Chuss Lozano: I am committed to training Armenian startups

Chuss Lozano, Spanish entrepreneur, business angel and Founder of Silicon Seeds, visited Yerevan last week. He was participating in Innovation Matching Grant competition, being a member of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program (STEP) jury, which estimated pitches of the Armenian startups.
 
Itel.am talked to Chuss Lozano.
 
-You are a desired guest in Armenia, at least for the last 10 years. What brings you to Armenia every time?

-My wife is Armenian, so I have spent whole summers here for the last 10 years. Anyway, this is the first time I started working here and learning about Armenian IT sector. We have visited a couple of tech companies this week.
 
I am impressed with your technology. Armenians are geniuses, they are mathematicians. I really liked the philosophy of VOLO, which is applied in relations with the employees. I also liked WiCastr that I am going to make business with, connecting them with large companies.

-What are your further plans relating to Armenia?

-I have an intention to move to Armenia with my family next year, so I am thinking now of investing here. I would especially prefer to get involved in education programs. I think it would be a great opportunity to work on training the Armenian startups, helping them to get international. Currently I am still researching the ecosystem.

I prefer to be a smart business angel in Armenia. I do not intend to create my own startup, so I would rather invest in startups that actually interest me. I have already observed two startups that I think have interesting products, which I would like to invest in.

-In your view, is there a lack of business angels in Armenia? If yes, how could we fill that gap?

- I want to develop business angel network here. You have business angels, but they have nothing to invest in. You have engineers, talents and developed products but no entrepreneurs to sell all that.   

Of course, there is a lot of money in Armenia. For instance, we do not have similar matching grant competitions in Spain, allowing seed stage startups to attract investments (IMG and STEP – editor).

I think there is a need for creating training programs or business angel network in Armenia later, because I do not think it is realistic right now.

Narine Daneghyan talked to Chuss Lozano