The entrepreneurial adventure of an expat couple around the world

Tell us about you, Alex & Alex.

Hello, we're Alex & Alex — world travellers, serial expats, serial entrepreneurs, serial kille... just kidding! We're a married couple and co-founders of a startup called Ubindi.com ("simple software for teachers"), currently living in Bariloche, Argentina.

Boy-Alex is originally from Germany but did high school and a lot of university studying in the US. He spent a decade or so in New York City, has a Ph.D. and several Masters degrees (in physics), and moved to the UK in 2008 to work on a nuclear fusion project in Oxford. That's where Boy-Alex met Girl-Alex! 

Girl-Alex was born in Brazil, grew up in Switzerland, studied languages (she speaks six of them), and she's a book and language nerd. Before going down the path of entrepreneurship, she built a prominent career in the publishing industry.

Until we met, we were both relatively 'normal' people, working for a paycheck at big companies or institutions. We were pretty tied down to the place where we lived. Back then, traveling just meant going on vacation.  

You define yourselves as serial entrepreneurs and globe trotters. How did this adventure start?

It started gradually in 2008. We had the chance to travel around the world for a whole year. That was a dream come true, but at the end of it, we both had to go back to regular jobs. And because we were in totally different fields, this meant having to spend most of our days apart, and we didn't like that at all! 

So we started thinking about creating our own business, where we could both work on something fun and meaningful and where we could work together. After getting inspired by Tim Ferris' book "The 4-hour work week" (which ironically turned our life into the 60-hour work week), we just decided one day to pack up and move to Thailand in 2011, without having much of an idea of what we were going to do, and with hardly any money. It was pretty scary and also really exciting. In retrospect, we both feel we must have been crazy. 

So we moved into a hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Boy-Alex found a job teaching science courses as adjunct at the local university. As faculty, he could sit into any classes the school offered, so took a course called "digital entrepreurship" that was taught by an expat from the UK. This gave us the idea for our first startup, a sort of 'Yelp for yoga' platform called YogaTrail. We formed a company, found a co-founder, and proceeded to build a business that had us (briefly) living in Silicon Valley, raising venture capital and managing teams of people. We ended up living in Thailand for 7 years.  

What brought you to Argentina? For how long have you been there?

We moved to a little village in Andalucia, Spain in 2018 (where stayed for 2 years), and there we came up with our current project ("Ubindi", an admin platform for independent teachers). After applying to various accelerators, we were accepted into the Startup Chile program, and so we left Spain for Chile. And just as we arrived in Santiago, the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the world. Our flight actually arrived on the very last day before the borders closed, and we got stuck in Chile for a year during the lockdowns. 

We had always thought that Argentina would be a great place to live — we visited there before in 2008. Girl-Alex's family is partly Argentine, so the language and culture were already very familiar to us. We crossed into Argentina as soon as travel was possible again in 2021, and we've been here now for 18 months. We're in San Carlos de Bariloche in Patagonia, which is a truly magical place. We love it here and don't have any intention of leaving anytime soon!

What is the entrepreneurial scene like in Argentina? How does it compare to other countries you have lived in?

The entrepreneurial scene is very small — we're kind of at the end of the world, and Bariloche is a relatively small town. Things are much more active in Buenos Aires, but to be honest, we couldn't really tell you from experience. 

But small is good. At this point in our journey, we don't feel like we need to, nor do we want to be immersed in a big 'scene'. Did that, been there! When we went to San Francisco as part of the 500 Startups program in 2014 (with our previous business), we learned that the "scene"can be somewhat useful, but it also involves a lot of noise, hype, and can be a huge distraction. We have limited time and energy, and we know that being able to stay focused is one of the major keys to success. So we concentrate on our work, not networking or socializing. We do participate in a few online groups for entrepreneurs, and that's actually perfect for us because it's contained (a few hours a week) and targeted (we connect with people who are doing similar things or have similar challenges). 

There are quite a number of expats in Bariloche who run businesses, and there's a decent number of co-working spaces frequented by digital nomads, many of them entrepreneurs. But we mostly stay clear of the scene and work on our business from home.

As serial entrepreneurs, you took up the mission of empowering micro-entrepreneurs. Tell us about this initiative.

Our previous startup was a yoga portal for yoga students, teachers, studios, retreat centers and all yoga-related businesses to connect with each other. In the course of running that, we literally spoke with thousands of yoga teachers, and we realized that independent teachers are totally underserved by technology and software. Not just in the world of yoga, but generally in all sorts of verticals. So there's a need.

We also feel very strongly that the best way for a person to be free and happy is for them to have their own business. That has certainly been the case for us! So providing tools for "teacherpreneurs" to manage and grow their businesses is thrilling from a personal standpoint, we really love the impact we're having on the world. 

In your opinion, what are the main challenges faced by expat entrepreneurs? What should they look out for when setting up their business abroad?

It depends on the business, of course — it's obviously very challenging to run a brick-and-mortar shop or restaurant in a place that you're not 100% familiar with. Where all the rules, regulations, the customer base and available marketing channels, etc. All of these things are unfamiliar at first when you are an expat, so succeeding as a business is tough.

On the other hand, creating and managing online businesses can actually be less challenging as an expat, that is to say, it's often easier than it might be in your home country. For example, although the customers for our own business are far from where we currently live (we only have one single teacher using Ubindi in Argentina), we are very familiar with the markets where we operate (North America, Europe). And we don't have actually to be there! Our cost of living is orders of magnitude lower than what it would be if we had any substantial physical presence in our target markets.

In the age of Zoom, connecting with people or having meetings with team members remotely is no problem at all.

In addition, there are many countries where incorporating can bring substantial tax benefits (relative to your home country). This varies hugely by country, though.

As a couple holding five passports, how does it feel to be able to work from anywhere?

It's great, and of course, it makes travel and/or living abroad easier. But having multiple passports is really not important at all. For example, we spent 7 years in Thailand, where we don't have the nationality. We simply set up a company as expats, which allowed us to then get work permits and residency permits. 

Having several passports does make logistics easier, and the choice of destinations a bit broader, but what really enables us to work anywhere on our own terms is simply that we spend the time researching various options in different locales. As they say: where there's a will, there's a way.

On a more personal note, what is your expat life like currently? How hard has it been to socialize in Argentina?

Currently, life is sweet, great, amazing! We both love living in Argentina. There are lots of things that are extremely attractive about living here, and at the moment the USD to Argentine Peso exchange rate makes Argentina a real bargain for anyone who can earn money in US Dollars. 

The people are wonderful, communities and family bonds are really strong, and the general resilience and "just do it" attitude of the society here is truly inspiring. 

It's not hard at all to meet people and make friends. Argentines are open, curious, friendly and welcoming. Like in most places though, kindness is a two-way street: you have to give it to get it. It helps to speak Spanish, or at least to be willing to learn and make an effort — that's really important and helpful when it comes to getting to know people and not feeling like an isolated tourist. 

Where do you see yourselves in the coming years, both personally and professionally?

Ah, plans. The more we make them, the less they seem to happen! One thing is for sure, though, we will keep working on our business, to make it the best admin platform for independent teachers, no matter what they teach. We're working on internationalizing the platform (offering it in multiple languages and expanding into more markets) and plan to grow Ubindi into a brand that's recognized around the world.

As regards travel and "expat life": that might finally come to an end. We think that we may have found a place to call home here in Patagonia, so our plan is to settle down and 'cultivate our garden' (metaphorically and literally).