professionally?

From day one I was engrossed in the vast network that encompasses Manos. Operating in a flexible and entrepreneurial network allowed me to develop my communication skills. Manos has empowered and taught me to believe and follow my dreams by effectively using my resources going into a business setting.

What did you take away from your experience at Manos?

Manos taught me to never be afraid of dreaming big, because anything is possible. Manos, enables dreamers to flourish and having the opportunity to personally partake in the trajectory of successful startups was one of the best experiences. Seeing first hand how Manos acts as an advocate for Latino entrepreneurs/ startups was a one in a lifetime opportunity.

How has your internship with Manos prepared you for a future career?

Manos’ network is huge! Immersing myself in all aspects of the job has allowed me to confidently go out into the world feeling prepared to achieve any task and obstacles that could potentially come my way. Not only has my role over the course of my internship but also all the networking events have greatly opened many doors and connections.

What was one thing that you were exposed to at Manos that you would not have experienced anywhere else?

The various connections that Manos has, is definitely something that I had never been exposed to. Each day I had the opportunity to meet someone new, whether it was a startup or a representative from different companies in the Silicon Valley.

Share a memorable experience at Manos.

Each day was definitely memorable and looking back I would not change a single second of it. Getting to individually know and work along with each of my coworkers was the best.

How did you change during your internship from your first day to your last day?

Coming into the internship I was a little scared but the team at Manos quickly stowed all fears aside. Each individual’s insight enabled me to become more confident in my daily life and especially in my plans for the future.

What was your favorite part about being an intern?

Partaking in a vast array of diverse network. I truly enjoyed having the opportunity to meet Latino entrepreneurs and successful experts in the business world. Connecting and immersing myself back with my Latino roots. Being able to improve my bilingual abilities and having the knowledge that I was making a difference in the trajectory of their success.

Describe your relationship with your bosses and the startups?

Sylvia is an amazing and knowledgeable individual having the opportunity to work along her side was beyond incredible. Her insight and advice is something that I will forever carry on. Meeting each startup and having the opportunity to contribute just a very small part was beyond amazing. I enjoyed meeting each individual whom I encountered during my time at Manos. 

Where are you now? What are you doing now? (Just say where you expect to be after Manos)

I am currently entering my senior year at Menlo College and will be graduating with a double major in the May 2018. After graduation I will be working towards getting my masters and a full time offer job.

Intern Spotlight with Camilo Arias

/in /by

Where are you from?

I was born in Pereira, Colombia, and raised in Los Angeles, California.

What to you aspire to accomplish in the future?

I am currently studying Finance at Menlo College with that, my goal is to focus in the industry of Import and Exporting. Throughout my life, I have been a part of numerous projects that deal with international business and communications which has opened my interest towards this industry. With time and experience I would then like to become a broker and open my own Import and export company.

How did you hear about Manos Accelerator?

I heard about Manos Accelerator from past Manos Interns and Menlo College Alumni. Because of their great experiences, I became interested in the opportunity and personally reached out to Sylvia. Sylvia informed me of the business and the positive impact that Manos has on the Latin community and offered me the opportunity in being a Manos Accelerator Intern.

What was your role at Manos?

Because I have the privilege of being bilingual, I have had the opportunity with staying in contact with multiple startups from various parts of Latin America. My role at Manos Accelerator was requirement manager for future startups to participate in the in-depth Manos Accelerator program. With Sylvia as my mentor, I expanded my ability to communicate with individuals from different countries and further the Manos Accelerator Network.

How has Manos helped you grow personally and professionally?

The main attributes that I have noticed in myself that have grown from my experience at Manos is being able to/how to communicate with individuals from different countries and cultures. In the professional business environment, I have learned to listen and allow myself to be guided by Mentors, Angel Investors, and future business leaders from the Latin Community. Outside of growing professionally, personally I have learned how to conduct myself in an office environment and withstand the fast pace workforce.

What did you take away from your experience at Manos?

If your second guessing yourself, just simply ask. As a new intern, I was able to learn about the terms and procedures that it takes to run a successful company and grow its cliental. The overall environment at Manos was very helpful and it taught me how to get important tasks done in a timely matter.

How has your internship with Manos prepared you for a future career?
I feel comfortable walking in to a new company getting to know everyone one and getting the job done. I have been able to improve my communication and writing skills in Spanish itself while learning the ins and outs of different Latin American cultures. My confidence as future business leader has risen and my ability to apply my skills has improved.

What was one thing that you were exposed to at Manos that you would not have experienced anywhere else?
One of the major experiences I received being an Intern at Manos was working with the various number of startups, mentors, and angel investors around the world. The fact that I would walk in on a Monday and have a conference call with a startup from Colombia and an hour later have another conference call with a startup from Uruguay was excellent. Another key experience was being able to attend multiple events around the bay area and expand my own personal network.

Share a memorable experience at Manos?
It’s hard to choose, but one of my most memorable moments was when my co-workers and I decided to all go out to a San Jose Earthquakes match. That allowed us to truly get to know each other as individuals and not only as co-workers.

How did you change during your internship from your first day to your last day?
I become more confident with my Spanish and sales techniques. This internship was not only fun, but humbling in the way that I was able to learn from so many bright minds.

What was your favorite part about being an intern?
I really enjoyed working with so many different personalities and experts. I was able to learn and apply my skills throughout different projects and I absolutely loved being able to attend so many events.

Describe your relationship with your bosses and the startups?
My relationship with Sylvia was amazing. She helped me throughout different occasions and she was also very welcoming. Although there was that separation of Boss and employee, she made me feel very comfortable and at home. My relationship with the startups was outstanding. Because I am Latino, I was able to connect with them and create new relationships.

Where are you now? What are you doing now?
Currently I am finishing my last year at Menlo College, and planning on going overseas and furthering my knowledge in the industry of Importing and Exporting.

 

Venios, a personal safety net for students

/0 Comments/in /by

QUICK PITCH:  Venios provides a personal safety net for students that instantly notifies their loved ones in case of an emergency.

THE BUSINESS: When you walk somewhere, you drop a pin on your destination in the Venios app and we take care of the rest. We estimate the time you need to arrive, track your movements completely privacy-protected. If you go off-route, take too long unexpectedly in the same spot, or just take longer than our estimate, we notify your loved ones or campus safety/911 and then send them a link where they can see your location. To provide even more peace-of-mind, we also alert them when you arrive safety in your destination.

THE “AHA” MOMENT: We noticed alarming numbers of sexual assaults, especially to college-aged women. One of the most shocking events happened less than 4 month ago in Austin, where a women was raped and murdered on the campus of a top university. It was clear for us we need a solution that reacts quickly and provides additional peace-of-mind especially to the parents. That was how we got the idea for Venios.

HOW DOES IT MAKE MONEY? Venios relies on a classic Freemium model. The free model does only one thing: Alert when you take longer than expected and the paid version has intelligent premium features such as detection of stalling or going off route.

BUSINESS IT COULD DISRUPT: This could change how people move around in their daily lives and dramatically decrease the worries parents and other loved ones have.

MARKET SIZE: There are more than 11 million female college students in the US, our primary market. Our secondary markets (single moms, elderly parents, young children) are more than 100M people.

LIKELY COMPETITORS: We have a range of likely competitors, all of which we differentiate in one way or another: Companion App, Sec App, Life360, TapShied, bsafe, Watch Over Me, Get Home Safe, Life Alert, Safe Treck

PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATIONS: We are collaborating with college students in Texas and California.

WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS? Elon Musk, Richard Brandson, Will Smith

WHAT’S THE BEST THING OF BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR? There are many ways entrepreneurship is great, but the best would probably be that you can build things that actually affect other people’s lives. That’s a satisfaction nobody can buy.

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE ANYONE HAS EVER GIVEN YOU? Of many advices, I stick with this public advice from Gary Vaynerchuk: “Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, what do I want to do everyday for the rest of my life…do that”

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS? Don’t let anybody tell you what you can’t do.

HOW HAS MANOS HELPED YOU GROW? Manos helped me understand that it doesn’t matter if you have no money. You can still build a business. Also, they helped me a great deal figuring out how to go to market with my product, something I was completely clueless about.

MANAGEMENT TEAM: Marc Backes, CEO – Melina Herrera, COO

CONTACT INFORMATION: Reach us at team@veniosapp.com

Intern Spotlight with Caleb Mills

/0 Comments/in /by

Where are you from?
I was born and raised in the South Bay Area (San Jose) and now live in the East Bay (Berkeley).

What do you aspire to accomplish in the future?
I want to become more involved in any industry that has entrepreneurship at the forefront. Whether that be a startup, VC firm, my own book of business, etc.

How did you hear about Manos Accelerator?
Through my good friend and classmate, Pedro Espinoza. He is the Founder and CEO of SmileyGo and attends UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

What was your role at Manos?
I did marketing for Manos. This constituted cultivating the website, constructing other platforms like Gust for investors, and helping choose which companies will have the opportunity to pitch to investors.

How has Manos helped you grow personally and professionally?
Manos has taught me terminology, market concepts, and platform structures that have allowed me to execute effectively not only on the job, but also in other business settings.

What did you take away from your experience at Manos?
A love for the Venture Capital industry. There is so much excitement within the industry. Having the opportunity to see new companies with new, innovative ideas, and to be around people (both in the VC realm and entrepreneurs) who are passionate about what they do, is very inspiring and contagious.

How has your internship with Manos prepared you for a future career?
Not only has Manos increased my awareness of the VC industry, but it has also pushed and cultivated my communication and research skills.

What was one thing that you were exposed to at Manos that you would not have experienced anywhere else?
I would not have been able to attend Networking events or conferences with other Angel or Venture Capital investors if it were not for managers allowing me to have the opportunity to attend.

Share a memorable experience at Manos.
Manos allowed me to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford, where many startups were pitching their companies to the public.

How did you change during your internship from your first day to your last day?
The work that I had to do for Manos taught me the importance of efficiency. Getting the most work done in the least amount of time.

What was your favorite part about being an intern?
The relaxed nature in the office. It provided a healthy space for creativity and productivity.

Describe your relationship with your bosses and the startups?
The bosses are excellent resources within the Venture Capital industry. Not only are they reservoirs of knowledge, but they are very willing to pour out their experiences to benefit others. The startups have all been inspiring people to talk to. Their passion, determination, and perseverance is infectious and stirring at the same time.

Where are you now? What are you doing now? (Just say where you expect to be after Manos)
In this next season I will be working towards leading and cultivating my own book of business in the insurance industry, doing property and casual, and life and health, insurance.

Roadiy connects cars to trusted auto mechanics for maintenance and service.

/0 Comments/in /by

QUICK PITCH:  Roadiy is a mobile marketplace that connects car owners to trusted mechanics for car maintenance and service.

THE BUSINESS: Roadiy facilitates the whole service process by streamlining the process that consumers have to take in order to find a reputable and trustworthy auto mechanics for service. With Roadiy consumers can select the service they need, choose a reputable Roadiy service provider, and pay all from their smartphones.

THE “AHA” MOMENT: We’ve determined that the biggest problem for car owners is initially finding a trustworthy source for any automotive services. They currently search online or read Yelp reviews, however often times these reviews are biased and inaccurate. Roadiy takes away all the hard work by centralizing access to all automotive related services, but starting with auto maintenance.

HOW DOES IT MAKE MONEY? Since our model is a Marketplace, we have the chicken and the egg problem. Our revenue model comes from taking a percentage commission from each transaction that takes place through the Roadiy platform.

BUSINESS IT COULD DISRUPT: Roadiy could potentially destroy the automotive service industry and generally the automotive industry.

MARKET SIZE: As of 2015, the automotive service history reach the staggering $120 billion.

LIKELY COMPETITORS: YourMechanic, OpenBay, and RepairPal are some competitors in our space.

PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATIONS: We are currently partnering with a few established corporations.

WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING OF BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR? The ability to work on something that you are actually passionate about, where you enjoy every day because you are doing what you love.

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE ANYONE HAS EVER GIVEN YOU? It wasn’t specifically given to me, but it truly resonates with me. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will do somehow connect your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”-Steve Jobs.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS? What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.” – Tony Robbins

HOW HAS MANOS HELPED YOU GROW? Manos reminded us of how far we have gotten, and how far we will go.

MANAGEMENT TEAM: Bill Holden-CEO, Roland Saenz-CTO

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Reach us at b.holden@roadiy.com, or r.saenz@roadiy.com

Manos Intern Immmersion in the International Startup relations culture

/0 Comments/in /by

Where are you from?

I was born and raised in San Jose, CA.

What do you aspire to accomplish in the future?

I am currently studying Biomedical Engineering at San Jose State University(SJSU). My ultimate goal is to focus on Community Health and engage in revealing new ideas and products while attempting to construct attainable sources. I have witnessed a vast opportunity gap within various communities and want to work closely with community doctors and hospitals.

How did you hear about Manos Accelerator?

At San Jose State University we have a program called MESA(Mathematics Engineering Science and Achievement) Engineering Program (MEP). Sylvia is both an SJSU and MEP alumni who likes to come back to her community, representing Manos . Sylvia attended an Industry mixer event to explain the wonderful things Manos is accomplishing. I became interested and looked further to seek an internship and be given the opportunity to become a part of their mission.

What was your role at Manos?

As a bilingual student I have the privilege of communicating and staying in contact with the startups from various parts of Latin America. My main two roles are planning the first Manos LATAM event that brings in 20 startup participants from only Latin American countries and provide them with the Silicon Valley knowledge and experience. Another role I will be taking, together with another one of my friends (Maurilio), is preparing the Manos Angel Network.

How has Manos helped your grow personally and professionally?

Working with a team is important and Manos has helped me develop my communication skills. The thing that I value most from Manos is the fact that I am learning about entrepreneurial skills and the steps needed to become a successful startup. These are important things that we cannot learn in a classroom setting.

What did you take away from your experience at Manos?

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. As a new intern that is only in her first year at SJSU and has never worked with startups, there were a lot of terms and procedures that I was never aware of. Manos provided me with the greatest learning ambient because everyone was willing to help. It taught me that working in a community allows for more innovative accomplishments.

How has your internship with Manos prepared you for a future career?

I can now feel comfortable entering an unknown setting or workplace. Thanks to the various Skype calls and emails being sent in Spanish, I finally have confidence in my bilingual abilities. Manos has prepared me to form important networks that will help me soon achieve my goals.

What was one thing that you were exposed to at Manos that you would not have experienced anywhere else?

The various startups from Latin America are people I might not have met anywhere else outside of Manos. I saw such a drive within them that motivated me to put in the same amount of effort in my projects. I, together with the interns, will be attending Exponential Thinking for Entrepreneurs workshop at Google that I am excited for.

Share a memorable experience at Manos.

Everyday was a memorable experience at Manos because we made work fun. One thing we started doing is that every hour on the hour we would get on the floor and do sets of 10-15 pushups, sit-ups, or if we dared, planks. That adds up to 70- 105 a day. We tried our best to stay in shape this winter!

How did you change during your internship from your first day to your last day?

I gathered more confidence in my Spanish speaking and writing abilities. This internship was a very humbling experience because I was speaking and learning from very bright and talented people who were extremely knowledgeable.

What was your favorite part about being an intern?

Meeting such a diverse set of people who are experts in what they do and creating friendship with everyone. We were all open and willing to share stories. I enjoyed that a lot because it created a unity within Manos.

Describe your relationship with your bosses and the startups?

I am extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to work and learn from Sylvia and Jim. Jim is a very knowledgeable man who always shares awesome stories with us. Sylvia is a strong woman that I look up to because she has been able to accomplish so much. They both helped us (interns) strive for the best.

Where are you now? What are you doing now?

I will be entering my second semester at San Jose State University with a full course load. During this time I want to explore the diverse branches within Biomedical Engineering and gather various skill sets.

AERIAL BACKUP CUTS THE TIME CONSUMERS TAKE TO ANALYZE DATA ON THEIR OWN

/0 Comments/in /by

QUICK PITCH:  Aerial Backup uses image processing technology, cutting the time it takes to analyze images taken from Drones, getting straight to the numbers and data analysis.

THE BUSINESS: A subscription based platform allowing our costumers to analyze from 1 image to a complete mapping. They get the pics, we get the data. A normal drone company has big platforms for automated data acquisition and gather tons of images to give to their customers and then the customers need to do the analysis on their own.

THE “AHA” MOMENT: Our company in Mexico did various systems using drones, and whenever doing different systems we always ended up with the same problem… 1,000 photos, or a big image to count plants from, imagine watching a 5 hours video just to determine how many cars were there stuck in the traffic, then we decided we needed to provide a solution that allowed all the drone companies out there to simplify their processes and get the actual data from their data acquisition methods.

HOW DOES IT MAKE MONEY?: On a b2b model, companies pay for their used credits a month on data processing, so they get the images and then upload all the data to our servers, we process the info using computer vision algorithms and get them back the information so they can show it to their costumers.

BUSINESS IT COULD DISRUPT: The Drone industry and the image acquisition industry, today we have cameras everywhere, and most of them are in our cellphones, just now the best use for them is in Drones to obtain information, but imagine the possibilities, big companies grew based on the numbers and words analysis, databases and text mining, imagine doing the same but for Images…

MARKET SIZE: UAV Industry is hitting 6 billion by 2015, the Computer Vision Industry is going to be 30 Billion by 2019.

LIKELY COMPETITORS: Skycatch is doing something alike for the construction industry, some other drones as GoDrone, offer the mapping services.

PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS: Valmie Resources is a Houston based Drone company that uses our software for Drones. DOW Agro is a client that uses our image analysis tools that cuts from 3 weeks to 4 hours the time it takes for them to gather data from large fields. EvoCreations is a Chinese based company that is developing hardware drones for our company to test.

MANAGEMENT TEAM: David Castillo, ICS Drone product manager , CEO . Javier de la Mora , ICS UX, CTO,  Omar Pont , ICS  Drone AI , COO

CONTACT INFORMATION: Reach us at david@aerialbackup.com, javier@aerialbackup.com , omar@aerialbackup.com

WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS?: Chris Anderson is a big player on the Drone Industry, DJI is a big company that we always rely when trying our new systems, because they have very trusted, high quality products.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING OF BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR?: The fact of owning your future and deciding on what things you are doing today, trying to understand your costumer and finding value for them is awesome, Its not just selling something for them , is creating a relationship and making your clients feel better about your product and your company. its hard sometimes but at the end its worth it.

WHAT’S THE EBST ADVICE ANYONE HAS EVER GIVEN YOU?: Do it for your costumers and try always to deliver value to them. If you are not succeeding it means you are not trying hard enough.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS?: The pain of failing is nothing compared to the pain of not even trying and regretting.

Amitee Anonymizes Purchasing Trends For Consumers

/0 Comments/in /by

QUICK PITCH:  Today Amitee tells you exactly what you spend money on by using the information on your receipts. Tomorrow Amitee will merge mobile payment tools, budgeting services, digitization of receipts, and rewards programs to make them “just work” for the average person. We believe these tools should be integrated in order to help 47% of Americans who simply can’t save money. Sauce 1 & Sauce 2.

THE BUSINESS:  Amitee is much better than Mint because it tells you what things you buy (shampoo, pantiliners, lipstick, deodorant, diapers) instead of only categorizing at a high level (personal care, food, entertainment). You can’t save unless you optimize your spending behavior. And you can’t optimize your spending behavior without knowing exactly what you buy.

We are running a private alpha with 10 users. They email us pictures of their receipts, and we give them insights. The next step after this is to use these insights to provide users more relevant, targeted deals.

Our end destination is to help you walk into Macy’s, pay with your mobile device, have any relevant discounts automatically applied, and measure this purchase against your spending goals — without you having to do any legwork.

THE “AHA” MOMENT:   I left Google in June 2014 to learn how to code. Needed to manage my monies and Mint.com didn’t cut it. It told me I spent $300 on Food, but not what kind of food (McDonalds’ chicken nuggets?, prepared food at Safeway?, chips?, yogurt?).

Created my own tool that helped me track this stuff. Friends were impressed, and asked if I could do this for them.  I said “yes if you pay me plz”. They were down to pay me, and I knew I was on to something.

HOW IT MAKES MONEY:  We aggregate and anonymize purchasing trends from our users, and sell them to brands that need to make smarter business decisions.

The information we sell looks like this:  “Hispanic women between the ages of 25-30 are 32% more likely than Asian women to buy Revlon mini tweezers at Target in the San Francisco Bay area.”

BUSINESS IT COULD DISRUPT:  Google AdWords, Rewards Programs, Personal Finance.
Google AdWords has been successful because it offers targeted deals based on things you search for. We think a tool that offers you targeted deals based on things you actually spend money on is more valuable.

MARKET SIZE:  We are taking the advice of Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Ben Horowitz and are starting with a small market that’s currently being underserved: 10 million single mothers in the US.

The reason for this is because taking pictures of your receipts is a labor-intensive exercise. Single mothers have been the most engaged in our app and we think it’s due to their price sensitivity (average income is $26,000 compared to $81,000 for two-parent households).

The most successful startups have followed this approach. It works largely in part because it’s easier to become a monopoly in a small market and later expand than it is to try to dominate a larger market from the get-go.

PARTNERSHIPS OR COLLABORATIONS:  None. We need to validate more assumptions through our private alpha test.

MANAGEMENT TEAM:  Eric Flores. ex-Googler. can clap with one hand. hot cheetos addict. www.linkedin.com/in/eflo12

Currently recruiting for “founder+cto”. Hit me up if you find this interesting: eric@amitee.com

WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS?  My father.  He got himself through medical school without any money at one of the most reputable universities in Mexico. Like many immigrants, he came to the US in search of better opportunities for his family. His credentials weren’t accepted here, and he had to work as a carpenter, dishwasher, and truck driver while learning english. I’m not as badass as he is, but definitely inherited his hustle.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR?  You’re always learning. Don’t be an entrepreneur if you don’t value learning more than money and/or sleep.

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE THAT ANYONE HAS GIVEN YOU?   Do things that don’t scale. Why? Read this: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html. Too long for you? Then don’t be an entrepreneur.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS?  Being an entrepreneur is 90% managing your own psyche, and 10% execution. Don’t be an entrepreneur unless you’re already pretty good at this, or are willing to learn (quickly).

Abogadazo Empowers Latinos by Connecting them with Vetted Attorneys

/0 Comments/in /by

QUICK PITCH: Abogadazo is a web platform that connects US Latinos to a network of vetted attorneys. The main feature of the site is a free Q and A forum that allows clients to ask legal questions in Spanish. The platform serves as a lead generator for attorneys.

THE BUSINESS: A great portion of the 54 million Latinos living in the United States do not have adequate access to legal information; fear and fraud is rampant within the community. At the same time, in the age of the smart phone and laptop, lawyers still pay millions of dollars to advertise in newspapers,  the radio, yellow pages, and on billboards. Abogadazo uses tech to make it easier for Latinos to obtain legal information while making it more efficient for lawyers to reach their clients. For the client, the process is a easy as visiting the platform and asking a legal question in Spanish. For the lawyer, the platform serves as the conduit to start a relationship with a client.

THE “AHA” MOMENT:  As a second year law student, I worked in the Legal Aid immigrants’ rights office in New York. During this time, I noticed the great need of the Latino community in searching for legal help. The AHA moment arrived after reading about new legal tech companies; I knew that I could help solve the need of the Latino market by using technology.

HOW DOES IT MAKE MONEY? Lawyers pay to have access to the Abogadazo platform. The pricing strategy will be most likely based on a subscription model.

BUSINESS IT COULD DISRUPT: Abogadazo disrupts Spanish legal advertising. Millions of dollars are spent on newspaper, radio, yellow page, and billboard ads.

MARKET SIZE: 10,000,000 Latinos and 25,000 lawyers.

LIKELY COMPETITORS: Avvo.com, RocketLawyer.com, or Univision.com

PARTNERSHIP OR COLLABORATIONS : Avvo.com, LawDingo, QuickLegal

MANAGEMENT TEAM:  Diego Lafuente (CEO/Founder), Hector Lafuente (Co-founder), Miguel Cabrera (Advisor)

CONTACT INFORMATON: diego@abogadazo.com, 175 Varick St. New York, NY

WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS? My role model is Felix Dennis. Felix was a British Entrepreneur, founder of Maxim magazine, and poet. He wrote the book The Narrow Road which I think should be required reading for entrepreneurs. In this book, Felix discusses the hardships endured by entrepreneurs while treading the metaphorical narrow road. According to Felix, the greatest trait a successful entrepreneur must have is tenacity. Apart from being an entrepreneur, Felix was a celebrated poet and philanthropist. He donated most of his vast fortunate to charity.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR? There is great satisfaction in seeing your entrepreneurial ideas come to life.

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE ANYONE HAS GIVEN YOU?  Just do it.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS? Classical advice from the Ancient Greeks: Know Thyself. This advice is especially applicable for someone thinking about becoming an entrepreneur.

People Spread Proves the Most Effective Way to Get Promoted

/0 Comments/in /by

QUICK PITCH: People Spread is a marketplace that allows you find the social media influencers that your target market follows and buy promoted posts from them in a fast and simple fashion.

THE BUSINESS: A search tool to find social media influencers with +10K followers together with an indicator of customer segment, social authority and price per post. It provides marketers with the ability to request promoted posts with a brief, then accept/ decline the posts the influencers propose and, when accepted, make a payment. On the other side of the marketplace, influencers receive push notifications for campaign opportunities, making it as simple as selecting “yes” when they are interested or “no” when they want to opt out of an opportunity. For every payment influencers receive, People Spread will keep a 5% commission.

THE “AHA” MOMENT: We had 2: 1. Martina struggled trying to lower customer acquisition cost at her previous startup. While searching for plan b´s, she realized that although word of mouth is the most effective way to get promoted, the experience of buying promoted posts from talent agencies (who manage the social media influencers) is like buying plane tickets from a travel agency! Time-consuming and expensive. Waiting for the proposals, limiting your spectrum of influencers to the ones the agency has exclusivity with, paying their expensive fees…. People Spread was born to solve this pain with a very googler mission: organizing influencer marketing´s possibilities for startups.
2. While conducting customer interviews to validate our idea, we found that clicks from followers of certain social media influencers were more valuable than clicks from a Facebook campaign. As an example, Facebook may tag a person as interested in fashion because he/ she liked a few fashion websites in the past month. For startups interested in targeting fashionistas, clicks from followers of Lady Gaga´s stylist are likely to be more cost-effective than the ones generated by a Facebook campaign.

HOW DOES IT MAKE MONEY?

– A 5% commission will be charged to the social media influencers.
– Finance: to give some time to the marketer to file any claims, People Spread will wait for 72 hours before paying the influencer.
– Ads: by year 2 we will allow influencers to promote themselves to get more deals.

BUSINESS IT COULD DISRUPT:
– Talent agencies (they are managing social media influencers with +50K followers)
– Advertising agencies
– Facebook ads

MARKET SIZE: We are excited to tap into the Internet advertising field, which revenue in the United States totaled $49.5 billion for the full year of 2014, 16% over 2013. Based on Facebook´s ad revenue, display advertising is an $11,47 billion market .

LIKELY COMPETITORS:

AdWords
Facebook
Ad agencies generating viral campaigns with influencers for startups
Online talent agencies such as Instabrand, Famebit, Creatrs, Tumblr, Plaidsocial, Traackr, Inside social, Revfluence, Topsy, Neoreach, Buzzsumo, Influential, Tapinfluence and others. Partnerships Or Collaborations:

PARTNERSHIP OR COLLABORATIONS : Manos Acelerator & Google for Entrepreneurs

MANAGEMENT TEAM: Martina Montana – Co-founder and CEO

Alejandro Rascovan – Co-founder and CTO

CONTACT INFORMATON: info@peoplespread.com, martina@peoplespread.com

WHO ARE YOUR ROLE MODELS? Martinas grandfather left a job that paid well to work almost for free as a cadet at an advertising agency. His dream was to be able to create advertising campaigns, although he did not have any studies or experience in the field. After a few years, he didn´t only become a creative director: he became a partner at the agency, won several Cannes Lions, produced many of the top commercials of his decade and, today, some of the slogans he created are still in use. Most importantly, he initiated a positive change in how the world perceives argentine creativity that still remains today. He is proof of how passion and vision overcome experience.

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR? Being free to set your own limits, if you get to find them since you are not even limited by your own intelligence. Having a startups means being able to hire people that are more brilliant than you.

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE ANYONE HAS GIVEN YOU? “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” -Henry Ford

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS? Don’t ever think you lack experience to do something. Passion and initiative are more powerful than experience.

Don’t fall for thinking that you need to belong to certain network or own a proprietary technology to start a business. It sure helps, but most people who recently made it to Silicon Valley big time didn’t meet any of these conditions. The team and the go-to-market strategy are the competitive advantage in every case.

Don’t build products that people don’t want. Google, college professors, mentors or specialists in something don’t have the answer to whether people want what you aim to build. Go meet potential customers!