Surrounded by Berni’s engravings, in an office with a beautiful view of the jacaranda trees on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue, six former CEOs found their destiny. defined it Sergio Kaufman with 36 years at Accenture and 12 as CEO: “In corporate life you enter and climb stairs, first as area manager, then manager, then partner and the stairs end. It is a turning point. And we decided do not climb stairs, and we said to ourselves, we are going to build stairs.”
From there to the creation of Eolas Capital Partner everything was dizzying. The name came from the celtic mythology that, unlike Greek tradition that speaks of Aeolus as the god of the winds, Aeolus has the power of “knowledge, experience and wisdom.”
This is how the team was assembled with Neris Peitiadowho headed wholesale banking in Santander, Javier Goñi8 years at the head of Ledesma. Also, Gabriel “the bird” Martino former HSBC CEO, lawyer Guillermo Lipera and the partner of the consulting firm PWC and president of IDEA, Santiago Mignonand. They share the generation: they are over 60 and under 65 years old. “We are vintage teenagers,” they say with a laugh.
When they explain what motivates them, they expand: “A communion of values and a complementarity of knowledge, of different experiences. In corporations we go through deep strategic reflection processes, through analogous situations and we are eager to help and make projects viable.”
They say that they come across spectacular ideas from young people, “that sometimes are not going to work, so guiding them to get on the right path is very motivating.”
Para Information They invested from their pockets in equal parts but they are at associative search with other funds. They affirm that they differentiate themselves not only by offering capital to startups, which is something considered a commodity. “The unique thing is accompany. It is very difficult in the market to hire a CEO with thirty years of experience to help you rethink a strategy or how to attack the market. And that is our proposal. The important thing is to help implement.”
Another feature they make available is their extensive network of personal contacts, which facilitates access to various areas for those who are just starting out.
“We try to go together and cross the first part of the river, where many drown. We are smart moneybecause of the intelligence we put into it. Entrepreneurs are usually very focused on their ideas but they get stuck in choosing a supplier, in developing the app, and we establish a very fruitful relationship: all the time they are asking us about their real needs. There is a combination of energy and respect. It is a dynamic and collaborative relationship.”
The former CEOs meet weekly to discuss projects. They decide unanimously and they define two partners as tutors for each project. They have already invested in two. And they are about to spend capital on a third party.
one is love pets which is evolving towards a prepaid plan for animals in an Argentina in which the human birth rate is rapidly decreasing with cities like Buenos Aires, with more pets than children. The other is SAVEdedicated to savings with purpose. It specializes in savings strategies based on each person or household for a specific purpose, for example going to the World Cup.
-What do you look for when choosing?
-The idea, the quality of the leadership, the team, thinking big with Latin America as the first step. And in the ability to execute and implement those good ideas. We get involved.
–How do you see the country environment so that projects can be developed?
-Today the conditions are in place for businesses to develop, even though we are all waiting for consumption to activate. From our experience in leading firms, those who did well are the ones who did it regardless of the moment. Without exposing themselves, without taking excessive risks, but those who really built were always doing it regardless of the context. We are not financial investors, we are knowledge investors.