Untangling Mexican technology for global markets

Mexico has been always a surrealistic nation –or so said the father of the artistic movement, Andre Breton-. The mixture and contrast between ecosystems and micro ecosystems (either in terms of nature or social communities) a wild potential of creativity.

Mexico it is not only the <patria> of Pancho Villa or a land with nice beaches. Thanks to TechBA (Technology Business Accelerators program in Mexico), startup companies are developing technology and software for call centers, videogames and other services for Web sites. It might be hard to believe that Mexico is creating software…?  Maybe, but now TechBA has been reverting that idea.
 

 For the last 5 years, TechBA has been supports the improvement of business development for entrepreneurs. Young global companies who create a product in one place and sell it in another. TechBA is helping, to support and manage skillful means to increase efficient communications among clients, users, and investors. TechBA wants to get these people into the real net of real intelligences working for virtual services.

How is TechBA is envisioning this…? Reinforcing biculturalism and bilingual people to transcend frontiers, taking into account fail and loss as a source of knowledge, traveling to the main centers of technology in the world, sharing ideas, selling services, making allies, letting go and getting up. “The entrepreneur is not a specialist, but a generalist, someone who knows how to generate ideas, solutions, economic activity, work for others, money…” says Jorge Zavala, Director of TechBA in Silicon Valley. He describes himself as “someone who has been in the 360 degrees of the empresarial route in Mexico” because of his participation in several programs on technology.

TechBA’s focus is already showing results, like the experience of IKIGAMING, FATSTUDENT or 42 CLAPS, companies acting as role models for others.

IKI GAMING is a video game studio led by Carlos Mondragón. They have offices in Mexico City and San Francisco. For Facebook they created the ‘adver-gaming’ Elephun. The very foundation of this project is: “Games are vehicles for interactions that we humans need”. The 24 years old director of this company says: “In Mexico, we love to consume, we are the fifth place in the world consuming videogames and we produce nothing! (…) What can we do that no one can do in China or Indonesia…?” Says Mondragón posing a difficult, but very attractive, challenge.

In London, Rodrigo Martínez conceived FatStudent, the space in Internet to help students to find part-times jobs in England, mostly are customer facing mid time jobs, and it is by 30 seconds video they apply to interviews. INOVAZ, Rodrigo's company is interested in the design of technology, but also emotional and visual design for digital experiences.

“Only when you know the question you know the answer” is the slogan of 42 CLAPS. Technology, services and architecture of experiences for NGO’s. César Salazar is re-making the typical donation structure used by NGO’s; making innovation to go further from the bottom in web sites just saying: Donate now. “In USA, in one year it is possible to collect 295 millions from donations, 20% is given by ordinary people, coin by coin, I’m interested in them” 42 CLAPS wants to give back a experience of social media per every donation. Recently, after Haiti and Chile earthquakes, a global response appeared from social websites, in terms of web experiences what else can be offered to all these people donating and congregated… 42 CLAPS is working in this.

“If Argentina recover from their difficult crisis years ago, what are we missing in Mexico to recover from ours?” asks Jorge Zavala. In moments of crisis, to relieve hopelessness and economic depression, we can relay on some kind of ancient Aztec blood, working with enough courage to build something like Sun’s Pyramid. But, today’s pyramid is the goal of create Mexican technology and competitive tools to improve local –and why not? - international economy.

Thank you to http://emprende.la The content of this article wouldn’t be possible without the interviews by Arturo Garrido and Omar Mendoza. If you want to practice your Spanish and to know more about innovation in technology, don’t miss the podcast, listen and enjoy!