Luis Contreras Espinoza

Startup founder | TradeTech infra | Operating system for global trade | Logistologyst | Don’t follow paths... we build them |

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

The hardest part of building infrastructure isn't the technology.
It's surviving long enough for the right investors to recognize what you're building.

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

'Disrupted or dead': AI is crushing a generation of startups built before ChatGPT https://t.co/4sd3mTig5I

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

@elonmusk Wright is right!

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

4 mistakes that sink fundraising rounds  https://t.co/nf5QMuctqq vía @techcrunch

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

The more I learn about @ycombinator , the less I think its value is only funding.
Its real value may be compressing years of trial and error into a few months.
Success is still up to the founder. The learning curve isn't.

[Dara @dara_venture]

Every startup founder is a rebel.

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

@paulg @charliermarsh A crowded market is often a signal of persistent demand, not saturation. The interesting question is why so many solutions exist and the problem still hasn't disappeared.

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

@garrytan Latin America is an interesting example. Capital has often been scarce, yet entrepreneurs keep building solutions. The constraint was never compute. It was understanding real problems worth solving.

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

@rayandabbagh @ComexPoint helps companies import and export products more easily, with total comparable landed cost information and process before moving cargo, so they can compare multiple options and decide with certainty | https://t.co/APmzS74Q8L

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

TradeTech ≠ LogTech.
LogTech moves cargo.
TradeTech improves decision-making before it moves.
One digitizes and executes operations.
The other optimizes the entire transaction. #TradeTech #LogTech #GlobalTrade #DecisionInfrastructure

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

@brettcalhounn @ComexPoint helps companies import and export products more easily, with total comparable landed cost information and process before moving cargo, so they can compare multiple options and decide with certainty

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

The best pitch test: can you tell this at a bar to a friend?

Not the market size, not the TAM, not the deck. Just the story. Why you built it. What you saw that nobody else saw. What happened.

If you can't tell it naturally over drinks (or it would feel weird to your friend and they would think "this isn't you"), your idea or pitch or endeavor needs to bake some more.

The 9pm-at-a-bar test for your startup idea is a defining authenticity test. And without that, nobody will buy your product, let alone come work for you or invest.

[TBPN @tbpn]

.@ericries explains why former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal refused to raise the price of everything in the store by $.03, despite the fact that Costco knew it wouldn't decrease sales, and would increase their net income by 50%:

"He says, 'It's like the business equivalent of taking heroin. You do it once, and then you got to do it again, and again, and again. Next thing you know, you're not the low-price leader.'"

"You can get away with screwing people over. You always do it, no matter what. You raise margins. Margins are a source of strength."

"But Costco is built on a very different philosophy, which is that margins can be a source of weakness. @JeffBezos understood it. He used to always say, 'Your margin is my opportunity.'"

"When you're making too much money, when you are being too extractive, you're actually harming your competitive position in the long run."

[Paul Graham @paulg]

A startup idea that only works if there are already a significant number of people using it is not a valid startup idea. There has to be some subset of users who need what you're making so desperately that they'll use it even if no one else is.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Ultimately the golden age of abundance will be this kind of tech built and deployed 1000x

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

The most expensive moment in logistics isn't the shipment. It's the decision made before it.
Wrong cost. Wrong code. Missing permit.
By the time cargo moves, the damage is done.
Better information before the cargo moves. That's decision infrastructure. That's @ComexPoint .

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

@PauDiFontana8 @FridaSiKahlo @velosodiputada La gran Neme gritar para llamar la atención pero con poca sustancia

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

Impresentable que la extrema izquierda habla del cuidado del presupuesto social y hasta marzo que cambió gobierno solo se dedicaron a gastarlo en ellos #enacional

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

@lcruzcoke chistoso este Sr hablando de ministro Poduje y la farándula y el que viene de las telenovelas es el… bien cara dura el
“honorable”

[Luis Contreras Espinoza @Lcontresp]

Infraestructura vs Servicios #startups

https://t.co/mziQKRn8bp