Today's Entrepreneur: Angela Cois

Yanna Chen · June 4, 2014 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3743

Top 3 lessons: Don't give up your job too early, be patient and try to learn the most you can about

Angela Cois

Today's Entrepreneur is Angela Cois, Co-founder and COO at  LastRoom, a Mexican startup providing with travel management solutions for companies and business travelers in Latin America.

Cois completed her studies in Italy, getting a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and a Master’s Degree in International Relations at the University for Foreigners of Perugia. Here's a look at her entrepreneurial background.

Companies I've founded or co-founded:

LastRoom, Ofercity

 Companies I work or worked for:

WallStreet Institute, Export in USA, Giomexia, Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, University of Quintana Roo

 

Achievements (products built, personal awards won):

From 0 to 600 closed deals with hotels in Mexico during the 1st year of operations.
I won the first Pitch Competition for women entrepreneurs in LatAm held in Miami on Decemeber 2013 and organized by FOMIN (https://www.wexchange.co).

 If you are an entrepreneur, why?

I want to contribute to a big change in the industry of Travel, consolidating a range of verticals that have been fragmented for years.

My favorite startups:

AirBnB; Salesforce.

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

The biggest frustration is to not have enough time to learn about the market and the industry you're trying to innovate with your technology. Many entrepreneurs run out of money too early to complete the necessary learning curve. On the other hand, there is a strong satisfaction in seeing that your product is really changing something in the industry. When the main actors of the arena look at your small company and perceive there is something interesting and with a great potential in your technology and idea.

 What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make?

We used to make a lot of mistakes. I think that the most relevant one, expecially at the beginning, is to believe too much in what mentors and accelerator programs are able to do for you and for your company. There are no magic receipts and the seed investment of an accelerator program is not enough to really learn about an industry, understanding the real lacks and the main challanges you've to face to along the journey.

 What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

Don't give up your job too early.
Is better to have cofounders with a strong sence of sacrifice and with the ambition of being great entrepreneurs, rather than very talented people who finally looks for the easiest way to make money and leave you as soon as a better opportunity comes up.
Be patient and try to learn the most you can about an industry. Consider that: for the first 2 years of your startup, the money you raise or invest in your company is necessary to buy time and learn all the secrets and hidden dynamics of the industry you pretend to innovate and change with your idea.

Full bio

Co-founder and COO at LastRoom, a Mexican startup providing with travel management solutions for companies and business travelers in Latin America. She completed her studies in Italy, getting a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and a Master’s Degree in International Relations at the University for Foreigners of Perugia. After a short experience working at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2010 she moves to Mexico and launched Ofercity, a group-buying platform focused on flash deals. She has 10 years-experience in direct sales and digital marketing working for several Italian and US companies. Since 2012 she’s in charge of the operations and business development at LastRoom. On January 2014 she launches www.Startup.mx, the first Mexican blog entirely focused on tech-companies and entrepreneurs’ testimonials and stories.

(To be featured, you must have your Vator entrepreneur profile filled out, including your school. If you want to be featured, email me your profile URL as well as your Vator company profile URL. You can reach me at yanna@vator.tv)

 

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LastRoom

Startup/Business

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LastRoom is a startup company based in Mexico City, providing  companies and business travelers with the best technology for their travel management, by reducing costs and improving travelers’ experience. Our main aim is to help companies skipping expensive GDS’ fees and provide them for high quality content in hotels and ground transportation services worldwide. We started in December 2012 with a mobile app for same-day hotel booking. Since then, we’ve reached more than 170,000 downloads of the app and nearly 1,000 directs contracts with hotels in Mexico. This year, we’ve launched a complementary B2B solution called  LastRoom for Business, a software in the cloud, providing companies for a unique travel suite, where travelers are able to book hotels and other ancillary services, generating all the invoices automatically and improving the corporate control over their travel expenses thanks for detailed reports.


 

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Angela Cois

Joined Vator on

Co-founder and COO at LastRoom, a Mexican startup providing with travel management solutions for companies and business travelers in Latin America. Former founder at Ofercity, a group-buying platform focused on flash deals.