LAVCA | The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America
  • About
    • About LAVCA
    • Board, Team, & Advisors
    • Media
    • Contact
  • Members
    • Membership Benefits
    • Current Members
    • Member Access
  • Education & Programs
    • About
    • LAVCA Week
    • Calendar & Past Programs
    • LAVCA Education
  • Research & Directories
    • LAVCA Research
    • Industry data
    • LP Survey
    • Directories
  • ESG & Impact
    • Deal Book
    • LAVCA ESG Deal Awards
    • Impact Report
    • ESG Guidelines
  • Articles
    • Featured Articles
    • Industry News
  • VC
  • Member Login
  • Member Access

LAVCA | The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America

A non-profit member organization

  • About
    • About LAVCA
    • Board, Team, & Advisors
    • Media
    • Contact
  • Members
    • Membership Benefits
    • Current Members
    • Member Access
  • Education & Programs
    • About
    • LAVCA Week
    • Calendar & Past Programs
    • LAVCA Education
  • Research & Directories
    • LAVCA Research
    • Industry data
    • LP Survey
    • Directories
  • ESG & Impact
    • Deal Book
    • LAVCA ESG Deal Awards
    • Impact Report
    • ESG Guidelines
  • Articles
    • Featured Articles
    • Industry News
  • VC

Entrepreneur Profile: An Interview with Alejandro Russo, Klooff

July 15, 2013

LAVCA checked in with serial entrepreneur Alejandro Russo to discuss his latest start-up, his unique journey from Chile to New York, and how his business has created linkages between the two dynamic markets.

LAVCA: Please summarize your business.

Russo: Klooff is an internet and mobile network for passionate pet owners to share photos and connect to a community of 1,000,000 other animal lovers. People love sharing photos of their pets, but not all of their existing friends and followers on other social media platforms, like Facebook or Instragram, may care. Klooff allows its users to share their photos and reach a dedicated audience of people who are part of the community because they do love pets. Klooff lets everyone “celebrify” their pets, to share the time that their pet did something awesome, and to engage with other pet owners who have the same level of enthusiasm.

LAVCA: How did you come up with your business idea?

Russo: I’m a proud pet parent myself, of two great dogs—Nickki and Coco. I had tons of awesome photos to post, but didn’t want to bother my friends on Facebook and Instagram by over-sharing. Pet content is taking over the Internet and no one owns this vertical yet.

LAVCA: How does your background help you to succeed in managing your business? Have you ever started a company before?

Russo: While I was in college, I co-founded Chile’s first mobile restaurant guide, called SoyGourmet. We launched the year iPhones became really popular in Chile. At the time, it was the only restaurant app for iOS, so it quickly became the most downloaded app in the country. SoyGourmet was a tremendous learning experience in so many ways: We learned what it took to build a product according to market demand. We learned sales the hard way by visiting restaurants door to door. We learned how to be ultra-efficient, since we did all this while still in school! After SoyGourmet was acquired, we also learned that for the same amount of effort, we could build a product that had global appeal. This inspired us to base our next business around a more universal type of content: pet photos.

LAVCA: What sort of financing have you received thus far? From whom?

Russo: We started fundraising in the US and also incorporated the company in the US because if we really wanted this product to be global, we knew this is where we would have to begin. In fact, we bought plane tickets to New York City before we even had any code or demo, which gave us a tight deadline to actually get the product up and running. We raised an equity seed round with three angel investors in NY and when we returned to Santiago met two more Chilean angles who joined in. More recently we participated in TechStars NY and took the Convertible Note offered in the program. We have great relationships with all of our investors—both US and Chilean—and get together with them very frequently.

LAVCA: How did you weigh the option of taking on debt financing versus equity financing?

Russo: I’ve taken both. It really depends on the stage that you’re in and how the incentives are aligned. I always want things to be structured in a way that the investors want us to do well and we are incentivized to give the investors a healthy return. In general, I think equity financing is better in terms of alignment. Convertible debt is better in speed and cost and eliminates many of the issues surrounding fair valuation.

LAVCA: For early stage financing, to what extent did investors take your own cash flow projections into account in their equity valuation of your company?

Russo: I think most intelligent early-stage investors don’t focus too much on cash flow projections when the value of a company is in the community. Most of the investors we met with didn’t ask us for projections, even though we had them. They understand that at this stage, we as entrepreneurs have to focus solely on growing our user base and community as much as possible. Obviously, for e-commerce or subscription-based companies, revenue projections are more important.

LAVCA: What role have equity investors taken in the management/operation of your company? Have you faced any challenges thus far in your relationship with equity investors?

Russo: All our investors are pretty hands-off. They’re very helpful, but are not involved in the day-to-day decisions. They trust us to do what’s best for the company.

LAVCA: What is your most pressing strategic challenge right now?

Russo: Replicating the success we had on our Facebook page through other channels. Our plan is to build our audience into the millions and we have to decide the best way to do that sustainably, across all available social platforms.

LAVCA: Who is your competition? What do you see as your competitive advantage?

Russo: Facebook and Instagram are our main competitors. People who post pet photos are primarily doing so on these two networks. When you post to Klooff, you post under your pet’s profile, and this is where all photos get stored. Our competitive advantage is that our community is passionate and encourages pet photo over-sharing. We still have a long way to reach the scale of Facebook and Instagram, but we have an interesting plan and a dedicated audience.

LAVCA: Where do you see your company five years from now?

Russo: Klooff will become like the Animal Planet for pets, but online. We are already becoming a real network, where our user-generated content is shared to millions. In five more years, Klooff will own the online pet vertical completely. We will be the one-stop destination for pet owners everywhere.

LAVCA: Are you looking for additional financing? How is that going, given the current state of the economy? Have you seen any interest or solid commitments?

Russo: We’re almost closed with our current round, but we’re always open to meeting new investors. If not in this round, we can work together in the next. The most important thing is to create lasting relationships with people who can add value to your company. So yes, we’re always looking for additional financing.

LAVCA: How do you plan to put your next round of financing to use?

Russo:We have a very clear product roadmap with an entire list of actionable improvements. All current funds will be invested in product and growth and we will also add two more developers to the team.

LAVCA: How have you changed your operational strategy in light of the economic downturn? Do investors expect you to use capital you’ve raised more efficiently, stretching each dollar further?

Russo: We are always as lean as we can be. Our friends make fun of us for being too thrifty, but we’re proud of being this way. We really believe that each dollar should be stretched as much as possible. Since budget-conscious is just the way we are, our spending decisions aren’t too connected to the economic outlook.

LAVCA: Have any of your assumptions about market demand changed since last fall? How?

Russo: We never really made too many assumptions. We just wanted to bring a product to market quickly and learn from real metrics in order to build our product according to how users actually behave. We try to make as few assumptions as possible, which is why we are now working to streamline our product and take away every feature that people aren’t crazy about.

Entrepreneur Profile: An Interview with Alejandro Russo, Klooff was last modified: April 12th, 2017 by Editor
0
Facebook Twitter Google +

Sign up for LAVCA’s bi-weekly Latin American Private Capital Update and the LatAm Venture Bulletin, produced specifically for venture investors, entrepreneurs, and technology startups in the early stage ecosystem.






Which LAVCA Newsletter would you like to receive?

VC Partner Events

    Tweets

    • "According to LAVCA Data, VC investment into Latin American fintech totaled USD1.2b in the first quarter of 2022."… https://t.co/oikd3BXiCU

      24-Jun-2022

      Reply Retweet Favorite
    • Felicitaciones a la Directora Ejecutiva de LAVCA @lavca_org Ángela María Tafur @naitafur quien se ha incorporado al… https://t.co/qjHgnmFPS3

      14-Jun-2022

      Reply Retweet Favorite
    • LAVCA's Director of Venture Capital @crdelavega_ shares insights with @TechCrunch's @bayareawriter on the latest d… https://t.co/krypDTI5NE

      14-Jun-2022

      Reply Retweet Favorite
    • Congratulations to LAVCA's Executive Director @naitafur who has joined the Board of Directors of @GRUPOSURA. https://t.co/47bv5fyVhT

      13-Jun-2022

      Reply Retweet Favorite
    • In 2018, @_AquaCapital invested in agricultural biologicals platform @Biotropbr. In 3 years, the company has reduce… https://t.co/PDu5zkchTs

      13-Jun-2022

      Reply Retweet Favorite

    Submit VC News

    Have private equity or venture capital related news that you would like to share? Submit your press releases and news to [email protected].

    VC Industry News

    • Ecuadorian Fintech Kushki Raises USD100m Series B+ at USD1.5b Valuation

      June 7, 2022
    • Vinci Partners Acquires USD20m Stake in Brazilian Credit Provider DMCard

      February 21, 2022
    • 8VC Leads ~USD35.4m Round for Brazilian Insurtech 180 Seguros (em português)

      February 2, 2022
    • Glade Brook Capital Leads USD125m Series C for Chilean Insurtech Betterfly

      February 2, 2022
    • SP Ventures and Acre.VC Lead USD10m Series A for Brazilian Carbon Trading Marketplace Moss (em português)

      January 31, 2022
    • Brazilian Healthtech Nilo Saúde Raises USD10m Series A from Canary, MAYA, SoftBank, GFC and Tau Ventures

      January 28, 2022
    • Valor Capital Group Leads ~USD16m Series A for Brazilian Agtech Agrolend (em português)

      January 23, 2022
    • DILA Capital and Kayyak Ventures Lead USD15m Series A for Mexican Financing Platform Fairplay

      January 18, 2022
    • Astella Investimentos Leads ~USD4.6m Seed Round for Brazilian Blockchain Trading Platform Gavea (em português)

      January 12, 2022
    • SoftBank Leads USD48m Series B for Colombian E-commerce Laika

      January 12, 2022
    • KASZEK Leads USD13.2m Round for Mexican Fantasy Sports Platform Draftea

      January 7, 2022
    • IDC Ventures Leads ~USD5m Series A for Brazilian Microcredit Platform SuperSim (em português)

      January 6, 2022
    • Mexican Verification Platform MetaMap Raises USD70m Series B

      January 5, 2022
    • DRADS Capital Leads USD7m Pre-Series A for Chilean Foodtech The Live Green Co. (en español)

      January 3, 2022
    • SoftBank Leads USD127m Round for Brazilian Healthcare Provider Alice

      December 21, 2021
    • DILA Capital and ALIVE Ventures Lead USD14m Series A for Edtech Slang

      December 20, 2021
    • Astella Investimentos and SoftBank Lead ~USD3m Seed Round for Brazilian Automation Platform BotCity (em português)

      December 20, 2021
    • GIC Leads USD80m Round for Colombian POS Lending Platform ADDI (em português)

      December 20, 2021
    • Yara Growth Ventures Leads USD30m Series C for Argentine Agtech Agrofy (em português)

      December 16, 2021
    • Tiger Global Leads USD60m Series B for Mexican Freight Platform Nowports

      December 16, 2021
    • SoftBank Leads ~USD120m Round for Brazilian Fintech OpenCo (em português)

      December 15, 2021
    • DN Capital Leads ~USD22.2m Series A+ for Brazilian Healthtech Sami

      December 14, 2021
    • Riverwood Capital Leads ~USD52m Series B for Brazilian Fiscal Management Platform Arquivei (em português)

      December 14, 2021
    • KASZEK Leads USD2.7m Seed Round for Peruvian Edtech Crack the Code

      December 13, 2021
    • GIC Leads ~USD32m Series C for Brazilian Delivery Platform Shopper (em português)

      December 13, 2021
    • Tiger Global Leads USD20.5m Round for Mexican Freight Platform Nuvocargo

      December 10, 2021
    • Advent International and SoftBank Lead USD60m Series B+ in E-Commerce Aggregator Merama

      December 9, 2021
    • Volpe Capital Leads ~USD5m Series A for Brazilian Corporate Governance Platform Atlas Governance

      December 8, 2021
    • Lachy Groom Leads USD14.8m Series A for Brazilian Fintech Stark Bank (em português)

      December 8, 2021
    • Prosus Ventures Leads USD60m Series B for Colombian Edtech Platzi

      December 6, 2021
    • KASZEK Leads USD10m Series A for Brazilian Workspace Marketplace Beer or Coffee (em português)

      November 30, 2021
    • Galapagos Capital Invests ~USD20m in Brazilian Cosmetics MedBeauty (em português)

      November 18, 2021
    • Oak HC Leads USD27m Series A for Mexican Payment Platform Aplazo

      November 15, 2021
    • Colombian E-commerce Fulfillment Platform Melonn Raises USD4.5 Seed Round

      November 3, 2021
    • DNA Capital, Temasek and Fit Participações Lead ~USD20m Round for Brazilian Healthtech Memed

      November 1, 2021
    • Astella Investimentos Leads ~USD5m Round for Brazilian Proptech Homelend (em português)

      October 28, 2021
    • KASZEK Leads USD8m Round for Brazilian Car Documentation Platform Gringo

      October 27, 2021
    • SoftBank Leads USD75m Series C for Brazilian BPO Platform Pipefy

      October 26, 2021
    • Mexican Delivery Platform Skydropx Raised USD20m Seres A from Cometa, Base10 Partners, 645 Ventures

      October 26, 2021
    • Brazilian Car Insurtech Justos Raises ~USD35.8m Series A from SoftBank, KASZEK and Others

      October 25, 2021
    • Andreessen Horowitz and Base Partners Lead USD15m Series A for Colombian Foodtech Foodology

      October 22, 2021
    • Unbox Capital Leads USD30m Series B for Brazilian Marketing Platform Rock Content (em português)

      October 22, 2021
    • L Catterton Leads Investment in Mexican DTC Eyewear Brand Ben & Frank

      October 21, 2021
    • Anthos Capital Leads USD18m Series A for Venezuelan Delivery Platform Yummy

      October 21, 2021
    • Flourish Ventures and GFC Lead USD10m Series A for Brazilian Wholesale Marketplace Merce do Bairro

      October 21, 2021
    • Tiger Global Leads USD35m Series A for Argentine Fintech Pomelo

      October 21, 2021
    • Brazilian Wholesale Marketplace Inventa Raises ~USD6m Seed Round (em português)

      October 20, 2021
    • QED Investors and KASZEK Lead USD40m Series C for Brazilian Fintech Hash

      October 20, 2021
    • SoftBank, Amazon and Accel Lead USD108m Series B for Brazilian Fintech Pismo (en español)

      October 19, 2021
    • SP Ventures and Astella Investimentos Lead USD17m Series A for Brazilian Fintech Traive (em português)

      October 18, 2021
    • Tencent and SoftBank Lead USD200m Series F for Brazilian Trucking Marketplace CargoX (em português)

      October 15, 2021
    • Valor Capital Group Leads USD22m Series A for Mexican Edtech Aprende Institute

      October 11, 2021
    • Square Capital and Hard Yaka Invest USD15m in Colombian Digital Payments Platform Movii (en español)

      October 6, 2021

    About LAVCA

     

    LAVCA is the Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America, a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to supporting the growth of private capital in Latin America and the Caribbean through research, education, networking and advocacy.

    LAVCA Office

        New York City:
        589 8th Ave, 18th Floor
        New York, NY 10018

    Explore LAVCA.org

    • About LAVCA
    • Board, Team, & Advisors
    • Media
    • Contact Us
    • Membership Benefits
    • Members Only Access
    • Education and Programs
    • Research
    • Policy
    • LAVCA VC
    • Contact Us

    @2020 - LAVCA. All Rights Reserved.


    Back To Top