TIME HAS BECOME RIGHT FOR TIJUANA ENTREPRENEURSHIP
From The San Diego Union Tribune
Never, ever discount the power of time and timing.
Source: From Neil Senturia's book "I'm There for You, Baby: The Entrepreneur's Guide to the Galaxy," which has more than 200 rules for entrepreneurs
(imthereforyoubaby.com).
"Timing plays a critical role in the ultimate success or failure of a new venture. In 1995, when we started our first software company to focus on
high-speed Internet in public places, the convergence of the recent release of Windows, the Pentium chip and the growing popularity of email had lined
up the stars in our favor. We were the beneficiaries of these events over which we had no control.
A few years before, while working at UC San Diego, I started an initiative called Cross Border Connect, whose goal was to link technology
entrepreneurs in San Diego and Tijuana. After a few well-attended programs on both sides of the border, we disbanded the initiative because technology
entrepreneurship seemed premature in Tijuana. We had a good idea, but it got no traction- at that time.
Today, Tijuana is a different story entirely, according to speakers at a recent San Diego Startup Circle event. It is home to a burgeoning innovation
ecosystem. In May, Tijuana hosted its first Startup Weekend. The Tijuana Economic Development Corp. (EDC) plans to launch an organization similar to
CONNECT in San Diego, and MIND Hub (an accelerator started in 2011) has successfully raised $500,000 for three of its companies.
"Tijuana has been known as a center for low-cost manufacturing for more than 50 years for electronics, medical devices and now aerospace," said Flavio
Olivieri, president, Tijuana EDC. Now the region's focus is also on creating companies, because the new generation understands that it can't rely on
making money in the traditional areas of real estate and services, he said.
Other factors contributing to the surge in technology entrepreneurship include a change in government policies allowing innovation grants to be
awarded to small businesses (and not just universities), a growing number of highly trained engineers who have gained extensive technical knowledge
while working in Tijuana manufacturing operations, and the establishment of Endeavor Baja California, an organization focused on identifying and
supporting high-impact entrepreneurs.
In 2003, Jorge Arroyo and his partner Angel Sanchez started Arkus, a software development company and one of the first technology firms based in
Tijuana. Arroyo grew up in Tijuana, and in 1999 earned a degree in computer science from Cetys Universidad, where he met Sanchez. "We have
bootstrapped from nothing to an 80-employee company," said Arroyo.
Initially, the company focused on customers in Mexico, and the business grew slowly.
"The game changer for us was when the Mexican government started accelerators in different cities in the U.S. to allow Mexican companies to access the
global marketplace," said Arroyo who spent a year in Silicon Valley participating in the Techba program. There he learned how to attract U.S.
companies as customers and how "ideas can become a company." Now, U.S. clients account for more than two-thirds of the company's revenues."
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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