Alfonso Salem, Spot2 | Building and Scaling a Marketplace, and Bringing Traditional Leadership Into Startups

The audio and video are in Spanish. These notes are a translation.

Today I spoke with Alfonso Salem, cofounder and CEO of Spot2, the first B2B marketplace for commercial real estate in Latin America. In 2023, Spot2’s transaction volume grew 10X and they project closing 2024 with $1,000M in gross transaction value. The platform has +40M square meters registered and receives more than 300k visits a month.

Youtube Timestamps*

[2:36]- Personal History

Alfonso comes from working in a very traditional industry such as mining, where he led many people at different levels, from miners and union leaders to executives.

How would Alfonso say this experience has shaped him as a founder?

In Alfonso’s office there is a sheet that says: “Austerity: the money we operate with is not ours, but has been entrusted to us.”

Although venture capital does not necessarily mean wasting money, you do not usually raise venture capital in order to be austere.

Where does this value come from for Alfonso, and why did he decide to raise venture capital?

[11:54] - Commercial Property Market

When people ask what Spot2 is, the interviewer usually says it is the “Airbnb of commercial properties.”

Why is it so hard and inefficient to access a commercial space, and how does Spot2’s model work?

Alfonso puts a lot of effort into studying and looking for data from other proptechs such as Zillow, QuintoAndar, and companies in Spain, in order to get inspired, understand what did not work, and avoid repeating mistakes.

What has Alfonso learned from studying other marketplaces in proptech?

Unlike other models, Spot2 does not replace brokers. It empowers them with digital tools to improve efficiency in transactions.

Why is this idea a key part of Spot2’s model?

[14:12] - How to Start and Grow a Marketplace

A common challenge in marketplaces is balancing the growth of supply (properties) with demand (customers), facing the chicken-and-egg dilemma. In Spot2’s case, there are three sides: the owner, the tenant, and the broker.

Which side of the marketplace did they focus on first, and why?

The biggest challenge is getting more supply, and it is not a technology problem, but one of cultural barriers, since many owners are distrustful.

How are they solving this cultural barrier in order to scale supply on the platform?
How have they thought about scaling the broker’s role? Do they hire brokers internally, or what is Alfonso’s strategy?

At the beginning, Spot2 was focused on offices and retail spaces, but in the last two years, the industrial warehouse business has grown significantly.

How are nearshoring and other structural trends, such as artificial intelligence, influencing the way Alfonso builds Spot2?

[30:31] - Culture and Leadership

Jorge, Alfonso’s partner, mentioned: “Alfonso brings an old-school mindset of austerity and efficiency, but with a startup’s vision of agility and growth.”

How does this mindset show up in the way Alfonso leads his team and makes decisions? Are there any principles he would highlight?
What is Alfonso’s criterion for deciding what to focus on? How does he decide which tasks to say yes to and which to say no to?

Halfway through the year, Alfonso shared his master plan for Spot: fintech, real estate funds, and more.

If Alfonso looks 5, 10, or 20 years into the future, what is the most extraordinary vision for Spot2?