Resuelve is a consumer debt management company founded by two colleagues,

Velasquez and Zorrilla. Resuelve’s core business model revolves around providing debt
settlement services to clients who could not fully pay off their debts to their creditors. With
the company’s services, they would negotiate with their client’s creditors for a restructuring
or a settlement with a discount because the likelihood of them paying the full debt plus
interest fees was highly unlikely. Their clients would be charged every month to keep the
negotiations going ongoing and it would be contingent with the discounted amount received.
Although these kinds of services were being offered in the United States, the debt settlement
services were practically nonexistent in Mexico at the time of its founding.
The initial success of Velasquez and Zorilla can be attributed to the fact that they
entered a blue ocean space in Mexico. Also, they secured the funding of three to four months
to kickstart their business which was difficult to obtain in Mexico. They rebuilt their financial
model around that funding to ensure that they may operate with enough resources and begin
acquiring customers to test their business model. Since they were granted a small investment,
they took the necessary precaution to be frugal by opening their office in a half-vacant
building under the threat of demolition and renting used office equipment. Initially, they
hired a small team which consisted of three sales representatives, a person to go settle the
debts with the banks, and a customer service representative. With the team, they proved that
there was a demand for their specific service and that people were willing to pay for it.
Lastly, they proved that the company could settle the debt with the banks. They set
achievable targets regarding customer acquisition and settlements. To keep up with their
growing client base, they hired more employees to match the demand of their settlement
services. Upon the success of their pilot, they were able to raise more capital from their
investors and grow the business in Mexico.
A Colombian man had prompted Zorrilla and Velazquez to expand internationally
after discussing about the Colombian market. While he later accepted another job, he still
opened the founders to the possibility of entering other markets in South America. Colombia
lingered in this mind because they believed they could use a similar business model to the
one they had in Mexico since Colombian clients were like Mexicans, with slightly less debt.
Also, Colombian employees were known to be good workers. After breaking even in
Colombia, they continued to remain open to the possible of expanding in Argentina or Spain.
In 2015, Velasquez and Zorrilla were looking to receive new capital for expansion
after the success of entering in Colombian market. However, their initial investors wanted to
liquidate their holding after being a part of the company for five years. Instead of dealing
with the current seven-person board on which they held two seats, they decided to make a
deal with Credito Real. They offered to acquire equity from all but one of the initial investors
and give the founders each an additional 5% of the company as a bonus for the transaction.
Reducing the number of people on the board to three would make it easier for them to make
decisions for the company. As Credito Real’s main business was offering loans to
government employees, having them on the board could also help them build their reputation.
Resuelve could also build its reputation by offering loans to their best clients wherever they
expanded to. They no longer needed to partner with Allianz, which was based in Germany, to
to get cheap funding for their credit business. Strategically, the decision to make a deal with
Credito Real would reduce existing hindrances in their expansion plan.