The Impossible Entrepreneurs
On the relentless optimism and tireless work of two men who realized the impossible. Dispatch from Prospera, Roatan, Honduras.
Gabriel Delgado is a wiry, energetic sort—a wild-eyed optimist. You can sense this energy from the first handshake. With his indefatigable partner, Erick Brimen, the two Prospera cofounders embody something rare—the liberatory instinct.
What do I mean by that?
They are in the business of helping people be free, especially entrepreneurs.
According to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and various studies, around 20 percent of new businesses fail within their first year, about 50 percent within their first 5 years, and approximately 65 percent within their first 10 years. Only about 25 percent of businesses make it to 15 years or longer.
Now, imagine trying to start up a business in corrupt and overregulated Latin America. Delgado is Guatemalan. Brimen is Venezuelan. They know firsthand the barriers to entrepreneurial value creation in parts of the world where people revere socialist strongmen with promises of salvation.
Delgado and Brimen weren’t starting an empanada truck or cleaning service. They were building something ambitious and, well, highly unusual: an opportunity zone.
Opportunity zones are “layer one” governance services within a host country’s special jurisdiction. They are the institutional substrate for incorporating a business.
An entrepreneur asks:
What social operating system do I want to use to build my *app*, i.e., start my business?
I want a jurisdiction with low taxes.
I want access to a solid, proven commercial code.
I want low-touch regulations that are apt for my industry.
Prospera—Delgado’s and Brimen’s business—wants to provide that to you as a service.
But isn’t that usually the government?
Sort of.
The Layer-One Solution
About fifteen years ago, the Prospera founders had to start their business by negotiating changes to the Honduran law, that is, in one of the poorest and least business-friendly jurisdictions in the Western Hemisphere.
Team Prospera saw that opportunity lay in that fact. In other words, when your legal institutions are suboptimal, and your political class is corrupt, you need access to better institutions that will allow entrepreneurs the room to start, grow, and help pull others out of poverty with employment opportunities.
To start their governance services business, they first collaborated with Honduran politicians to change the Honduran constitution. Imagine thinking that to succeed, you had to do something nigh impossible.
Team Prospera went through three abortive efforts in this regard. It took years.
There are several long stories, and somebody should write a book about them. However, the short version is that the Honduran political class built barrier after barrier as the political winds blew back and forth. Team Prospera was thwarted, delayed, and otherwise obstructed at every turn. Most people would have given up.
Not these two.
After three iterations, the Honduran government passed the ZEDEs (Zona de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico) legislation in 2013.
Darkness Falls
By 2022, Prospera was attracting businesses, and developers built buildings in the beautiful area around Pristine Bay. Predictably, the zone was teaming with business and life. “Layer Two” venture capitalist Niklas Anzinger of Infinita attracted firms from the biotech, longevity, and Web3 industries.
Things were going well.
But in 2024, the political winds changed again. The new Honduran Congress voted to repeal the ZEDE law, and it appeared Prospera was doomed again.
However, Team Prospera’s indefatigable optimists anticipated this possibility and had the foresight to establish legal agreements to protect their zone, its ventures, and international investors.
And don't forget: They have liberatory instincts.
So, where does that leave the project?
Bet on the Optimists
Matters are unclear.
Prospera’s business ecosystem—petrie dishes of possibility—will not go gently into the night. Speaking with the optimists, one can’t help but think that Prospera will survive and thrive.
Indeed, despite the Honduran Supreme Court ruling, Prospera recently won a significant investment from Coinbase Ventures.
But the political intrigue is still unfolding.
Will existing ZEDEs be grandfathered in?
Will the US attempt to intervene to protect its investors?
Will the Honduran government see the folly of chasing Prospera to other shores—like El Salvador or Argentina?
The story is writing itself as we speak.
But as one who proudly counts himself a friend of Gabriel Delgado and Erick Brimen, I will say: Don’t bet against Team Prospera. Tireless optimism and the liberatory instinct are rare and powerful forces.
They were born with it.
Update from a friend and reader, : “Without Octavio Sanchez and Carlos Pineda, they would not have had the opportunity to bring their vision into reality. Octavio Sanchez was the Honduran official who first conceived of the idea of a special administrative zone with maximum autonomy bringing prosperity to Honduras. Carlos Pineda was his friend who did most of the heavy lifting of championing the legislation, constitutional amendment, and investor protections through a largely corrupt government.”
I'm a great admirer of both Gabriel Delgado and Erick Brimen. They are heroes with ground-breaking vision. I've met them and seen their unshakeable conviction.
However, they aren't the only heroes of the ZEDE story. Without Octavio Sanchez and Carlos Pineda, they would not have had the opportunity to bring their vision into reality. Octavio Sanchez was the Honduran official who first conceived of the idea of a special administrative zone with maximum autonomy bringing prosperity to Honduras. Carlos Pineda was his friend who did most of the heavy lifting of championing the legislation, constitutional amendment, and investor protections through a largely corrupt government.
It doesn't take anything away from the founders of Próspera to give credit to the Hondurans who worked so hard to bring freedom and prosperity to their country. In fact, it counters the false narrative of foreign investors "exploiting" poor Hondurans.
I am a member of an informal technical nation called Immortalis which is growing rapid;y and has about 1000 members in 42 nations. It operates on the theory that when we under throw all the world's governments, there will be no one to stand in the way of human progress and science and humans will solve all the problems of diseases and, eventually, death itself, making all the survivors 'immortals[' with the exception of accidents and criminals. The head of Immortalis is meeting in March with Millei in Argentina and his son is speaking in Prospera to spread the word about Immortalis there.You can find out about Immortalis on joinimmortalis.com. Keep up the god work.