Dear Venture capitalists ...It never ceases to amaze me how valuable information can be. Only a few years ago, venture capitalists--some of them barely out of college and struggling to grow beards--pounded the streets of Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. any geek A technically oriented person. It has typically implied a "nerdy" or "weird" personality, someone with limited social skills who likes to tinker with scientific or high-tech projects. The origin of the term dates back to the late 1800s. with a slick idea. Yet sound, interesting companies with great potential today struggle from quarter to quarter on high-interest bank loans. Or, they choose to stay small, no matter what opportunities hover tantalizingly tan·ta·lize tr.v. tan·ta·lized, tan·ta·liz·ing, tan·ta·liz·es To excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach. near. The dot-commers are long forgotten, but that doesn't mean that the region's small and medium-sized companies evaporated evaporated reduced in volume by evaporation; concentrated to a denser form. with them. Mining is hot, and anyone connected to import-export is having a blast. Ski resorts, builders, chicken farms--even fiber optic companies--are all reporting great growth, both over 12 months and three years. We're not talking startups--some of them have been around for decades. In this issue, we profile 50 such companies, our annual ranking of the fastest-growing companies under US$100 million in revenues. Consider it a shopping list for the venture crowd. It takes some nerve to go back to the board and say, "poultry," but 1.3 billion Chinese can get pretty hungry. Somebody is going to make some bucks on the clucks. Speaking of going great guns, Brazil is our other big focus. Even if you take the gloomy view of the country's raging infrastructure problems, the export boom is hard to ignore. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is likely to stay the course, and "made-in-Brazil" is starting to mean something to the outside world. If Lula can convert his good fortune into long-lasting change, Brazil will become a beacon for the developing world. He seems intent on making any sacrifice necessary to do so. P.S. Panama, perpetually viewed abroad as a place to pass through, is turning itself into a place to stop and invest. Dell thinks so, and homegrown home·grown adj. 1. Raised or grown at home. 2. Originating in or characteristic of a locality: "Rock is homegrown music in the United States, evolved from blues and country and Tin Pan Alley" airline Copa is flying high. In an exclusive, we speak with new Panamian President Martin Torrijos (Pages 41, 45 and 17). THE HOT 50 ART DIRECTION: B.Y. COOPER Greg Brown Greg Brown may refer to:
gbrown@latintrade.com |
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