Juan Manuel Barrero: “Lazo empowers people through AI”

The Argentine businessman, based in Miami, is investing in new technologies and Hispanic entrepreneurs from both Latin America and the United States.

“Lazo’s vision is to create a multi-sided marketplace to connect the actors in the ecosystem, primarily entrepreneurs with investors. That’s where the concept of community comes in.” – Juan Manuel Barrero

By Migdalis Pérez

From a young age, Juan Manuel Barrero wanted to make an impact on others. This young Argentine entrepreneur firmly believes “that we are in this world to add value, to transcend, and to do something that can impact many people.”

With that idea in mind, he moved to the United States, “the place where you can think big.” He leveraged his experience in finance, taxes, legal matters, startups, and venture capital, and created Lazo in Miami in 2021; a trusted co-pilot that helps new businesses scale intelligently.

In other words, it’s an enhanced solution powered by artificial intelligence (AI) for legal, accounting, tax, payroll, finance, and fundraising matters. It is also the first Augmented Ops™ platform that manages your startup’s operations with the help of AI.

According to Barrero, his firm has been very successful. In just three years, it has not only provided services to more than 2,500 startups but has also become the main gateway to the U.S. for Latin American startups and the “Go To” solution for Latino founders in Miami and the rest of the country.

“At Lazo, I saw an opportunity to develop a product that connects all the legal, financial, and capital-raising aspects on a single platform for an entrepreneur,” says the entrepreneur, who is happy because, “after a long time trying to make an impact and do something big,” he finally sees “a clear path towards what I was looking for.”

Basically, his company helps startups throughout the entire company incorporation process: from the establishment itself to the legal documentation for their employees, clients, and investors, including accounting, tax, and financial areas in line with the business model. True to its name, Lazo connects everything in one place: it connects people, it connects investors with founders, and vice versa. “Lazo’s vision is to create a multi-sided marketplace to connect the actors in the ecosystem, primarily entrepreneurs with investors. That’s where the concept of community comes in,” something Barrero also firmly believes in.

“Today,” he explains, “entrepreneurs have a lawyer, a CPA [Certified Public Accountant], a CFO [Chief Financial Officer], an accountant, and many tools. What we do, [on the other hand], is integrate all those tools and all those people” in one place.

The entrepreneur believes that “artificial intelligence will significantly change the way businesses are managed and structured. That’s why,” he argues, “Lazo focuses on empowering people through AI,” mainly small and medium-sized businesses “that will benefit substantially from this, because they are the ones with the fewest resources and the ones who need it most to improve their decision-making.”

Regarding challenges, he acknowledges that, “when you arrive in the United States, nobody knows you, so you have to start building your own network and your own reputation”; a reputation that is already reflected in their achievements. “Through our community strategy,” he emphasizes, “we have positioned ourselves as leaders in what we do. And the most important thing is the great team we have built in these three years (five people in the U.S. and 60 in Latin America).”

For the future, the executive plans to create a unicorn company. “We want to be a company that can go to NASDAQ and be publicly traded. We want to build value as a company through our customers, the technology, and the product we have. And in five years, we want to have an IPO [Initial Public Offering] or be close to it.”

Of course, Barrero doesn’t forget his community. “We also want to help Latinos gain more visibility. And we want the capital markets to have more confidence in Hispanic entrepreneurs, because investors tend to trust more in someone who studied at Harvard or Stanford.” “Part of what we want to do,” he concludes, “is generate pride for Latinos and [ensure] that investors are more open to seeing successful Hispanic entrepreneurs as a result of Lazo’s success. I feel I owe a great deal to the Latino community, because they were the first to open doors for me in the United States.”