February 12, 2024
As a founder of Qubik, Matias has learned many valuable lessons throughout his journey. One of the most important things is: timing is crucial in business. You have to find the right niche and moment to offer a solution to a problem.
Matias began his career early in his family business: a company focused on distributing fruits and vegetables throughout Latin America in massive amounts. From that moment, the idea of founding a logistic transportation company sparked.
"Part of the business was supported by all the fruits we brought for our business, but we also had other clients. That company was focused on the niche of everything frozen & super frozen, and we do a lot of services from Argentina to Chile, from Argentina to Chile to Bolivia".
After that experience as a founder, he started a private safe deposit box company, like the vaults in banks. In Argentina, there is a lot of use for vaulting money, and with a colleague from college, he founded another private safe deposit box company.
"In our case, we saw an opportunity to offer logistics solutions to SMEs in Latin America, and we quickly adapted to the market by creating a customer success department and hiring experienced logistics professionals," Matias says.
"Like many people, we initially started in the e-commerce market; we were clear that we were a company that would be asset-light. We would have cero trucks, motorcycles, or vans to provide the solution."
We started our vision to give a complete solution in logistics; we did not focus only on the last mile or the last delivery, but we wanted to solve it from beginning to end. So that is when we created an integrated solution offering the first mile, warehousing, and last mile.
We were born as a company with this vision, and today, after the second big pivot, which is to focus more on bulky and SME products where we found a better response from the market than on 50/50 e-commerce products.
Matias recognizes the unstructured way of doing things as a founder. That's why he applied to Pygma, a program that would put him in contact with founders all over the region and give him more structure in his business.
When someone is still in a very early stage of the company, it is crucial to contact other founders in the same stage and understand their challenges and opportunities, which is very valuable and something we have along the acceleration program.
It is up to each startup to see how much advantage to take from the program. Qubik members were all present in almost all the meetings, and we took it very seriously, making it possible to make the most of the resources, and that's what he did.
Today, he has friends in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and wherever he goes because he participated in the Pygma accelerator program. He has someone everywhere to send a WhatsApp and to be able to connect.
The whole fundraising strategy, building the angel's army, contacting VCs, and approaching them to achieve the objectives is a crucial part of the acceleration program.
"Another important aspect that has contributed to our success is our team. We have a strong culture of innovation, progress, and professionalism, and we provide our employees with all the necessary tools to grow and develop within the company", Matias confesses.
"We also have a strong inclusion policy, which has helped us create a group of A-class people with different backgrounds and perspectives," he adds.
"Our exponential growth over the past year has resulted from a combination of factors, including our strong team, our focus on SMEs, and our ability to adapt to changes in the market.
We are currently looking to expand our operations to the United States, and we have been selected to participate in the Alchemist accelerator program, which will give us a deeper understanding of the B2B market in the U.S", he explains.
Participating in the Pygma acceleration program was also a key part of our growth. The program allowed us to connect with other founders and mentors worldwide, which helped us to gain valuable insights into the market and fundraising. We highly recommend the program to any founder who is willing to learn and take advantage of all the resources that it provides.
For Matias, there is a life beyond businesses: regarding personal and spiritual growth, reading has been a valuable tool for him. "I try to read a variety of subjects, including business, finance, economics, and spirituality. Some books that have significantly impacted Matias include The Great Sea Within, Lean Startup, Startup Nation, and Zero to One", he says.
Overall, our success has resulted from our ability to adapt to changes in the market, our strong team, and our focus on innovation and progress. The future is bright for Qubik, and we are committed to doubling or tripling our turnover by 2024.
The shrink of the investment of VC in Latam doesn't scare him but the opposite: "we also believe that there will continue to be opportunities for good founders and good ideas to raise funds and succeed, despite the economic outlook," Matias says.
In addition to having a strong team, Matias recommended participating in accelerator programs like Pygma and Alchemist to gain valuable insights into the market and connect with mentors and peers worldwide.
He emphasized that these programs can provide valuable resources for founders willing to learn and take advantage of all they offer. Overall, Qubik's success has resulted from its ability to adapt to changes in the market, its strong team, and its focus on innovation and progress. Matias believes that the future is bright for Qubik and that there will continue to be opportunities for good founders and good ideas to raise funds and succeed, despite the economic outlook.
He encouraged other founders to stay focused and determined and to take advantage of the resources available to them to achieve success.
