I started my career in banking having spent two years doing equity research while a student at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. At the same time, I was interested in entrepreneurship and knew that I really wanted to dive into the tech scene. So just before I graduated, I switched gears, leaving the financial world to start my own company.
Two of my classmates and I became business partners and began coming up with ideas for a great e-commerce product. We had been brainstorming about how we could improve online shopping and figured there had to be a way to personalize the experience through product reviews from the people you know.
Our idea finally came to fruition in early 2013 when we founded Toplist. The application allows you to know what your friends like before you buy it. No more recommendations from complete strangers!
We established the company in our hometown Mexico City, which worked well for us initially. However, as we expanded it became obvious that we needed to be in a city with more opportunities to grow our business on a global scale. We felt that New York City was the answer.
Though our ultimate goal is to take the company global, we felt that for the first stage we had to focus our efforts in one market. We analyzed our entire business—from the products we show on the app to the type of customers we support—and all of these elements seemed to be perfectly suited for New York City. To make sure this would be the right move, we spent the summer of 2013 in the city. Once the summer ended, we moved back to Mexico City for six months, and after careful deliberation, returned to Manhattan as a fully developed tech startup headquartered in SoHo.
When we moved to New York City, we did it with our own money, which was a big risk. Fortunately we’ve been able to attract different angel investors who have helped with cash flow, bringing our product to market. Our investors have not put any restrictions on how we run our business and we’ve been able to maintain control.
It was a risk to come to New York City, but by taking chances we’ve been able to experience great success. We announced our soft launch two months ago and after the first two weeks, we had more than 7,000 products saved on TopList profiles. Our download vs. sign up rate is really high, currently at 75%. This is an optimistic figure considering that people can only sign in through Facebook. Our big launch is coming soon!
Additionally, we have partnered with Free People, UncommonGoods, Hammacher Schlemmer and many Etsy stores to offer the greatest assortment of products to our users. We expect to have 100,000 products on our database by 2015 and hope to reach 500,000 by the end of 2016.
Making it in New York City was no easy feat. We learned to take advantage of the opportunities around us — being in the middle of a thriving tech hub has helped us build our company much faster and with better objectives. We found it to be pretty easy to get a sit-down meeting with people who can help us grow. The fact that we are international gives diversity to the tech scene and adds depth to our story, which we think has generated more interest in our company. Being here has also enhanced opportunities for media attention, networking, and personal contact with users. We’re really enjoying our time here in New York City and so far, it was definitely worth the risk.