Zolvo Replaces 1990s Software in the US. ProjectApp Replaces Excel and WhatsApp in Colombia and Mexico. The Problem Is Exactly the Same.
Different markets, different scales, completely opposite contexts. But the core problem Zolvo and Isabela solve in the US is the same one ProjectApp solves in Colombia and Mexico: operations that shouldn't be manual and still are.
Project App
Engineering Team
Zolvo replaces the back office of commercial lenders in the United States. Those companies manage billions of dollars in assets using spreadsheets and 1990s software. 25 people manually verifying invoices. 3-day processing cycles. Frequent errors. The problem is so obvious from the outside it's hard to believe it's real. But it is real. And at ProjectApp we solve exactly the same type of problem — just in Colombian and Mexican companies managing their operations in Excel, WhatsApp, and physical notebooks.
The Problem Is the Same. The Scale Is Different.
When I read Zolvo's Y Combinator description — 'Commercial lenders manage billions in assets on legacy software and manual workflows, their systems live on people's heads like it's the 90s' — I think of exactly the same patterns I see in companies that arrive at ProjectApp. The amounts are different. The regulatory context is different. The language is different. But the root of the problem is identical: there's critical business information that's not in a system — it's in people's heads or in files nobody else knows how to interpret.
What Zolvo Solves in the US
Invoice reconciliation against bank payments, verification, collections, and reports for commercial lenders managing between $10M and $600M in assets. Everything that used to require a team of 25 people working manually, automated with AI.
What ProjectApp Solves in Colombia and Mexico
Order and delivery management that lives in WhatsApp, inventory control in Excel with frequent errors, regulatory traceability on paper, approval processes that depend on one person who's always 'busy'. Same logic, different industry and market.
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- 1The manual operations problem in companies isn't exclusive to any country or market — it exists in all of them.
- 2Generic software solves 60-70%. The remaining 30-40% is where the real opportunity lives.
- 3Zolvo in the US and ProjectApp in LATAM solve the same type of problem with the same approach: deep industry knowledge before code.
- 4Understanding the problem so well that the client signs before seeing the product is the highest indicator that you're building something real.
Isabela's story reminds me that the problem we solve at ProjectApp isn't a Colombian problem. It's a human and business problem that exists in all markets. What changes is the scale, the regulatory context, and the client's maturity. What doesn't change is the root: there are systems that should exist and still don't.
If your company still manages critical processes in Excel or WhatsApp, the free diagnosis tells you exactly what to build first. Write to me.