http://www.forbes.com/sites/ricardogerom...gold-rush/
During a spring break vacation in Rio de Janeiro in 2010, as his wife and 2-year-old son were playing on Copacabana beach, Kimball Thomas was sent out to buy diapers. It took three tries to even track down a store with diapers in stock–and provided a hugely lucrative inspiration.
Two Americans, Davis Smith and Kimball Thomas, have raised $22.5 million to revolutionize the way Brazilians buy diapers and shop for babies.
Back home in Boston, Thomas, 33, described the experience to his cousin, Davis Smith, 34. Both were one year into M.B.A. programs, Harvard and Wharton, respectively, and looking for a business idea before graduation. In this case, the idea was simply replicating what works in America: starting a Brazilian variation of Diapers.com.
Launched last October, they hit the million-diapers-sold mark within six months. In less than two years Baby.com.br has gone from a derivative idea to 124 employees (120 of whom are Brazilians), with $22.5 million raised over two rounds.
The Internet may already feel mature in America, but growth remains to be had in Brazil. While Brazilians already spend $13 billion a year online, only 40% of the population is regularly connected to the Internet. Forrester predicts that sales figure will grow at a brisk 18% annual clip. That’s what is drawing American entrepreneurs, like Thomas and Smith, and U.S. venture capitalists, too. (Redpoint and e.ventures closed a $130 million fund last year that will focus exclusively on Brazil.)
“Innovative online retail appears to be leapfrogging the physical infrastructure,” says Accel’s Kevin Efrusy, No. 9 on the FORBES Midas List. “It’s similar to how many countries skipped good landline telecom infrastructure and went straight to mobile phones.”
For Thomas and Smith the hardest sell was convincing their wives to move to a country where they couldn’t speak the language. The main selling points were food and weather: S?o Paulo, where they decided to base the company, has over 12,000 restaurants, and the average temperature is 70 degrees. And they promised they would live no farther away than 5 miles from their offices, though they found out, says Smith, that 5 miles “can translate into an hour-and-a-half to two-hour commute in São Paulo.”
Brazil still has challenges. Talent remains hard to find, and keeping stars is competitive and expensive. Like a flashback to 1990s Silicon Valley, Smith recounts that one employee, after six months on the job, received an offer to double his already high salary. Then there are government issues that Rousseff still needs to solve: an effective 70% payroll tax, a highly complex tax system beneath that and interest rates recently as high as 12.5%. The levels of bureaucracy can also be stifling, translating into higher operating costs. “We recently ran out of room in our warehouse and had to rent something bigger,” says Thomas. “The warehouse sat empty for two months while we waited to get the appropriate licenses to hold our own product in our own warehouse. We were paying $75,000 a month for an empty warehouse.”
Even so, Brazil’s evident opportunity and entrepreneurial culture trump all. “I make a suggestion on a Monday and it’s done by the next week,” says Accel’s Efrusy, who invested in Baby.com.br’s second round. “They have what it takes to succeed.” The partners have set aside the next five years to do it.
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I know this guy. He's a superb man and almost convinced me to go to Brazil in 2011.
Phenomenal opportunities in emerging markets for those courageous and enterprising individuals who build up the technical skills, bilingual proficiency, and strong network in hot markets abroad.
If you are in college right now you can start laying the foundations to do this by reaching proficiency in Spanish/Portuguese/Mandarin, setting aside an entire year to study abroad and intern abroad, and sourcing full time job offers by the time you graduate.
I wish I had learned Portuguese in college.
Never too late to start though! I'm learning fairly quickly on Duolingo right now. I've also found a tutor on italki.
![[Image: Rohn.png]](http://cdn1.elitedaily.com/elite/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Rohn.png)
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During a spring break vacation in Rio de Janeiro in 2010, as his wife and 2-year-old son were playing on Copacabana beach, Kimball Thomas was sent out to buy diapers. It took three tries to even track down a store with diapers in stock–and provided a hugely lucrative inspiration.
Two Americans, Davis Smith and Kimball Thomas, have raised $22.5 million to revolutionize the way Brazilians buy diapers and shop for babies.
Back home in Boston, Thomas, 33, described the experience to his cousin, Davis Smith, 34. Both were one year into M.B.A. programs, Harvard and Wharton, respectively, and looking for a business idea before graduation. In this case, the idea was simply replicating what works in America: starting a Brazilian variation of Diapers.com.
Launched last October, they hit the million-diapers-sold mark within six months. In less than two years Baby.com.br has gone from a derivative idea to 124 employees (120 of whom are Brazilians), with $22.5 million raised over two rounds.
The Internet may already feel mature in America, but growth remains to be had in Brazil. While Brazilians already spend $13 billion a year online, only 40% of the population is regularly connected to the Internet. Forrester predicts that sales figure will grow at a brisk 18% annual clip. That’s what is drawing American entrepreneurs, like Thomas and Smith, and U.S. venture capitalists, too. (Redpoint and e.ventures closed a $130 million fund last year that will focus exclusively on Brazil.)
“Innovative online retail appears to be leapfrogging the physical infrastructure,” says Accel’s Kevin Efrusy, No. 9 on the FORBES Midas List. “It’s similar to how many countries skipped good landline telecom infrastructure and went straight to mobile phones.”
For Thomas and Smith the hardest sell was convincing their wives to move to a country where they couldn’t speak the language. The main selling points were food and weather: S?o Paulo, where they decided to base the company, has over 12,000 restaurants, and the average temperature is 70 degrees. And they promised they would live no farther away than 5 miles from their offices, though they found out, says Smith, that 5 miles “can translate into an hour-and-a-half to two-hour commute in São Paulo.”
Brazil still has challenges. Talent remains hard to find, and keeping stars is competitive and expensive. Like a flashback to 1990s Silicon Valley, Smith recounts that one employee, after six months on the job, received an offer to double his already high salary. Then there are government issues that Rousseff still needs to solve: an effective 70% payroll tax, a highly complex tax system beneath that and interest rates recently as high as 12.5%. The levels of bureaucracy can also be stifling, translating into higher operating costs. “We recently ran out of room in our warehouse and had to rent something bigger,” says Thomas. “The warehouse sat empty for two months while we waited to get the appropriate licenses to hold our own product in our own warehouse. We were paying $75,000 a month for an empty warehouse.”
Even so, Brazil’s evident opportunity and entrepreneurial culture trump all. “I make a suggestion on a Monday and it’s done by the next week,” says Accel’s Efrusy, who invested in Baby.com.br’s second round. “They have what it takes to succeed.” The partners have set aside the next five years to do it.
-
I know this guy. He's a superb man and almost convinced me to go to Brazil in 2011.
Phenomenal opportunities in emerging markets for those courageous and enterprising individuals who build up the technical skills, bilingual proficiency, and strong network in hot markets abroad.
If you are in college right now you can start laying the foundations to do this by reaching proficiency in Spanish/Portuguese/Mandarin, setting aside an entire year to study abroad and intern abroad, and sourcing full time job offers by the time you graduate.
I wish I had learned Portuguese in college.
Never too late to start though! I'm learning fairly quickly on Duolingo right now. I've also found a tutor on italki.
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![[Image: Milton-Berle.png]](http://cdn1.elitedaily.com/elite/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Milton-Berle.png)
![[Image: smile.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/smile.gif)
