The numbers are, as representations of a quantity, always relative. That's a million dollars? That's up to whoever's got them, where she's using them, for what.
Juan Manuel Barrero (Trenque Lauquen, 41) founder and CEO of Lazo, speaks with a moderate tone that characterizes him to refer to that amount of money that New York fund AlleyCorp has just injected his company, a SaaS startup that integrates legal, accounting and financial solutions into the cloud, to simplify that kind of operations to other companies.
That way, we get a little more understanding of the context that answers the question about the value of million dollars.
Having founded 3 companies, always at the crossing of technologies, legal and accounting services, Barrero thinks of the million dollars as the fuel that will allow him to continue growing. He's not looking at the sale and isn't satisfied with what's been obtained.
Now good. The analysis does so in the United States, where "more than 5 million companies are created a year" - as confirmed by the report of the Federal Agency for Small Business - and, by the economic capacity of the country, a million dollars isn't an exorbitant figure.
Scope: How did you have been living with Peer Less pitch competition?
Juan Manuel Barrero (JMB): The truth was that it was a moment of great joy and satisfaction, especially as you know how you got here. What I best liked was that Kevin Ryan, the CEO of this Investment Fund that's one of the best-known in New York, when she appoints me, says our way to do things's "scrappy" - takes his phone and shows his video, smiling. The proper translation of the adjectiva is to put an egg, considering that the word comes from street language, or slang.
We compete with 1 100 U.S. companies and I, beyond money, have been proud of the AlleyCorp seal and the doors that open up for a company such as Lazo that today has more than 1000 customers with very little capital and, as Ryan remarked, I have been going to run for competition without a title from any U.S. university, as with other competition.
That's why I felt it was a prize to our way of doing things when Ryan used that word. If Lazo's profitable today, so, with sacrificing force, how can we not dream about 10,000 customers?
Okay, but what terms and conditions does the Fund propose once you sign the check?
Well, obviously they have a right to ask you quarterly to report what you're doing. Not in detail, but if we misuse the funds, there's a legal framework that assures them that they can start a suit, as with any other startup. On the other hand, we with the team analysed the legal terms before we introduced ourselves, and we saw that it was really very foot friendly and for example, AlleyCorp does not place members on the board.
Now, on the other hand, it's the best-reputable fund in New York, and it's dedicated to investing in startups early stage so obviously they're expecting a much faster growth than we have today.
And how do you plan to grow Lazo more?
Let's see. On the one hand, AlleyCorp invests in startups early stage, so they're expecting us to have at least 10,000 customers, and I think Lazo can have them. That means that we are going after everything, even because we have to live up to the demand that we have been given venture capital.
To that end, the investment we get allows us to add a lot of talent to the product's technology share. Ours is an area we know will be greatly affected by artificial intelligence (IA) in the coming years. That's where we have an opportunity, because we're about to stop reactively advising customers about their problems, and move to proactively solve them with IA agents.
And the data will continue to be vital. So, if we connect our product with all the company data at one place and we continue to build community, in 5 years we can gain the match.
And the other thing's that my role has to accompany growth, bringing with them professionals who do things better than I do. When you see the company growing, you realize that at first the contribution of the foot is very valuable but then more and more marginal. From 0 to 1000 customers we did things in a way, but from 1000 to 10,000 the same formula isn't gonna work.
Today we have to change our strategy and that's what we're about.
It looks as if an Argentinean with his talent doesn't feel better about suit than an entrepreneur. Besides knowing about resilience and have something more to give, the difficulties that the country challenges shape the temperament.
That also allows us to explain the value of money. I translate: if a million dollars are received by Juan Manuel Barrero, who was confident with little and encouraged to compete equally with best technologies, the check is a certificate of determination.
A figure that to those who do not sleep with them, makes them unstoppable.