Escaping Lockdown Episode 4: Hugo Ovando

Escaping Lockdown with Professor J. Ignacio Canales

In the fourth episode of Escaping Lockdown, Professor J. Ignacio Canales interviews former business executive turned entrepreneur, Hugo Ovando.

Currently participating as a board member and entrepreneur in a variety of businesses, in this episode, Ignacio and Hugo discuss the impact lockdown has had on the hospitality industry.

Toteat, a Point of Sale software operating in the cloud and servicing a number of restaurants in Latin America, which Hugo is a board member for has seen significant challenges to the business since lockdown was introduced.

With a customer base of over 1,200 restaurants, the business saw a detrimental impact to its clients at the beginning of lockdown and feared they would soon face closing.

However, over recent weeks Hugo and the team Toteat have been reframing their thinking and the way they run their business with launching for their full base of current clients the opportunity to immediately open their menus to all the last mile delivery apps such as Uber Eats.

Since adding the additional functionality to their software, the business has seen significant growth and customer demand, from being on the verge of closing they are now thriving.

To conclude the episode Hugo reiterates the need for businesses to reframe their way of thinking and to use lockdown as an opportunity to become more innovative, stating the hospitality industry will not disappear post lockdown but will work in a different and more efficient way.