The startup that will help you avoid the legal pitfalls of kickstarting your company in Colombia

By August 29, 2017

For startups trying to navigate the complicated terrain of Rut numbers, registering a new company, taxes and managing finances, the logistics of getting great ideas off the ground for many would be impossible without a company like BackStartup.

Colombia startup kickstart

Diego Penuela, CEO at BackStartup

The company is the entrepreneurial venture of Diego A. Penuela. Diego was a systems engineer graduate of Los Andes, in Bogota, and was able to experience first hand the creation and founding of hundreds of companies during his involvement internationally with the first venture lab of Stanford University, and communities like Startup Weekend, where he learned the latest entrepreneurial methodologies and grew intricately connected to the international startup community.

They began in September 2014, and by mid 2016 they had helped 70 companies take off, and created 20 new companies themselves. They have 16 employees on their young and diverse team.

In the emerging industry of startups, connections and real life experience are worth their weight in gold. And Diego realized he had amassed a wealth of both that could potentially help other entrepreneurs avoid learning startup lessons the hard way. He began mentoring in Apps.co, Lean Startup Machine, and designing innovative companies for Connect Bogota Region.

With his company BackStartup, Diego looks to make it possible for innovative visionaries to bring to reality their ideas, without getting bogged down in the logistics. No one wants to spend time sorting out the finances and avoiding fines, but without the necessary behind the scenes work, ignoring the elephant in the room can often be their undoing.  

“Bad accounting can cause fines from 300.000 to 1.500.000 Colombian pesos a month, which for a startup just taking off, can mean the difference between continuing operations and giving up on their dreams,” Diego commented to the publication Startups-Argentina. “A legal labor dispute can accumulate astronomical costs for your company, and not registering a brand at the optimal time could lead to massive losses and abuse by third parties.“

By making it possible to outsource the complicated paperwork processes, Diego and his team hope to make their contribution to promoting startups in Colombia, protecting their intellectual property and encouraging their success.