Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone

To answer Alexis Garbarz’s question (in Spanish, he asked what measures did we take after that natual disaster) on the post Shit Happens, I think it is good to discuss more upon the learning Officenet got out of the crisis management during the great flood in San Pablo. And who better for that than Leo Piccioli, who personally directed the operations in Brazil to overcome this terrible situation? So, I asked him to write a guest post about it. Here it goes!

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In the post about Excel, what I initially wrote was really long and heavy that I ended up having to write second post that wasn’t as long as the first for those that had been interested in the subject of the “exploratory trip”.� For those brave souls, here are some tips for the planning and following through of that trip.

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Right now, I’m reading a book that says in order to really be really successful at something you have to dedicate 10,000 hours to it. Making an analogy, to really know a business to the point where no one can steal your idea, and you can model it and convert it into a project, you need to find the answers to 100 questions. This post is about the best place to find those said answers.

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Considering that there are many people who asked to see an example of what I have built, instead of sending it to each person I am going to upload it as a post (it’s too long to be a comment).

It’s a little boring to read, so I recommend that only those that are dying to have an example of what I talked about in the last post, read this. In saying this, I feel liberated to post something long and difficult to follow, and it’s only for the really motivated who want to know more about this. If you get bored, don’t complain! Before you dismiss me, think of the work I did to make this “complexity”.

To get things straight, this is not a complete list. This is a more detailed explanation of how to build a business model in Excel, using Officenet as an example. I have the list that we once used to plan ON before launching but without explaining it would result in something incomprehensible, I think.

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In the post about the theft of ideas I started a discussion thread about the earliest stages of an enterprise. Here I want to talk about another related aspect of launching a business. The post might get a little long or heavy but within it, there is a secret that I believe is key.

Imagine that we have come up with a potential business idea.� What should you do first?� The first thing I do, apart from evaluate my own idea like I was an impartial third-party, is get a helping hand from my old and dear Excel. The majority of people think that in business, Excel only helps with financial projects.� But the reality is that, for me, it is much more than just that.

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In the comments to my post on Boca, Ramiro BM refers to a comment I made in a post he wrote on optimism. There I stated that “you don’t need to be optimistic to be an entrepreneur and that I myself am the living proof of it”. As I find this subject very interesting, instead of answering to his comments in the other entry, here goes a whole post.

I believe optimism is a double edged sword. On one side, often, being convinced that the results lying ahead of us will be positive reinforces our determination in adverse circumstances. Many entrepreneurs are “optimism driven”. Optimism is the fundamental fuel for their engines.

But, on the other side, optimism may be a great source of problems in two similar yet different ways.

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A while ago, while talking with a friend, she asked me for a tip saying that she did not know what to do with her life. She was running in circles for months, without deciding what to do. My answer was simple: “No matter what you choose. Flip a coin and let chance decide”.

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For those who could not see it live on Sunday but want to watch it, this is the video of Argentina para Armar last Sunday, where together with other Entrepreneurs we talked about how to deal with the crisis. I also include my presentation from Palermo Valley.

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Even when it was not the central purpose of the Endeavor trip to Silicon Valley, given the difficult times we live in the issue of the financial crisis arised in almost all talks.

Here is a summary of the most interesting things that were said and my personal view on that subject, from the charming beach of Barracas, on the banks of the Riachuelo (a fetid river two blocks from my Buenos Aires office).

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Perhaps the most shocking thing of knowing how Venture Capital in Silicon Valley works is to see the huge contrast with what happens in Latin America.

I am a friend of several of the people who lead or work at the main funds in the region. But back from my trip I could not help but feel disgust for how they carry out their role as VCs .

What is the problem? The problem is that Venture Capital is essentially about risk. All the VCs we met during the trip made that very clear.  And here, nobody wants to take risks .

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