Juan Manuel Barrero lands on Miami in 2021, at 37, driven by the energy of someone who comes with a tailwind: an entrepreneur who learned from his father, his family businesses allowed him to lead business projects and also social or community projects. His hometown, Trenque Lauquen, sees him grow and take off.
Ribbon It is called the company that takes you to set foot in the Magic Citywhich its inhabitants call “the capital of Latin America.”
The key is that, as soon as he arrives, his natural attributes lead him to manage the public relations of his startup, a Softwar platform, by himself.e As A Service that advises other startups on financial, accounting and expansion matters in the USA.
Miami adds Grill with Friends, the complete experience around the embers
So, Juan Manuel begins by creating a first cycle of events which it baptizes Fernet Fridays. From the name of the meetings, to the building of bridges in the Latin tech community, Barrero places an indelible Argentine stamp, marked by the love he feels for his land.
While the quantity and quality of technology produced by Latin American talent in USA does not stop growing, and its relative weight in Miami surprises locals and strangers, at the beginning of 2023 a man from Trenquelauquense joins another, who comes from the stick of embers: Guillermo Eleicegui is a chef who has well earned his place in the Latin American culinary sceneand bets on Argentine gastronomy in Miami opening Ossobucoits restaurant in which the grill stands out.
From this meeting of old companions in exploits, Parrilla con Amigos is born, the cycle of meals that intertwine culinary and technology in one and only possible way: with Argentine ingenuity.
sweeper He explains it like this: “The very fact that two kids from the same town in Argentina were presented to a group of certain people, uniting passions around our identity, and beyond the technology itself, already sounded like a different experience (…) Guillermo is an excellent chef , and when we agreed on the idea we went to look for CIC to accompany us”.
Of course, because the story is completed with the contribution of Alejandra Winterwhose creativity is based on the other side of the mountain range: 8 years ago he left his native Chile to work with Latin startups in this nexus between the Americas that is Miami.
Alejandra is Director of the International soft landing program of the Cambridge Innovation Center – the CIC that Juan Manuel mentions – a company that is also dedicated to accelerating startups, providing support with their landing in USAand advise them in relation to investment capital (VC’s).
“CIC was looking, in Miami, to generate more human ties within the Latin tech ecosystem. So Juan Manuel’s proposal suited us very well (…) the five meetings had different characteristics because the people are different and they come to the table without knowing who they are going to meet. In addition, we ask them not to talk about work,” explains Winter.
And in the standard model, technological events are nothing more nor less than cocktail parties in which there is music, drinks and something to eat, but they tend to be insubstantial. Translated: everyone knows what they are looking for (an investor, a programmer, a startup to invest in, a person responsible for some area, or even a strategic partner) and then faces conversations with the idea in mind.
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Well then, Grill with Friends It is a concept worked to avoid this hunt, and humanize the social dynamics of encounters around technology.
In fact, Winter remembers “at one of the dinners there was a lot of crying, and at another we were tempted to laugh several times. Because as they are spaces with few people and where the focus is on getting to know each other personally, experiences are exposed and emotions may appear that would otherwise remain hidden.”
The person in charge of the culinary narrative is, of course, Eleicegui, who prepares the dishes and serves them, explaining the origin of each cut of meat, some of the Argentine barbecue culture, and his personal touch.
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“What fills us with joy is seeing that we achieved the experience we were looking for,” adds Barrero, “because by having only one conversation at the table and not talking about work, a different bond is generated. We are not looking for anything immediate, but at Lazo we think of these dinners as pillars of the company’s social capital.”
This year there were five meetings. They plan some more for 2024. The Argentine idea of community, on these beaches, is far from cracked. It has to do with good food, long after-dinner conversations, and the warmth that opens doors.
It is a valuable contribution to the growth of the tech ecosystem in the Magic City, led by Latinos but in which those from southern countries are not the majority.
Perhaps, in this area, it is a question of quality rather than number.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
