At Polymath we build human centered companies, a process that begins and ends with finding and solving deep needs in people’s expressions, beliefs, and ways of thinking. This translates into one of our core competencies which is the ability to access the information that lays several layers beyond what simple numbers or market surveys manage to expose. However, in order to get to that depth of understanding, we need to dive deep into a country’s culture, norms, and habits. After all, we have long experienced that culture matters.
After five very rewarding years of running Polymath Ventures in Bogotá, Colombia we have taken the next big step in our mission to build scalable businesses based on the understanding of uncovered middle class needs in the emerging markets of Latin America: the opening of our offices in Mexico City.
Why Mexico?
Ever since the inception of the Polymath idea, Mexico has been amongst the strongest contenders for the launch of the company for several rather trivial reasons, like the sheer size of its economy and the size of the middle class and its purchasing power. But there are less apparent reasons that have been central to the decision-making progress of moving to Mexico.
Bogotá and Mexico City might have been comparable in terms of entrepreneurial maturity when we first founded Polymath. However, in recent years Mexico City has certainly undergone an impressive surge because of government initiatives, venture capital funding, and ultimately its audacious people. This has led Mexico to a steep increase in startups, incubators, accelerators and ultimately entrepreneurs; described in more detail in techcrunch’s take on the rise of entrepreneurship in Mexico.
What does that mean for us?
It’s beyond any doubt that Mexico City now exhibits a high level of “entrepreneurial maturity, a key factor to Polymath’s success when you consider the importance of the volume of entrepreneurial talent that our model requires and the availability of risk capital to fund early and later stages of our ventures. However, that’s not the only reason.
Polymath is also setting foot in Mexico to grow into the role of a regional player. This understanding of the local dynamics will undoubtedly benefit the companies we will build for the Mexican market and serve as a support structure for our existing ventures that are planning to expand. Also, it will provide fertile ground for our creative business design processes like Seed, which sit at the inception of each new company.
A sneak peak of our venture creation process. February 2016.
To wrap things up, we believe that Polymath’s methodology is unique and will be of significant interest to entrepreneurs, investors, and future partners alike.
We are one month into operations and it has been a fantastic ride so far, thanks to the warm welcome of a great variety of people.
If we haven’t had a chance to connect, please reach out. And if you are one of those audacious entrepreneurs looking for a new challenge – feel free to apply here.
