"The way to survive and be successful is to have passion for what you do. Then there's creativity, determination and dedication. And lack of memory. It's very difficult to be an entrepreneur if you remember all the things that can go wrong."
It was a totally different world. Today Genexus (formerly called Artech), the company of Nicolás Jodal and Breogán Gonda, is an Uruguayan multinational with nearly 8,500 clients in more than 40 countries, offices in Brazil, Mexico, Japan and the United States, official distributors in countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas, and more than 100,000 developers worldwide using its tools. The company is recognized as an example of exporting neurons, and Jodal is one of the main exponents of the booming national software sector and a benchmark in the contagion of entrepreneurship in technology. In 2015 it was learned that the Uruguayan software industry, which employs more than 15,000 people, had a turnover of US$ 742 million in 2013, 41% more than in 2011. Exports exceeded US$ 300 million. Uruguay is the main software exporter per person and the third in absolute values in Latin America, with a growth in recent years above the country's traditional exportable products.
In the mid-1980s, Jodal worked at the Banco de Previsión Social (BPS). When, in 1984, he resigned from that secure job, where he could undoubtedly make a career, his office colleagues could not believe it. His boss at BPS, the renowned engineer Breogán Gonda, had proposed that he move to Brazil to advise large companies on database projects, and Jodal accepted the challenge. While working as a consultant in Sao Paulo, they came across a business problem... and decided to develop a software program to solve it. They wanted to sell that solution but failed in the attempt, and so in 1988 they decided to create their own company, which at first they thought of calling Art & Technology, a name that was later synthesized in Artech. Genexus, "a program that makes programs", was born in a small apartment in 18 de Julio and Minas, which for Jodal is a sign that it is not the physical conditions that matter, but the conviction and the capacity of concretion.
Genexus is the first intelligent application and system development tool that allows you to automatically create, develop and maintain cross-platform software, databases and enterprise applications.
A clear advantage is that the applications created with Genexus adapt easily to technological and business changes.
They sold the first copy of Genexus in 1989; by 1995 it was already present in more than 10 countries. It was a real breakthrough, as it was the world's first automated software developer.
Jodal is seen as an example of the new entrepreneurs that the technological revolution demands: creative, innovative, motivator of his staff based on convincing and not imposing.
In addition, he is recognized for working for the development of the Uruguayan technology sector, considering that competition is with other countries in the world and that coordination must reign internally. He shares with his colleagues in the sector the idea of seeing the world as his market; he highlights Uruguay's conditions as an interesting laboratory and the generalist capacity of Uruguayans as a factor that favors their innovative streak. He praises the Ceibal Plan, as he believes that a country like Uruguay should maximize the talent of its inhabitants.
He says he feels a responsibility to help other entrepreneurs grow. So he encourages ideas from his company's employees and supports them so they can create their own companies. But, in addition, together with Sylvia Chebi he founded Thales Lab, a company "builder" with the aim of creating innovative technology companies.
Thales Lab is one of the youngest support organizations of the Uruguayan entrepreneurial ecosystem, which with a clear protagonism of the National Agency for Research and Innovation has been strengthening and consolidating over the last decade.
This article is part of the special publication of El Observador for its 25th anniversary.
Source: The Observer
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