“The past year and a half has made us reassess what matters most in our lives. For us, our friends and family became our top priority.”
-Martin Schrimpff, Co-founder and CEO
Our Leaders
Martin Schrimpff, Co-founder and CEO
Martin Schrimpff is a successful serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience founding, scaling, and advising startups.
While he has co-founded various tech companies in Latin America, his first startup was PayU, a payment service provider focused on growth markets that scaled across 16 countries with revenues over $300 million USD. It was eventually sold to Naspers (Prosus) for over 1 Billion USD. After this formative experience, he proceeded to co-found Zinobe, Colombia's largest Fintech in the consumer and SMB lending space, and that has recently expanded to Mexico to serve the larger Latam market under his advice. He had the honor of being selected Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2010 and is an active Angel investor with over 20 tech investments in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
Originally hailing from Colombia, Martin now lives in Mexico City with his three kids and his beloved wife, Francine. Always on the quest for adventure, Martin is an avid kite surfer, a licensed pilot, and can often be found playing poker with other Latam founders.
Tom Baldwin, Co-founder and CFO
Tom is an experienced investor, operator, and advisor who has dedicated his career to helping Latin American companies achieve outstanding long-term results through a focus on strategy and finance.
Prior to founding Kocomo, Tom was a Managing Director at Discovery Americas, a leading Mexico-focused private equity firm with over $1B in AUM and committed capital. At Discovery, Tom executed multiple transactions across a range of industries and served as CFO of one of the firm’s portfolio companies, Mas Air. Before Discovery, Tom spent time at LIV Capital and Valor Capital Group, where he focused on growth equity and venture capital investments in Mexico and Brazil, respectively. Tom started his career at Goldman Sachs in the Equity Research and Investment Banking divisions. He holds an AB in International Relations from Brown University, an MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Wharton School.
Born and raised in Connecticut, Tom is a Mexico City transplant and has lived there for the last seven years. Tom enjoys exploring the city’s world-renowned restaurant scene, and is an avid kitesurfer whose favorite Mexican kite spots include La Ventana, Progreso, and Isla Blanca.
Graciela Arango, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer
Graciela is an experienced product leader creating a design- and product-driven organization at Kocomo, in order to deliver an experience like no other for their co-owners.
Before co-founding Kocomo, Graciela found her love for proptech during her role as a Growth Product Manager at Casai, a proptech company in Latam backed by Andreessen Horowitz. Before that, she has built products that flow seamlessly from physical to digital both internally within large companies like Fidelity Investments, and as a consultant in companies like IDEO, a world-leading design and innovation firm. Graciela completed her MBA at Harvard Business School and received her undergraduate degree in Science Technology and Society with a focus on Product Design at Stanford University.
Originally hailing from Panama City, Graciela was bitten by the travel bug early and has lived in California, Boston, and Paris, but now resides in Mexico City. In her free time, Graciela loves to host friends for dinner, design and build furniture, and go on long walks with her dog, Aki.
Brian Requarth, Co-founder and Non-Executive Chairman
Brian Requarth is a seasoned entrepreneur, who launched the Brazilian real estate marketplace, Viva Real, in 2009 and successfully grew the business over the following decade. The company bootstrapped its operation and initially raised over $74 million USD. It was sold in 2020 for over half a billion dollars.
As an angel investor Requarth has invested in 60+ tech startups in Brazil and Latin America and he has recently started Latitud, a new project focused on helping early stage founders build iconic companies in Brazil and Latin America. He brings his vast proptech expertise to the Kocomo team.
Ever the calculated risk-taker, Brian once bought a one-way ticket to Colombia to follow a girl (his now wife). He now lives in Sonoma County, California, with her and their two kids. He regularly travels to Baja and keeps his family and friends amused with his taco reporting while on the road.
Our story
The last few years have made us reassess what’s most important in life
The events of the past year and a half have permanently changed how we think about life and work—causing us to reassess what matters most in our lives. And for many, this means that spending more time with friends and family has become a top priority. For Kocomo’s CEO, Martin Schrimpff, this meant accelerating his plans to find a vacation home where he could create long-lasting memories alongside those he loves most.
The perceived waste and fuss of vacation homes or holiday rentals provided a gap in the market
Schrimpff was frustrated in his search: Buying an entire vacation home to use for only a few weeks a year, and which he’d have to manage himself, seemed wasteful, outdated, and inaccessible. Meanwhile, the experience of renting an Airbnb year after year, with its inconsistent quality and lack of professional management, did not make sense either.
Hence the idea of Kocomo was born: The smarter way to own a dream vacation home abroad. In the same way that Netjets uses shared ownership to create a more cost-effective, accessible solution for people to enjoy the benefits of private air travel, Kocomo applies a co-ownership model to create a smarter way for people to own and enjoy luxury vacation homes worldwide.
Kocomo was born to enable the ultimate in luxury—unfettered quality time with loved ones
Schrimpff curated a founding team of established entrepreneurs with expertise in business, design, technology, and property, to create a comprehensive offering that removes many of the pain points of either home ownership or vacation rentals: Purchasing, maintenance, legal administration, taxes, you name it—Kocomo takes care of everything typically involved in home ownership, enabling co-owners to relax completely and enjoy their time with their loved ones.
Luxury vacation homes in locations people want to return to year on year
Kocomo is launching in Mexico but plans to expand to other locations across the globe that embrace the local culture, provide access to multiple outdoor activities and hobbies, and are known for their unfettered natural beauty.
Your submission has been received!
