Gotta catch ‘em all! - We're launching Latam's largest startup database •

Contxto – I don’t know about you but I used to be a hardcore Pokemon fan. I loved playing the Nintendo games, exploring new locations and discovering unique Pokemon. All-day, every day.

As I grew up, that young, adventurous spirit hasn’t really changed within me. In all actuality, my life’s goal is still to “Catch ‘em all,” the only thing different now is the game I’m playing.

See, in Pokemon, there was this old but young-looking guy called Professor Oak. This crazy brother wanted to create a complete database of all Pokemon, so he sent a 12-year-old to travel the world accompanied by an electric rat.

I’m almost like Professor Oak. Although I don’t exploit children, I’m a huge database freak. In Latin America, there are very few resources we can share to virtually and seamlessly navigate the entire ecosystem. There just aren’t any reference encyclopedias.

For this reason, we at Contxto have committed ourselves to create and complete it. Picture us as the Mexican Ash Ketchums. With this in mind, there are two main announcements I want to make in this post.

We’re launching Latam’s largest ecosystem database

We get it. You think there needs to be more visibility, traceability and exposure for the Latin American ecosystem. But how? Who is going to build such a tool?

Good news for you, my friend. If you ever contemplated the need for a Latin American “Crunchbase,” we’re here to tell you that we’ve already done it. It now exists.

Believe it or not but I wasn’t always a writer as skillful as Shakespear. In fact, my skillset was used quite differently a couple of months ago. I actually used to be a VC analyst where I wrote the occasional blog post.

Something I noticed during my time as a VC analyst was the lack of information available regarding the Latin American ecosystem. Conducting Due Diligence was a very artisanal process, and all the data about these startups was floating around the web. I certainly spotted a pain-point but never thought of building a tool to improve it.

Once my co-founder Pargat and I started brainstorming, we decided Latin America needed a media outlet but also a concentrated encyclopedia. Yes, the news is important, yet what happens to all of that data? There was certainly an opportunity for us to capture all of the information I was writing about, turn it into trackable, quantifiable data and offer it to the general public.

Not only will this make due diligence processes much easier for investors but also founders. With us, they can expect to get visibility from funds, accelerators, foreign corporations and overall tech enthusiasts looking for the next big thing in the tech sector.

Although we’re still improving the platform, and we’re still missing data, we’d love to hear your comments and feedback. Also, you can make sure your startup is visible by submitting it yourself!

Check it out here!

Traveling the region

It has already been six months since we launched Contxto. Since then, one of the things I’ve noticed is that although I love writing about startups, I don’t know them all. What I love more than writing is actually getting to know entrepreneurs and learning about their businesses. This way, I can understand their companies’ values and processes for me to create more accurate and representative articles.

For this reason, I will be traveling throughout Latin America’s largest cities during the entire month of October. My goal is to meet the most founders, investors and tech enthusiasts across the region to give these startups the exposure they deserve.

In the end, this will help us map the ecosystem more precisely and provide visibility to the startups with the highest potential.

I would really love to meet you. So, if you’re down to get a coffee and chat about your startup while I sit and listen contently, feel free to reach out via email ([email protected]) or Twitter (@cortesvictorh).

Gotta catch ‘em all.