Maslow in La Nacion: international expansion, from Taringa to employee benefits
La Nacion covers Maslow's international expansion, the company founded by Taringa's creator now operating in 25 countries.
Article published in La Nación on November 30, 2024.
International expansion: from Taringa to employee benefits for companies
Just a few months apart, in 2019 Matías Botbol decided to move to the United States and sell Taringa!, the company he had founded with his brother and a friend that had become the largest social network born in the Spanish-speaking world. "Those were some very intense months. The only thing I didn't do was get divorced," jokes the entrepreneur at the Buenos Aires presentation of the expansion plans for his latest project: an employee benefits platform (and talent retention tool) that operates in a dozen countries across the region and is now preparing its launch beyond Latin America.
Botbol is one of the three partners of Maslow, a 100% Argentine-origin firm, but one that was born with an international vision—in fact, the only one of the three founders who lives in Buenos Aires is Diego Boryszanski (who previously created and sold the e-commerce platform Fuljaus). The former Taringa founder has been based in Austin, Texas for five years, and Ricardo Migoya (no family relation to Globant's founder), the firm's third partner, has been based in Mexico for many years.
Botbol and Boryszanski define Maslow as a platform that enables companies to offer a range of personalized benefits tailored to the individual needs and preferences of employees. The firm was formally launched in April 2022, though it only became operational at the end of that year. Today it's a profitable venture projected to close the year with $6 million in revenue, offering what its partners define as an innovation within the employee benefits package industry.
"The idea to launch the company came about because we saw an opportunity in a market that had been operating with the same offerings for years. When we spoke with HR directors at large companies, they told us that barely 30% of employees were using the benefits their companies provided, and we realized there was plenty of room to grow, mainly by offering more personalized solutions," Boryszanski explained.
Currently, the platform is used by more than 10,000 users and offers over 5,000 benefits throughout the region, with a client list that includes multinationals like Unilever, Manpower and TikTok, as well as regional players like the Mexican cinema chain Cinepolis.
"From the start, we designed the project for the Mexican market due to market size, and after launching the company in that country, we then decided to open in Argentina," explained Botbol, who says the path they're taking isn't very different from that of other Argentine entrepreneurs. "Our country continues to be very strong in technology, and this isn't new, but what has changed in recent years is that entrepreneurs are less focused on local markets and from day one think about their projects with a regional perspective," he said.
Expansion and investors
The company's launch was accompanied by a search for investors. The first to join the project was the Argentine fund Newtopia, and today the investor list also includes businessman Leandro Sigman, who runs the Sigman family's pharmaceutical businesses from Madrid. "With Leandro, we want to launch the company in Spain, and another market we want to reach is the United States, with an offering more focused on loyalty and rewards programs that companies can offer their customers," noted Botbol.
From Taringa to Maslow
When it comes to growing Maslow, Botbol has the experience of Taringa! to draw from. The community was born in Argentina in June 2004 from the hand of Fernando Sanz, who two years later sold the company to brothers Matías and Hernán Botbol and their partner and friend Alberto Nakayama.
Under the new owners, the platform became one of the largest online communities in Spanish, with more than 75 million subscribers. On Taringa, users, known as 'taringueros,' shared personal stories, memes, reviews, news and tutorials, under what its leaders called "collective intelligence."
The project's growth, however, was accompanied by a proliferation of lawsuits for copyright violations of material uploaded by users.
In 2019, the Botbols and Nakayama sold Taringa to IOV Labs, a blockchain company that acquired it with the goal of starting a new phase in which it would advance into web3, facilitating monetization with cryptocurrencies. The project ultimately didn't succeed, and in March of this year, the new owners announced the closure of Taringa!.