Circular Economy in LatAm's Fashion Industry | Ytzia Belausteguigoitia, Troquer

Season three of Founder Journey keeps rolling on. We're still in Mexico. We're talking to Yitzia of Troquer in Mexico City. Today, we're going to talk about the circular economy and some of the opportunities, but also the challenges of doing business in Latin America. We're also going to talk about some of our own challenges coming up as an entrepreneur in Latin America.

Three, two, one.

Welcome to another episode of Founder Journeys. I'm still on my trip, on my trade mission. I'm here in Mexico City with an amazing young woman that's building a really, really cool company. We're going to get into it, but first I got to ask for forgiveness. I can't pronounce your last name. It's Pizia.

It's difficult, I know. I'm not going to try.

From Troquer.

That's right.

Troer is a retail startup, but there's more than that. Tell us about Troquer.

Yes. So Troquer is a digital resale platform. Actually, we have buyers and sellers coming up to our platform and we've it really got into building the best customer experience for both buyers and sellers and trying to promote a change in mindset for people to go towards the circular economy, which means sellers sell their items, but buyers buy, use and then resell their items. So that's how you get into the circular economy on the physical item world. Right. So we were the first company in Latin America to build that model and we designed a service specifically for the Latin American market. So since then, we've grown many, many, many fold. And we're very happy into the new perspectives that will be going. But actually, well, yes. Was inspired by the French word which means bartering.

Bartering. And that's really interesting because it's a major trend. It's millennials. And now you're more Gen Z, like thrift shopping, looking at vintage wear, but with that consciousness of why throw something away if it can be reused again, the circular economy, bringing it back into the ecosystem before end of life. It's such a hot trend to be on. And you guys started before the trend?

Yes, actually. Actually, I'm very well flattered that we understood the trend in time.

When did you start?

In 2014.

2014?

Yes. Actually, we were coming a little past, but coming out of the mentality of the crash, of when people starting questioning themselves if it was conscious and sustainable to keep on buying and getting credit for buying instead of changing their consumer trends. So actually we picked up that change, but detonated by technology is actually the way we got really to be able to build this. So it's something that maybe 100 years ago humans did, did they bartered, they bartered items or they bought good items and then they really wanted for them to last. And someday in our trend we switched mindsets and we preferred consuming and throwing away instead of reusing and keeping those items. Technology has been a part of it. Cell phones last for two years, three years, computers and so on. So we are coming back to that mindset. We were the first ones that noticed the change and incorporated tech and data in order to be able to scale that.

And there's that old saying, one person's garbage is another person's treasure.

That's right.

You don't know what you have. It might not be useful for you, or you might have gotten all the function that you want out of that hoodie or whatnot, but you pass it on to somebody else and they're like, oh wow, that's a great logo. I, I would love to wear that. Or I've never seen something like this.

It has style and it's something that uniques. It's unique and it's different and it has a different coloring that the textiles that right now. Or a different way of doing it and fabricating. No. And, and actually one of them, you were saying that Gen Z's and Millennials are the ones, are the ones that are most promoting it. And I would say, of course, because they're the most digital generations, so they have picked up easily and our platform lives digitally. And, and then the, also the, the very important trend is the environment, environmental consciousness that has come by. Right. So Gen Zs are really into understanding fair trade and what they're buying and what they buy, where it comes from and if it's ethical and if it's made fairly. And then also if it's recycled, if the garment is going to last or it isn't. And what's very interesting also is that the fashion industry is the second most polluting in the world. Actually the world, the world has declared the fast fashion as the provoking agent of that pollution. So there's really a big trend going against fast fashion. And instead of buying items at a place where garments have a shortage of use, they buy thrift at, at thrift shops. And it started by, by being a big trend in, in fashion, but then it has gone over to even furniture.

Consumables in our life, in our everyday.

Lives, they can be reused, recycled, refurbished. And it's becoming a very big trend now even, even companies, I don't know if you've noticed, but maybe Best Buy or some electronic companies now sell their, their firsthand new items. But they also have a website on the refurbished side and that's actually being.

Legislated in the U.S. it's called the right to repair laws. And so a lot of manufacturers of electronics are being forced to build things so that they can actually be repaired because iPhone right now, it's pretty hard to repair it unless you have the right certifications, right tools. And so they want to make it easier for electronics to be repaired or furniture to be repaired and not thrown away because it's been recognized. It's a massive issue and problem.

Well, yes, and it's very good that you mention it because in order for it to become institutional, the government has to intervene because for companies it's more economic to perfect example to fast fashion.

They're not going to stop until they're.

The government forced to exact.

And some of that force comes from the customers. Right. The best voting powers, it's with our dollars. So if you don't like the way H and M is fabricating or Zara whatnot, then don't shop there. It's not that easy.

It's not that easy because we also have some other constraints and people have to live their lives and we have to go over constraints. So for example, you have someone that has and economic pay and has to figure out how to dress well, being it not pricey for their income. So they have to figure it out. And you won't make a big, big investment in clothing because why, why do a big investment? So that's a way of making fashionable, sustainable and accessible in terms of economic. But then geography, easiness, time. So it's locally sourced. Locally sourced.

I think we could probably talk for hours. But I want to go back to you etf, what's your journey? How did you get to where you are today? Like what was that path like school? Other startups work like actually you told me a little bit about your work in the past. Let's dive into the journey of etf.

Yes, thank you. Well, actually I have two of my grandparents where were themselves. They were entrepreneurs. Right. So it's in my blood. Both of them came from Europe, established in Mexico. One was French, another one was Spanish and they build their companies here. One of them had a financial company and a retail company and the other one a sugar industry, just as transforming and refining sugar. So I was always listening to the topics and the conversations and as you May know it's mindsets that really drive you, go where you go. And I was very interested about their mindsets and it was very action driven, very practical, but also made for transforming and building a better service, building a better quality of life, bringing something better to the status quo. So that's really what I love. I love working at Roquer because I feel that I'm transforming the way we consume, not only fashion, but actually whichever item you consume, and really trying to make an impact on where I am by creating a culture, creating a team, figuring out solutions, and then creating something that someone really likes or even they don't like and then we learn from it. So really that approach to life, designing a solution in order to improve people's lives and have an impact for them in their lives and also as a business. So that really helps me, it motivates me and. And I always knew that I wanted to have my business. So my first volunteering work was at Endeavor. I don't know if you know the organization. It's an organization that helps entrepreneurs, puts together entrepreneurs, mentors and funding and building together like a community, a strong community in order to help entrepreneurs solve problems, their. Their problems and build their companies. So that was the first place that I started working at. I was a volunteer there.

That was here in Mexico.

Oh, it was here, yes. And then I worked at a consulting firm. No, actually it helped me very much because it, it built structure. It actually was towards designing solutions for the problems that, that the. That the clients had. And it was very intense actually, but very. The hard work makes you grow and get to know your capabilities and then push yourself towards something else. And it gave me big tools. For me, those were very good tools that I have kept on using since then, then here and there. But I also worked at Volarist and Volaris is one of the most successful VC companies, if you will. It's an airline now, but it started when the. The cheap Tickets, no, like JetBlue and all of them started in the rest of the world. It started in Mexico as well. And so I, I went to work at Bolaris and it was actually also very enriching because it was very capitalized. It had a multiple experience. Taka, which is an airline in Latin America, came here. So they had 25% of the company. Then Televisa, which did the broadcast of the introduction and the launch of the company. Then there was also Imburza, which is a bank. And the fourth partner was the financial one that did all of the business plan and that really drove toward the plans in the future. So it really attracted me when they invited me over. And it was quite a journey because it was a company that grew, not also like three times, even four times year per year. And strictness was. And security you can imagine was the first value. Right, because you were not playing with people's lives. So the director calls himself a strict leader because he has always been tough and he led with really tight fist. But he was also very inspiring because of the way he built, the way he managed the company and how the team operates and work and works. So I learned very much from that highly growing but well capitalized startup with a national transcendence. Now it flies over to the US and to other parts of the country. So that was very interesting as well. And then I was invited to work over to the Mexican stock exchange. And curiously I see Troker as a marketplace, as a stock exchange because the core of my business is to build a technology where you have data crossing and only this time you also cross logistically items across the platform. So I have to figure out how to optimize the seller's interests and the buyer's interests and then put it all into a platform and maximize the intersection that's on the rational practical part. I associate my company very much like the Mexican stock exchange. So it also helped me broaden my perspective.

So everything that you had in this journey communist into trocare it is?

Yes, actually one is venture capital and fast growing and how to manage, how to lead over for results and then also motivate people, grow cultures, build KPIs, build objectives.

How big is your company now? What's the headcount?

We have 70 people working in Mexico right now. It's all in Mexico.

And your core market is Latin America. Tell me about the Latin American market. Everybody's saying okay, Latin America is the next, next fashion. There's so much opportunities in Latin America.

So I'll just let you know a little bit of my perspective on why Latin America is the market right now. So you have Europe which is concentrated and has a high purchasing party, but it also the services and the infrastructure that are there are their legacy and they have been there. And so there isn't much gap. Not the US the same. Asia goes fast, but but also the digital infrastructure as it is now has been developing quickly. So why is Latin America such an interesting region of the world? It's because we are high in population. Our purchasing power parity isn't as low as Africa. It isn't as High as the US but it's right on the middle market where people have an income, they have a purchasing possibility, but infrastructure is very low. So if you have a market that's able to pay a basic service and basic service are scarce. So the gap is there. Right. So the gap is you have a market, it's big, you only need to put the service, introduce the infrastructure and have the customers there. So as you've seen, the companies that have come are fintech are basic companies or basic services companies that have come along. So those are the ones that are pushing change and creating the basic infrastructure. Now, now you were saying.

So I guess that you kind of are pushing me in the right direction. Is that so you got the legacy infrastructure that's getting disrupted by fintech and whatnot. Circle economy is something you're really passionate about. I'm really passionate about. There's huge opportunities. Well, how does that, is that being embraced in Latin America, the circle economy and being more conscious about the world around us?

Yes.

Has it always been like that in Latin America and then now you bring it to the surface?

Great, great, great. Now yes, it has always been around. There are companies where you go and buy thrift items. It actually also there are some buyers that go to the us, buy used clothing, bring it over to Mexico and Latin America and sell the used clothing. So another one, another man's trash is another man's treasure. It's what happens with the US and Mexico in terms of clothing. So you were telling me how was the service different in the one that we built here from other countries is that we really designed the service made to Latin America and the particularities of Latins is that we're not as digital as the other countries. So we had to build a product that was based on tech, based on data, but actually with personal touch in it. You'll maybe see if you go over to Valle de Bravo, which is another like a second home lake place, you'll see that going over there on the paying toll place you have the tag which you can go over, but there on the tag there's like a manichi that's standing to make you feel that there is someone helping you. And actually not only Mexicans need the manicy, but there's also someone helping you cross over the digital world, which is only crossing with your car and your tag and not feeling frustration or panic because you may not go in there. Right. So there is some barrier, a cultural barrier from the Mexicans and Latin Americans, maybe not so Argentina, because it's A little more developed. But we are really used to talking to people and having a personal contact. So we built a service around that. Right.

Intro Care. Intro Care has a human element. It's not just a cool UX UI experience. It's all digital. There is a layer of interaction. What you're saying just like reminded me of dating myself here when, when banks started to roll out ATM machines, the big fear was like, I need to tell her I want to talk to a human. I don't want to go to a machine. And so you might have one or two machines and 10 tellers and then you started to see five tellers and five machines and now you kind of go to banks as all atm so you're able to wean that off. But I think it's also the age of the consumer started to catch up with, I don't need that person, I.

Want to just do it by myself because I improve my time. I don't do queues or wait. And curiously it's interesting. But also the airline service is that way. You go to the US and basically you check in by yourself.

Now even immigration.

And even immigration, exactly. Well, in Mexico that won't be as soon as it has been in the us so that's really. It shows you off how trends and how people are adapting to digital services. So we're just at the bridge of making and helping people go digitally. And it's interesting because I'm a two sided marketplace and so I have buyers and my buyers are 100% online. So they buy clothing online, but then the sellers need more guidance and it's more of an accompanying service. Right. So it's based in tech, on tech. But then there needs to be a human interaction for you to really have this sense of need and urgency and somebody to remind you that it's better for you to have your clothing being sold than really stored in hangar. Exactly. And maybe it may be a hassle for you selling your items so they really introduce you to our platform and try to make the journey easy, hassle free and non time consuming.

So we talked about Latin America as a whole. What's the magic of Mexico City? Everybody I talked to, everybody loves Mexico, Canadians love Mexico. But Mexicans are really proud about Mexico and even more so here in Mexico City. What's the magic of Mexico City?

Well, it has so many components, so I would say that in itself it's a very rich city. Right. So I'll, I'll try to list some of them, some of the most strong for me. Okay. So first is the people. You come over and people are open. They're. They're nice. They're. They're strong. They're workers. No, they're hardworking. They're. They like to party. They like to interact. And so that makes it a strength. It's. It's a populated city. It's very, very wide. We say that it has like, eight cities in one city. And then you have this. Not suburbs, but the cities that are now becoming a bigger, bigger metropolis. Very, very important one. Not Toluca and then Cuernavaca that before were far away and now are becoming. They've grown so much that Exactly. Begs to each other. Exactly. So we collide now. So that's an asset. The other asset is culture. So it's rich in culture there. It's one of the cities with the most museums in the world. We have many museums, but also we have opera houses, we have dancing places, there's theaters. It's a vibrant city. Then there's also very good food. Very good food.

I can attest to that.

Very good food. National and then international restaurants. We have, like, great fusion restaurants. Fusion restaurants. And then we have a sense of taste, and we like tasting. So Mexico as a country is also very rich in geographies and in flavors. So we have mole, we have chile, we have tacos. So you have the ceviche, it's raw fish from the West. And then you have the mole. And then you have the most rich sauces with chicken. And then you have the bokchuc, which is in Yucatan. And it's so diverse.

It has its own uniqueness.

It has its.

But it's still.

And Mexico reunites all of them. So you have that regional richness all mixed into Mexico City.

Yeah, like today we went for lunch, and they actually had four different types of bread. One from Yucatan, one from Honuco. And see. Yeah.

So it's like we like. Exactly. And even the tortilla, we have different colors of tortilla, different maizes. And I would say that the. Also Mexico is the fourth, the 14th city in the world. So instead of slashing the world in countries, I would slash the world in cities. And Mexico would be the 14th most important city in the world, which is very relevant. No, there are much, many more cities than countries. Well, we have one of the most important economic countries in the cities in the world.

One of the gateways to Latin America is Mexico City.

And so you have the Latin side, but then you also are very near the U.S. so you have. It hasn't been a mixture of cultures, but you get inspired by whatever the US does, and you also get driven because they give us that impulse. But we have and maintain our own essence and culture. And it has come a long way. It has many years in history. So I would also say that Mexico has a long history which has made its cultural riches.

It's been an amazing conversation. Like I said, we could keep talking.

About the Circle economy.

I think that's a podcast on its own. Maybe that's something you should start.

I have thought about it, talk about.

It, but I'll be mindful of your time. We have a busy day here, but leave our audience with your thoughts about Canada. We talked about the gateway to the US but there's huge opportunities between Canada and Mexico. So many synergies. What are your thoughts about Mexico and Canada working together and collaborating?

Well, it's curious because I lived in Canada, I lived in Toronto.

I'll hold that against you, Vancouver guy here.

I've never been to Vancouver, but actually it's one of the cities that I want to visit. So if I ever go soon, maybe soon, I'll let you know. I love Canada. Actually, I was there. I'm more attracted to Vancouver than maybe Toronto or Quebec. My cousins studied there. So what I see is interesting and a very strong force in Canada is it's also next to the US So it also gives its importance. But then it's a mixture of cultures, and it has been very respectful since the beginning. It has a very conscious perspective towards nature. They are really conscious of nature. They're very respectful of ethnicities, of cultures, of nationalities even. No perspectives. And I love that from Canada. But also it's welcoming. It's a welcoming country and it gives opportunities. It helps people educate themselves, claim education, go to universities. It has very, very good universities.

And.

And for Mexico, it's much more an area of opportunity than the U.S. i mean, for people that have gone to college or have had a master's, Canada represents a land of opportunity. Right. And actually, yes, I think it'd be better if we closed ties, because. No, we're together and you're very welcoming. And Mexicans are a very powerful, talented and driven people.

Yeah. No, I always say the US Is a tier one market. Let's not beat around the bush. Everybody wants to visit the US because of the volume and capacity. Canada is a tier two market, Mexico the tier two market. We're doing really well on our own. Lots of positives, but together we're that much stronger and we can tackle the U.S. exactly. And even tackle Latin America together. We're Southeast Asia together. So huge synergies between Canada and Mexico. And that's why I'm here. I want to be that bridge and see more opportunities to get. The journey for an entrepreneur is difficult. There's always ups and downs. Can you share with us some of the challenges that you've had? Something that you feel other entrepreneurs should be aware of or recognize that you're not alone? Other entrepreneurs go through these challenges as well.

Well, we've had so many difficulties and I see difficulties as a way to grow. Right. So all of these opportunities have helped me and my team and the development. It's been an opportunity to grow. But actually I would say that I could point out several of them. So yes, being a woman, being a woman in the startup sphere because not only of what I represent, but also of what I have in my personal life. Right. So being a woman, I have children and I'm married and definitely the time, even though my husband is the most supportive and I'm really grateful to him, my children need me more than my husband. And that's nature. And that will never help me dedicate the same time that my husband dedicates to his work. And that would all. It will always be a disadvantage. We can all grow around it. But then if you see a man built company, the same man built company, and then a women built company, women tend to also dedicate time to their children more in a bigger percentage than men. And it's nature. Okay. So just that gives me a struggling. I need to struggle more. I need to invest more time. I need to sacrifice more of my hobbies and more of my leisure time than some of them than my male counterparts. So that's been difficult. Yes, that's been a challenge. But then many, many other women go through that and I think that the support you get from the community is something that makes you stronger and then helps you. Obviously you have to build that community in order for it to go and help you towards that. Right. So that, that is something then, then it's also not being a woman in front of men. And even I grew, I've, I've always grown in, in, in schools. No. Universities. My masters. My, my school. No. When I, when I was little, I've always been around men. Always. So it has never been a difference. But then there is a language. No. Which sometimes I don't speak because I'm not a man. No. And it's natural. But then I see that women that are more men like are the ones that have gone further because they speak the same language.

Yeah. I've also heard that to your scenario where you've always been around men and, and you've. You don't think twice about it. You think there's like a camaraderie or you're used to that, but there's an outside perception that comes in or.

Exactly.

You realize that you weren't actually treated the same as another one of the guys even though you felt comfortable with them really there was still something that.

A difference, just a little difference. And that makes the easiness not as easy. No. So I studied engineer, I studied math, I studied, I did an mba. I did all of that because it really, I love it. But women are not. There aren't as many women there. So only that percentage is a disadvantage because it's not like a 5050 only that framework is. You don't feel as if it were as fair. But this is unconscious. Obviously I'm making, I'm exploiting. No, I'm expressing something that when you pass it and you go through it, it's an unconscious feeling. And when you think about it and you make it conscious, then you really understand what, which actions and which moments were the moments where you felt that and what were the circumstances that made you know, feel that and, and, and perceive that.

Yeah. And really it's sad just the state of how it is. But that unconscious, that consciousness of having to look at that, examine that scenario, that situation in your head of why was it treated differently because it was a woman, that shouldn't exist. That mental time should be spent of why was I treated different? Because my competition is doing this and I'm doing this. It shouldn't be about your gender, it shouldn't be about you as an individual. It should be about the company and the performance. But it's sad scenario that that is a reality.

And until I got conscious about it, I saw, I revised some of my meetings and I understood that I was trying to over communicate when maybe if a partner man would have come and would have expressed the same, he wouldn't have felt the need of over expressing because no, it's a comfortable thing. So that's one difficulty. Raising money. No. On a platform that started being a service for women. There's glossier in the US that targeted only women and I targeted in the beginning only women. Not telling them that obviously I was opening men and then other categories and so on and other pricey items and so on. But, but they really were skeptical that I was building something only for women. And that. No, it made me as if I was building something that was only going to become. For a niche market, which my plan didn't say that, my actions didn't say that. All of my moves didn't say that. But actually they had this. No. If you call it prejudice. Preconceived. Exactly. So. So no, it's still in, it's still in, in maybe nature or maybe the paradigm or, or whatever the consciousness that we, that we live through now. And it's also maybe unconscious because.

And now that you've reached a level of success with care, are you still seeing that? Is this still an issue? Or have you. Have they all said, okay, she knows her.

Yes, they're definitely. I've, I've, I've won my space yet if you go over to other countries and you cross over to. There's always the issue of, of here we go again, here we go again. And, and, and family. You know, how is it that you tackle the, the, the family subject? Even. Even though, Even though. Because it's a female founded company, it's still something. I think we've gone our way and that we've built a career and a journey and we've grown and we've demonstrated that we're here to keep on growing and then making all Latin America. And then I would also like to talk about another difficulty which is bringing senior people to your team. Because when you start growing, you have to, as we said before, you have to delegate and you have to bring in talent and you have to build a culture to keep that talent aligned and with the same ways of taking decisions and not only rationally, but also on the soft side of a culture. So when you build your company and then you bring in a third party, a fourth party, a fifth party, and they have not breath, not breathed your culture, it starts changing. And then in Covid, that was a very big challenge for me because I brought in some talent and they came in and then the rest of the team, they had friction. But I really saw that there was potential because I saw that being even more nitty and focused on the processes and focused on really getting technology into things and so on. But maybe his way of introducing his activities and the way that my culture reacted to, to his leadership. And then we had another person from Colombia and another person from Spain and another person, because I love internationals. I think that makes it rich. But that was a very big challenge. And then we went over virtually.

Challenge.

To challenge, challenge, add challenge of integrating different perspectives and different cultures into your own culture, and then different ways of aborting problems and tackling problems. And then we were virtually separated. So that was a very, very challenging stage in Atrocare. And now I realize that building a strong culture as a recommendation, building a strong, strong culture with very defined values and what you preach and how you tackle things and how you react on the soft and then on the logical side, it all helps you create a framework which helps you go faster. Because if you think the same way, if you react on the same times, you. If you juggle with things, we're all more synchronized.

Yeah, that's one of the challenges with COVID and remote work is that you, as a leader, you could probably pick up on some nuances, body language of your team. Like when you brought somebody more senior in and they say something and give some directions, they walk away and you can probably sense and feel something in the air. Zoom, you can't. And all of those problems get taken away off screen and by the time you find out about it, it might be too late.

Exactly.

There's more damage done than if you're able to nip it in the bud before. And that's why I go back to like, yes, realities are remote. Work is going to be ingrained into all businesses. But I don't think the office is abandoned. I think people are coming back to offices. There. There is this real value in having people interact physically, together physically. And you're going to be able to prevent things like this happening, culture clash and just misalignment with visions or whatnot, because as I said, everything happens on Zoom. And then the problem really happens after you close Zoom and you go, go back and complain to your dogs like, I can't stand that woman.

And then the shutters come down and you don't see what the reaction the of the person was afterwards. And how are they facing. Know their, their. Their fear or their. No, they're in.

Or even the simple thing they can see, like, okay, they didn't quite understand what I was saying. A lot of times you see that at the end, right when you're saying you're shutting Zoom out.

No, no, no. But wait, no. But then everyone left. Yes, yes, yes, definitely. And there's nothing like energy. And, and actually one of the things that I, that I was telling you that this morning and, and all of the events that, that I see, you build and you create and then you provide the energy you share and interacting and crossing ideas, and that's invaluable and that won't be translated into clubhouse and it won't be replicated in any other way just by being. Just by being close and feeling the energy and trying to. You can only sense if someone is on your same synchronicity if only you are standing right next to each other.

That is so true. Like I. I personally feed off of other people's energy and I feed off of other entrepreneurs energy more than other people. And people that really know me, they pick that up that if I'm with another entrepreneur, there's a different light in my eye. The reactions, the tone of my voice is so different. You see me talking to a politician, it's very different. You see me talking to someone like a university professor, it's very different. He's talking to somebody younger. It's different than an entrepreneur that actually has gone through shit once we the weave that gone through shit. You look at somebody else's eyes.

I can see you. Yes, we'll see. Well, your energy is very inspiring.

Thank you. Because of you, you see there's been a great conversation.

Great.

Thank you for joining us on founder journeys and hopefully we'll see more from Tuktuk.