Guillermo García Muchacho

Define your experience at IE in one word.

Transformative. 

What is your favorite memory from your time at IE?

I have many memories from my time at IE. I had a wonderful class; my classmates are still today some of my best friends. But if I would have to narrow down, my best memories would definitely be late nights learning, having fun, and having this open-ended horizon of possibilities at the time.

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

I wish I knew a lot of things. I would have liked to have a little more experience on the business side to be able to cherish more of the knowledge and the input that I was getting.

In what ways do you think your experience at IE has changed your life professionally and personally?

IE definitely changed my life; I think it was kind of a catapult for me. Before I came here, I had zero business background, I was doing everything from intuition, so it gave me a base not only from a knowledge perspective, but also in terms of networking. My friends are now one of my biggest business partners... It changed my life.

Some of your co-founders you met as a student at IE. What traits are important for you to find in your business partners?

Partnerships for me are very delicate. I always say that it's more difficult to be in a partnership than it is to be in a relationship or being married, because in business you're marrying someone that you don't love for at least 8 to 10 years. I look for integrity, that they're smart, and that they're hardworking. All three must be aligned. If they don't have strong values, but they're smart and hardworking, then you have a potential crook that can chase you down with a lot of energy.

Are entrepreneurs born or made?

If entrepreneurs are born or made, that's always a dilemma. I think in general there are people that have this innate fire inside that makes them want to achieve great things by themselves; also, their aspirations just don't go with the corporate career. However, the fact that you can be born with that drive doesn't mean that you can't learn the traits. Anyone with the right mindset and the right context can be an entrepreneur. There is a lot of methodology that can be applied to this, so even if you're not entrepreneurial in essence, you can still follow an entrepreneurial path.

What's the most difficult part of being a CEO?

For me, the tag CEO describes a big corporate structure. None of my businesses are that big yet. When I had the restaurant chain it was still a small business and the CEO position stood for Chief Eating Officer, I was not really a Chief Executive Officer. There's a big difference between being an entrepreneur and being a CEO, the skillset is completely different. The skills that you need to build a business are completely different to the skills that you need to manage a business and help it grow. There is a big learning curve from just starting the business to actually managing it.

What advice can you give to young entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of their businesses?

My advice for early-stage entrepreneurs would be to buckle up. It's always a bumpy ride, but no matter what the path is, it's always worth it. I mentor a lot of startups, and I invest in a few others, and I always say that no matter what happens, even if the business doesn't thrive, there's always something that you can take out of it: connections, experience, deep learnings, or even just building a team that you can transfer to your next idea.

What is your investment philosophy?

I go a lot with gut feeling, which is like the anti-methodology for an institutional investor. But that's my first kind of criteria, If I have a good gut feeling I go in-depth into analyzing the business. I look for how competitive this idea is in comparison to whatever there is in the market. And, above all, I look into the founder: I look into the problem, not necessarily the solution, and try to figure out how determined the founder is to thrive, because even if that business doesn't work, he'll probably find a way to spin it around, find another niche or make it work.

What values are important to you when considering an investment?

I'm a very hands-on investor. The way my investment methodology works is, out of the portfolio of services that I have to offer from CoKrea--from business to tech to marketing--I do a discount, and that's my participation in the business. I'm never a passive investor that wants to put their money in and see where it takes them. I want to be involved in growing the business. For that to work, we have to be completely aligned in terms of what the business wants to achieve, where they want to go. I want to make sure that I can provide value and that they see a clear path to success.

What stage of companies do you prefer to invest in?

Pre-seed, very early stage, where I can have some impact in shaping the business. I've had experience with multiple types of businesses in different countries and different industries, so that cross-context helps me build strong businesses from the start. So, if I find a passionate founder that has expertise in the industry, I basically just help them grow.

How do you manage your time? Not only your work time, but also your down time. How do you find work-life balance?

I genuinely love what I do, and I'm passionate about it. I know it's very cliche, but it's like that old saying of "if you love what you do, you're never going to work in your life." Work is part of my balance, in a way. I'm high-energy and a very intense person, so my regular schedules are not necessarily the normal schedule of a regular person: I start very early in the morning and end up very late at night, but I make sure to squeeze fitness, family, and a lot of fun times in between.

What's your measure of success?

I think that question has evolved throughout time. If you would have asked me five years ago, it would probably have been to be recognized as a thriving businessperson. Today it's not at all that for me. Success is literally just having the possibility and the optionality to do whatever I want to do and having the freedom to to pursue it.

What’s the importance of maintaining close ties with your peers and engaging with the IE community?

I genuinely like giving back to the community. IE has provided me with so much that I think it's important to give back. So, I mentor, I teach, I take meetings with students looking for advice. It's important to give back. And then, from my classmates, they're like my family. We lived through so much in so little time that the relationship you build with them is hard to break. Once a year we go on a trip together, and we look at deals together... We started at the same level, so it's really good and enriching to see how we're all growing in different ways but at the same speed.

What can alumni do to create a positive impact, not only within the IE community but also for the rest of the world?

Alumni can have a strong impact in the community and in the world by just giving back. I think the people that make it here have a unique set of traits that make them eligible for this institution. If you use those set of skills, or your connections, resources, reach or whatever to giving back, I think the impact can be significant.

How is the Guillermo of today different to the Guillermo who graduated from IE?

The Guillermo from today is very similar in many ways. Thankfully, I'm still this playful, energetic, funny, sometimes immature Venezuelan; but at the same time, I have much more expertise now than I did even one year ago. Five years ago, I was perhaps a completely different person. My vision was completely different. My depth in terms of business was very shallow. Also, now I have a good thermometer to understand what really makes a business tick, and what makes a good founder. I couldn't have had that five years ago. 

What's the next chapter in your life?

I just want to continue doing what I'm doing because I love it. I'm probably not going to be at the forefront of CoKrea as I've stepped down from the CEO, and I want to focus on different verticals. I'm starting a few different businesses that will launch throughout the next year and I want to dedicate my time to those businesses.

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

I have two options. I would either use it as a very good marketing stunt if the whole world can see, where I would put the call-to-action to whatever I want to sell. But thinking of a more meaningful answer, I would probably write: "Stop, and just be happy. You're alive, appreciate how fortunate it is that you're standing right there where you are, right now.”