Startup ecosystems need ambassadors. People who connect with neighboring communities to share good news and build bridges.
Javier Benavides, Manager of BBCS Capital and co-founder of Investa VB has spent time over the last year building important links between Peru and other members of the Pacific Alliance countries.
Last week, he was in Medellin, Colombia participating on a panel on investing in startups at the Smart Capital conference.
In November, he was in San Francisco for Lab 4+, the main innovation conference for Pacific Alliance countries. At the event, Javier provided the Peru perspective on a panel titled How to attract dealflow to the Pacific Alliance?.
In 2019, he was instrumental in organizing a trip for Peruvian startup founders to participate in the Mexico Roadshow. Ivonne Quiñones, founder of Urbaner, shared about her takeaways from the trip.
Along with this deep involvement in Pacific Alliance events, Javier is a point person for many Inter-American Development Bank initiatives in Peru.
Through these efforts, Javier has acted as a much needed ambassador for the Peruvian startup ecosystem. By representing Peru in international events has become a key promoter of Peru startup founders.
We need people who are traveling outside of Peru to share about the talent and local dealfow in Peru. In a well functioning ecosystem, actors like Javier play a role on behalf of one another.
While startup founders focus on growth, investors and other ecosystem actors can do their part by traveling across the region and world to share on their behalf.
Javier has played a role laying the groundwork for the infrastructure of a regional startup ecosystem. His work will make it easier for founders who launch in Peru to scale up and build regional startups.