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| Daniel Hatkoff |
by Juan Ignacio Jacome
2nd-Year MBA, Business Marketing Academy
All of us at business school are used to hearing different
success stories of CEOs and entrepreneurs that took a chance and developed a
new product or service. Most of these stories originate and develop in the
United States, but thanks to IGOE (Institute for Global Organizational Effectiveness) and the Latin MBAA, Kelley students had the
opportunity to meet CEO Daniel Hatkoff and listen to his story about
transitioning from a private equity firm in New York to a start-up in Sao Paulo,
Brazil.
Hatkoff went from New York to Brazil on a work assignment. Once
there, he quickly realized that Brazil was a country full of business
opportunities, but most importantly, it was a country he felt comfortable living
in and investing time and money in. Hatkoff started to learn Portuguese,
studied the Brazilian culture and began to search for ideas. After three
months, Hatkoff noticed that Brazilians have a general discontent with mobile phone
companies and the service they provide when a phone is damaged or broken.
His entrepreneurial spirit made Hatkoff overcome many
bumps along the way and successfully launch www.pitzi.com.br;
a site that continues to grow in the Brazilian market and is now thinking of
expanding to other Latin American markets.
As part of the visit to the Kelley School of Business, Hatkoff
had lunch with the Kelley MBA IGOE fellows where he answered questions in a
smaller, private gathering. Later, Hatkoff also met with professors of
international business and entrepreneurship.
For me, the whole experience was very special. As an IGOE
fellow, I was involved in organizing the event. This gave me the opportunity to
interact with Hatkoff during his stay. I saw firsthand the incredible passion
and commitment he has towards his project. Listening to professors and Hatkoff interact
and talk about the problems Pitzi has encountered from the start gave me a new
view of what it takes to create a successful start-up.