Nicolás Occhiato is 30 years old and when he was a child he did not dream of being an entrepreneur, he wanted to be a sports journalist, but now he is thinking about the possibilities of expanding his company, Luzu TV, to the region and does not rule out arriving in Uruguay with new proposalsexplained in an interview with Coffee & Business on his recent visit to Montevideo for the get rid of 2023.
He began his working life as a bread delivery man, helped in his father’s “corralón” or barracks, played extra roles in series such as Violetta and was a participant in programs such as Combate or Bailando Por un Sueño.
Today, in addition to being an influencer and host of Nadie dice Nada, he is an entrepreneur and runs a producer who was born in the middle of a pandemichonors his neighborhood of origin, Luzuriaga, with the name, and that only on YouTube, has 984,000 followers.
About his path in the business world and his future in the middle, he spoke in the following interview.
Analia Pereira
Nicolás Occhiato was one of the speakers at Desachate 2023.
-How did Luzu TV think and how is it working?
-I thought it quite similar to what is happening now, out there, what I did not expect was that everything would go so fast. When I started with Nadie dice Nada I was already thinking that I wanted more programming. Today Luzu is a company with 70 employees that has a sales department, one for content, another for experience –in charge of organizing, for example, performances in theaters, such as the Gran Rex or the antel arena– and a production company and influencers department, in which we produce content for brands, which is not what is seen on the air in the programs.
Each thing has its department and its team, and everything is intertwined. I think that’s what’s beautiful about it, that all areas are helping and strengthening each other, and human value for me is the most important thing.
Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur?
-Yes, totally.
-How is entrepreneurship in Argentina?
Difficult, it’s difficult, it’s beautiful… I’m passionate about it, that’s why I find it beautiful. I’m not going to deny that there were times when, two or three times a day, I asked myself, why the hell am I doing this if working as an influencer I could be traveling and living well? But after two minutes it goes away, because when you see what is happening you say ‘well, okay, I understand why I’m doing it’.
I am passionate about it, I love giving rise to new voices, giving rise to new producers, new heads, generating new communicators, new ways of communicating, I love it, and above all accompanying people in their daily life. The sense of community is the most beautiful thing about it.
-Did you ask for business advice before starting a business?
–Yes, to relatives more than anything, to my old man; but the truth couldn’t help me much, because it has a yard of construction materials and it’s a different work methodology and it’s much less risky, not because it doesn’t have risk, but because it’s a company that has been selling materials for 50 years. Today starting a business in Argentina is much more risky, all the time.
I do business coaching, and with Andrés, who is my coach and who knows a lot about human relations, we put together this project a bit. He was helping me with decisions, with meetings. I also have a partner who is in charge of all the commercial part that also comes from the business suit. I am the one who flies, the one who is a kamikaze and then Gabi, my partner, comes and she tells me ‘okay, okay, let’s put together a plan, let’s see where we are going, what we lose, what we gain’. She constantly brings me down to earth.
-How did the first investments come to Luzu TV?
-They were investors who later had to return the money. My partner has another partner who started with an initial investment, luckily we were able to reach the brake even quite quickly (yield threshold) but we started with investors because the first year and a half we did not go out to sell (advertising).
Was it difficult to find investors?
-No, no, because I already came with the fixed idea and luckily the company that my partner had at that time trusted and said ‘let’s go forward’. We did the calculation and it wasn’t that much money either, because I went out in a pandemic through Zoom, therefore my investment was the salaries of five people and buying three cameras and three microphones for Nati (Jota) and Flor (Jazmín Peña) at that time . On top of that, since it was in the pandemic stage, it came out the same as how Telefé comes out (with content by video call), so it allowed me to start in a calmer way.
Juliet Fernandez
Expand to Uruguay
In the last year, Luzu TV increased its programming; the Nadie dice Nada team made live programs from theaters and traveled to Qatar to broadcast within the framework of the World Cup, in addition, less than a month ago the production company opened offices and a new studio, from where the programs come out and from where In addition, they plan to work on fiction, said Occhiato.
in that scenario Coffee & Business He asked what the next goal is. She assured that he is “thinking about things”, including expanding Luzu TV, with proposals for Europe and the region.
Do you plan to expand in the region?
-Yes, totally. I think the next step is that.
– Are there possibilities of making a Uruguayan program?
-Sure, why not? Yes, there is a lot of talent here.
Juliet Fernandez
The story of the first payments
His father, without really understanding how the world of advertising worked (in this case, a payment for a video recommending a product or service), was surprised by the sums of money that entered his account, and one day he asked him to explain what was he really doing, “tell me, do you sell drugs?” Occhiato recalled with a laugh.
