presentation given at the SELA 2010 conference

1. COULD THE NEXT GOOGLE
COME FROM LATIN AMERICA?

2. “NO FU****G WAY!”
-they say

3. WHY NOT?

4. WHAT MADE GOOGLE POSSIBLE?

5. The Ecosystem - This is the official story

6. Two Guys and a Computer (or not even)
This is what lies at the core
Google Yahoo!
Facebook Twitter wireframe

7. What Did it Take to Build Google?
Food $1,000
A roof over Sergey and Larry’s head $1,500
Access to the Univ. computers and Internet connection $0
The PageRank Algorithm PRICELESS!

8. PageRank Algorithm = A Better Idea
PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... +
PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
where,
PR(A) is the PageRank of page A,
PR(Ti) is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A,
C(Ti) is the number of outbound links on page Ti and
d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1.

9. BTW, it’s not really priceless...
$180B
Market Cap

10. There is no Structural Reason Why Those Two Guys With a
Computer Cannot Come From LatAm
Software Aerospace
(little capital requirement to (high capital requirement to
acquire skills) acquire skills)
Skills
Farming Mining
Capital
Examples of Industries by Capital and Skilled Labor Requirements

11. Music is a Good Example of an Industry with High Skill
Requirements that are Cheap to Acquire
Shakira,Shakira He didn’t even
had to translate
his songs
Examples of LatAm skills “developed” locally and distributed globally

12. SO WHY DON’T WE “JUST DO IT”?

13. TOP 6 LAME EXCUSES

14. Excuse #1
“Latin America has a small
internal market”

15. Software Does Not Require Domestic Demand
Develop Locally for a Global Market
(distribution channels are global: Google, Facebook, Twitter...)

16. Excuse #2
“I need mentorship! I don’t know
how to start a company”

17. Information is Accessible and Abundant
Read Up and Connect Online
VentureHacks Hacker News

18. Excuse #3
“Government makes it difficult to
do business”

19. Build Something People Want, Then Worry About Legal
Mambo Jambo

20. Excuse #4
“The are no local Venture Capital
firms to finance my project ”

21. Capital is Mobile - Give it a Reason to Move
“If You Build It - and it rocks- , They Will Come”
private equity investments in computer software in Brazil totaled
$342 million in 2009

22. Excuse #5
“I am a runaway success,my traffic
is booming but I don’t have the
money to pay for the servers”

23. Learn to Differentiate Between a Good Problem and a Bad
Problem
Good Problem Bad Problem

24. Excuse #6
“I am a minority. From where I
am, no one wants to join a
startup :( ”

25. Find the Best of Breed. Work Distributed. Work Remotely
Tools to work
Commuting sucks
distributed
Distributed teams LatAm common
work language makes it easy
to work across borders

26. THANK YOU!
NOW GO BUILD A COOL PRODUCT!
@jgheller (twitter)