"From UPB to leading the country's largest entertainment ecosystem."

A graduate of the Business Administration program at UPB, Mateo Sánchez Lobo represents a generation of professionals who understand marketing as a strategic tool to create experiences, build audiences, and develop cultural and creative industries with real impact. As Marketing Director and partner of the country's leading hospitality and entertainment conglomerate, today he leads the creative and positioning strategy of festivals, concerts, nightlife spaces, sports projects, and gastronomic proposals that are redefining the leisure and entertainment scene in Bolivia and projecting it toward new markets.

1. How did your path in the world of entertainment and entrepreneurship begin?

My academic training was consolidated in the Business Administration program at UPB, between 2015 and 2019. Since then, my professional life has been deeply linked to entrepreneurship. I was always attracted to the idea of creating memorable experiences and connecting with people through what they enjoy, and I found in entertainment a space where strategy, creativity, and execution naturally intersect.

2. Today you lead an entertainment and hospitality conglomerate, in which areas are you currently present?

Together with my partners, we have developed projects in different segments of entertainment. We manage nightclubs and bars such as Alice Park, Noma, Awra, Salvaje, and La Sociedad, each with its own identity. We also produce large-scale festivals and concerts, including Non Stop The Madness, the largest festival in the country. In addition, we developed Pro Padel, the most complete padel complex in Cochabamba, promote tourist gastronomy projects, and work on the production and distribution of purified water.

3. What were your first steps as an entrepreneur in this industry?

During my final years of university, I met key people who eventually became my partners. Together we took our first steps with Noma and Awra, spaces that quickly positioned themselves in nightlife. That was the start of a path that allowed us to grow, learn, and take on increasingly ambitious projects.

4. In 2024 you inaugurated Alice Park, the country's largest nightclub, what does that project represent for you?

Alice Park is the result of years of learning, work, and shared vision. It represents our commitment to elevating the entertainment experience in Bolivia, understanding nightlife as a cultural industry that generates employment, economic movement, and community.

5. What has been the most challenging part of the entrepreneurial path?

The greatest challenge is living with uncertainty. Entrepreneurship means accepting that there are no guarantees, that sacrifice may not yield immediate results, and that many times there is no turning back. It is a process that demands daily resilience and an enormous capacity for adaptation.

6. What learnings did facing that uncertainty leave you with?

I learned that the life one dreams of usually lies behind years of effort, rejection, and perseverance. This is not a path of quick results, but of consistency. Over time, I understood that mistakes are also part of growth and that each stage leaves valuable lessons.

7. What role does the team play in your way of doing business?

Since my years of study, I understood the importance of surrounding myself with people with more experience and capacity than myself. Seeking to learn from those who know more, building solid teams, and working with discipline has been key to everything we have achieved.

8. What advice would you give to those who want to start a business today?

Do not isolate yourself, surround yourself well, and build cohesive teams. Identify what truly passionately drives you and persist until you achieve excellence. Entrepreneurship is not about having all the answers, it is learning to walk with purpose, even amid uncertainty.

INSIGHTS: 

• A book or movie that has marked you: Think Like a Monk, by Jay Shetty. It taught me to organize my mind and to understand that true growth begins from within.

• A person you deeply admire: I deeply admire my mother for her resilience and strength. She is a woman who can give everything without expecting anything in return. In addition to personal admiration, I have enormous respect for her as a businesswoman: her ability to stand firm in any situation inspires me every day.

• A phrase or principle that guides your life: “Things do not improve, you improve.” I believe the key is to become stronger, not to expect things to be easier.

• Your most precious asset: My time and my health. I learned not to give them away to anyone and to take care with deep mindfulness of what and with whom I invest them.

• A fear you have learned to transform or that has left you with a lesson: The fear of failure. Today I see it as part of the process. Each setback shapes you, teaches you, and prepares you to sustain what you were not ready to have before.

• A favorite flavor or gastronomic experience: Italian food, especially when I share it with my family. It is that moment where work stops, conversations flow, and we enjoy the most important thing: being together.