Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

coming up with the idea of Eskuad

13 Aug 2023 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, the founder (Speaker B) reflects on his first university startup in Concepción, Chile, which failed because the team lacked sales expertise and assumed the product would attract users automatically. He highlights the concentration of venture capital and startup activity in Santiago, noting the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the southern region. This experience informed his later development of Swad/eSwad, illustrating a pivot driven by lessons learned about market validation and regional ecosystem limitations.

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Can you tell us a little bit about the transition from that to Swad or getting the idea for eSwad?
Yeah. So when I was in the university, I started my first startup that failed, but then I created, like, think of the context in Chile, in the south of Chile. I live in a city called Concepción. Most of the VC and all the stories that you can look for in Google about VC and startups in Chile. Most of them are centered in Santiago, the capital city. And it was worse being like 10 years ago. So when we started the first company, we couldn't manage it. It was mainly because we didn't know how to sell. We had a great product, but we were like young and some kind of like a little bit stupid on thinking that we just build it and the users will come. Yeah. And it didn't happen.