Something that Mónica “Money” Albarrán likes are ideas, but especially business ones. “One of my favorite emotions is inspiration and the fact of knowing people’s stories, how they encountered certain problems or found themselves in situations that they wanted to fix, and had the courage to determine an idea and create something from nothing, it seems to me to be one of the most beautiful things about humanity, especially when they are well oriented, to help, to support, to positive, honest, ethical assistance, with personal fulfillment in the middle,” confesses the founder of Muuk, a company that helps build meaningful and functional businesses.
For more than 10 years he worked with multinational companies and there he realized that he was missing something that gave him meaning or caused a positive impact, so he founded a company manufacturing innovative cardboard solutions, where he achieved business success, but he continued to feel that emptiness. He sold the company and began pursuing different ideas that occurred to him.
“I realized that I couldn’t cope with creating so much at the same time, 10 businesses or five businesses or two, it’s a waste of energy along the way. That’s when I said: what happens if I invest in people who have the same ideas as me, but who are 100% oriented to that idea, who have all the characteristics, the capabilities, the skills that I don’t have, and also have the funds to really focus 100% and not partially? And coincidentally, as well as magic, people came to me who had the same ideas as me,” says the angel investor.
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It began in 2015 with its first investment as an angel investor, but later decided to join investment funds, until now it participates in eight in total. Since then, what he has focused on is changing people’s minds to open the world to them.
One of the roles that angel investors play, he highlights, is that of trust. “Then it is those crazy ideas that change the world and if there is not the crazy person who trusted the other crazy person, they will not happen. The confidence that those super extreme ideas can work,” emphasizes Money Albarrán.
And he highlights that it is not just giving money, but also giving advice, networking, something that, he considers, is missing within investment funds to better support efforts beyond the check. “In the case of funds, they need to tell you more how you can help. I always ask them, what else do I do? If there was more communication, I think we could play an even more significant role,” he mentions.
Although the business model and the entrepreneur are important for investing, she highlights one more: the mentality. “That you are in the right mindset, in the sense that what you are doing is realistic, challenging, achievable, and not a wild dream that is not going to come true, and that you have enough skills to carry it out and face the demons you are going to face, because, in the end, entrepreneurship is one of the strongest forms of personal development there is, it is like having a child,” says Money Albarrán.
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And he gives as an example good businesses that do not prosper due to something personal, such as a bad relationship with a partner, a macro event where he could not control emotion, among others. So it focuses on people, the problem they solve and the viability of how they approach it.
Among the opportunities that stand out for angel investors is that of climate tech, where they have recently found great value and inspiration to continue investing.
