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AUGUST ENTREPENEUR MONTH – ALUMNI SHOWCASE WITH MAURICIO MATOS

AUGUST ENTREPENEUR MONTH – ALUMNI SHOWCASE WITH MAURICIO MATOS

This week’s Alumni Entrepreneur showcase is Brazilian, Mauricio Matos.  Mauricio graduated from the MAS class of 2015 and it was while he was studying in Lausanne that the idea of B.You was formed. 

B.You is a customer-oriented brand that offers exclusive, healthy, nutritious and tasty superfoods available worldwide. Its unique property is the Açaí berry, which is a super fruit that comes directly from the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. The B.You Açaí Smoothie is the first smoothie with this superfruit that is rich in antioxidants and healthy omegas, amongst other numerous health benefits.

The main motivator for Mauricio is to promote healthy conscious eating and make it available to as many people as B.You can.

“There are way too many people being misinformed about all the negative health effects that can rise from unhealthy eating patterns and habits.”

Be authentic. Be original. Be yourself.

This is the message Mauricio and his team aim on getting across while also being able to deliver premium food products worldwide.

He says, “There is no right or wrong. It’s all about the diversity in thought and actions and how truly honest and respectful you are to yourself and others. But at the end of the day one should always follow your intuition and gut feeling and trust yourself. Believe, think and act based on your values and good things will come. Be Natural. B.You”.

Mauricio has learnt a lot through his venture and through the processes of starting such a business.  “I believe that part of being an entrepreneur is learning from your mistakes and taking risks. You always want to mitigate the risks you are taking but I am a true believer of the “if you don’t swing for the fences, it’s impossible to hit a home run” philosophy. Being a risk bearer and staying away from your comfort zone can be very distressing, but it will also allow you to learn more about yourself and truly grow as a professional. This is even more accurate for entrepreneurs because many times you are new at what you’re doing and have no previous experience at it”. 

“Sometimes you just have to go for it and learn from these experiences.”

Along with that, Mauricio believes patience is another true virtue that goes along with making mistakes, learning from them and moving on.

“As an entrepreneur, you always want to make things move as fast as you can, hoping to see positive results quicker than ever, breaking even earlier than you expected. Especially in such a dynamic world we live in, with constant pressures being faced. But I feel one should “enjoy” the slow rise to be able to fall, crash and get up as many times as you need, as those mistakes early on will be way less costly (both money wise and in terms of stress and wearing you out) and by far more enrichening to you as a professional”.

Mauricio also has a good repertoire of collected advice that he has received along the way. 

There are so many great pieces of advice I’ve received throughout this entire process, but I always like to go back to the basics.

Here are Mauricio’s top four basics he follows.

  1. Be Passionate – You MUST believe in what you are doing. If you don`t believe in the product or service you offer why should someone else? Also, passion overrides technique! Passion is what will keep you moving and get you through the hard times.
  2. Be Authentic – This one is very simple. People want the real deal! And this goes for business and life. The only way to gain trust is to be trustworthy and this only happens if people see you are being genuine and honest. Don’t let the illusion of being perfect impair your authenticity and originality. “The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” (Anna Quindlen)
  3. Be Curious – If you ever have to be greedy about something it should be about knowledge and information. Learn, learn, learn. When you’re done, try to learn some more. It’s the only way of gaining breadth on the areas that challenge you to complement the depth of the areas you excel on. Remember to be a continuous learner.
     
  4. Outsource/Delegate – One must learn to be able to properly delegate tasks to others. Ask yourself- What can you (and only you) do? What are you doing and shouldn’t be doing? (which is usually repeat tasks). Effective delegation makes you replaceable, and you want to be replaceable! It shows your business can operate smoothly without your 24/7 supervision and will allow you to have time to actually grow the business and seek new opportunities rather than being a firefighter.