By Tania Zapata and Alexander Torrenegra

It’s unlikely we’ll ever forget the stillness of that late summer morning in August; the everyday hum of the Zapata/Torrenegra household in Napa, California rarely quietens down. We were in the throes of wrapping up a video conference — and we’d just sold Voice123 to Backstage and TA Associates (Backstage is one of the largest freelance marketplaces for creators and TA Associates is one of the largest growth private equity firms).

The silence between us cradled that realization as a moment of absolute truth. There was no turning back.

Years before, we’d learned that Wences Casares, an entrepreneur who sold numerous tech companies for more than a combined $1 billion, thinks that having sold his companies is an embarrassment. He considered it a sign of failure that he couldn’t take his companies further.

Back then, we had no idea what he was talking about. But today, we do.

Of course, the sale of the company we founded in 2003 had been preceded by countless hours of conversations and discussions with everyone involved. There’d been meetings, deliberations, and weeks of negotiations. But the business of doing business is one thing. As very active entrepreneurs and investors, doing business is now practically intuitive for the two of us. Finally admitting to both ourselves and one another what we’d done in this particular instance, however, was something entirely different.

It felt akin to a betrayal and saying it aloud, almost an admission of guilt.

Together, we founded Voice123 in a tiny studio apartment in Queens, New York. It was built on the wings of hope, happenstance, and the glimmer of opportunity — not unlike a first attempt one of us had made at entrepreneurship back in Bogotá, Colombia in what now felt like a lifetime ago.

Little did we know shortly after the turn of the millennium as pretty-broke newlyweds that Voice123 would go on to impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. We bootstrapped our efforts to millions of dollars in projects. And after 18 years of constant growth, we’d decided to let it go.

Voice123 taught us the value of innovative tech, network effects, remote teams, innovative business models, and, more importantly, the value of creating businesses with a real purpose. We had envisioned a platform that would provide all aspiring and established voice actors with the opportunity to grow their professional careers.

Today, Voice123 is the world’s largest and most popular open marketplace for voice actors. Over 200,000 are registered on the platform. It has processed millions of auditions. Thousands of artists have started and grown their careers in over 100 countries. Voice123 has connected them with clients of all sizes, including huge ones such as Pixar, History Channel, Electronic Arts, and Pandora.

Voice123 not only changed the voice over industry, but it changed us, too. Our company’s success allowed us to dream bigger, to become bolder, to be contrarian, and to be persistent. We created a startup studio called Emma. We co-founded several tech companies including Bunny Studio, Torre, Tribe, and Akily. We became angel investors ourselves — and one of us, a shark in Shark Tank Latin America!

Why did we sell Voice123, then?

Actually, we’d learned about Backstage right after moving to New York City. We first became aware of the magazine after seeing it everywhere. We learned that Backstage, founded in 1960, was the primary way for performing artists to connect with auditions and employment. Eventually, after attending several fairs over time, we realized what an iconic brand Backstage truly is. In many ways, Backstage served as inspiration for the creation of Voice123; we also wanted to build a brand that would last for more than half a century.

Years later, we met Mike and Josh who lead Backstage today. Over lunch in a small diner on the Lower East Side, they told us about their plans for the company and how they wanted to grow Backstage’s impact and footprint. We trusted them because we’ve watched them do it. By the same token, Mike and Josh were very appreciative of Voice123 and what we, as a widely diverse and global team, had been able to build. Wouldn’t we be able to do so much more together?

The seeds were sown.

We spoke about our potential combined impact at length with Voice123’s CEO, Rolf Veldman. It became more and more clear to the three of us that Backstage would be capable of nurturing Voice123 and realizing its true potential. The time had come to think beyond ourselves –to step back and consider the future. Once again, it was time to allow the combination of hope, happenstance, and the glimmer of opportunity to prompt the way forward. We’d done as much as we could.

It’s a bittersweet moment for us, though. We never created Voice123 with the goal of selling it. Nevertheless, we know it’s the right decision for everyone involved. Backstage recognizes that the price they are paying for Voice123 includes a premium for the goodwill that has been created through our great relationships with the community. So they are keen to protect that value by working hard to keep the community happy and ensuring a smooth transition.

The Voice123 team supports the sale and is positive about the future. Rolf will continue as CEO and we couldn’t be happier. Together with Backstage, future growth and next-level success await.

Had Voice123 been a child, it would have been an invigorated and enthused 18-year-old and Rolf a great foster parent. He’s assembled a great global team. The child has grown up. It’s time for it to leave our home. It’s time to set it free so it can go out into the world and become the very best it can be.

From the depths of our hearts, we want to thank the tens of thousands of voice actors who continue to embrace the platform and entrust Voice123 with their lives and livelihoods.

We want to thank the tens of thousands of producers, casting directors, and other clients who come to us to seek out the word-perfect voices they need for their recording projects.

We want to thank every Voice123 team member, past and present. It has been a huge honor to work with each and every one of them; they shared our vision and grew the company as much as we did.

May you soar into your future, Voice123. You’re in the best possible hands and we’re immensely proud of you!

P.S. What’s next for us? Tania co-founded Akily, an app that provides highly personalized and fun developmental activities for parents, nannies, and daycares to do with their children. Alexander founded Torre, a matching network for work that makes the process of finding jobs and candidates both transparent and automated. You can reach out to us by writing us at tania@akily.co or a@torre.co, respectively.

Shark Tank is a popular Sony Entertainment reality television franchise that has appeared on screens around the globe in a variety of formats. It’s known by multiple names, too: The Tigers of Money in Japan, Lion’s Den in most of Europe, and Shark Tank across the Americas and Australia. Colombia’s version is broadcast all over Latin America as well as on YouTube. I participated as one of the sharks in the majority of episodes that comprised the first three seasons.

So what sort of return on investment did I make, you ask?

First of all, I’d like to clarify some of the series’ myths (and realities). While my observations are based on my own experience, they are — certainly to my knowledge — applicable to all versions of the Shark Tank franchise.

What’s real

• As sharks, we invest our own money.
• The pitches are real, but only a small fraction of each pitch is broadcast. Pitches actually last between 30–60 minutes, but the post-production team edits them down to ~10 minutes.
• The reactions of the sharks and the negotiations are real. They are not scripted in any way. The only production prescription is that we use the phrases ‘I have an offer’ and ‘because of that, I’m out’.
• If an agreement happens on camera, the shark performs due diligence and follows through with his or her investment should the prospect show real potential.
• And yes, investments do happen.

What’s not so real

• In Shark Tank, investors are exposed to pitches that have been selected by the production team. They select both good and bad companies for dramatic purposes. In real life, investors determine who they want to listen to themselves. We seldom listen to someone we know will waste our time.
• The sharks don’t know who will be pitching next. We find out about the companies and entrepreneurs on the way to the stage and while seated shortly before each pitch starts. While some demo days might work like that, in real life, most investors learn about companies seeking investment by reviewing their decks (received mostly via email).
• Some companies only go to Shark Tank for the sake of publicity.
• Investors have little control over the program format. In real life, investors develop and manage their own mechanisms. If Shark Tank were a circus, we wouldn’t be the owners; we’d be the clowns!
• The terms offered by the sharks tend to be aggressive and favor the investor more than the terms commonly observed in real life — especially in the tech sector.

What happens after the pitch

It depends on the shark. In my case, a member of my team reaches out to the entrepreneur to start due diligence (which is an ‘investigation to confirm facts or details of a matter under consideration’). Some entrepreneurs back out of the deal here. Some actually told us that their whole pitch was fictional (if not an outright lie) and they only wanted the exposure. Alternatively, they simply ignored our messages.

On one occasion, I backed out. I made an offer in a sector I had little experience in. Off-camera afterwards, I found out a lot more about the sector and subsequently figured the investment would have been a mistake. It was a tough decision to make (as an apology, I offered my support to the entrepreneur. Since then, I’ve referred dozens of the clients to his company).

Due diligence lasts from a few days to several months — depending on the deal. Some deals fall apart during this process. Common reasons are accounting irregularities, not owning the intellectual property, or products not performing as demoed. In a few cases, we also concluded the entrepreneur took the fake-it-‘till-you-make mentality too seriously and the traction numbers and key metrics they had shared were pure fantasy.

If we find the results of the due diligence satisfactory, we have our attorneys review the requisite legal paperwork. If everything looks above board, we sign the deal and wire the money.

I then own a portion of the business I invested in. As the value of the shares grow, I have gains — on paper. They’ll become a reality only when someone opts to purchase shares from me. Until then, my gains are unrealized. In some cases — and depending on the agreement — I actively help the entrepreneur grow the company.

It becomes a waiting game — until the entrepreneur emails me one fine day and tells me that s/he has sold the company and made me tons of money, thankyouverymuch! I now have heaps of realized gains.

My stats

I’m a numbers person, so here is how I performed on Shark Tank:

• Seasons: 3
• Days of filming: 16
• Pitches: 126
• Investment offers made on camera: 20
• Investment offers accepted on camera: 20
• Entrepreneurs who backed out of the deal: 5
• Deals I backed out of: 2
• Deals that fell through because they failed due diligence: 5
• Deals where things got quite complicated: 1
• Deals done (I deployed the capital): 7
• Smallest deal: $5,000
• Largest deal: $235,000
• Total investment (including cost of time): $668,000
• Current estimated value of my investments: $‎2,010,000
• Unrealized gains: $1,342,000
• Realized gains: $0
• Return on investment so far: 297%

I also made seven non-monetary offers in donations and/or by accepting the entrepreneurs into my company accelerator for bootstrapped businesses.

My best investments in Shark Tank

Unsurprisingly, my best Shark Tank investments are all in the tech sector. These are the top three:

Kiwibot: IRR 58.7%

Kiwibot builds robots for last-mile delivery. Since our investment, they have raised numerous additional rounds, including a widely popular crowdfunding campaign.

LiftIt: IRR 65.7%

LiftIt is an “Uber for cargo” in LatAm. Since our investment, LiftIt has raised over $35M from Cambridge Capital, IFC Venture Capital Group, and monashees.

Vaki: IRR 76.2%

Since our investment, Vaki (originally known as La Vaquinha) has become the largest crowdfunding platform in LatAm.

My other comparable investments

As angel investor:

• Cornershop: IRR: 80.7%. Cash-on-cash: 34x (sold to Uber).
• VivaReal: IRR 29.1%. Cash-on-cash: 12x (merged with ZAP, then sold to OLX).

As a tech founder (excluding my salary):

• Voice123: IRR 58.5%. Cash-on-cash: 1040x.
• Bunny Studio: IRR 63.1%.

Positive, non-monetary returns

• I’ve learned much from my fellow sharks and the entrepreneurs. Each shark has a significantly different style, background, and strategy. I realized that becoming a successful investor can happen following radically different approaches. The entrepreneurs are full of passion, ideas, and, more importantly, persistence. Learning from them triggered the creation of my accelerator.
• The exposure and credibility associated with being a shark in Shark Tank are practically priceless. I find it significantly easier to arrange meetings and gain trust than before.
• The experience of being in a reality show and watching a production team of over 100 professionals in tight coordination has been absolutely jaw-dropping.

Negative returns

• The exposure has its downsides. I am now easily recognized across LatAm. Given the safety situation in many of the countries on the sub-continent, I can’t just wander around freely anymore. Fortunately, I live in California’s Bay Area. I do find I now need to take security precautions when traveling to some places in LatAm.
• The opportunity cost is high. I could have done more with the time spent filming and supporting the show, for example. I could have done other things that yielded better returns. In fact, since we started recording the first season of Shark Tank Colombia in 2017, I’ve been able to create three other companies — that are doing well (fortunately!).
• My credibility has suffered, too. In certain tech sector circles, Shark Tank is regarded as a hoax and a waste of time for real entrepreneurs.

The best return

By far my best return has been my audience. Today, I have half-a-million followers on four social media channels with whom I interact frequently. I answer their questions and share what I know. Periodically, I receive messages telling me how I positively influenced their decisions, their businesses, and their lives. It’s both an honor and a responsibility. I’ve discovered that teaching and positively influencing others are the best ways for me to give back to society — and I love doing so!

P.S. Kitsmile makes therapeutic chairs for children with motion limitations and paralysis. They pitched in Shark Tank. Fortunately, the offer made by a fellow shark for 40% of the company didn’t go through. Instead, I offered a donation. With it, and with Vaki’s further support, 150+ children and their families that haven’t been able to afford the chair, now have it. What’s more, you can help, too. If you’re feeling sharky, visit KitSmile profile in Vaki and make a donation!

Thanks to Carel Cronje, Daniel Bilbao, Marcela Lopez, and Tania Zapata for reading and commenting on drafts of this article.

Shark Tank es un popular reality show, franquicia de Sony Entertainment que ha aparecido en las pantallas de todo el mundo en diferentes formatos. También es conocido con otros nombres: The Tigers of Money en Japón, Lion’s Denin en la mayor parte de Europa y Shark Tank en América y Australia. La versión de Colombia se transmite en toda América Latina y en YouTube. Participé como uno de los tiburones en la mayoría de los episodios que comprendieron las tres primeras temporadas.

Ustedes se preguntarán, ¿qué tipo de retorno obtuve de mis inversiones?

En primer lugar, me gustaría aclarar algunos de los mitos (y realidades) del reality. Si bien mis observaciones se basan en mi propia experiencia, son, ciertamente, que yo sepa, aplicables a todas las versiones de la franquicia Shark Tank.

Qué es real

• Como tiburones, invertimos nuestro propio dinero.
• Los pitches son reales, pero solo se transmite una pequeña fracción de cada uno. En realidad, los pitches duran entre 30 y 60 minutos, el equipo de posproducción los lleva a unos 10 minutos para la transmisión final.
• Las reacciones de los tiburones y las negociaciones son reales. No están escritos ni libreteados. La única orden de producción es que usemos las frases: ‘tengo una oferta’ y ‘por eso, me quedo fuera’ .
• Si se llega a un acuerdo frente a la cámara, el tiburón realiza la due diligence y sigue adelante con su inversión en caso de que muestren un potencial real.
• Y sí, las inversiones ocurren.

Lo que es ficción

• En Shark Tank, los inversionistas estamos expuestos a pitches que han sido seleccionados por el equipo de producción. Con fines dramáticos, seleccionan emprendimientos buenos y malos. En la vida real, los inversionistas determinan a quién quieren escuchar. Rara vez escuchamos a alguien que sabemos que nos hará perder nuestro tiempo.
• Los tiburones no sabemos quién hará el siguiente pitch. Nos enteramos de las emprendimientos y emprendedores de camino al escenario y cuando estamos sentados -poco antes de que comience cada pitch-. Si bien algunos demos days pueden funcionar así, en la vida real, la mayoría de los inversionistas aprenden sobre las empresas que buscan inversiones revisando sus decks (recibidos principalmente por correo electrónico).
• Algunas empresas solo acuden a Shark Tank por motivos de publicidad.
• Los inversionistas tienen poco control sobre el formato del programa. En la vida real, los inversionistas desarrollan y gestionan sus propios mecanismos. Si Shark Tank fuera un circo, no seríamos los dueños; ¡Seríamos los payasos!
• Los términos ofrecidos por los tiburones tienden a ser agresivos y favorecen al inversionista, más que los términos que se observan comúnmente en la vida real, especialmente en el sector tecnológico.

Lo que pasa después del pitch

Depende del tiburón. En mi caso, un miembro de mi equipo se comunica con el empresario para iniciar la due diligence (una “investigación para confirmar hechos o detalles de un asunto en consideración”). Aquí algunos emprendedores se retiran del trato. De hecho, algunos nos dijeron que todo su discurso era ficticio (si no una mentira absoluta) y que solo querían la publicidad del programa. Simplemente, ignoraron nuestros mensajes.

En una ocasión, me eché para atrás. Hice una oferta en un sector en el que tenía poca experiencia. Después, fuera de cámaras, encontré mucho más sobre el sector y pensé que habría sido un error la inversión. Fue una decisión difícil de tomar (a modo de disculpa, ofrecí mi apoyo al emprendedor. Desde entonces, he referido a decenas de clientes a su empresa).

La due diligence dura desde unos días hasta varios meses, según el trato. Algunas ofertas se caen durante este proceso. Las razones comunes son irregularidades contables, no ser propietario de la propiedad intelectual o los productos no funcionan como lo demostraron. En unos pocos casos, llegamos a la conclusión de que el emprendedor se tomaba demasiado en serio la mentalidad de fingir ‘hasta que lo hagas’, las cifras de tracción y las métricas claves que habían compartido eran pura fantasía.

Si encontramos satisfactorios los resultados de la due diligence, hacemos que nuestros abogados revisen toda la documentación legal. Si todo parece correcto, firmamos el trato y enviamos el dinero.

Luego, soy dueño de una parte del negocio en el que invertí. A medida que aumenta el valor de las acciones, obtengo ganancias, sobre el papel. Se convertirán en realidad solo cuando alguien opte por comprarme acciones. Hasta entonces, mis ganancias no se han realizado. En algunos casos, y dependiendo del acuerdo, ayudo activamente al emprendedor a hacer crecer la empresa.

Se convierte en un juego de espera, hasta que un buen día, el emprendedor me envía un correo electrónico diciéndome que ha vendido la empresa y me ha hecho un montón de dinero, ¡muchas gracias! Ahora sí tengo un montón de ganancias realizadas.

Mis estadísticas

Soy una persona de números. Así que aquí está mi participación en Shark Tank:

• Temporadas: 3
• Días de rodaje: 16
• Pitches: 126
• Ofertas de inversión realizadas ante cámaras: 20
• Ofertas de inversión aceptadas ante cámaras: 20
• Emprendedores que se retiraron del trato: 5
• Ofertas de las que desistí: 2
• Tratos que fracasaron porque fallaron en la due diligence: 5
• Ofertas en las que las cosas se complicaron bastante: 1
• Tratos hechos (desplegué el capital): 7
• Oferta más pequeña: $5,000
• Oferta más grande: $235,000
• Inversión total (incluido el costo del tiempo): $668,000
• Valor actual estimado de mis inversiones: $2.010.000
• Ganancias no realizadas: $1,342,000
• Ganancias realizadas: $0
• Retorno de la inversión hasta ahora: 297%

También hice siete ofertas no monetarias en donaciones y/o en aceptar emprendedores en mi aceleradora para negocios bootstrap.

Mis mejores inversiones en Shark Tank

Como era de esperar, mis mejores inversiones en Shark Tank están todas en el sector tecnológico. Estos son los tres primeros:

Kiwibot: TIR 58,7%

Kiwibot construye robots para hacer entregas a domicilios. Desde nuestra inversión, ha recaudado numerosas rondas adicionales, incluida una campaña de crowdfunding muy popular.

LiftIt: TIR 65.7%

LiftIt es un “Uber para carga” en LatAm . Desde nuestra inversión, LiftIt ha recaudado más de $35 millones de Cambridge Capital, IFC Venture Capital Group y Monashees.

Vaki: TIR 76.2%

Desde nuestra inversión, Vaki (originalmente conocida como La Vaquinha) se ha convertido en la mayor plataforma de crowdfunding en LatAm.

Mis otras inversiones comparables

Como inversionista ángel:

• Cornershop: TIR: 80,7%. Cash-on-cash: 34x (vendido a Uber).
• VivaReal: TIR 29,1%. Cash-on-cash: 12x (fusionado con ZAP, luego vendido a OLX).

Como fundador de tecnología (excluyendo mi salario):

• Voice123: TIR 58,5%. Cash-on-cash: 1040x.
• Bunny Studio: TIR 63,1%.

Rendimientos positivos no monetarios

• He aprendido mucho de mis compañeros tiburones y de los emprendedores. Cada tiburón tiene un estilo, trasfondo y estrategia significativamente diferentes. Me di cuenta de que convertirse en un inversionista exitoso puede suceder siguiendo enfoques radicalmente diferentes. Los emprendedores están llenos de pasión, ideas y, lo que es más importante, perseverancia. Aprender de ellos desencadenó la creación de mi aceleradora.
• La exposición y la credibilidad asociadas con ser un tiburón en Shark Tank prácticamente son invaluables. Me resulta mucho más fácil organizar reuniones y ganarme la confianza que antes de estar en el programa.
• La experiencia de estar en un reality show y ver a un equipo de producción de más de 100 profesionales en estrecha coordinación ha sido absolutamente asombrosa.

Rendimientos negativos

• La exposición tiene sus desventajas. Ahora me reconocen fácilmente en toda América Latina. Dada la situación de seguridad en muchos de los países latinoamericanos, ya no puedo simplemente deambular libremente por las calles. Afortunadamente, vivo en el Bay Area de California. Me encuentro con que ahora necesito tomar precauciones de seguridad cuando viajo a algunos lugares en LatAm.
• El costo de oportunidad es alto. Podría haber hecho más con el tiempo dedicado a filmar y apoyar el programa, por ejemplo. Podría haber hecho otras cosas que produjeran mejores rendimientos. Sin embargo, desde que comenzamos a grabar la primera temporada de Shark Tank Colombia en 2017 he podido crear otras tres compañías, a las que les está yendo bien (¡afortunadamente!).
• Mi credibilidad se ha resentido. En ciertos círculos del sector tecnológico, Shark Tank se considera un engaño y una pérdida de tiempo para los verdaderos emprendedores.

El mejor retorno

De lejos, mi mejor retorno ha sido mi audiencia. Hoy, tengo medio millón de seguidores en cuatro canales de redes sociales con los que interactúo con frecuencia. Respondo sus preguntas y comparto lo que sé. Periódicamente, recibo mensajes que me dicen cómo influí positivamente en sus decisiones, sus negocios y sus vidas. Es un honor y una responsabilidad. He descubierto que enseñar e influir positivamente en los demás son las mejores formas de retribuir a la sociedad, ¡y me encanta hacerlo!

PD, Kitsmile fabrica sillas terapéuticas para niños con limitaciones de movimiento y parálisis. Presentaron su pitch en Shark Tank. Afortunadamente, no se cumplió la oferta que hizo otro tiburón por el 40% de la empresa. En cambio, ofrecí una donación. Con ella, y con el apoyo adicional de Vaki, más de 150 niños y sus familias que no habían podido pagar la silla, ahora la tienen. Además, tú también puedes ayudar. Si te sientes un sharky, visita el perfil de KitSmile en Vaki y haz una donación.

Gracias a Carel Cronje, Daniel Bilbao, Marcela López y Tania Zapata por leer y comentar los borradores de este artículo.

tl;dr Estandap is a template for daily agile meetings. It includes a daily written update (✅ accomplishments, ❌ misses, 🥅 goals for day, and 🛣goals long-term) and a daily meeting (👓 read all updates, 📝 list topics, and 🗣 discuss them).

Some agile management methodologies envision daily team meetings during which commitments can be made between members, potential challenges can be identified and discussed, as well as difficult issues resolved. One of the most popular types of these meetings has been around for several decades. It’s called a standup, because attendees typically participate while standing. The inconvenience — if not discomfort — associated with prolonged standing is intentional; it’s inclined to keep meetings focused and short.

While traditional standups may remain useful for many, truth is they were created for a pre-remote world where synchronous communication was the norm. Experience has shown they frequently result in ill-considered and improvised updates, contextual mismatches, boredom, and meetings that go way over time.

Remote work and the associated advancements in tools available for asynchronous communication now enable significantly better ways of handling team communication. I’ve been experimenting with multiple team-meeting formats for over a decade-and-a-half while running numerous companies of different sizes (Voice123, Bunny Studio, and Torre.ai).

Today, I’m publishing what my various teams and I believe is the most efficient format of all the ones we’ve tried over the years. It reduces input time and maximizes value by combining synchronous, asynchronous, written as well as video communication, and even emojis. We call it Estandap.

The main goal of Estandap is to enable team members in companies of various sizes to remain aligned, prioritize, empathize, help each other remove blockers, and speed up successful execution. Estandap has two parts:

• A daily asynchronous written update
• A daily synchronous (simultaneous) meeting

Each team within an organization performs both. Teams of more than 20 people tend to have middle-managers (team members who report to a leader but also have team members reporting to them). A middle-manager can thus be a member of two Estandap teams: one composed of the middle-manager’s superior as well as co-workers, and the other composed of only the middle-manager and his/her direct reports.

The daily written update

At the beginning of each work day, team members answer the following questions in a shared document (such as Notion or Google Docs) or a channel (such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or even WhatsApp):

✅ What goals did you accomplish yesterday?

❌ What goals did you miss and why?

🥅 For today, what top achievements are you planning?

🛣 What are your current main objectives and delivery estimates?

Goals should be objective and focused on results. They shouldn’t be a mere list of tasks. Avoid setting ambiguous goals such as “Start working on…” or “Work on…”. Instead, set goals that are objective and/or measurable. For example, “Push live…” or “Complete 50% of…”

Sometimes people might view written updates as a reporting tool rather than an alignment tool. If that mindset develops, those people will become less honest with their daily updates for fear of retribution. Team leaders need to emphasize that written updates are simply there to align and enlighten. They’re a safe communal space with a common purpose:

• To make us all more efficient as members of a team;
• To increase speed because of shared project and operational knowledge;
• To act as a prioritization tool for team members and project leaders;
• To create cohesion and learning because we all develop a better understanding of one another’s work;
• To help you structure your own work and share what you’re working on. Be concise and don’t overshare. Ask yourself: “What would be valuable for my team to know?” Then answer that question.

The daily meeting

Every work day, there’s a meeting. To maximize productivity, the meeting should be scheduled at a time that reduces context switching to a minimum for all team members. This can be found by asking team members a question such as:

At what times of the day would our daily team meeting interrupt you the least?

0️⃣ 14:00 UTC (7 PT, 8 MEX, 9 COL, 11 BRA, 15 NIG)
1️⃣ 15:00 UTC (8 PT, 9 MEX, 10 COL, 12 BRA, 16 NIG)
2️⃣ 16:00 UTC (9 PT, 10 MEX, 11 COL, 13 BRA, 17 NIG)
3️⃣ 17:00 UTC (10 PT, 11 MEX, 12 COL, 14 BRA, 18 NIG)
4️⃣ 18:00 UTC (11 PT, 12 MEX, 13 COL, 15 BRA, 19 NIG)
5️⃣ 19:00 UTC (12 PT, 13 MEX, 14 COL, 16 BRA, 20 NIG)
6️⃣ 20:00 UTC (13 PT, 14 MEX, 15 COL, 17 BRA, 21 NIG)
7️⃣ 21:00 UTC (14 PT, 15 MEX, 16 COL, 18 BRA, 22 NIG)
8️⃣ 22:00 UTC (15 PT, 16 MEX, 17 COL, 19 BRA, 23 NIG)
9️⃣ 23:00 UTC (16 PT, 17 MEX, 18 COL, 20 BRA, 0 NIG)
🔟 00:00 UTC (17 PT, 18 MEX, 19 COL, 21 BRA, 1 NIG)
#️⃣ 01:00 UTC (18 PT, 19 MEX, 20 COL, 22 BRA, 2 NIG)
*️⃣ 02:00 UTC (19 PT, 20 MEX, 21 COL, 23 BRA, 3 NIG)
🔢 03:00 UTC (20 PT, 21 MEX, 22 COL, 0 BRA, 4NIG)

You can select multiple times.

If doing it remotely, Zoom and Google Meet are good tools to use. The preferred agenda is:

👓 Read everyone else’s written updates.

📝 List and prioritize topics that need to be discussed and who should be involved.

🗣 Discuss the topics.

By default, the meeting is scheduled and moderated by the team leader. Moderation can be rotated among attendees. It adds excitement and allows the team leader to invest more time thinking about strategy.

The meeting starts with reading, not writing. Team members who join standups without having provided their written updates beforehand, slow down meetings enormously. Written updates should always precede the actual meeting. Meetings are far more engaging without waiting. Waiting sucks!

As team members read each update, they can add comments for the attention of the author. If there’s a topic worth discussing right away, they can add it to the discussion list — including the names of those who should participate in the conversation.

Once the reading is done and the topics listed, the moderator prioritizes them. Prioritization can be determined by impact, importance, or number of team members involved. Those who aren’t required to address certain topics can be dismissed to avoid the wastage of their time.

Ideally, topics should require interaction: questions and answers. Those that are purely informative (FYIs), are better handled asynchronously.

If it becomes evident that a given topic might require more time and attention than the standup should accommodate, a separate meeting must be scheduled to address it.

Daily meetings must be kept as short as possible. Reading updates should take no more than a minute per team member. Inevitably, discussions take more time, but not everyone needs to be involved. A small team of three can invest as little as three minutes reading written updates, while a team of 20 can take 20 minutes.

For example, I currently have ~20 team members directly reporting to me. I schedule one full hour: ~15 minutes to read the written updates, ~5 minutes to review metrics, and ~40 minutes for participation in any topic that requires my input.

Advanced tips for the written updates

• To promote increased alignment, include the “why” and/or the metric it is expected to impact for each goal.
• Written updates can become repetitive — especially the answers related to main objectives. To identify what’s changing from day to day more easily, visually highlight new and/or recurrent elements in the answers with colors, icons, etc.
• For large organizations, use hashtags to identify the updates from different teams.
• Ideally, project leaders answering the question What are your current main objectives and delivery estimates? should answer on behalf of their team and avoid focusing too much on their own direct execution.
• Have recently-onboarded team members read the written updates of their new colleagues dating back a month or more. The exercise will provide great insight on an average day-to-day.
• If you use the OKR framework, split the last question into two — one for objectives and one for key results:

What are your main objectives and timeframe?

What are your key results (and ETAs) that get us closer to the objective?

Advanced tips for the daily meetings

• If yours is a data-driven team, you could add a few minutes to review and reflect on your daily key-performance indicators (KPIs).
• As you read the daily updates, react with ✅ to indicate you’ve read the update. You can also react with other emoticons to cheer or show support.
• If your team is large, focus on first reading the updates of other team members on which you may have dependencies or vice versa. Sometimes, leaders may have to start reading the updates ahead of time to get through them all.
• If meeting remotely, turn on your cameras. Face-to-face interaction is important. It is likely the only time of the day when all team members get to see one another. Only turn off your cameras while reading the updates. Turn them on to indicate you’re done reading.
• To reduce monotony and increase engagement, have the moderator share something either unique or funny during the course of the meeting.
• Finish the meeting with a rallying cry. As this study found, it may help your team perform better, improve cognitive functions, and even like each other more!

Work in progress

Estandap is far from perfect. Some issues include:

• Finding the right balance between sharing too little and oversharing. Sometimes, team members end up being too detailed about their work. It’s difficult to address this behavior given that it’s better to err on the side of over-communication when working remotely.
• Estandap focuses on inputs more than outputs and outcomes. It needs to be complemented with solid performance-based or outcome-based management frameworks.
• Estandap does a good job of helping teams with alignment, prioritization, empathy, and speed. However, it doesn’t address learning and introspection quite as well. Writing updates already consumes a good measure of cognitive capacity. It requires speed and focus on planning. Adding introspection to the process is likely an overkill. Few people will have the cognitive capability of doing so much when starting their work day. Systematic learning deserves its own, parallel framework.
• When working across multiple time zones, the synchronous portion of Estandap can lead to some team members having to get out the zone to attend the meeting.

Estandap will continue to evolve. As we learn from companies using it and new tech tools become available, Estandap will undoubtedly improve. Got ideas you’d like to contribute? Please share them in the comments below.

Related frameworks

• Experimento: A practical product management framework
• Prioridad: A practical framework for product and feature prioritization
• Indicadores: Performance indicators for online platforms (a template)
• And more…

Thanks to Carel Cronje, Daniela Avila, Diego Saez-Gil, Juan Pablo Buriticá, Justin Petsche, Renan Peixoto, Rolf Veldman, and Tomás Gutiérrez Meoz for reading and commenting on drafts of this article. Thanks Tania Zapata and María Moya for the photography and imaging of this article. Thanks to Daniela Botero, Juliana Prieto, Pamela Sánchez, Sebas Gallo, and Tomás Gutiérrez Meoz for modeling for the main image of this article.

“What’s in a name?” is something of a rhetorical question often used lightheartedly today. Of course, it was first asked in all seriousness when Juliet pondered Romeo in Shakespeare’s famous play. If you’re acquainted with her soliloquy, you’ll remember she concludes: “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Well, maybe. Maybe not. I’m sure you’ll agree that names can have considerable value by virtue of what they come to represent. Almost instantly, one can think of multiple.

Torre is also such a name. Its significance in my life and ongoing career as an entrepreneur, businessperson and investor has, in no small way, been dictated by circumstance.

As the first half of my last name, it means “tower” in six Romance languages. It’s not the surname handed down to me by my father. I subsequently claimed and legally adopted it from my grandmother on my mother’s side of the family.

Let me tell you why.

María Emma Torrenegra was born in 1913 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her father, Olimpo Torrenegra, worked at the town’s port. Her mother, María Alvarez, was a homemaker.

María Emma was the eldest of five children and was raised in a staunchly Catholic environment. While notoriously restrictive, it was the prevailing socio-cultural and religious status quo in Colombia at the time. State and church weren’t separate.

María Emma never completed high school. Although there were independent primary schools for boys and girls, there were only high schools for boys — girls were denied the privilege of a secondary education. As a consequence, girls couldn’t go to university, as attending university required high school certification.

Fortunately for María, in 1929 a lady by the name of Lady Chauvin founded the Universidad Comercial del Atlántico. It was the first university for women in Barranquilla and it didn’t require a high-school qualification. María Emma was one of their first students. In 1933 she graduated with the only diploma offered by the University: Stenography.

Soon after getting her first job, tragedy struck: Olimpo died in a train accident at the port. Given that her mother had never worked outside the home and her four siblings were still at school, Maria Emma found herself responsible for supporting her entire family. One can only imagine what a challenge it must have been for a 22-year-old woman living in such a patriarchal society!

Nevertheless, she succeeded. Not only did she support her family, but, quite ironically, she paid for her male siblings’ university education — thus enabling them to pursue degrees that society disallowed her to study for.

Since Maria Emma was so focused on work, she waited until she was 40-years-old to marry. Two years later she gave birth to her daughter Katia and three years after that, her husband abandoned them. Once again, she found herself solely responsible for a family.

But Maria Emma raised her daughter well. For Katia, having such a self-reliant mother stood her in good stead: she also found herself a single mother of two after just one year of marriage. Her husband walked out on her as well…

I’m one of Katia’s children. I was raised by my mom and grandma. They taught me most of the things that allowed me to become the professional I am today: persistence, hard work, perfectionism, and, most importantly, confidence. When I was 14, both María Emma and Katia encouraged me to pursue my dream. The result was my first company.

When María Emma passed away in 1997, I made a promise. As soon as I could, I would change my surname from Henriquez to Torrenegra — the last name of my beloved abuelita.

Inevitably, one wonders what other professions María Emma might have pursued. Perhaps she could have become an engineer, a scientist, a doctor, or a professor. Unfortunately, she and so many others like her were trapped in a male-dominated society that severely discriminated against women. Her only career choices were a homemaker or a factory worker.

As founder, I chose Torre as the name of our company both in honor of my grandmother and as a reminder to our team: as we pursue our mission of making work fulfilling for everyone, our greatest enemy is discrimination. Thanks to nonconformists like Lady Chauvin and the many others who followed her, discrimination against women will soon be a thing of the past.

Still, there are numerous other types of discrimination that we continue to accept. The socio-economic background of all children on earth heavily influences the quality of education they receive. Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, all children will have equal chances and access to good education. Perhaps then we’ll look back and realize how senseless we were to discriminate against them. At Torre, it is our solemn commitment to be major players in bringing about that change.

What a bouquet of sweet-smelling roses that will be!

Torre's brand name was assessed and recommended by Catchword Branding. Torre's logotype was co-created by Melissa Gaviria, Roberto S. Jalkh, and Alexander Torrenegra and enhanced by Daniela Avila. Torre's marktype was co-created by María Moya, Daniela Avila, and Alexander Torrenegra. Thanks to Carel Cronje for reviewing and commenting on early drafts of this article.

While the concept of compiling a list of things you’d like to achieve before you die — or kick the bucket, as they say — is hardly new, it wasn’t until screenwriter Justin Zackham coined the term ‘Bucket List’ in his screenplay for the 2007 hit movie that it really became a thing.

Do you have one?

I do. In fact, I’ve been asked so many times over the years what’s on mine that I thought I’d share it with the goal of challenging myself to actually accomplish everything on it. Social pressure can be quite the motivator…

My list has evolved, of course — as they’re prone to do — so I figured I’d include both my still-to-do’s and already-done’s. In the interests of full disclosure, let it be said that some items on my bucket list have been awaiting completion for over 25 years. Others, I’ve managed to tick off in a fortnight. (By the way, the age range represents when an item was first added and then when it was completed).

Here goes!

✅ Age 5 to 6: To be the best student in school so my father would gift me a computer 📚. I’d become obsessed with a screen and a keyboard after a brief but mind-bendingly awesome meeting with a Commodore 64. At the Instituto Militar Antonio Ricaurte in Bogotá, Colombia, I kept my side of the bargain. My father, who had abandoned us as a family some years before, chose not to. (In case you’re wondering: yes, I have daddy issues).

✅ Age 6 to 15: Actually owning a computer 💾. It took me nine years to get there and I had to become an entrepreneur in the process. Curious about the whole backstory? You’ll find it here.

✅ Age 15 to 17: Buy a car 🚗. My first car was a 1993 Chevrolet [Suzuki] Swift 1.0. I’m now glad it didn’t have a bigger engine that would have allowed it to go faster. I’d have killed myself speeding. At 17, I was an adrenaline junkie.

✅ Age 16 to 22: Mutually fall in love 💘. I was smitten with girls on several occasions but it was never reciprocal, so heartbreak was inevitable. It took me years to realize that love has to be a two-way street! Fortunately, when I was 22, I met the love of my life, Tania Zapata — and our relationship remains inspiringly reciprocal. 20 years later and counting.

🔲 Age 16 to ??: Build brain-computer interfaces 🧠. This is the oldest item on my bucket list that hasn’t been completed. Even worse, I haven’t gotten started. I’ve been intrigued by this topic for a long time. Sure, Elon Musk beat me to the starting grid but there’s a great deal of room for revolutionary innovations. If you’re interested, let’s talk.

✅ Age 17 to 43: Become a racing driver 🏎. No, seriously — like I said, it started with the Chevy. However, it took me 26 years to do it! As soon as I learned about car racing clubs, I joined one. I'm now a frequent car racer in several Northern California racing series, including Spec Miata and Porsche series.

✅ Age 17 to 21: Buy a BMW Z3 😎. The moment I saw that car in the movie GoldenEye, I fell in love with it. I lived in Colombia back then and owning one wasn’t much more than a crazy dream. Little did I know that four years later I’d be living in Miami and driving one of my own…

✅ Age 18 to 19: Move to a country with internet innovation 🇺🇸. When I discovered the Internet, I quickly realized I wanted to be one of the people building it. After coming to the US as a tourist and then hopping through the entire alphabet of visas offered here, I became a legal resident in 2002.

✅ Age 20 to 25: To be able to support my mother financially 💰. I owe my upbringing and education to my mother, Katia Monroy, and my grandmother, Maria Emma Torrenegra. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away when I was 18.

✅ Age 21 to 25: Build a successful tech company 🤓. After Tania and I got married, we moved to New York. There, we founded our first company together: Voice123 — the first and largest online platform for casting voice actors. We bootstrapped it to $100M+ in projects and then sold it to Backstage. Here’s the story.

✅ Age 23 to 34: Travel the world 🌍. For Colombians, it used to be very difficult to travel overseas (even as a resident of the US) because of the visa limitations imposed by most countries. Why? Colombian drug trafficking. Unsurprisingly, as soon as I got my US citizenship, I started traveling all over the place.

🔲 Age 23 to ??: Travel to space 🚀. Ideally, a week-long trip to the moon. I may settle for a weekend trip to the International Space Station, though. Got tickets?

✅ Age 27 to 38: Build a highly scalable tech business 📈. Voice123 is a wonderful business, but its growth is limited by the size of the voice over industry. In 2008, I founded LetMeGo. My goal was to bring reverse auctions to the lodging industry. Hotels, vacation rentals, and the like would compete in real-time for the itinerary of travelers. It failed. I lost $2M of my own money, or — as I like to think of it — I invested $2M in my how-not-to-do-things education. In 2011, we moved to San Francisco and created a new company: Bunny Studio — mission-critical creative outsourcing. Using AI, Bunny Studio assembles remote creative teams in real-time to work on projects from enterprise clients that can last from a few minutes to a few days. It not only scaled, but I’ve also just pitched it to you, dear reader 😜.

✅ 36: Have a second child 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦. For years, I didn’t want to have kids. I was so wrong! Soon after the birth of our daughter, Azul, I became obsessed with the idea of having a second child. After years of trying and finally thanks to invitro, our son Nova joined us.

🔲 37 to ?? : Positively impact one billion people 🌐. Attending Davos in 2016 (I was privileged to have been chosen as a Young Global Leader) broadened my mind considerably. It also made me dream a lot bigger. I figured it was time to pursue my motto in life: putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think any conscious entity can ever hope to do (Yes, I borrowed my motto from HAL 9000). So, I started Torre. We’re building a new professional network that humanizes and automates recruiting as well as finding full-time and flexible work. Our goal is to make work fulfilling for everyone. Would you like to join us? Simultaneously, and with the same goal, I co-founded Emma’s startup studio. Tribe and Torrenegra Accelerator came out of it.

🔲 Age 37 to ??: Reinvent democracy 🗳. I lobbied both in the United States and in Colombia. In the US for immigration reform. In Colombia for tech innovation. I quickly got tired of corruption, big money influencing our laws, and stupid political discourse. Democracy must be honest and efficient but the system is broken. One day, I’d like to be a member of the movement that upgrades the way our laws are created. Interested? Let me know.

✅ Age 38: To be a shark on Shark Tank🦈. I never took the program seriously, but when I was invited to become one of the sharks, it became an instant addition to my bucket list. Apparently, the producers were in a rush to find someone and settled on me — a relatively unknown investor — in 15 days. Here is a recap.

🔲 Age 39 to ??: Merge Latin America into one nation 🌎. “No one else in the world takes this immense land full of sadness seriously. They smile when they see that it has twenty-something little flags, each more than proud of their sovereignty. Oh, what foolishness! To divide is to weaken!” — Los Prisioneros. And while it may be improbable, uniting LatAm is worth the shot. So, shall we?

tl;dr: More important than finding out how clients found your website or app, you should identify all the ways clients found out about it — and don’t rely on Google Analytics. Instead: 1. ❓Ask your client “how did you learn about us?” 2. 📝Normalize the answers. 3. 📐Extrapolate. 4. 📈Analyze and Report. 5. 🔄Repeat. We call it the ‘Canales’ framework.

For the majority of tech companies, being able to identify their most important client acquisition channels is key to their ongoing success: it allows them to better invest their marketing dollars. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs — and even marketers — don’t know how to do this properly.

Why?

They focus on learning how their clients found them; they seldom determine how their clients learned about them. While the difference may seem subtle, the implications are significant.

Let’s assume we can gain this information by asking our clients. Two questions we would probably ask are, “How did you learn about us?” and “How did you find us?”. For some channels (such as online paid advertising) the answer may be the same. For other channels, however, the answer may be different.

Consider this scenario: Jane attends a trade show where you have a booth. In passing, she sees what you offer and makes a mental note. Weeks later, she wants to learn more about your product. She, like most people, doesn’t know the domain name of your company. So Jane opens the browser, types in the name of your company or product, Google performs a quick search, and shows your website as the top result. Jane then clicks on it.

Now, if you were to ask Jane “How did you learn about us?”, she’d probably tell you she saw you at a trade show. On the other hand, if you were to ask Jane “How did you find us?”, she might give you one of two broad answers: “At a trade show” or “Google”. While both are technically correct, when it comes to measuring client acquisition channels, you’d want to attribute Jane’s discovery of you to the trade show instead of Google.

Here’s the challenge: if you solely rely on Google Analytics (or most other analytics tools) to track your client acquisition channels, Jane will be assigned to the Google channel. And again, technically, this wouldn’t be an error. However, assigning Jane and a myriad of other clients to the wrong channel will ultimately lead you to invest in the wrong place. For example, if you’re investing in pay-per-click advertising on Google, you may mistakenly assign revenue and clients to the effort — especially if you’re investing in keywords that contain your own brand.

How to measure client acquisition channels properly

Founding several companies (Voice123, Bunny Inc., Torre, etc.) has provided me with the opportunity of tackling this challenge with a number of different approaches. After years of trial and error, we’ve settled on a simple solution: we ask all our valuable users how they learned about us. To ensure this approach works well, we built a small framework around it. We call it Canales — and we’re making it public today so you can use it as well if you like.

The process

1. ❓Ask the question

Have an automatic way of asking this question to your new users: ‘How did you learn about us?’. Ideally, to get a higher percentage of clients answering it, you make the question part of your product. To reduce friction, ask the question towards the end of your core interaction and make it optional — after the user completes a purchase, for example, or after the user subscribes, etc. Alternatively, you can also ask the question via email, although this may reduce the percentage of clients that answer it.

To reduce bias and learn about new channels, I strongly recommend you make the question an open field text. When you limit your users to a set of questions, you bias their answers and limit their thought. Let them teach you. Every now and then you may come across channels and referrers that you hadn’t thought of. It’s happened to me on more than one occasion. Quite recently, in fact, we learned that a Brazilian speaker we had no knowledge of was inviting hundreds of conference attendees to use our service. This helped us identify an additional opportunity in the Brazilian market we’d never even contemplated.

2. 📝 Normalize the answers

If you use an open field, this part requires manual work but it’s definitely worth doing. Every now and then, you have to assign each answer to an acquisition channel. Ideally, you store this information in your database so that you can then cross-reference acquisition channels with other metrics, such as revenue, lifetime value, etc. These are some of the most commons answers I’ve seen and their respective channel:

• “Colleague”, “Friend”, “Coworker”. Channel: word of mouth.
• “Booth”, “[Tradeshow name]”, “Event”. Channel: events.
• “Blog”, “[Publication name]”. Channel: public/media relations.
• “Facebook”, “Social media”, “Twitter”. Channel: social media (in some cases, users may be referring to a friend or colleague talking about your product on social media, though).
• “Phone call”, “You emailed me”, “[Sales person name]”. Channel: outbound sales.
• “Search engine”, “Google”, “Bing”. Channel: search engines (this includes both organic and paid traffic).

Another common answer is “online” and “Internet”. Unfortunately, that could mean anything (search engines, social media, blogs, etc.), so these answers need to be discarded.

3. 📐 Extrapolate

Of course, not all your customers will tell you how they learned about you. Maybe they decide to simply ignore the question, maybe they don’t remember, or maybe they answer “online” or “Internet”. In our experience, about a quarter answer it. If you have enough volume, the data you have normalized should be representative of the rest of your database. It’s thus safe to extrapolate it.

4. 📈 Analyze

You can display this information in two ways: the percentage of clients per channel and the total of clients per channel. Plot the historical values for each channel and look for trends.

You can also cross-reference each channel with other key performance indicators you track. Such as:

• Conversion rates per channel.
• Revenue per channel.
• Gross margins per channel.
• Client lifetime value per channel.
• Customer interactions per channel.

You’re likely to find more insights there. At Bunny Inc., we found out that clients who learned about us via word of mouth have around a 20% higher lifetime value than our average customer, while clients who learned about us via affiliates have a 25% lower lifetime value.

While Google Analytics and other tracking tools aren’t good at identifying all acquisition channels, they can provide detailed information about specific ones: keywords, referral sites, user locations, etc. At Voice123, for example, we store the normalized acquisition channels in Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. We then use these to analyze particular goals and funnels in detail.

5. 🔄 Repeat

In the early stages of a product, you may want to perform this analysis on a weekly basis. As you start scaling, it’s safe to change the rhythm to monthly or even quarterly.

Enjoy!

Related frameworks

• Indicadores: Performance indicators for online platforms (a template)
• Experimento: A practical product management framework
• Usuario: A practical framework for user research and testing
• Prioridad: A practical framework for product and feature prioritization
• And more…

Thanks to Andrés Cajiao, Carel F. Cronje, Cristian Niño, Daniela Avila, Juan Colmenares, Luisa Moscoso, and Tania Zapata for reading and commenting on drafts of this article.

Updated: Sep 19, 2026

This post is for my professional colleagues and potential co-workers.

I look forward to building great things together. You bring not only your skills and talents to our team but also your unique personality. I see it as a privilege to be working with you, and I’ll adapt my leadership style to accommodate your uniqueness. As we’re striving towards a common goal and will be working together closely, you’ll need to adapt as well. From my perspective, the following points are mission-critical:

1. Please watch this video first, then continue reading. Our team is all-in on changing the world. We are willing to live extraordinary lives to build extraordinary things. Know thyself: Are you all-in and change the world? I am. If you are all-in, we’ll work together to have a massive impact on humankind. If not, let's not work together. Neither of us will enjoy it.
2. All-in means pushing as hard and fast as humanly possible to meet your deadlines and SLAs. Sometimes, such as when you’re responsible for removing a bottleneck or something unexpected happens, this requires working extended hours and weekends. Burning the midnight oil.
3. My sense of urgency is high, and I'm trying to make it higher. It's key to change the world. As such, I expect you to get shit done quickly.
4. If anything is blocking you or your team, or if you find your work unfulfilling, let me know immediately.
5. Do keep my strengths and weaknesses in mind. My strengths include ideation, command, execution, integrity, and perfectionism. I have a high IQ (99th percentile). I can solve logical problems quickly. Among my many weaknesses are a lack of empathy in some situations, a bad temper, and — inevitably — my perfectionism. I've been diagnosed with autism:
   I have a low friendship quotient (4th percentile), which means I don’t enjoy having friends as much as others do.
   - I have low socialization motivation (92nd percentile). Social events, like parties, give me anxiety.
   - I have obsessive-compulsive issues (96th percentile). For example, just like a cat can’t stop licking itself, I can’t stop biting my nails.
   - I have repetitive behaviors. For instance, I love walking in circles.
   - I have listening comprehension issues in noisy situations. I find it difficult to understand what others say (2nd percentile).
6. When we’re making decisions, it’s okay to disagree. I expect you to speak your mind and contribute your thoughts, ideas, and opinions. We don't try to be right. We try to get it right.
7. I expect you to be inquisitive and ask questions when you don’t understand or when something doesn’t make sense to you. It’s okay to be reserved outside of work (I am!), but you’re required to speak up in a work context, either when with me or among the members of your team.
8. By the same token, I expect you to welcome questions and not to make people feel bad about asking them — whether the questions come from your colleagues or from me.
9. When chatting, please be open to discussing the meaning of words. Semantics are important to me. My brain likes to think more literally and less figuratively.
10. To keep conversations fluent and our decisions prompt, either reply to or acknowledge my messages within 24 hours — excluding Sundays.
11. I’d like you to be able to ‘unplug’ whenever you feel the need to do so. Just remember to let me know ahead of time if you’re taking days off and won’t be able to react within the timeframe above.
12. If you’d like to meet for a chat, simply ask, and I’ll share my calendar with you.
13. Be on time for our meetings and let’s finish them on time, too — including 25 and 55-minute meetings.
14. When we meet, it’s okay to get emotional. As long as you remain respectful of others, I’ll accept you being emotional as a display of passion. I don’t see that as a sign of weakness.
15. For the sake of efficiency, if you need to cancel or reschedule a meeting, please do so as far in advance as you can. Avoid canceling or rescheduling same-day meetings.
16. Don’t decline a meeting invitation (unless you’re an optional attendee). Instead, contact me promptly via chat, and let’s find a suitable time for all invitees.
17. Make sure your contact number is listed on your Slack profile (including country code). When emergencies arise or we’re experiencing connectivity issues, being able to reach you via Signal is important.
18. You’re free to work from anywhere you like; I have no prescriptions in this regard. Just make sure your Internet connection is excellent.
19. When video conferencing, please enable your webcam; I find it impossible to converse in a void. Video is optional if you're breastfeeding.
20. For the sake of clarity and complete comprehensibility when video conferencing, use a noise-canceling headset. I recommend this one. Experience has taught me that using a headset is the least problematic for all parties concerned.
21. Do keep in mind: if you copy me in any email exchange, the message is likely to go unread. If you want me to read your message, address it to me directly.
22. When interacting with people outside our team, your grammar must be flawless. Accurate grammar makes you look professional. For quick, internal messages, grammar isn't an issue as long as you get your message across.
23. Whether you are an intern automating a flow with Zapier, an operations manager automating a process, or a senior architect building our next big thing, please follow these principles of software and automation development:

• i- By default, separate the UI, business logic, and data storage. It will help you better abstract your solution.
• ii- Don’t triplicate logic. It will make maintenance easier.
• iii- Normalize data in relational databases. It will help you analyze and repurpose it more easily. Avoid NoSQL and denormalization if possible.
• iv- Don’t duplicate data unless necessary for performance purposes. Keeping data synchronized is a long-term nightmare.
• v- Have clear cache updating policies. It’s very easy to have unreliable caches.
• vi- Monitor your queues. If they grow up and you don’t notice, it’s your fault. Strive to have them cleared instantly.
• vii- Think about scalability. When possible, design automation that can scale without requiring overhauls.
• viii- Develop an intuition for how LLMs work (full playlist).
• ix- Use a series of brief prompts rather than a single long one, whenever possible. Consider LLMs interns with bad memory.
• x- Periodically QA the outputs of LLMs if you do not host them. They tend to change.
• xi- KISS (keep it simple, stupid).
• xii- And if you fancy it, please do me a SOLID.

I am committed to leading by example, so while I have clear expectations of you, you’re equally entitled to have expectations of me. Thus, you may expect the following:

• Opportunities to grow. Your personal and professional development is important to me.
• Involvement. I value your comments and suggestions and will always be willing to listen to you.
• I shall keep my commitments. I take great pride in this.
• Consistency. I have an unshakable belief in equality and fairness and I will always be consistent in my approach to you.
• Respect. Once earned, you can count on it.
• Honesty. There is no other way.
• Praise. When you go beyond my expectations.
• Silence. When you simply meet my expectations.
• Radical candor. When you aren't meeting my expectations.
• Periodic, candid, and constructive feedback. Success teaches us far less than making mistakes. I expect you to make the same mistake, only once. You will always know exactly how I feel about what you are doing and have done.
• Recruiting help. When you're looking for new members for your team, I'll help you find, screen, and attract talent.

My professional values

I used Torre's scientific approach to identify what my unique values are. That is, what relatively uncommon behaviors I engage in and appreciate in others.

Compared to others, I significantly value rigor, critical thinking, ambition, risk-taking, assertiveness, optimism, progressive mindsets, hard work, self-learning, futurism, impact, and organization.

Mandatory reading and video material

Alignment is crucial for success, so if you report to me, I’ll expect you to have read (or watched) all of these articles and videos within the first week of our working together. Many of the concepts addressed by them will be used in our daily conversations.

About strategy:

• Jeff Bezos (Lex Fridman Podcast)
• The Jeff Bezos School of Long-Term Thinking
• Make Strategic Thinking Part of Your Job
• Fast
• Founder’s mentality and the paths to sustainable growth
• Failure as a Tool
• Why Product Market Fit Isn’t Enough
• Speed as a strategy (first eight minutes)

About leadership

• Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO
• The puzzle of motivation
• How great leaders inspire action
• Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005
• What sets successful CEOs apart
• Why Feelings of Guilt May Signal Leadership Potential
• The Sad Truth About Developing Executives
• Trouble hiring senior engineers? It’s probably you
• The high-return activity of raising others’ aspirations
• This 90 day plan turns engineers into remarkable managers
• Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? (if you need a copy, contact me)

Our own frameworks:

• Indicadores: performance indicators for online platforms (a template)
• Canales: A framework for identifying all client acquisition channels
• Prioridad: A practical framework for product and feature prioritization
• Experimento: A practical product management framework
• Usuario: A practical framework for user research and testing
• Mentores: A practical guide for finding, engaging, and learning from mentors

About product

• Steve Jobs : Great idea doesn’t always translates into great product
• Know Your Customers’ “Jobs to Be Done”
• How To Find Product-Market Fit
• How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit
• Strive for the delta of wow

About analytics

• Cohort analysis
• Scaling Data: Data Informed to Data Driven to Data Led

About engineering and algorithms

• The Product-Minded Engineer
• Algorithms Need Managers, Too
• How to Protect your Machine Learning Product from Time, Adversaries, and Itself
• Three principles for designing ML powered products
• The 5 Levels of AI Coding

About pricing and business models

• Technical Innovation vs Business Model Innovation
• It’s Price Before Product. Period.
• Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability

About marketing and sales:

• Sell Your Ideas the Steve Jobs Way
• Your blog is not a publication
• How This Zapier SEO Strategy Boosted Their Site Visits to 6.3 Million
• Experimentation & Measurement for Search Engine Optimization
• Dissecting Virality — The Mathematical Formula
• The Sales Acceleration Formula (summary)
• Sales Was Hard Until I Understood These 9 Concepts

About self-awareness:

• Dunning-Kruger effect
• Summary of the book Think Again
• Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45
• The success paradox
• The surprising habits of original thinkers
• Self Confidence

About company culture:

• Strike When The Iron Is Hot
• Being Scrappy, Lean And Successful: The Do’s & Don’ts of Startup Spending
• 9 ways to stay scrappy
• The Five Stages of Tribal Culture
• Speaking While Female
• Managing up

About our industries:

• Humans Need Not Apply
• The Emergence Of The End-to-End Marketplace
• Status-as-a-Service
• What’s next for marketplace startups? Reinventing the $10 trillion service economy, that’s what.

About my background:

• Touched by an angel
• How we successfully launched Voice123 being part-time entrepreneurs
• Could crowdsourcing talent online create jobs?
• No, your startup doesn’t suck
• Choose good quests

By the end of the first month, I’ll expect you to have read these books:

• Platform Revolution
• Zero to One

By the end of the second month, I’ll expect you to have read these books:

• Creativity Inc.
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things

If any of the links don’t work, please let me know as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Updated on Mar 14, 2021

Atwo-sided network enables value-creating interactions between external producers and consumers. Over the years, I’ve not only co-founded several including Voice123, Bunny Studio, and Torre but I’ve also invested in many more. As a result, the associated teams and I built a template of the most important metrics for two-sided networks in both early and growth stages. Today, we’d like to share it with all of you — and you can customize it for your own network. We call this template Indicadores.

The key performance indicators (KPIs)

To make it easier for the team to pursue a common goal, it’s important to have a few key performance indicators. For two-sided networks, this indicator is the core interaction. Platform Revolution defines core interaction as “the single most important form of activity that takes place on a [two-sided network] — the exchange of value that attracts most users to the platform in the first place.”

In the case of Airbnb, the core interaction is nights booked. For Uber and Lyft, it’s likely to be rides completed. In the case of Bunny Studio., where we sell voice over recordings, translations, and other creative services, the core interaction is projects fulfilled.

Ideally, KPIs are shared with the team every day.

Additional performance indicators (PIs)

While KPIs are important, two-sided networks require many things to occur successfully for the core interactions to grow. Two-sided networks are like a plane; they require the constant monitoring of multiple factors to ensure the plane won’t crash. CEOs and product managers must review these metrics regularly (ideally, weekly) and look for ways to improve them.

Two-sided networks tend to have two types of users: producers and consumers (of course, on some networks, producers can be consumers and vice versa). You should have performance indicators for each type of user at each stage of their lifecycle:

Metrics for consumers

Overall:

• Funnel analysis per cohort (learn more)

Awareness stage:

• Top-of-mind percentage (learn more)

Acquisition stage:

• New consumer registrations per channel
• Newly-retained consumers per channel

Activation stage:

• Consumer acquisition and activation cost
• Average # of core interactions for new consumers
• Time to core interaction for new consumers
• The success rate of the core interaction’s first attempt

Revenue stage:

• Revenue
• Lifetime value (LTV) (learn more)

Retention stage:

• Searches (or equivalent)
• Average core interactions per cohort
• % of searches (or equivalent) that result in a click through for existing consumers
• For returning consumers, successful core interactions
• For existing consumers, % of core interactions that result in success
• Unique consumers having core interactions
• Engagement per visit (measured in either core interactions or time spent)
• Percentage of active consumers
• Churn per cohort (learn more here and here)

Referral stage:

• K-factor for attracting other consumers (learn more)
• K-factor for attracting producers
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) (learn more)

Metrics for producers

Overall:

• Funnel analysis per cohort (learn more)

Awareness stage:

• Top-of-mind percentage (learn more)

Acquisition stage:

• New producer registrations per channel
• Newly-retained producers per channel

Activation stage:

• Producer acquisition and activation cost
• Average # of core interactions for new producers
• Time to core interaction for new producers
• % of new listings that lead to core interactions within a given period

Revenue stage:

• Revenue
• Lifetime value (LTV) (learn more)

Retention stage:

• Listings (or equivalent) created
• Average core interactions per cohort
• % of existing listings that lead to core interactions
• Unique producers having core interactions
• Engagement per visit (measured in either core interactions or time spent)
• Percentage of active producers
• Churn per cohort (learn more here and here)

Referral stage:

• K-factor for attracting other producers (learn more)
• K-factor for attracting consumers
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) (learn more)

Metrics (performance indicators) for job-related networks

Job-related networks have a set of unique challenges. The distinction between producer and consumer and between offer and demand is difficult to make. Is the consumer the person looking for candidates (talent seeker) or the candidate looking for opportunities (opportunity seeker)? Is the item being consumed the candidate profiles or the job opportunities? If one follows the money, it may be argued that demand consists of talent seekers and offer consists of the opportunity seeker. However, professionals in high demand can wait for talent seekers to submit offers for them to consider. This is the case for many software engineers in LinkedIn and celebrity voice actors in Voice123 (a network that matches clients with voice actors). Because of this, on job-related networks, there are two common ways of connecting the two sides:

1. By enabling talent seekers to post opportunities and letting opportunity seekers show their interest.
2. By granting talent seekers access to a database of talent and contacting the opportunity seekers individually.

A job-related network may be considered the combination of two networks and will thus need twice as many metrics:

• Network 1:
  - KPI: Opportunities posted and fulfilled
  - Performance indicators for talent seekers posting opportunities (acting as producers)
  - Performance indicators for opportunity seekers observing posted opportunities (acting as consumers)
• Network 2:
  - KPI: Searches fulfilled
  - Performance indicators for talent seekers searching for talent (acting as consumers)
  - Performance indicators for opportunity seekers open to being found in searches (acting as producers)

To make matters even more complex, job-related networks may offer value in a third way: by allowing users to create and manage their profiles (Torre, Voice123, etc.). In this case, one type of user creates a profile and another type of user — already aware of the existence of the person — ‘consumes’ the profile to learn more about the user. For example, a person knows a popular voice actor, searches for him or her in Voice123, finds the profile, and ‘sees’ it. Note that in this case, the network isn’t performing any significant matching. However, it makes it easier for the voice actor to deliver information to the person and for that person to learn information about the voice actor.

A job-related network may, therefore, need a third set of metrics:

• Network 3:
  - KPI: Profile views
  - Performance indicators for profile consumers
  - Performance indicators for profile producers

Learn more

To learn more about the topic, have a look at:

• The book Platform Revolution, location 3191
• The book Inspired, location 996
• The customer-lifecycle framework by Dave McClure

Note: Indicadores doesn’t include some metrics that are important for mature two-sided networks. The links above include references to them.

Related frameworks

• Experimento: A practical product management framework
• Usuario: A practical framework for user research and testing
• Prioridad: A practical framework for product and feature prioritization
• Canales: A framework for identifying all client acquisition channels
• And more…

Thanks to Andrés Cajiao, Carel F. Cronje, Daniela Avila, Luisa Moscoso, Nicolás Contreras, Rolf Veldman, and Santiago Jaramillo for reading and commenting on drafts of this article.

Actualización: Dado el alto volumen de interés generado por este artículo, fundé una aceleradora.

Emprendedores accidentales. Supongo que esa es la descripción definitiva de lo que éramos mi esposa Tania y yo cuando co-fundamos Voice123 a principios de los años 2000. Sin embargo, hoy es un negocio exitoso con más de 200.000 usuarios.

Un poco menos accidental es la realidad de que este éxito no dependió de ángeles, aceleradoras o inversionistas de capital de riesgo ('VCs' por su sigla en inglés). De hecho, si les hubiéramos hecho caso, Voice123 no existiría hoy. Hay una gran cantidad de emprendedores como nosotros allá afuera. El modelo de inversión actual popularizado por Silicon Valley está sofocando a muchos de ellos y acabando con emprendimientos que también podrían volverse exitosos. En este artículo se explica el tema y se ofrece una alternativa.

En la actualidad, la mayoría de las aceleradoras, ángeles de inversión y VCs, ganan dinero ofreciendo a las empresas financiamiento, obteniendo acciones y esperando vender esas acciones en el futuro por un retorno muy superior. El sistema funciona: empresas como Google, Facebook, Apple y muchas otras no podrían existir de otro modo. Sin embargo, la principal desventaja es que este esquema crea un ecosistema que requiere que los emprendedores apunten a la luna, en lugar de centrarse en construir un negocio sostenible.

Los VCs no perderán tiempo trabajando con empresas que probablemente podrán vender por menos de 50 millones de dólares (su modelo de negocios necesita esas magnitudes). Los ángeles y aceleradoras existen porque los VCs existen. Funcionan como un puente entre el emprendimiento y el VC. Aunque algunos ángeles prefieren negocios con eficiencia de capital en los que no sea necesario invertir demasiado capital de riesgo para evitar la dilución, muchos ángeles no invertirán en emprendimientos que tienen pocas probabilidades de alcanzar un nivel de valoración de 50 millones de dólares, porque temen que los VC no inviertan.

Dado que la mayoría de las aceleradoras siguen también el modelo de ángel/VC/salida y miden su éxito con base en el nivel de financiamiento que logran los emprendimientos, se les está solicitando a muchos emprendedores y empresas con ideas estupendas realizar giros y probar “ideas más grandes”. Es poco probable que siquiera lleguen a considerar el bootstrapping, o financiamiento propio — ¡que de hecho funciona! Desafortunadamente, forzar a emprendedores que están experimentando el área por primera vez a “soñar en grande” y ejecutar ideas de 50 millones de dólares, no dista mucho de pedirle a un conductor novato que complete una carrera en un campeonato de Fórmula 1: es realmente riesgoso. El concepto de “todo o nada” puede funcionar para algunos, pero no debería ser un mantra rígido, especialmente en las economías emergentes.

Muchos de mis colegas y yo sufrimos de una “fatiga del día de demos — o demo-day”. A juzgar por las tendencias recientes, un día de demos debería ser llamado un “día de PowerPoints” en el que los panelistas — principalmente inversionistas — parecen decirles a los emprendedores que sus empresas “no son suficientemente buenas”, simplemente porque las firmas representadas por los panelistas decidieron no invertir en ellas.

Francamente, estoy cansado de que los VC descarten a los emprendedores porque sus emprendimientos están dentro de la categoría conocida como negocios de estilo de vida (¡como si ser un VC no fuera un negocio de estilo de vida!). No quiero seguir viendo a las economías emergentes intentar y fallar a la hora de copiar el modelo de Silicon Valley, enseñando a los emprendedores cómo recaudar capital de ángeles cuando realmente hay muy pocas salidas exitosas.

Los emprendedores con buenas ideas, incluso si son ideas “no tan grandes”, deben sentirse cómodos creando empresas “no tan grandes”. Esto es especialmente relevante para los emprendedores primerizos. Está perfectamente bien crear una empresa con bootstrapping que “solamente” venda 1 millón de dólares al año y crezca 20% anualmente. Claro, ningún VC se puede hacer rico con este esquema, pero los fundadores se sentirán felices. Estas empresas también pueden tener un impacto social significativo: Como inversionista en Shark Tank Colombia, he intentado comunicar esto siempre que decido no invertir en un negocio prometedor.

¿Pueden ser de ayuda los ángeles o aceleradoras? Desafortunadamente, su modelo de negocios actual depende del VC. Si una empresa financiada por ellos no está respaldada por un VC, es muy poco probable que el ángel y/o aceleradora reciba su dinero de vuelta. ¿Cuál es la solución? Aunque puede que haya varias respuestas, hay una que me gustaría proponer después de considerarlo cuidadosamente durante un tiempo: ventas-compartidas convertibles ('convertible revshare' en inglés).

Cuando una aceleradora o ángel invierte en una empresa (bien sea a través de financiamiento o, más importante, a través de asesoría), puede comenzar a obtener una pequeña parte de las ventas de la empresa. Por supuesto, las ventas podrían ser escasas al principio, pero después de un par de años y un poco de crecimiento, las ventas pueden ser lo suficientemente sustanciales como para justificar la inversión original de tiempo y/o dinero. Al igual que con las notas convertibles (convertible notes), las ventas-compartidas convertibles se pueden transformar en capital cuando se alcanzan determinados niveles de desempeño o hitos de tiempo, por ejemplo: lograr cierto nivel de ventas agregadas, recibir determinada cantidad de financiamiento o la venta del emprendimiento.

Lo llamo “ventas-compartidas convertibles” por sus similitudes con las notas convertibles. Sin embargo, a diferencia de las notas convertibles, el modelo de negocios de los ángeles y aceleradoras no dependería de que la empresa se venda para ser viable. De hecho, las ventas-compartidas convertibles pueden abrir la puerta para que las aceleradoras promuevan el bootstrapping. La idea de “regalías convertibles” puede permitir a los ángeles y aceleradoras invertir en empresas que actualmente ni siquiera estén siendo consideradas para aceleración: empresas impulsadas con bootstrapping, empresas que no necesitan capital adicional, empresas de servicios, empresas sin fines de lucro, etc. Incluso puede permitir que servicios de recaudación de fondos, como Kickstarter, Indiegogo y Vaki, ofrezcan algún tipo de retorno financiero a los financiadores. Sueño con el día en que las aceleradoras dejen de intentar forzar a los emprendedores a mejorar sus discursos de venta para los inversionistas y, en lugar de eso, se enfoquen en ayudarles a mejorar sus discursos de venta para los clientes, ¡de forma que puedan vender más!

Algunos inversionistas están experimentando con conceptos relacionados. Village Capital, Indie.vc y Adobe Capital utilizan deudas subordinadas que son pagadas recolectando un porcentaje de las ventas. Este modelo a veces se conoce como 'revenue-capital' (capital de ventas). No obstante, muchos emprendedores no necesitan del capital de riesgo. Necesitan educación, asesoría, conexiones y estrategia. Endeavor, entidad sin ánimo de lucro de la que me he beneficiado bastante, acelera emprendedores conectándolos con mentores. Su sustento financiero depende de donaciones, cuotas de servicio, y un fondo de inversión de capital de riesgo.

Por supuesto, el modelo de ventas-compartidas convertibles no es perfecto y puede no ser el adecuado en todas las situaciones; el porcentaje compartido puede ser diferente dependiendo de las distintas empresas y sus modelos de negocio.

¿Qué piensas? ¿Qué desventajas podría tener el modelo propuesto? Si eres un emprendedor, ¿estarías dispuesto a pagar 1–2% en ventas-compartidas (en lugar de ofrecer el tradicional 7–10% de acciones) a las aceleradoras? Si eres una aceleradora, ¿considerarías utilizar este modelo? ¿Podría funcionar en las economías emergentes? ¿Podría funcionar en Silicon Valley? ¿El acuerdo de ventas-compartidas convertibles debería tener una fecha límite? ¿Este modelo alentaría a las aceleradoras a presionar a los emprendedores para aumentar sus ventas en el corto plazo mientras que se sacrifica la estrategia de largo plazo?

Me gusta respaldar mis palabras con acciones, por lo que estoy pensando en fundar una aceleradora enfocada en ofrecer asesoría para acelerar a un millón de emprendedores bajo este modelo. ¿Te interesa acompañarme como cofundador, recibir aceleración, o convertirte en asesor y obtener una porción de las ventas-compartidas? Envíame un correo electrónico a: alex@torrenegra.com

Artículo traducido del inglés al español por Bunny Studio. He aquí el original.

En el 2015, publiqué una versión previa de esta idea llamada 'Convertible Royalties: An Alternative to the Equity Model for Accelerators'.

Un poco más sobre mí: comencé mi primer negocio en Colombia cuando era apenas un adolescente y por medio del bootstrapping llegamos a tener 25 empleados. En 1998 me mudé a los Estados Unidos. Además de Voice123, mi esposa y yo también co-fundamos en el 2011 Bunny Inc. (una solución fundamental de tercerización de escritura, grabaciones de voz y traducciones), que llevamos adelante a través del bootstrapping. Con cientos de miles de usuarios, disponibilidad en cinco idiomas y miembros del equipo en más de 10 países, ambas empresas están creciendo establemente. En conjunto, hemos sido inversionistas ángel en más de 20 empresas de tecnología y dado asesoría a cientos de emprendedores. Por invitación de Sony Pictures Television, me uní a Shark Tank Colombia como inversionista en el 2017.

Quiero agradecer a Andrés Barreto, Carel Conje, Estuardo Tata Robles, Felipe Santamaría, Jackie Hyland, Leonardo Suárez, Santiago Jaramillo, Santiago Zavala, Sergio Zuniga y Tania Zapata por leer y comentar los borradores de este artículo. Gracias a Dan Gertsacov, Dan Green, Leonardo Suárez, Patrick McGinnis, Shaun Young y Tara Tyler por leer y comentar los borradores de la idea original.