Miguel Angel Bravo @ Tedx La Falda - An argentinian car? it won't work!

Welcome Here he is, Mr. Bravo. So, let's start with all the thanks and congratulations To all the people from TED for inviting me, it is always a privilege to be able to share my experience. I always followed, more than textbooks, books relating the experiences of entrepreneurs and businessmen, and I think what they have done is essential, both the organization of Buenos Aires, and, above all, the organization here. I think it's essential. On the other hand, then, I'd like to thank the opportunity to express myself and to teach what I think I can teach. As you know, I am a UBACyT professor and researcher which means that transferring is also essential to me. Also, congratulations, because I know that many of you are undertaking for the first tome the difficult task of taking over those things that others do not want to take over, which has been my specialty since I was a little boy. Whenever there was a problem they said "Discuss it with Miguel Ángel", later "with Architect Bravo", "because he dares". Then, most of all, many say that I have no shame, right? because I dare to do anything, but always inside the scope of my professional career which is very vast, thank God. So, let's get to business. What I did here was a timeline up there, and this is interesting because we were telecommuting. Yesterday morning, I had this idea. I come up with the idea and the factory panics, "Miguel Ángel thought of a new idea","He doesn't want to do the usual presentation", "The one from youtube is out", "He wants to do something else", "He didn't leave any new material". So they were on the cell phone (which I obviously have on 3G all the time, which drains the battery constantly, that's why I designed a cell phone, and also created an Argentinean cell phone company). So I started saying no, I'd like to do something else. Do a timeline up there, and let's also add a tag cloud. For techies or geeks, tag clouds show what people are searching the most on the internet, and it is represented as a sort of cloud... You'll see, search for "tags" and you'll see, that they are the words people search the most. So I said, OK, I'll make my own tag cloud, which is interesting, because it turns out to be similar to the tag cloud of many of the things we heard here today. Which means that maybe you'll be a bit bored, but at least you'll see that the ideas being shared are ideas that we need to keep driving forward. First thing: my task, what is it? The question is, what do you do? I find it hard to explain. So I say, I'm into innovation. "Oh, and what do you do for a living?" Well, actually I live of innovation. When you work on innovation, the first problem that you have is that, basically, what you work on shouldn't exist or it wouldn't be innovative, so the first thing you'll hear from others is: "So, why you and not someone else?" "Why did you think of it and not somebody else?". So, oftentimes, you have to do some convincing. As long as you're convinced yourself, there's no problem. So, fear of the unknown is what makes people afraid of innovating. For example, now that I am in Tecnópolis... In fact, one of the advantages of being here, honoring my word, is that yesterday, our Automotive Terminal Decree was being defined, we're doing fine on that respect, so we can start mass producing our vehicles. At the same time I have a team at Tecnópolis Because last night, they decided to build a second track for us, which means that our cars are now in three different spots over 50 hectares, so imagine handling all the cars, because we have a fleet of vehicles with different ideas behind them. And it all started from this little drawing that you see here, this horrible, hideous drawing. And it was born with this crazy guy standing here that just happens to be me. This picture was taken just now, in 2011, but it is actually, historically, from 2,004. What did this crazy guy said? I have to make a car. Why did he say that he needed to make a car? Because he saw his son, Ignacio, driving an ATV. Then something began to climb up here, a strong disconfort and I said to myself, I have to come up with something safe and fun to get him away from that ATV. At the same time I was beginning to abandon the motorcycle because kids grow up, and their biker dad has to abandon the bike, put away the helmet put away the gloves, the bike, actually sell the bike, or else they will all want to ride it. So I thought that I have to make something that transmits speed with Formula 1 driving position, but that is also able to protect my son. So, what am I doing there? "Nacho" had escaped, I couldn't see him, he was beyond the horizon, and, like all fathers, I panicked. I got on my pick up and said "I need to make a car." That is the story. What comes next? I went back to the place we were staying in, there in Villa Gesell, (this is Villa Gesell). The coordinates from this year are the same, this is an advantage of being an architect, I knew exactly where, without a GPS and without my cell phone yet, I knew exactly where the idea had come up. Immediately this quick draft appears. And for those interested in morphology, which is my specialty (I am a UBACyT researcher in morphology), if you see the eye in my logo, also designed by me (as you see I am very obsessive), it has to do with, the first shape, has absolutely to do with the shape of the car, and with several other things that you'll see throughout the products that we design. So, why am I choosing 2,006 as the big start of all this, as the acceleration of this adventure when actually I came up with this in 2,004? Because in 2,006 I get invited to the Innovar Award. I was not a strong believer in that, because there had already been some experiences with inventors and they were not very successful for me. But what does that really means? For instance, I know, because I have the exact dates, that I developed all the ads on the tunnels of subways, those where you stare at a fixed point in space and the animation is produced. Well, I have the exact dates from the State, they patented my invention 10 years later. So, the situation, when my family watches on CNN and say "Dad, that's your invention", Yes, I know, but I don't have the patent. So that experience has made me develop a strong resistance to participate again, until FADU UBA, where I am Professor and Researcher, and the Innovar Award, both say to me "Go on, we will protect you". Two fundamental things made by this administration and the previous one where, creating the Innovar Award and, more specifically, creating the Ministry of Science and Technology. Let's move on to 2,007. 2,007, there you can see a fairly typical reconversion the factory, before and afterwards. We were always simply a metal mechanic and plastics company, always working on innovation. So you can understand where the first round of funding of 2 million dollars for the car factory, used to create our own plant, came from, Did you hear about the labyrinths and ball pits? Well, I also was the one responsible for that. 600 commercial premises throughout Argentina and Latin America, 5th worldwide supplier for McDonald's, OK? So, we were always on the business of innovating. That means that when there was something to solve, they said "Look, there's a crazy guy, his name is Architect Bravo, rest assured that he will work something out." OK? So, let's move on... But let's make something clear, it isn't just a matter of being crazy, that's just not enough, you also need to have (and this the father in me talking) a formal degree, so you need to study. Moving on, information. You must get it permanently. One cannot just stop reading. I was just talking with the TEDx guys, showing them my cell phone, where I had all three newspapers. Obviously I can't just read "Clarín", I can't just read "Página/12", I can't just read "La Nación", because I think the building of our own reality is fundamental to know exactly where we are standing. So, a formal degree, permanent information, and constant research. Again, the weight of teaching, and a solid academic education. I am a UBACyT researcher, but that was not mere chance. Since I was a child I investigated, I always had a passion for investigating whatever came across, so when everyone said "Had you ever made a car?" Never in my life. "And how are you going to pull it out? Do you know anything about mechanics?" No. Over 60.000 miles, I only twice raised the hood of my pick up truck, and only to look around a bit. Not even to check the oil. So, I actually had no other way than generating teams and sharing knowledge. The idea of transferring if crucial for this. And excuse me for playing the teacher, there are two kinds of transfer. The first one is education. When I teach I try to have my first approach to be informative, and a second one, that is formative. But another stage of transfer comes when that education is transferred into product. That's why here it's important to see once again just a person sitting between five irons, saying "Look how well this car goes". Obviously, it wasn't even on the floor. But I was convinced that this was going to be a car. OK? That is 2,007. Let's keep following our timeline. I was always in contact with a lot of different areas. Those of you who are entrepreneurs have to know how to deal with investors, on one hand, but on the other hand you'll see that I have an excellent relationship with the unions, that's why I'm so happy to be here, at a union hotel, because I have the a very nice relationship, as I think that the workers and businessmen have to work side by side, and you'll see such oddities as the support from SMATA, the mechanics union, and we actually also now have the support of the cab driver's union. I think this idea of bringing together what some think is oil and water is crucial, for me there is no other way but working together. So, sharing dreams, that can seem like a very interesting thing, but you have to be careful to not overstate "shared dreams", with just sharing them it's enough, that implies looking for the best. This is another tidbit that you'll see a thousand times, that's why we have it in these "tags", and it will be among the tags of all these presentations. I always have to have a person by my side that is more knowledgeable than me. Always, on every area. That is the basis of intelligence. The ego has to be left at the door. We all have to leave our egos at the door, and be able to enter the workplace without ego, to openly work on brainstorming. You must have affinity. Not in every case. Many times I relate... I don't have to be friends with everyone, but there must be some affinity, at least that affinity has to be on the project, if not on myself. Always type A personalities, those persons that are usually sitting here, under the stage lights, tend to be people that generate a wide degree of acceptance and a small degree of rejections that would run over us with their cars back and forth, back and forth, several times, OK? Internet now enable those people to generate clones, nicknames, switch IP addresses, and assume different names to say all sort of things on any language. But those that need at least, like on our community, at Empresores, to provide their names, at least behave a bit. Anyway, I have if you google "ArqBravo responde preguntas", a thread were, except for swear words, I am being told everything, yes? Snake charmer, all those types of things that basically mean that I'll never deliver. Look, the guys that do not trust the entrepreneur, they first said, "you'll never make a car". We made one. "you'll never make two cars". We did four. "You'll never have two models". We made four. "you'll never make more than four cars". We're about to make 40.000. Then the person will say "Heh, you'll never get to a million cars". OK. So, the person that does not agree with you and is not behind you from the start, will never follow you. It's hard to convince those people that can't stand you an that's OK. This is what I teach on my courses for entrepreneurs. That's OK, you have to have a thick skin to be an entrepreneur. So, one must create affinity. Creating affinity means creating community. People needs to be brought together. This, we need to meet. You need to talk. Another thing that is said of me "Try to talk a bit less on the meetings" And I say, but that's the only way for people to know what I think and to know what they think. "He is a very nice guy, but he talks too much" But that's the key! Talking a lot to know what the other part thinks. So look how we type A personalities generate this situation where my biggest asset, that I talk a lot, and too fast, is considered by all to be a negative thing. Those who think that of me are not valuable people (I am referring strictly to business, they can be exceptional in every other way). Networking, a word so used today, and in this context of creating connections internet and social networks are fundamental. Once again, this "talking too much" in these couple of days (well, I actually haven't been here in La Falda for 24 hours yet) "No, the thing is that in Buenos Aires you are right there". Just like you, a click away. It's a lie. We are all just a click away. This is so true that when I was with the person responsible for the Innovar Award, he says to me "Have you submitted this year?" Oh, no, can you..? "No, no, no. go home, or just stay here and click". So the guy here in La Falda or in La Quiaca, is just like me, standing beside that person, or next to Lino Barañao, the Minister of Science and Technology, OK? Creating communities then... This is a community, TED is a community. Empresores is our community. It's a community of entrepreneurs and investors, and even this came up by talking fast. We were talking Ariel Martinez, another entrepreneur, owner of this community, the highest traffic community in the world, and when Kiyosaki came here... Just to be clear, I don't read Kiyosaki but I adore him, because I have many followers that contributed money, about 400 investors, many of them Kiyosaki followers, so when he came here I brought some flowers to his wife, a nice technical report, and my gratitude, but I didn't read a single book from Kiyosaki. My wife, who has read them, said to me "Don't read them, it's what you do everyday, without the need of reading any of the books." What I mean by this is that it's a great thing to have those people that trigger thoughts on others, right? That famous idea of the financial freedom. And Kiyosaki says "Bet on early stages of entrepreneurs or startups." Well, our case is just like that. Empresores.com then, came from speaking quickly blahblahblahblah Empresores "What did you say?" Empresores. "and what is empresores?" A mix of entrepreneur and investor. "OK, can I have the brand?" It's all yours. It is already a trademark. So building teams is key. Check this out, this image you see here shows a part of our 400 investors. That little white paper that they hold so intently and with that smile, is a shareholding certificate extended by our company. A paper printed on a Hewlett Packard, so that anyone could say "Where is the watermark?" But the value of our word, the value of honesty is really our main asset. I had to loose all. I always explain, when in Argentina loosing all means starting all over again, I always explain that Disney went broke 11 times. I only did once, and I hope to never do it again, I want to make that clear, but anyway... Disney is a very good example. So internet gives us the chance of networking, of being here lecturing, of being here trying to offer an experience. Also chronologically this is 2,008, the Stocks Exchange, I had already taken part on the previous decade on a number of presentations and business rounds, here, in Barcelona and Madrid, so I have some empathy with the investors with the peculiarity that, if you look for some opinions, again, the advantage of the internet, "Opiniones de ArqBravo de sus inversores" it seems like they were all paid writers, but actually they are the ones paying. So, it's interesting to see the affinity, isn't it? Let's go then to 2,009. 2,009, here we are. In 2,009 we already have our first prototypes. And here we are building the first preserie. This blonde here is my partner for life on my best undertaking, my family. Four boys, four lovely children. Nach One was the name given, because of one of my middle children, to the first model, and now the first electric city car is called Rod On after Rodrigo. And the company is called ArqBravo after me and, obviously because I want the company to never... never stop being Argentine automobile company. We created a group, called Grupo ArqBravo, that is formed by Compañía Argentina de Automóviles (cars), Bravo Motor Company Sports Racing, Compañía Argentina de Celulares (mobile), Compañía Argentina de Innovaciones Inmobiliarias (real estate), because in the middle of the crisis, remember that 2,008 and 2,009 were two years of a complete drought for startup funding, I thought of another idea that was perhaps more brilliant than the car. I started giving away, literally, all my inventions, to my partners. Because they deserved it, but out of gratitude. So, our company, while all the other companies fell, ours was growing exponentially. In fact, from 2.38 per share, today we are at 200. 2.38, 200. And the question is "OK, where can I buy?" Nobody wants to sell. The first one not wanting to sell is myself. This shows that the drought of stock is related with the confidence in the project. All of our projects are also, not only socially responsible, and this means creating value, generating work, that is my mission and the vision. The vision has to do with the eye, but the mission has to do with... I... God has given me a skill, that is creating companies and generating work, and I have to take advantage of that. In my case, my eldest son is disabled. If he doesn't have the ability, and I am on the other end, so, in life I had a son that can't speak, and I speak like a parrot, so I have to profit that ability that God has given me to be able to transfer and help the biggest number of people. So, with this in mind, we invented nothing in the sense of how we made it. We did do it in Argentina, and that is an achievement in itself. 3F, family, friends & fools, seed capital... and here we created the group, inside Empresores.com, we created and are trying to see if we qualify for a Guinness Record, we created the largest Business Angel Club in the world dedicated to an entrepreneur. But what happened here? The company started growing and I started talking, not of... Here you have the explanation, look, making a plan and achieving milestones. Milestones means having to do this or that thing over the next two months. The moment that milestone is met the investor knows his stock has gained value, and invests again, because we have investors that paid 2.38 and some of them paid... Now, for example, another thing that we do internally is having offers just for current investors, so instead of 150-200, it's 55, which means we can get Silicon Valley figures, 90,000 dollars in 40 minutes, 250,000 dollars in 7-8 days, we already have accumulated 4 million dollars, 2 million with my wife, and another 2 million with partners, so Silicon Valley numbers here in Argentina, in Paternal, OK? But, how do you reply? why this? I personally have 5,500 posts. Last night,"Here I am in La Falda, having a great time, food is nice" or "yesterday we had a meeting". So, all the time, and also from the cell phone, permanent reporting. This results in, well I wrote 500.000 views because I got tired of adding, honestly, but anyone going to Empresores will see. That means that people are permanently watching what we do. We have 400 travel companions. But they were investors? Yes, at first they were investors, and I was the entrepreneur. But then they were partners. In fact many of them left their jobs. They became associated. Many are also employed, we even have the peculiarity, that I find quite funny, of having investors, venture capital investors, that belong to SMATA, so I have investors from the mechanic's union, they are investors affiliated with the union, because one thing that we'll do is have everyone unionized. There will be no difference between the engineers, the accountants... Except for myself, I guess, because at SMATA they told me "You can't get in, you are the owner, you can't be with the union". The rest are unionized. And they are traveling companions. I am here right now, Sergio Teper is somewhere there, in the middle of the track they set up for us at Tecnópolis (we have 3 places), another 10 are researching and contacting 1.000... Well, they already contacted 1.000 Venture Capitals around the globe, They are now contacting the top 100 global companies dedicated to electric cars. So we are constantly working. What is the result? We have a tool at the Empresores forum for thanking users. 3.500 thanks. You click and say thanks. OK, what skills attract investors? Because another thing I'm being asked by entrepreneurs "¿How did you manage to get 400 people to put money down?" Second question, "How much money?". We have investors from 200 to 200,000 dollars. Notice the dispersion. We even have kids coming with their mothers Because they couldn't sign. We have had a concrete case, the mother comes to sign for her kid. "Yes, he wants to buy some stocks, oh... can I buy too?" So then we have whole families, mom, dad, brother-in-law, they all gather and form whole families of investors, because basically we started as a family business. Nothing is achieved without persistence. Well, I take honesty as a given. Responsible money management. What have we done for that? Any tips? The full Management Department is comprised of investors. So much so that I have to say, can I have 300 bucks? So I go there and sign, "Hey, Miguel Ángel is withdrawing" Miguel Ángel, 300 bucks. The CEO has to sign in order to have travel expenses, right? And we justify everything to the last little sandwich. So... Perseverance, or you won't get anything. Obviously risk aversion... Guys, if you're scared... What can you do if you're scared? Become an intrapreneur. But what does that mean... The entrepreneur is the one generating, the engine (they sometimes call me "brakeless locomotive") and the intrapreneur is the one clinging to the wagon and saying "Let's move forward", while pushing as hard as the locomotive. Case in point, my wife, and the 400 partners we have today, ok? Ok, moving on. Here the biggest madness occurs. I say that I want a cell phone because mine doesn't work. I'm sick of having a Palm, cell, GPS, all that, and a friend of mine said "That's as much as a car!" 5,000 dollars, I remember I had done the calculations and I was carrying 5,000 dollars at my waist and feeling guilty, that's too much money. So I thought of the ABCell and the Argentinean Mobile Company was born. Today the company already has 8 NDAs with some of the biggest players on the mobile world. We were even visited by the company holding 90% of the browsing of mobiles in Japan. We had the person responsible for the Americas, that is North America, South America, an thank God they are still amazed by our creativity. A while back there was a talk on social housing, and this is a bit extreme because it's aimed at a higher class, as a "house boat", for Fort Lauderdale because it doesn't sink, he hurricane comes, it loads water, sinks, the hurricane goes away, it loads air, and resurfaces. But I also describe it as semi permanent housing, just before a permanent one, and back to social responsibility, because I think houses have to be made by the people themselves, it's the only way of building efficient housing, and to have people work and learn a craft meanwhile, right? I'm finishing... So this is 2,009. First images, from a TV program on "Canal Encuentro", first production line, and as you'll see, the whole family is working, and all the boys.Go back to the first image, Remember that doodle? It turns out it is now a racing car being driven by Argentina's top pilots. Who one? Someone from Córodoba, Raies. So you can cheer for Raies, because he is from here. So, he beat Spataro, Villagra... the "Coyote" Villagra is from here also I think, but he beat "Coyote", Let's say that at least there he won. And we have the best affinity. Why, among other things? Because we have the best chassis engineer in Argentinean history as part of our team, Pedro Campo. So, once more, always the best here, working with us. Here in one of the many shows. This is me, and I'm not showing this because of my ego, but to offer one more tip to you. You always need to be in the line of fire. The entrepreneur just can't say "Nah, I'm not going to that show". I had to endure 15 days with 3 degrees Celsius in Tecnópolis, I have a tan, but not from the Caribbean, but the winter sun from Tecnópolis (that and I'm a bit dark-skinned). So, you permanently have to be in the line of fire. We marched in the Bicentennial celebrations. Let me go back a little, Imagine if I could think for a moment that with this doodle I was going to be on the Bicentennial Parade years later. It is absolutely delirious, so delirious I was actually told "That is madness". Well, you're doing well if people say it is madness. What do current entrepreneurs need? Again, let's borrow a concept from computers, techies and geeks. To multitask, the concept behind Windows. For instance, people ask... Another tip, How do I work? I arrive at the morning, and open all the windows of my work. So I know I won't be leaving until maybe 1, 2, 3 in the morning, until the last window of my work isn't closed, the task isn't finished. And if I don't finish, I never turn off the computer, I put it to hibernate. The next day, I'll have more windows. Well, we created several companies this way, we can't complain. So, if you ask if I am the best inventor, no. The best designer? No. Best architect? No. Best entrepreneur? No. Best businessman? No. Best investor? Neither. Now, I can put a fight if anyone searches for someone with all those traits at the same time. With this I want to show the importance of having a global and multitasking vision. And none of that would be possible if one is not all the time, persevering, on the line of fire. So, showing the idea of line of fire let's see a pretty ridiculous picture of myself on the beach, in the line of fire, on the frontier, a few months ago. We slept four hours, all day at the frontier and at night at the Bunge avenue, showing the car. Why the line of fire? Because I wanted to know what people said. I wanted to listen, suffer, what no one suffers, because there's no worse suffering that when you have a car prototype. Because a guy comes "Hey, here is your gear stick". Well, yeah, it has some issues, we are working on that. So we had our mornings to solve problems, and only at noon we were going to the frontier, at night we ended up at Bunge at 3 in the morning, when it was freezing cold, but we did it anyway. Look here, then, with this we won the Innovar Award. Here is Tecnópolis. In Tecnópolis something interesting happened. We are a leading case inside of Innovar, we were selected every year, and won the Innovar 2,009 and 2,010. If you're interested, we are, on the 2010 catalog, the most selected company. In 2011 I was a bit embarrassed to do it again. But since they were going to give me 200 sqr m, I decided to participate as a company and not as an entrepreneur, because I think that I have to do this, giving, transmitting, transferring, more than trying... I mean, again, leave the ego behind, I had my awards, I had the picture, I got where I wanted to, today my concern, like we said yesterday coming here, I am here (it sounds a bit much, I know) to evangelize regarding what being an entrepreneur is. If I can teach people how to become entrepreneurs, generate new companies, generate work, there will be less and less hunger in our country, it's quite simple, almost mathematical. So look how interesting, ArqBravo starts as a nickname and becomes a business group. This was my nickname in an online community, the Empresores community, here you see, from the first drawing in 2,006, we have 4 models working, and I was just informed that last night they gave us a new track, so tomorrow we need to keep working. And finally, the biggest project of our company, the Argentinean People's Car. The "Auto Popular Argentino" is... I know many will think, because that's our problem now... The State never supported entrepreneurs, now that it is behind us... "You are with the ruling party". Typical from Argentineans, constant criticism. Well, the Auto Popular Argentino tries to be, first of all, a car with 75 to 100% of national integration, versus 25%, and now we are, thanks to Tecnópolis, we made the first preseries in Latinamerican history of 4 electric cars, which are the Buggy Tecnópolis, that causes such a stir that we are already setting up the fifth company, so much that on Monday I have to register the name, "Compañía Argentina de Litio, Motores, y Vehículos Eléctricos". Please hold until Monday, don't steal it, because I still have to present it before the IGJ. So, here are our sponsors. Fiat Group, a multinational company. We had the support of BMW, Mercedes and Chrysler before. Mechanic's Union, FADU UBA, Empresores.com, Equipment TV, Garage TV, Innovar, Ministry of SCience, PROA Group, we took all the autopart makers that were complaining for their jobs, and we invited them in, so they could all have more work, Taxis Union, and obviously the dream of driving forward something supposedly impossible. An Argentinean car. It IS going to work! OK? Thanks.