August 20, 2020
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Brian Requarth
It was a sunny afternoon in July and I was in line, waiting to pay a fine for overstaying my visa in Colombia. By my side was a guy with a German passport. At that point, I was teaching English and one of the students really wanted to learn German. I asked my fellow illegal immigrant if he’d be interested.
He said “maybe”, but we kept chatting for the following weeks — not so much about giving classes, but rather about business ideas.
That was in 2004. Cut to 16 years later, we built several companies together, one of which was Viva Real.
Thomas Floracks is an extremely close friend of mine, an incredible partner, and we’ve been through thick and thin together. He’s also a product and growth expert. Today he’s back in Colombia as the Chief Product Officer of LaHaus, an amazing proptech company where I’m also an investor.
This episode is a chat between old friends and co-founders, but also a lesson on building great tech products. Thomas and I look back on our journey, as he shares tactical advice on: