startupi

Ninety-nine percent of literature about management looks at success stories, while only five percent of businesses make it past their fifth year. Why? This is the question behind the book “El libro negro del emprendedor: No digas que nunca te lo advirtieron” (The entrepreneur’s black book: don’t say they didn’t warn you).

Written in 2007 by  Fernando Trías de Bes, a Spanish marketing consultant and professor at Esade, it skips the Keys to Success and outlines instead the Keys to Failure. That is, based on examples, it explains how others have failed and what to watch out for. Read more…

Marcelo Cazado (Bookess, Floripa Angels) sent in a cool link to an article in English called “Startup Advice in Exactly Three Words,” posted by Dharmesh Shah in the blog OnStartups.

The list of advice for startups in just three words has been gathered from suggestions mostly submitted through Twitter. I translated some (see Portuguese version of Startupi), and invite Portuguese readers to send your own ideas to #dicaparastartupem3palavras (must leave space for the tweet)! Read more…

You can’t communicate enough about communication. You can’t do too much brand management. You can’t be too innovative with innovation. Such adlinguisticity - that is, talking about talking, writing about writing. Some would say, such ad(vertisement)linguisticity!

Promoting brands is so challenging in this new world order, with this global crisis and the prominence of social media, that it has become more important to discuss and disseminate new ways of communicating about brands. Demand comes from society, from the communications sector, and from businesses, which are always hoping not to waste time or money. There are a number of upcoming events that prove the point and help answer the question posed in the image posted above (which translates roughly: “In a digital era, if the goal of brands is to be trusted, how can we do that without rethinking how we listen?”). Read more…

In June 1998, colleagues Romero Rodrigues, Rodrigo Borges, Ronaldo Takahashi and Mario Letelier had a dream: to create a brand that would be part of people’s lives. Night after night, the four students slept in the office, working hard on what they called Buscapé. But it was not working. It failed. Several times. Still, they continued undoing nightmares and redoing the dream.

They were awarded national and international investment (a rare thing, at that time, and still difficult), bought up competitors, became a corporation (BuscaPé.com Inc.) and took the lead in several countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela). Last week, after ten years in business, they sold 91% of Buscapé to multinational media company Naspers Limited for US$ 342 million.

How did this happen? Want to know how you can do it too? And what is the future of their dream? I interviewed Romero a day after the sale - the day before his 32nd birthday - to learn more. Also watch for our upcoming  chat with Brazil’s leading young “internerd” to be CEO of a meteoric startup. Read more…