International Market

Some 60% of United States mobile device user are using some form of a smartphone. This number will undoubtedly continue to grow in the near future. Startups in Argentina need to bring their products to the international market; unfortunately, the number of potential users in developing countries are not as significant as the number of users in more developed countries. It may be difficult to bring a product to a foreign country in which you have no previous experience with. Therefore, working with the technology experts, such as those in Silicon Valley, can be vitally important in an Argentinian made software product.

Wideo Video Editing

Kira M. Newman of Tech Co tells us that Wideo is a start up from Palermo Valley, Argentina's premier start up community. Cofounder Agu De Marco took advantage of some of contacts he had in Silicon Valley, in an effort to bring his video editing platform to a larger market. It all comes down to how useful or entertaining a product is to the customers. That requires the expertise of those who have experience with the needs of the product consuming group. Argentinian developers, such as those who created the Wideo video editor, must recognize the need to consult developers from developed markets to create worthy products.

Having the expertise to write an piece of software is important; although, catering features that will be used by the potential users is sometimes far more important. Hypothetically, if I were tasked with writing a an mobile application for cooking recipes, I would definitely consult a food writer or a chef. With no extensive experience with uses of a digital cooking recipe, I know that I will not be able to extend features that are truly useful to all users.

Dependence On Big Software Companies

Great ideas often need even better execution for an idea to come to fruition. While Argentina has a large pool of talented software developers, it is the implementation of these products that count. There are a few start ups that have become successful, such as Three Melons that was acquired by Disney for $763 million. Giving experience and education to talented and young Argentinians is essential to the growth of the technology industry in a country that has, for centuries, relied on agriculture to support its economy.

It is vital for technology companies to invest in developing countries in Latin America, such as Argentina. This creates job opportunities and gives experience to young developers who are eager to put together the next big idea. Companies such as Ebay, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, Oracle, and Google have recognized opportunities in Argentina and have set up offices in Buenos Aires; this is according to the writers at wander-argentina.org. It is interesting to note that Google's Puerto Madero office, which opened in 2008, created some 1,000 jobs. These larger companies are valuing the talent people in Argentina, but they are also giving valuable experience to these employees. Developers can use the experience gained in some of these well established organizations to form start ups of their own. It is, indeed, a win-win situation.

Why is experience so important, this probably applies to more than technology start ups? "[Experiences on the job] are often positive and career-building experiences," according to Dolline Hatchett of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division. Based on personal experience, an initial attempt at any project will more than likely lead to failure. A couple of months ago, my team and I built a mobile application with a twenty four hour time limit; we failed by not completing the most essential, and difficult, part of the product. Since then, we have learned from that experience and worked on larger scale and more successful programs. Talented developers in Argentina, and much of Latin America, need experience provided by large technology companies; they can use experience gained from these position to establish start ups and build empires.

Power and Money

Talent, time, and infrastructure are all extremely expensive. Latin American countries, such as Argentina, are experiencing a rapid growth in the number of technology start ups. Although, much like start ups in Silicon Valley, these companies require investment and lots of it; this vital aspect is only beginning to grow in Argentina. It begs to question as to why investors are still pouring money into the technology hot spots in the United States, and not putting more funds into the large pool of talent in Latin America.


In the 15th and 16th century Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, bringing back to Europe the narrative that described his discovery. Columbus and many conquistadors often described Latin America in an inferior, negative light. Luis Fernando Restrepo tells us in his essay The cultures of colonialism,  "Europeans produced an ambivalent image of the Americas as an erotic paradise and a dangerous landscape". We can only speculate as to weather these same feelings are still present in the minds of "western" investors; if so, they may be hesitant to bring large investments into countries such as Argentina.Narrowing the gap between the start up culture of Argentina and that of Silicon Valley is important; it is even vital to a growing world that depends so greatly on electronic products.


We see a large number of talented software developers in Latin America, but well paid developers are required to encourage time and dedication to a product. Alex Williams of TechCrunch reports that "Entrepreneurs [in Latin America] say that they pay engineers $1,500 to $2,500 per month. That's compared to the $6,000 and up startups pay engineers in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco". While I do love to write code, as a software developer, I would find it extremely difficult to provide my expertise to a company which does not value me; in this case, in the form of a salary. This all wraps back to investments, technology start ups, often enough, do not make any money at their initial conception; they require some form of capital to build an infrastructure and recruit talented developers.

Twitter Helped Create Palermo Valley - Argentina Start-up Central

Twitter, a social media platform, sparked amazing change over the past few years. We all know the Egyptian Revolution was single handily accelerated through the use of the micro-blogging platform. Twitter has the inherent power to unite because of its simplicity and accessibility. The creators of Palermo Valley, area just inside Bueno Aires, Argentina, used Twitter to gather the brightest tech start-up entrepreneurs. They organized events to unite the local technology community in Bueno Aires, the results were far beyond what they expected. Palermo Valley has a growing reputation to build an area much like that of Silicon Valley, flourishing with bright minds, great technological achievements, and willing investors.

With the use of social media, Santiago Siri and Vanesa Kolodziej, had over 60 people show up for their first event. This was their first attempt at building what is now Palermo Valley, a growing community of start-up and technology entrepreneurs, business, and marketing people; according to Antonio Altamirano of altamirano.org. They continue to use Twitter to organize regular events that brings together the technology experts of Bueno Aries. People often need reason, motivation, to gather and exchange ideas. I think the motivation here is to inspire the creation of a community of collaborators and share ideas to mentor others.

Working in groups, in teams, is important in any field of work, but it is even more important in software development. The methodology of Agile Software Development is, what I think, the em-bracers of Palermo Valley are trying embrace. Agile Software Development is, according to Deepti Mishra and Alok Mishra, a paradigm that is growing in popularity; it claims lower costs, better productivity, better quality and better business satisfaction. From personal experience, agile programming works; it promotes exchange of ideas, social interaction, and eventually a more complete result. Applications, products, and devices should never be developed by any one person; the collaboration between multiple people allow for a piece of software to have more than one identity, to contain the minds of multiple people. Palermo Valley creates a community of people that are willing to share ideas, in addition to bringing a highly advanced industry to Argentina.

Connecting Argentina

Argentina isn't the only country in Latin American with talented people who have great ideas, and can development great software. It is the case that all of Latin American, even Argentina, remains an area that requires continued development. Software development, especially for start-ups is a major feat, and requires stable and reliable internet connections. A constant connection allows a company to search for resources as well as connect with an audience. It is often difficult to collaborate with a slow or unusable connection, and many developing countries seem to have this problem that plagues their technological development.

Argentina, according to Export.gov, boasts one of the most developed broadband markets in Latin America. It leads the region with the fastest and least expensive internet connection. With 14.3 percent penetration at the end of 2012, that rate in Latin America is the highest. If you compare this to some 70 percent penetration rate in the United States, those numbers still have area for improvement.

Export.gov suggests that cable modem and ADSL internet connections are the most common forms of connection in Argentina. It is important to note that wireless and satellite broadband only makes up 1 percent of the market. Wireless technologies can help bring internet connection to more people, it has the potential to blanket large areas and reach a larger amount of people, especially in areas outside of urban areas such as Bueno Aires.

Even with the most stable network in Latin America, Argentina's internet services isn't without its problems. PR Newswire reports on ProQuest that Millicom International Cellular's recent internet infrastructure investment in major Argentinian cities only support up to 2 Megabits per second. It is safe to say that the connection may be stable for regular usage, but one that is trying to promote technological development will only fail in those conditions.

To allow start-up companies to develop their ideas and allow software developers to a greater amount of information, a faster and more reliable network infrastructure must be built in Argentina. From personal experience alone, a lackluster network connection becomes a distraction for my application development.

How a slow or inaccessible network connection can affect an application development:

• Never is a successful application worked on by a single person. Therefore, for successful collaboration, a reliable internet connection is necessary to share project information.
• Not every programmer will have expertise on every field. Therefore using the internet to research topics of interest may be necessary.
• Finally, during the development process, suggestions from the targeted audience is vital to the success of a product. Beta releases of a product via the internet is often used for trial purposes.

Ultimately, the inaccessibility of internet can cause great ideas from Argentina to never reach its planned potential.

Starting Up Argentina

Latin American countries, including Argentina, are often perceived to be developing and plagued by violence. While this may be true, it doesn't show case the large of amount of talented people that have world changing ideas. Tech start-ups are the new trend; create a product, sell a product, and move on to the next product. In the United States, Silicon Valley is the heart of this movement, but people often neglect Palermo Valley, Argentina. Palermo Valley may become what Silicon Valley is today, the destination to build a piece of technology, and obtain venture capital funding. We may soon be outsourcing our software developer positions to Argentina; companies such as Google, IBM, and Microsoft have already built bases in Buenos Aires in the hopes of harnessing this vast number of talented developers. We often need a change in perspective and look at how Latin American countries, such as Argentina's, vast pool of talented people can contribute to the growing tech industry.

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