Andrés Abumohor

How did your experience at IE prepare you for your professional career?

It involves many different aspects. I don’t even know where to begin to talk about what happens inside the classroom, but I think it entails a lot more things that happen outside the classroom. It is the fact you’re living abroad, leaving your home country. I also was married, and had my first kid while studying.

The people you meet, from I don’t know how many different countries, were all represented in that classroom. I think the whole experience is so much broader than what you can read in a textbook, not only what you can read on your own. It is a sharing experience, it is discussion with smart people on the other side, with people who come from whole different backgrounds that bring aspects that will challenge your thoughts in a completely different way. It opens your mind. I think it does get you ready for a lot of things in life.

I think coming here is a big part, living the Madrid experience, I can’t even imagine what this might have been during COVID, doing it from home. But that’s a big part, all the personal interaction, it is having those discussions, and opening your mind that get you ready for life.

What is one thing you wish you knew when you were a student?

Nothing. I think that’s something, we in life, think that if we had only known better, we’d be so much better off. And of course, some things, there are some challenges in life you would have avoided if you knew something better, but I think it’s the value of having that trip, of learning, of making mistakes. That’s what makes life fun, right? I think that’s what life is all about. It’s not about the end goal and how you would have had a better reach to your end goal faster or in a better way if you only had known so many things. I prefer not knowing, just living, and taking that trip, and knowing what’s going to happen in due time. It is all about enjoying the trip.

Do you see room for more collaboration between traditional financial services operators like JP Morgan and FinTech players like OmniLatam?

It’s a curious question because I worked at JP Morgan. It was my first job as an intern in 2002, but I recently signed a partnership with JP Morgan from my own company and this was now three weeks ago. So yes, of course there’s room for collaboration. I think especially in the financial world, where there’s a lot of regulation, there’s a lot of things traditional financial companies cannot do, the time to market is different. Perfection is different. Having innovative companies, start-ups, who can afford to fail, who can experience new things, their time to market and their speed to move around, their capacity to explore is so much better, so much bigger. The opportunity is out there, it needs to end up in collaboration. Because the one thing that start-ups are not going to have in a long time, is the access to capital. So yes, it ends up getting the best of both world when you find that collaboration. And I think the defensive barriers form traditional players, saying we want to do everything ourselves; we don’t want to collaborate with anybody, we don’t want to help start-ups get anywhere better, I think that’s over.

As a founder, how difficult is it to hand over the control of your company?

It’s impossible. We’ve grown the company in 5 years, we are today 310 people inside the company. We have grown the company 5 times in the last year. We have tripled the team only in the last 12 months. This is part of letting go, pieces of the company, pieces of the day to day, but I don’t think you give up control. In the hard aspect of control, it’s impossible to manage everything. But not inside your mind. Inside your mind it’s still your baby and youwant to keep along with it.

Are entrepreneurs born or made?

I am not sure. Because launching my own company was out of my own personal necessity. It was not the monetary aspect. I had been pitching my idea to different people that I thought had better tools, better positioning, they had better chances of succeeding at what I am doing. After pitching it for a couple of years, I got bored. I said, “well if no one is looking at this, it’s done, it´s over.” But it came from the inside, it wasn’t a very traditional entrepreneur saying “hey, there is a monetary opportunity here.” I was looking for something to be done, something to be put out in the market. Not only I believe it to be an opportunity from an economic aspect, I think it also makes the world a better place. It’s giving access to better finance.

Yes, as an entrepreneur you have to listen to the market, you need to look at the market opportunities, and you need to be super critical with that, but you can push and push and if you believe in it, there’s no one better than you to do it.

What do you do to decompress? What do you enjoy doing during your free time?

I do some sports; I try to run 3 or 4 times a week. But the place I have fun in is in my office. I enjoy my work, I have fun while at work. It’s stressful at times, but this is my challenge and I enjoy my challenge.

How is the Andrés of today different from the Andrés who graduated from IE?

I am totally different. Back then, for me it was about following the structure, following the path. When you become an entrepreneur you need to be able to challenge everything. The status quo is not to be respected, it’s to be challenged every single day. If you think there’s someone entitled to have that position, it has got to be you.

If you had a billboard hat you could display to the world, what would you write on it?

Not sure, Im still a very private person. Enjoy the trip, that’s probably the one thing that will mark the difference if you follow it.

Office or remote?

Office.

Summer or winter holidays?

Summer before winter.

Family business or public company

Somewhere in between, but closer to public.

Going deeper into the box or connecting boxes?

Connecting boxes, that’s what my whole company is about, connecting different boxes. But if you do not go deep enough, you become a generalist. So, it’s a combination of both.

Tower or María de Molina?

I would say the Tower.

Managing or leading?

Leading, always.