Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward

The Launch of La Red Innova

Santiago B. — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:02:22 +0000

Apart from attending the Menorca Tech Talk, my trip to Spain included some vacation days (a few days to get my classic “Loose notes” I do when I travel) and presentation at a new conference on technology and innovation called La Red Innova.

Organized by Paul Largu�a, an Argentine who has lived in Spain for a while, the goal is to become THE conference for Spanish-speakers, like the Web 2.0 Expo is to USA, LeWeb is to France or the DLD is to Germany.

According to Damian Voltes, the first edition turned out very well. Myself in particular, I got to be in a panel that was moderated by Jos� Mar�a Figueres, former president of Costa Rica, where entrepreneurs shared the stage with such notables as Marcos Galper�n, Alec Oxenford and Romero Rodrigues.

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© Santiago B. for Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Alec Oxenford, Damian Voltes, Enrique Dans, Jose Maria Figueres, La Red Innova, Marcos Galperin, Pablo Larguia, Romero Rodrigues, Speeches, Twitter, Videos

Managing Huge Crises

Santiago B. — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:48:48 +0000

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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© Santiago B. for Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Post tags: Alexis Garbarz, Brasil, Crisis, Entrepreneurship, Leo Piccioli, Marcelo Menghini, Officenet, Officenet Story

One of the funniest things about having a Blog

Santiago B. — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:37:10 +0000

For me, one of the most entertaining things about having a blog is looking at the ridiculous “keywords” that people enter into the search engine to arrive to the site. We won’t look at all of them (this blog for example has more than 13,000 different ones) but we will check out some of the most entertaining with the following.

For all of you that have blogs, I invite you to share the funniest “keywords” that you can remember….
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The Bright Side of Life: The music that cheers us up when we feel down

Santiago B. — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:03:49 +0000

I am sure you didn’t realize but this has been the most prolonged interruption in the history of this blog. Six days without posting! And now a trip to Spain is coming up to be in La Red Innova and the Menorca Techtalk, because of that I am going to continue on a slower pace, it seems…

A little because of excessive work and travel, and a little because of the flu (the old and dear “seasonal flu”!), a little for blogging wear out. The matter is that I have been kind of unmotivated to write. The first Saturday of this month was a long one for me and when I thought about what I was going to start writing about again, music came to my rescue.

When the mood hits us, when “shit happens“, music is ideal to put things in perspective for us. Years ago, there was a song “Don’t worry: be happy” that was synonymous for not worrying too much about things. I never liked that. It seemed dumb to me. But here I will share with you a song I listen to when I need to get out of a bad mood.
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The Risks of flying on an plane

Santiago B. — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:20:50 +0000

Everyone that flies from time to time, knows that aeronautics are an overwhelmingly safe way to get yourself around. Much safer than any other of your alternatives.

Even so, when an accident occurs like the Air France disaster, frequent travelers feel stressed out by the monstrous drama that generates an improbable situation in which something (or better yet, everything) turns out bad. (the previous post seems prophetic, right?
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Shit Happens

Santiago B. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:23:12 +0000

A few days ago, I read that because of the tendency of tourism to rise and fall, 6,500 restaurants in Mexico have closed after the appearance of the Influenza type A.� This has caused the destruction of 55,000 jobs.

This also implies that the illness killed many more businesses than people in Mexico.� And this number only includes the restaurants.

It presents a very interesting lesson to any entrepreneur:� Shit happens.

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© Santiago B. for Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Post tags: Backup Plan, Crisis, Flood, Influenza A, Mexico, Officenet, Officenet Story, Sao Paulo

Tips for the Trip

Santiago B. — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:24:23 +0000

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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© Santiago B. for Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Entrepreneurship, Officenet, Officenet Story, Startup, Tools

100 questions

Santiago B. — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:02:57 +0000

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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© Santiago B. for Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Andy Freire, Entrepreneurship, Officenet, Officenet Story, Startup, Tools

Example: Building a business model

Santiago B. — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:49:06 +0000

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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© Santiago B. for Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Entrepreneurship, Excel, Officenet, Startup, Tools

The First step after the idea

Santiago B. — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:39:11 +0000

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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© Santiago B. for Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Post tags: Entrepreneurship, Excel, Officenet, Startup, Tools