Hello anyone who is interested in this subject. My name is Joel DeVenney, I am a businessman who lives in Guatemala, C.A. (The country right underneath Mexico
). I am in the process of evolving and making known Bitcoins in Guatemala, I am finally at the next step in that evolution and I am seeking possible investors into the project. (Investors do "NOT" have to be from or located in Guatemala of course, though if you are "Bienvenidos sean"
)
The project is placing the first ATM in Guatemala! There are a couple other Bitcoin ATM's from what I have read online located in South America and another I think in another country here in Central America. I am interested in placing the first in Guatemala. There is growing interest in Bitcoins here in Guatemala thanks largely to a business I run and other very interested individuals in the country. As a whole individuals in Guatemala a very weary of using Credit Cards online for any purchase. So the idea of a Bitcoin for security reasons is a great plus for the country and is gaining great traction.
Let me give you a little background on myself. I am a businessman who is originally from Ohio, USA. I currently live part time in Guatemala. I am the owner of Microtronix, a web company I started 13 years ago. I have offices in Ohio and here in Guatemala where I employ a full support staff and programmers. I am very active in the Bitcoin world/community and was one of the first 3 companies to offer hosting for Bitcoins years ago.
A view of Microtronix:
http://www.microtronix-tech.comhttp://www.microthosting.comI also own 2 other companies located only here in Guatemala. GuateApuros which is a personal loan company that I have been operating with a business partner now for 3 years. We just recently branched into allowing outside investing and other new ideas for the Guatemala area.
A view of GuateApuros:
http://www.guateapuros.comAnd lastly I own Bitcoin Guatemala, a Bitcoin exchange business for Guatemala with local payments made to local banks for Bitcoins. We buy and sell. We are the first Guatemalan company to offer purchasing of Bitcoins online fully automated with a Deposit or Transfer ID from the bank. We are working as I speak to get our first exchange store located in a mall here in Guatemala so the customer can actually buy and sell from a person!
A view of Bitcoin Guatemala:
http://www.bitcoinguate.comI give all this info only to give background on myself. I started my first business when I was 18 in Guatemala, have owned and sold 10 so far in Guatemala and 1 in the US.
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I am looking for outside investors into this ATM idea for one main reason. It's not financial, though any investor would have to come in financially as well, but for knowledge. I am primarily looking for an investor that has already setup a Bitcoin ATM somewhere around the world. This previous knowledge is what is vital. To invest this large sum of money into buying an ATM, having it shipped here (paying 17% import duty) and then setting up without any knowledge of having done it before would be a waste of time and money. It would be smarter to partner with someone who has previous experience investing into and setting up Bitcoin ATM's somewhere else.
This partnership would be 3 ways, split equally. It would be myself, my current business partner and who ever invests lastly. I am willing and open to discussion of multiple outside investors of course, I am not limiting this to only one more. But it would have to be agreed upon by all investing parties.
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Guatemala as a market for this is wide open, there are 3 primary challenges.
One is letting people know what a Bitcoin is, making it known to the country and it's people. This is a relatively easy endeavour, having been in the technology area of this country for a long time I have many business contacts in the IT world and other businesses as well. To list a few:
Macrosistemas
Colegio Montano
iGuate
Connection
Using these contacts, social media, local forums and businesses I know to help promote the "idea" of a Bitcoin, we see this being quite simple. It hasn't taken us long to get where we are right now.
The second problem is making Bitcoins easily accessible to the public. Right now as with most countries you must deposit to a bank account then get your coins. This is troublesome as most individuals in Guatemala are very skeptical of everything. So to deposit then hope to get payment is a long shot. It has taken us a bit to gain the trust to make this happen so far.
Having an ATM where a person inputs their money then gets something back is ideal, this will help to eliminate the fear. It's there in front of the person, has a phone number, and is tangible.
The ATM will allow getting coins to be fast, easy and accessible to the public. Our ultimate goal is not one or two ATM's but multiple across the city. Making getting coins easy.
The solution to the second problem should make the third problem less of a problem. What to do with those coins once someone has them!? This is easily solvable using my years of business in the country, getting companies to accept Bitcoins for payments and then through my already established company trade them back out for them to Quetzales (The currency of the country).
This is the ultimate goal by installing ATM's, make them accessible for people to get, keep and store. Then give them the ability to spend those coins! Right now companies in Guatemala are afraid to offer online CC payments, mostly because it's so expensive to set it up and then because people are afraid to use their CC's online.
Bitcoins solve this problem gracefully! By allowing people to own them easily with the ATM's then use them for online purchases. Purchasing with Bitcoins is 100% secure as compared to CC's. This solves a large problem for companies in the country.
Currently there is only one online CC processor in the country, Credomatic. Owned by the BAC bank. It is extremely hard to gain access to their online CC processing. It requires a deposit of Q.10,000 ($1,300), monthly payments after of anywhere from $100 to $400, then anywhere from 6%-8% commission per processed transaction. Most companies don't even think about doing it!
So once companies can offer Bitcoin payments because people have Bitcoins, the whole situation will blow wide open. By installing ATM's we make it easy for the individual to have Bitcoins and then convince the companies to accept Bitcoins we make it easy to spend those coins.
We solved many problems all at once here, supply and demand for the product and it's use.
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Our goal would be to have our first ATM within 2 to 6 months installed and operational. All the time publicizing it's installment and location.
We have great reputation myself and my business partner in a local forum, Velocidad Maxima, where we have been users for many years and done a lot of business through the site. Through this and word of mouth with other business acquaintances we plan to get the word out of the ATM's installment.
We have currently looked at these two ATM's, but as I stated since I have never done one before I am quite the rookie in this and this is the whole reason we are looking for outside investment, experience:
https://bitcoinatm.comhttp://projectskyhook.comWe are more than open to all conversation regarding this en-devour, I do however ask that any financial questions or comments be made by PM please.
As this is brand new in the country and we are the first exchange of Bitcoins in the country, we are perfectly positioned to make this happen and blow open the Bitcoin market in the country. It just takes this first step to start making money
