Breaking Free
How to Quit Your Job and Start Your Own Business
Entrepreneur/Hacker Meetup In Buenos Aires
In: Success Stories| Updates By: Brian Armstrong
19 Nov 2009Andrew Warner and I put together a little entrepreneur meetup last night which turned out really well.
Well actually, I emailed Andrew when I saw on his blog that he was in Buenos Aires, and he had the great idea to post the meeting to Hacker News. It ended up being a pretty good turnout.
Buenos Aires is turning into quite the little tech entrepreneur scene. As I wrote on Hacker News…
It does seem like something is brewing here. I think it got popular with Tim Ferriss’ The Four Hour Work Week where he talks about Buenos Aires…lots of founders came down here. It’s easier to bootstrap a web business because:
1. costs are much lower here
2. earning in dollars and spending in pesos means your money goes a long way (geo-arbitrage)
It’s by no means huge yet, but there is a band of renegade expat coder/entrepreneurs I’ve met up with here that are doing some impressive stuff.
Here is a sampling of the attendees (in alphabetical order) and the projects they’re working on. Take a minute to check out their sites, there is some pretty impressive work being done by this group…
- Andrew Warner Mixergy.com (awesome interviews with entrepreneurs – and he’s a highly successful entrepreneur to boot, check out his about page)
- Andy Cary from BecomeACelebrityJournalist.com (new ebook that just came out)
- Brian Cary from InfusedIndustries.com (they make a shopping cart that fits right in a banner ad)
- Chad Depue from RubyRescue.com (heads up a kick ass Rails dev team)
- Eric Knudtson from ExpatQA.com (an awesome question and answer community for ex-pats, the format of the site is addictive, way better than a typical forum, and is built on the StackExchange platform) and EricKnudtson.com
- Fernando Parra http://fparra.com.ar/
- James Cox http://twitter.com/imajes
- Javier Sitaker http://www.dist-exp.com (computer consultants and also check here if you want to know how to deal with the bureaucrazy in starting a business in Argentina)
- Leonard Lin sched.org (an agenda builder for conferences and great domain name)
- Mike Manning GoBigMike.com (holy crap he traveled to 28 countries last year?!) and TrackYourHours.com (700 paying customers!)
- Manuel http://twitter.com/mergoc
- Taylor McKnight also from sched.org
- Tom Aadland from BuenaCarta.com (a soon to be launched restaurant review site for Buenos Aires)
- Simon Bottling EnBuenosAires.com (an MLS system for real estate in Buenos Aires)
- Vik Duggal from VikDuggal.com (check out his video blog) and Konstructr.com
There was a lot of talent in the room. Sorry if I didn’t get a chance to talk with some of you! Feel free to add your info in the comments if you want to be invited to the next one. Thanks!
Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong
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Breaking Free is a blog for people who'd like to quit their 9-to-5, start their own business, and achieve financial freedom. It's written by web-entrepreneur Brian Armstrong. You can read more here »
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Andy Werner
November 19th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Wow, what a way to make me sorry I missed it… will def attend the follow-up event!
Andrew Warner
November 19th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
I’m looking forward to meeting you Andy.
I love the community here. There’s something motivating about being around people who are willing to leave their country to pursue a passion. Last night, I had a drink with people from Germany, Venezuela, US, etc.
Brian Armstrong
November 19th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Wow you guys have names that are really close! Andy would be great to have you at the next one. Nice blog design too!
Rob Hanly
November 20th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Looks like one hell of a meet up – loved some of the links that came along with it!
Digging the blog as well man, always a pleasure to read.
Brian Armstrong
November 20th, 2009 at 1:54 am
Thanks Rob!
Andy Werner
November 20th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Thanks Brian, yours is pretty sweet as well!
Michael Johnston
November 20th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Hi there, I just found out about this gathering. I’m in Buenos Aires as well and would be interested in going to any follow-ups!
Brian Armstrong
November 20th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Sounds good Michael!
Gilberto A. Rodríguez
November 20th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Success to you all! Just one tip. Guayaberas in Buenos Aires are a big no no. Especially mint green ones. Leave those for Miami mixers.
Vik Duggal
November 21st, 2009 at 4:36 pm
This was a fantastic event to meet local peeps in BsAs. Thanks Andrew and Brian for putting this together. Definitely came up with good ideas – hopefully some of them stick!
I did a vid from that night and will send it to you in a bit.
Vik
Brian Armstrong
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:07 am
Thanks Vik! Watched it earlier.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, check out http://www.vikduggal.com/
Taylor McKnight
November 25th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
It was a lot of fun, thanks for putting this together! Next time a place with wifi :)
Brian Armstrong
November 26th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Haha, good call!
Fernando Parra
November 26th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Hey Guys,
It was great having these meeting and knowing each of you.
Really looking forward to geek out anytime soon.
Brian Armstrong
November 26th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Most definitely, thanks Fernando!
Vik Duggal
December 5th, 2009 at 2:48 am
UPDATE: A bunch of cool stuff happening in BA, but here’s one I wanted to share with the peeps in the thread. Just started video blogging for LandingPadBA.com. Here’s my first post: http://bit.ly/55UeKm. Just thought I’d share.
Brian Armstrong
December 5th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Ahh cool, had heard about that site but not seen it before. Thanks Vik!