There are just over 8 billion people inhabiting planet Earth. Among them, only 3,914 are billionaires, according to Statista, making it a pretty impressive feat. Some have inherited their wealth. Others, like entrepreneur Alejandro Betancourt López, whose net worth is a cool $2.6 billion, use savvy and intuition to reach the top. How did he do it?
First of all, Betancourt López is the head of the O’Hara Administration, a worldwide investment organization. He also serves as an executive and investor in several other notable ventures, including Hawkers sunglasses and the Spanish company Auro Travel, a ride-sharing giant. While many folks are exhausted by one full-time job, through López’s innovative financial insights and unique leadership capabilities, each of his enterprises has netted a significant level of accomplishment — hence that net worth that sits today at around $2.6 billion. Let’s look at how Betancourt López’s success has been both the result of, and a catalyst for, his many endeavors:
The Human Factor
While the triumphs Betancourt López has found throughout various industries is notable, his way to cut through the confusion and zero in on what truly elevates a business venture from a mere idea to a remarkably profitable endeavor has a great deal to do with how he quantifies what he calls the human factor.
“Well, I do believe that is the most important thing because in my opinion, there are plenty of great ideas out there, but there’s the factor that is a human factor, and you could have many great ideas, but execution is what matters.”
Betancourt López added, “I believe that management — the right executors and executives that take these ideas into something real and convert them into something pragmatic — is what matters. So, even if the idea is great, if you don’t have the right people behind it, it will never happen. So, for me, the critical part of the whole equation is to have the right human factor behind this [idea].”
Born in 1980, López spent the greater part of his formative years in Caracas, Venezuela. He relocated to America to pursue an education. He graduated from Suffolk University in Boston with a double major in business administration and economics. This education launched him on a path to excellence in many ventures including serving as the business manager for the Guruceaga Group in Venezuela and as an executive trader for ICC-OEOC in London, as well as a director at Caracas’ BGB Energy.
Risk-Taking, Alejandro Betancourt López Style
Betancourt López understands the need to risk money to make money. However, he’s been wise with his investments and prudent in his risk-taking. Case in point: When Hawkers, a Spanish sunglass enterprise, was just getting started, it struggled to secure funding. The company approached Betancourt López in 2016 to help raise investment funds. When Betancourt López came on board as an angel investor, he was also able to expand the brand, creating other fundraising opportunities and forming strategic business partnerships that have led to the considerable popularity of Hawkers as it grew to meet ever-growing customer demand. Just a few months after his success in building the investment backing for Hawkers, he was appointed the president of the brand.
A great deal of the innovation that Betancourt López brought on board was tapping into a new community of customers — namely young adults — through innovative social media-based marketing. Within two years of the launch of his innovative marketing campaign, some 90% of all the sales for Hawkers were coming from its social media presence or website. Betancourt López also understood the power of content and knew how to use social media messaging to spearhead this grassroots retail uprising.
He explained the importance of tapping into technology via social media and other strategies to reach today’s consumers. “Today, everything involves data and how you access the customer. If you are able to succeed in accessing these customers in an efficient and affordable way that is economically viable and differentiates the product enough to make it attractive to the customer, then you have a winning product. As you can see, marketing is evolving every day.”
The social media marketing campaign, as well as other disruptive strategies implemented by Betancourt López and his team, resulted in a significant expansion of the Hawkers brand. “When I joined Hawkers, we were a company of 40 people,” Betancourt López shared. “Today, we employ more than 500 people. We have about 80 stores in Spain alone. We have a huge division of wholesale. And of course, the online nature of the company, which is where the company was born, employs about 100 people alone. So, we have grown, not only in countries and presence in difficult jurisdictions, but also in the amount of people and families we employ, and we provide services to.”
Today, Hawkers is a recognized and respected sunglass provider and does business in more than 50 countries, making millions in revenue.
Knowing What’s Coming
Another business endeavor that has allowed Alejandro Betancourt López to highlight his impressive experience, first-hand knowledge, education, and background is the launch of the Spain-based ride-sharing company Auro Travel. Similar to Uber or Cabify, Auro Travel has been modified to serve a customer base in Spain, which requires more advanced and nuanced licensing for drivers for these types of ride services than what’s required in many other countries.
Betancourt López was ahead of the game and saw what was coming regarding licensing requirements. Moving quickly, he was able to secure licensing before the market consolidation, helping Auro stand out from its ride-sharing competitors. He recalled, “We had the view or the vision before it happened [licensing requirements] and acquired these licenses before the market consolidated, and that gave us a differentiation from competitors because they had to arrive and then the cost of entry or barriers of entry were much higher for them because they were late in the game.
“We also built infrastructure, we formed the people that were drivers. We created the kind of ecosystem around the service providers that put us in a very, very differentiated position.”
Alejandro Betancourt López believes in creating a win-win environment where companies win while governments, regulators, and service providers all win as well, giving consumers better service and products. It’s this and his unique way of adapting and embracing the human element that’s led to his immense and sustained achievements throughout his illustrious career.
