Emerging Markets – Silicon Valley on Sale!
When I was a younger man, immune to reason and less inclined to fear things like 50-year old airplanes flown by bush pilots, looking for opportunities in exotic places was my drug of choice.
Nowadays, as an older and somewhat wiser man, while I still believe that some of the best opportunities and most reasonable valuations are to be found in the emerging, and especially frontier markets, there is a right and a WRONG way to go about it.
For purposes of brevity, I’ll cut to the chase (as one could easily write a book on the subject, and many have). If you plan to invest in far away lands you need to do one of two things:
- GO THERE and put yourself in the middle of the action. Meet the players on the ground and really spend the time to understand the market! Please don’t spend a week or two and think you know a place! Just burn your cash now, it will be less painful. Since most people will never do what I suggest here, please see the next suggestion…
- Align yourself with people who ARE willing to do #1.
I’ve done both over the years, and I have to say that my best successes have come from aligning myself with the right people on the ground. If I were to survey my frontier markets buddies, I’m sure they would say the same thing.
So, in support of aligning ourselves (you included) with the RIGHT people, in the RIGHT market, I offer you this week’s podcast.
Click here for a Direct Download
My friend and colleague Erik Stettler runs Firstrock Capital with his business partner, Andres Barreto. Firstrock is a fund that invests into companies that do the bulk of their engineering in Colombia. The companies may or may not have been founded there, and in every case they are incorporated in Delaware!
Valuations for some of these companies are WELL BELOW what you would find in Silicon Valley. Some would argue for good reason, but that argument is increasingly having less and less influence over my decision-making.
Erik realised early on that investors are only willing to take a certain amount of risk. Putting capital to work in early-stage companies is risky enough without laying forex and political risk on top.
In this podcast Erik and I speak about his background and what got him interested in Colombia. We speak about the fund, the incubator (Atom House) and the PR firm (Social Atom) that have all been created as part of a broader ecosystem in Medellin.
Please enjoy, and I encourage you to ask questions, provide feedback or otherwise engage on the subject.
For more information on Erik, Firstrock and Social Atom you can visit: www.socialatomgroup.com.
If you are an accredited investor and want more information on Firstrock Capital, please reach out to Erik directly using erik@ (the domain address above).
AND, if you really do want to put your boots on the ground and explore a market that is truly untapped and ready for investment, check out our event in Laos coming up in early November !
– Mark
“We face the most compelling era of mankind: exponential growth of new technologies, cheaper electronic devices and the globalization of knowledge, commerce, and ideas along with the rapid growth of emerging markets of colossal sizes will generate the best opportunities, connections, higher risks and challenges for everyone.” – Franz Christian
The post Emerging Markets – Silicon Valley on Sale! appeared first on SERAPH .
http://hvst.co/2dM9rQX