To sell clothes in Bolivia to Unicorn Hunter: the curious story of the multimillionaire CEO of SoftBank

Latin America is living an investment boom, with several unicorn born in several countries in the region.Without going any further, this year six startups from Argentina, five from Brazil, two from Mexico, one from Uruguay and another from Chile they hit the great jump and are worth more than US $ 1.000 million.

But there is a subcontinent nation that does not have any, although an executive born in it has helped some regional firms to reach that status.

This is the SoftBank International CEO, the investment arm of the Japanese giant that supported Argentina Uualá, the Colombian Rappi and the only Brazilian, among others.But that also took over Wework and maintains actions of Apple, Qualcomm and other great -porting technological ones.

The executive in question is Marcelo Claure, a multifaceted businessman born in Bolivia and one of the most wealthy people in Latin America, with a fortune of US $ 2.200 million.

From football to cell phones

Claure was born in La Paz on December 9, 1970, the son of a career diplomat who worked as a representative of Bolivia for the United Nations Organization.His father's employment allowed him to travel around the world, residing in Guatemala, Dominican Republic and Morocco, although he lived in his native country most of his childhood.

The entrepreneurial spirit was always in his DNA.During his childhood he already earned his own money selling his mother's business clothes.

In 1989, at the end of high school, Claure would leave Bolivia again to study economics and finance at Lowell University, first, and at the Bentley College in Waltham, both in Massachusetts, USA.UU.

After graduating, in 1994, he traveled back to his country and on the flight he met the president of the Bolivian Football Federation, Guido Loayza, who appointed him head of commercial operations of the entity, in which he administered an international marketing program.

Success would not delay to arrive that year, the Bolivian team would qualify for the third time to a World Cup, after 44 years outside the maximum world competition.Loayza would later recognize Claure's efforts in that historical achievement.

Finished the tournament played in the USA.UU., Claure began in that country its business path.He settled in Boston and bought Usa Wireless, a cell phone distributor, at a time when these devices were too expensive and were not as popular as now.

"After developing a relationship with the owner, I bought the store in exchange for a cell phone," Claure said in an interview, about his first business investment.In just one year, he got up a chain of 134 shops, not only in Massachusetts, but also expanding the same by other US northeastern states such as new Hampshire and Connecticut.

Addressing its objectives in this growing market, and beginning to be recognized in the business field of global power, the Bolivian entrepreneur would become 1996 in the president of Small World Communications, a cell phone chain based in California.

Given the success in the sale of telephones, Claure placed in 1997 the fundamental stone of his main business: Brightar Corporation founded with his partner Dave Peterson.

The telecommunications giant

Visionary as few, Claure knew that the mobile phone business would quickly grow and that Latin America was a virgin land.Thus, Brightsar would help mobile cell phone manufacturers to distribute their products to the region's operators.

In a kind of "challenge", he named the firm combining Cellstar Corporation and Brightpoint Incorporated, its main competitors.And he sold everything he had to give him life: in October of that year, Brightar already had its headquarters in Miami to serve all of Latin America.

The firm was responsible for distributing phones and accessories.At the same time, managing inventory, logistics, billing and assistance to wholesale customers, resellers, network operators and local equipment manufacturers worldwide.

The first great agreement was signed with Motorola, ensuring the distribution for all of Latin America and opening offices in Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay in 2000.Later, he launched subsidiaries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

That association with Motorola allowed the firm to install its factory in Tierra del Fuego in 2005, which it controlled until last year - corrual by debts - sold in the symbolic value of a dollar to the Mirgor group.Until then, it produced 20% of the country's cell phones, 100% of LG teams and 25% of Samsung.

In 2006, Claure became on the radar of his current employer. El conglomerado japonés Mitsui & Co se convertiría en el segundo mayor accionista de Brighstar detrás de Motorola.

10 years ago, the firm made its debut at Nasdaq and three years later already reported income for US $ 7.000 million anuales y ganancias por u$s260 millones.These numbers did not go unnoticed by Masayoshi are, CEO and founder of one of the most important investment and telecommunications groups of this century: SoftBank.

They are, who also made his fortune with telecommunications, would buy US $1.260 million in shares in 2014, which assured Claure a chair at the multimillionaire club.

From leading Brightstar to Sprint

After merging with SoftBank, Claure would become part of the Japanese conglomerate, which also just bought for US $21.000 million a Sprint, un operador móvil líder en EE.UU.Given his knowledge of the cell market, he was appointed CEO of the Telco and began a plan to reduce expenses and improve the reputation of the brand that placed it among the most relevant.

To do this, he sealed agreements with personalities such as the YouTuber Jake Paul, or rapper Jay Z, whom he would meet after Sprint bought 33% of Tidal's shares, Spotify competitor in 2017.Not only that: he got Sprint.

His leadership and cunning made SoftBank Operations Manager (COO) in 2018, at which time the giant created a background of U $ S100.000 m to invest in startups.

Then, Claure was invited to move to Tokyo and work directly with SoftBank's Coo to "learn" how to discover entrepreneurs.But it would soon realize that there were few founders born in Latin America, although there was a high -level talent and innovation ecosystem.But investments were missing.

With everything they learned in Tokyo, Claure convinced the holding company of launching a background centered in the region.Thus, SoftBank Latin American Fund was born, with a budget of US $ 5.000 million destinados a encontrar los nuevos unicornios de la región y que ya invirtió en 30 compañías fintech, e-commerce e insurtech.

However, SoftBank had a great inconvenience: Wework, one of the "jewels" of its portfolio, largely because of the controversial management of Adam Neumman, its CEO and founder.Indeed, different controversies collapsed the possibility that the coworking giant would go out to the bag.SoftBank did not hesitate: he separated him from his position and acquired 80% of the firm.

Claure was the one who led the "sanitation" operation.The firm came from a strong crisis, aggravated by the closure of its headquarters by the pandemic: it went from Valer almost US $ 40.000 m less than US $ 3.000 m.

The efforts of the Bolivian businessman paid off: in 2020, Wework had income for 3.200 million y se prepara para salir a la bolsa a través de una SPAC (por sus siglas en inglés).This modality consists of creating a firm without commercial operation that makes an initial offer of shares (IPO) and, once it is already listed in the Nasdaq, merging or being acquired by Wework.

Crazy for football (and surf)

Considered one of the richest people in the history of Bolivia, Claure is passionate about football, to the point that in 2008 he became the owner of his favorite club, the Bolívar, which was recently confirmed as president.

However, the position exercises it interimly Loayza, who will start it in the football business, since he currently lives with his partner and two of his four children in Miami Beach.In that spa city he acquired with former English soccer player David Beckham the Inter FC of Miami.

Claure also finds time for philanthropy.In 2005 he was a founding member of the one laptop organization Per Child (a laptop per child), focused on looking for low -cost computers so that limited resources had one during their passage through the school.And that inspired the plans to connect Equality and Sarmiento, in Argentina;and Ceibal, in Uruguay, among other countries.

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His other passion is surfing, which frequently practices in Miami.An allegory with your ability to swim against the current and know when to get on the wave in business.