Matéria produzida originalmente em inglês, para português clique aqui e veja a tradução do Google.
Patrick Arippol currently serves as a partner with DGF Investimentos in São Paulo with a focus on healthcare technology companies. Arippol brings a depth of knowledge and experience to his current role with three distinct phases of his career: working at a large company, founding a startup, and currently investing in potentially high-impact healthcare startups.
Following graduation from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in systems engineering, Arippol joined Seer Technologies which focused on implementing high complexity software services and solutions. In his role, Arippol gained experience working with healthcare and financial services sectors. After Seer Technologies, he transitioned to a consulting role. During this period, Arippol developed IT strategies for healthcare-focused companies. These initial work experiences helped form the groundwork for Arippol’s next venture in entrepreneurship.
By 1999 Arippol entered the chaotic and unpredictable world of startups with Planetavida, a venture focused on healthcare. He credits this time as a phenomenal learning opportunity in that he candidly “learned what not to do with some success”. Arippol further explained himself in that this startup exposed him to interesting nuances such as fundraising and trying to become profitable. After a few years working in startups, Arippol returned to the United States to earn an MBA from Stanford University. The proximity to Silicon Valley allowed him to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship and startups after completing his studies in Palo Alto. Arippol zeroed his investor and startup acumen towards software, business services, and healthcare services from 2007 to 2010 while in Silicon Valley.
When Arippol entered the Brazilian market in 2010, he joined DGF Investimentos which is one of the more established venture capital/private equity firms in Brazil. The Brazilian market presents nuisances and challenges, but Arippol said in general the market has evolved a lot since 2001. In order to counter the downsides related to regulation complexities and overhead, Arippol stated that advances had been made in regard to Brazilian startups. Arippol highlighted advances such as lawyers’ familiarity with high tech companies as well as an increased awareness of liabilities and design of stock option plans. If an entrepreneur can navigate the complexities, Arippol is confident that an entrepreneur with the right team, tempo, governance, and business model can perform very well in Brazil.
Through the lens of an investor, Arippol emphasized a few characteristics that he seeks when evaluating a potential investment. First, Arippol stressed the team dynamic between an entrepreneur and investors. A second characteristic is the market in terms of inflexion points. Finally, Arippol highlighted the business plan which can often shift once an investment has been established. Arippol values an entrepreneur’s intellectual honesty as another important trait.
Arippol has established himself as a passionate investor in Brazilian startups. His knowledge stems from both successes and failures. In addition, he obtained a wealth of experience working in Silicon Valley. Arippol also possesses a knack for understanding viewpoints from an entrepreneur’s angle as well as an investor’s one. These characteristics serve him well when evaluating the next potential healthcare startup involving B2B software, mobile, big data, or the cloud.
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