Maslow in Ambito: the disruptive company generating millions in revenue

Article published in Ámbito Financiero on November 23, 2024, by Jorge Velázquez.

Matías Botbol, 20 years after launching Taringa, created another disruptive company generating millions in revenue

When Matías Botbol took over Taringa in 2004 alongside his brother Hernán and his friend Alberto Nakayama, the cloud and social networks as we know them today didn't exist. Neither did Artificial Intelligence, although the motto under which Taringa was developed was "shared intelligence."

That platform quickly became Argentina's first social network with influence throughout the Spanish-speaking world. At its peak, it reached 75 million monthly unique users and a valuation of $20 million.

Eventually, after going through a period of success, decline set in for various reasons. In 2019, Botbol and his partners sold the company for an undisclosed amount—a company they had purchased for $5,000 fifteen years earlier. The last owner was IOVLabs, a company focused on blockchain technology. But the bet didn't pay off as expected, and Taringa permanently closed in March 2024.

Matías Botbol currently lives in Austin, Texas, United States. He was in Buenos Aires this week, where he presented the new venture he's working on with two other partners. It's Maslow, a company founded in 2022 by Botbol with Diego Boryszanski and Ricardo Migoya.

It's a platform that offers customized benefits and rewards services for other companies that need to retain their employees to prevent talent loss—a problem its own founders had experienced at some point in their business careers.

Maslow's Current Numbers

The company has over 80 clients, including Unilever, Manpower, L'Oreal, Havas, LDC, Nowports, and TikTok. It operates in 25 countries including Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, the United States, Spain, and Germany, among others.

This year it will close with projected revenue of $6 million. And they estimate it will reach $18 million in 2025. They have a team of 20 people who work fully remote.

Interview with Matías Botbol

Journalist: What connects your experience with Taringa to what you're doing now at your new company, Maslow?

Matías Botbol: I've loved computers since I was a kid. I was an antisocial nerd in school. One of my first jobs was at UOL Sinectis, where I designed the webmail—something that 25 years ago was revolutionary. Then I founded a hosting company called Wiroos. Until in 2004 we purchased and developed Taringa with my brother Hernán and my friend Alberto Nakayama.

Beyond the type of business, what has always excited me is using technology to create change in industries, in consumption patterns, or in whatever the status quo is at any given moment.

That possibility is what captured my attention about the Internet. Taringa was exactly that—the ability to enable people to talk directly with others, without the intermediaries that media outlets typically are. This is something that seems normal now, but back then it was revolutionary. We were the first to propose something like that with Taringa; there was nothing comparable.

And now what I see with my new company, Maslow, is this same opportunity to do something disruptive. Generally, when disruption happens, it occurs in things that seem completely established and where no change seems possible.

J: What's the possible disruption you're seeing in this HR segment where Maslow operates?

MB: Now the opportunity to be disruptive has to do with salary personalization—the way people are rewarded for their work. A large part of that reward is salary, but there's still a lot to be done.

With Maslow, we're focused on the benefits and rewards offering so companies can benefit their employees. But looking ahead, within five years, the idea is to also get into the salary component. And start building models where there's flexibility in how to manage salary. It doesn't mean people won't know how much they'll earn, but rather how they want to earn it based on their own interests or personal needs. And giving companies the tools to make it happen.

About Taringa and Social Networks

J: At what point in Taringa's development did you realize you wouldn't be able to compete with what was coming?

MB: There was a moment when we saw it clearly. What happened to us is that by not having the financial resources that big companies have, everything became more difficult when making a decision. It's like you have one shot and the other companies use a machine gun—even if they only hit with one bullet and the rest miss, it doesn't matter.

One thing that hurt us compared to the new social networks was that our monetization model was very dependent on third parties, like advertising agencies that buy media or programs like Google Ads. And when you play by rules that aren't yours but someone else's, problems start.

In contrast, the other companies applied native, proprietary advertising models, where you advertise within the platform itself without using a third party. And this is something we couldn't do because we didn't have the budget, and it ultimately hurt us.

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