This week’s feature on our Alumni Entrepreneur Series is Mr Gastón Kaüfer Barbé. Gastón completed his MBA at Royal Holloway’s School of Business and Management, and is now the CEO of Toucan Insights, an international Marketing Research agency specialising in Latin America.
Gastón has given multiple presentations to aspiring entrepreneurs and has recently been invited to Northumbria University as a guest speaker. We’ve reached out to him to hear about his journey into entrepreneurship and he’s provided us with some pretty great insights.
Gastón always wanted to start his own company. The idea of being his own boss and creating something that benefits the world challenged him and inspired him to follow an entrepreneurial path. After many years of working in sales and marketing departments for some big companies, he learned what was missing in the industry, which helped him find a ‘gap’ in the market that he could exploit.
Finding the right people gave him the courage to start the company. “Without them and their support, I think I would have never felt confident enough to start.”
We asked about the good and challenging aspects of the entrepreneurship journey: “An aspect that is both something that I like and challenging at the same time is that now I’m behind every decision of the company. I take full responsibility for every path, presentation, target market, etc. that Toucan Insights takes. This situation gives me tranquility in the sense that I know that the course of action or the quality of what we are doing is the right one but at the same time, it puts me in a very stressful position”
We asked for a recommendation for current Royal Holloway Students interested in a start-up and he gave us much more than we could have hoped!
“-Have a strong and diverse team.
-Know the market and industry in which you are planning to enter.
-Know your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses.
-Don’t be afraid of challenging your ideas.
-Find a mentor to help you create the best version of your company.
-Know what your potential customers need.
-Don’t procrastinate. Organise your work based on goals (you are your own boss now).
-Create the best possible network while keeping a close eye on the costs.
-Stay humble. Keep learning. Pay attention to the true needs your potential customers express by mastering your ability to read between the lines.”
You can reach out to Gastón here
Welcome to our Hub 