Buenos Aires Trip: Malbec

Of course, we buy Malbec from time to time from the local K&L store on El Camino. But it is an entirely different experience to walk into the small Grand Cru wine store on Avenida Alvear in Recoleta, and be guided through a host of wines from boutique wineries.

Buenos Aires Trip: Cupolas on Avenida de Mayo

Avenida de Mayo is one of the most beautiful streets in Buenos Aires, and one that has a large concentration of buildings with facades and Cupolas that are really beautiful. Some of these, today, house offices, and some apartments. I have the memory of a beautiful evening in one of these cupola apartments in 1999,

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Buenos Aires Trip: Lele de Troya

In terms of restaurants, I found Lele de Troya in Palermo the most interesting, and not only for the food, which is delicious. My friend Maria Teresa and I danced until 1:30 am one night, and then went to Lele de Troya for dinner at 2:00 am. The restaurant is set in a large, three

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Buenos Aires Trip: MALBA

On my recent Buenos Aires trip, I stayed a few extra days after work to walk around, look at art, listen to music, and to dance. After I returned, at least four sets of friends asked me for references to what I did in Buenos Aires, and what they should do on their ensuing trips.

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 6)

SM: So you grew well through 2006, and in 2007 you went public. How was the IPO received in the investor community? MG: Very well. The stock went up quite a bit. We were quite unlucky in that we did our road show in the middle of the sub prime crisis. The day we priced,

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 5)

SM: What was Internet adoption like in 2003? MG: I do not remember year by year. I think the evolution was somewhere around 10% per year. SM: What type of revenues were you seeing in 2003? MG: I believe we had $4M in 2003. I would have to check that number, but 2006 was $52M,

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 4)

SM: What was your platform in those early days – an auction platform or a fixed price platform? MG: It was completely an auction platform, and today it is 90% a fixed priced platform. Another thing we did different is that we did not like the Buy It Now feature on eBay. We used it

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eBay of Latin America: Mercado Libre CEO Marcos Galperin (Part 3)

SM: Having just 3% Internet penetration must have been very frustrating! MG: Exactly! We tried to focus more on milestones which were operational but not necessarily revenue. We still remember the first time someone came and paid their bill at the office. We still have the PDF of the scanned check. We tried to focus

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