Don Alexis is one of the first great Venezuelan entrepreneurs of the late 20th century. Those who are so fashionable today, backed by venture capital (VC), developing technological solutions, mobility systems, personal financing systems that are losing their equity capital, car sales platforms that at the time did not exist in the country.
His story embodies the essence of the born entrepreneur and socially responsible. He started with very little: selling coffee to those who passed by in the early morning. That could have been his first capital, what today's entrepreneurial world knows as seed capital.
He continued with his restaurant located on the Trans-Andean road of the Venezuelan Andes, and probably with the support of family and friends —the second stage of every entrepreneurship capital friends and family— he managed by 1984, to recreate what he remembered as an Andean village. Thus was born Los Aleros.
The country was then going through the consequences of the 1982 Bolívar devaluation, and traveling abroad ceased to be a frequent option. In that context, the Andean moors went from receiving about 1.5 million tourists to approximately 2.2 million in 1986, according to figures from the National Tourism Corporation of the time.
Los Aleros is the product that meets “the need, the experience, and the Andean identity”. Thus, we arrive at the first theme park, a space that allowed traveling back in time and understanding life in an Andean community in the Venezuelan Andes and showing how a country was lived.
This project offered entertainment and experience aligned with what today's millennial generation values: acquiring meaningful experiences over financial assets; but 40 years earlier.
His initiative boosted capital arrival, job creation, and environmental conservation.
But he did not stop there. Like every great entrepreneur, he surely had to go through the dreaded “valley of death,” a period of internal struggle where one faces the contradiction of continuing or dying in the attempt. But time shows that his three parks, distinct in essence, managed to become emblems of a whole region.
Alexis Montilla was an innate entrepreneur of the 20th century, where effort, humility, and honesty came first. He was not focused on competing for valuations, like many current startups, where metrics are more important than the real impact occurring in their community, the jobs they generate, and what their social responsibility is. Alexis cared about maintaining jobs, generating impact. This is a true Venezuelan.
Thank you, Alexis, for being a pioneer. For having weathered storms and always maintaining the conviction that everything was possible.
Oswaldo Pacheco Useche, BA Ms
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