January 18, 2022
I sent this out as an investor update in Jan 2022 but thought that I’d post it here for posterity. Agave Lab portfolio company EasyLex just did the first closing on their seed round. In and of itself, that’s not so surprising – they are doing great ( >1000 customers served, 62% growth year over year, strong […]
May 17, 2021
Facing catastrophic losses from the pandemic, commercial real estate investors in the US are turning toward technology as a hedge against an uncertain future. Will Mexico’s follow suit? Spanish version available here. Historically, real estate investing has been a comparatively safe bet. Back at the dawn of the dot.com era, investing in startups was only […]
Ante las pérdidas catastróficas de la pandemia, los inversores inmobiliarios comerciales de EE.UU. se están volcando en la tecnología como cobertura ante un futuro incierto. ¿Seguirá el ejemplo de México? English version available here. Históricamente, la inversión inmobiliaria ha sido una apuesta relativamente segura. En los albores de la era de las puntocom, la inversión […]
March 16, 2021
Hi Everyone: One of our US clients just lost their funding out of the blue which means they need to halt all product development immediately. Huge bummer for them. However, that means that, starting at the end of March, we will have a full product management / design / development / devops / QA team […]
October 1, 2020
A new series on investing in Mexico We at Agave Lab just completed the first closing of Fund II. At the same time, many of our Fund I startups are now raising follow-on rounds with new investors. Needless to say, I’ve been speaking with a lot of people lately about our investment approach and model. In doing […]
June 4, 2020
La particular estructura económica de México lo hace susceptible al impacto del COVID-19 (Este artículo fue cubierto por Jeannete Leyva en El Financiero) De acuerdo con el INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, las Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas (PYMES) son alrededor de 95% del total de las empresas en México, y aportan más del […]
(This article was covered by Jeannete Leyva in El Financiero) Mexico’s unique economic structure makes it particularly susceptible to the impact of COVID-19 According to INEGI (the National Institute for Statistics and Geography), small to medium-sized businesses (PYMES) make up the vast majority (95%) of companies in Mexico. PYMES employ 78% of the working population and […]
March 17, 2020
Welcome to the second in a multi-part series about investing in Mexico. If you read Part One, you’ll remember that our investment model at Agave Lab is fairly “nontraditional” and that’s led to some confusion about how it works and how we arrived at it. In an effort to clear things up I’m writing about how we got here, […]
March 13, 2020
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) – Datometry, Inc., líder en virtualización de almacenamiento de datos, anunció hoy que ha recaudado $ 17 millones en fondos de la Serie B liderados por WRVI Capital con la participación de inversionistas anteriores, incluidos Nepenthe, Dell Technologies Capital, Redline Capital y Bellota del Pacífico. (Si quieres ver el artículo original, […]
February 28, 2020
Nuestro cliente, Datometry, acaba de levantar $ 17 millones USD para invertir en su desarrollo tecnológico. Lee más abajo! (Si quieres ver el artículo original, chécalo aquí.) Image Credits: Erik Isakson / Getty Images Mover datos a la nube desde un almacén de datos como Teradata on-prem (en sus instalaciones) es un problema difícil de resolver, especialmente […]
February 24, 2020
30 Promises 2020 – EasyLex wants to help you set up your company Our portfolio company, EasyLex, was recently featured in Forbes Mexico’s feature on the 20 promising new businesses of 2020. This article first appeared in Spanish here. EasyLex is a platform where users can start a company, plus create and manage contracts in a […]
November 26, 2019
As most of you know, Agave Lab was the seed investor in VoxFeed. I’ve been on the board and pretty actively engaged since the start. As you also probably already know, VoxFeed is a platform that brands use to recruit and engage their users and fans. They can offer discounts, free product, experiences and/or compensation in exchange for […]
August 26, 2019
This article originally appeared in Spanish in the July 31th edition of El Economista here (subscription required) and in El Empresario here. reating a company in Mexico is not easy. And when it comes to legal issues, things can get very complicated. Statistics show that up to 90% of entrepreneurs do not have legal protection for […]
August 5, 2019
Meet Fondimex, the newest Agave Lab company. Why Fondimex? Fondimex addresses a huge problem in Latin America. Specifically, the lack of short-term capital options for small and medium-sized businesses. Known as PYMEs in Mexico, small businesses depend on quick payment of their services rendered to continue operations. But invoice payment can take anywhere from 30-120 days. As a result, PYMEs […]
July 8, 2019
This article originally appeared in Spanish here. (Photo: Alfonso Hernández) Lobbyfix is a software-as-a-service platform dedicated to modern visitor registration. Lobbyfix’s goal is to help businesses modernize and provide an efficient visitor experience. Lobbyfix founder, César Alfonso Meléndez Sahagún, said that the idea emerged some time ago when he visited a corporate building. It seemed […]
June 15, 2019
Voxfeed: Influencers need to work with greater transparency and clearer rules This article first appeared in Entrepreneur magazine (in Spanish) here. Influencer marketing company Voxfeed presented the market overview for influencer marketing, the challenges it is facing and what’s coming for the segment in the coming years. They focused on the innovations in the influencers […]
June 9, 2019
Jump directly to the list. At Agave Lab we have always strongly favored raw intelligence, energy, and adaptability over experience when deciding which founders to back. Being able to admit what you don’t know is one of the keys to success when you’re running a startup. As first-time entrepreneur, you’re often building the plane […]
May 26, 2019
This article first appeared in Forbes Mexico here. Andrea Durán and Yaritza Rodelo created a platform that reduced the time it takes to incorporate a company from one month to seven days. Andrea Durán and Yaritza Rodelo know first-hand how difficult and slow it is to form a company. They both worked for law firms […]
May 23, 2019
You might be doing the wrong things. By: Andy Kieffer (This article first appeared in Spanish on EasyLex’s blog.) You have a startup that you’re trying to get funded, but you aren’t having any luck. You’re frustrated. Your idea is brilliant, your pitch deck is tight, you’re getting the meetings but then nothing happens. Investors […]
May 12, 2019
The original version of this article appears in Spanish on Entrepreneur.com. His startup failed which left him up to his neck in debt. Now he’s helping others to pay off their credit card debt so the same thing doesn’t happen to them. It happens. Sometimes things don’t work out and you are […]
April 3, 2019
Melissa Montalvo | April 3, 2019 We recently sat down with Manuel de la Torre, CTO of Voxfeed, to talk about his experience as an entrepreneur. We wanted to find out what he wished he had known when first starting out with Voxfeed. He shared with us 6 tips for first-time entrepreneurs. 1. Read The Lean Startup, by […]
March 22, 2019
The article originally appeared in Entrepreneur.com (in Spanish). Articles of Incorporation, contracts, privacy notices – legal paperwork is one of the biggest headaches of starting a business. While most Mexican entrepreneurs are unfamiliar with these terms, it is inevitable that they will come up when creating a startup. Lawyers Andrea Durán and Yaritza Rodelo turned this problem into an […]
March 3, 2019
Agave Lab, the startup factory that was born in Guadalajara This article originally appeared in Forbes (in Spanish) With nearly two decades of experience building startups in Silicon Valley, Andy Kieffer founded Agave Lab, a startup factory based in Guadalajara. After spending 18 years working, living, and creating companies in the mecca of global entrepreneurship – […]
January 16, 2019
We’ve hit the ground running in 2019. This past week, our portfolio company, EasyLex, launched! The legal paperwork and process for creating a startup in Mexico is antiquated, expensive, and time-consuming. What’s more, the process is mediated by government-appointed notarios that, by and large, know nothing about startup law. EasyLex was founded by lawyers Andrea Durán […]
January 6, 2018
This may come as a shock to those of you north of the border but the average annual rate on a Mexican credit card hovers around 50%. That’s the average – there are bank credit cards that charge over 80% and store credit cards that are over 100%!!! How is this possible, you ask? […]
August 15, 2017
Check out this thoughtful piece by New York Times writer Kirk Semple about the Trump’s failed immigration policy.
May 23, 2017
The Financial Times published a story about how Trump’s recent comments regarding closing down the H1B visa program will encourage tech startups to look elsewhere to house their development talent. Guadalajara wants to be that place. From the article: (get the full text here) Donald Trump’s pledge to clamp down on immigration has soured relations […]
March 16, 2017
A couple of times a year we load the entire Agave team into a big van and head to the beach for an extended weekend. Last week we headed for a beach in Nayarit and had a great time. Check out the photos!
March 15, 2017
The next in our After Hours series is all about MicroServices. This will be a in-depth exploration of our experience transitioning to a microservices architectures. By separating independently deployable software systems and allowing them to communicate via a message queue,microservices provide flexibility, and scale. As with all of our After Hours sessions, the evening is […]
February 24, 2017
If you’ve ever wondered about what I’m doing in Mexico or what Agave Lab is all about, this is a good listen. Diego Barrazas writes a popular and interesting blog about doing business in Mexico. As part of his DEMENTES series, he interviews people that are trying to break the mold of the traditional, top-down […]
February 21, 2017
Abrimos nuestra clase de pilates a la comunidad startup local de Guadalajara. Tenemos un curso de pilates con un instructor fantástico, con duración de una hora por sesión, en el techo de Agave Lab. L os cursos se ofrecen el martes por la mañana a las 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. y de nuevo el jueves […]
February 16, 2017
Duncan Tucker (@DuncanTucker) published a great article today on Motherboard (a VICE Magazine property) about how the governor of Jalisco (Aristóteles Sandoval) is trying to attract Bay Area startup talent to Guadalajara (dubbed the “Silicon Valley of Mexico”). He’s offered to work with any American tech firms affected by Trump’s policies, while providing opportunities for […]
October 4, 2016
I came across this interesting and well-written post from Ravi Venkatesan, the Chairman of the Bank of Baroda and former Chairman of Microsoft India, in which he talks about how fin-tech startups are poised to dramatically impact the banking sector. He goes further to explain that the effect will be MORE pronounced in India due to long history of […]
June 17, 2015
We got this great write up in the Financial Times. The original article is here but you need a subscription to see it so, in the interest of copyright infringement, I’ve included the text below. Population: 1.5m (4.4m in greater Guadalajara) Backing: $100m+ for 300 Jalisco start-ups in two years Time to set up a company: […]
April 5, 2015
We were humbled and honored to be featured in a story from The Economist magazine over this weekend. Apparently our unorthodox approach to investing in Mexico caught their eye and they did a really great story on it. In addition to being able to tick off on of my life’s goals (I’ve been a fan […]
March 27, 2015
I was happy to read a piece in TechCrunch about the startup ecosystem in Mexico. It was mostly a puff piece but, we’ll take whatever we can get. All of the usual suspects (including Agave Lab Ventures) got a mention which, again, I’m happy about and thankful for. However, in reading it, I couldn’t help […]
February 20, 2015
Sorry you missed it. We spent about 20 minutes discussing the Mexican investment world, and how it’s different than what I was used to in the US. Then we went through the Agave Lab Venture Fund, our investment thesis, what we invest in, how we reduce risk, the sorts of exits we pursue, and the […]
December 4, 2014
I gave this presentation last night at an investor summit here in Guadalajara. It’s really just a seed of an idea that I’ve been kicking around for the past couple of years and the synopsis is this: Mexico has a bee in its bonnet to create an investor ecosystem that mirrors that of the […]
December 1, 2014
I’ve been investing and mentoring startups here for a couple of years and the question that always comes up at cocktail parties is: “Why don’t you raise an early stage venture fund. Mexico could use it.” We are finally doing it! We’re raising a modestly-sized seed fund (target = $2M). Our investment thesis is fairly unique and […]