Cristiano Rocha is a seasoned engineer who started his career as a Master’s Student in Artificial Intelligence. Fresh out of university, he bootstraped his first company for about 8 years, back when venture capital in Brazil was almost unheard of. As a young founder, he established a reputation as a knowledge management evangelist and community management especialist.Almost by accident, Cristiano also became an expert in M&A, when he merged with another 2 companies in order to gain strength and get funding. This 3-way joint venture was called Affero Lab, which grew into the largest Corporate Training company in Latin America and was eventually sold in 2015.A hiatus got Cristiano into angel investing, but he missed the thrill of building. About a year after the exit, BizCapital was born to help Brazilian small businesses fund their operations in a fast and simple way through an online lending platform. And this time, they decided to play the traditional stage-financing VC game.In this episode, Cristiano compares his fundraising experiences and shares a few lessons he's learned as a second-time founder. Stick around to learn:How you can think of M&A as a viable growth strategyThe thought process behind going down the venture routeA few good practices around managing communitiesAnd how technical founders can not only build the best products, but also the winning productsBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

For the longest time, we've only financed personal and professional projects by acquiring debt. But what if, the same way investors bet on super early-stage business ideas, we could bet on high-potential people through an income share agreement, regardless of what those people decide to do in their lives? Equity-based financing for people is barely talked about, yet Sam Lessin has been practicing for several years. And he believes it's one of the things that can soon disrupt the big picture of the internet. Sam is the kind of person you go to to get a peek into the next few decades and likely to get your mind blown a little bit. He is a General Partner at Slow Ventures, a VC firm that invested in companies like Slack, Dropbox, Pinterest, and hundreds of others. Sam also writes for The Information, and he built Drop.io, which was sold to Facebook and leading him to become Zuck's VP of Product. Now co-founder of Fin, he is instrumenting and optimizing the future of work. In this episode: The logistics behind equity-based financing for people The sweet spot between logical and crazy What being early or late really means And how AI can improve knowledge jobs. Starting something new?Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship program.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

We do not always realize it, but we are living in two economies: digital and analog. In fact, depending on who you ask, 2020 was either the best year for business or the worst, and a lot has to do with how these two orders contrast and relate. Today, 9 out of the 10 largest companies in the world are in technology, and many began as small startups not very long ago. Meanwhile, new startup ecosystems are developing and causing a surge of fast-growing tech companies that illustrate a massive global economic transition. Arnobio Morelix is a Brazilian based in Silicon Valley. Formerly the Chief Innovation Officer at Startup Genome, he advised governments and private organizations across 35 countries. He has authored research and analysis with Stanford University, the World Economic Forum, and others, and has been widely featured in global publications like the New York Times and the Economist, to name a few. Now the Chief Data Scientist at Inc. Magazine, Arnobio also recently wrote "Rebooted", a book that dives into tons of future-looking topics including post-pandemic economies, the tech butterfly effect, and the unintended consequences of major technological change. In this chat, we talk about a few of these topics and other insights Arnobio has accumulated over years of studying startup ecosystems. You'll learn: How founders and tech creators can navigate the next decade. The two main common threads of successful companies in 2020. How local and global connectedness influence performance. And how to build more responsibly to catch up on what he calls the 'fairness debt.' Learn more: Entrepreneur's Guide to Depression & ADHD workshop @ SXSW Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship InitiativeBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. That’s true for companies, it’s true for products, and it's true for VCs too. Emergence Capital is known for a few superstar deals, like Crunchbase and Zoom, but also for their focus sourcing and selecting deals. They look at B2B software as a service companies, and nothing else. In the early 2000s, when the firm started, it wasn't an obvious space to place a bet. But it turns out that massive value is unlocked when you hone in and focus. Today we talk to General Partner Santiago Subotovsky, who just became one of the first investors from LatAm to make the prestigious Midas List. In this episode:The advantages of staying focused. How they assess patterns of successful entrepreneurs. What he's learned from the founder of Zoom, their biggest investment to date. Are the best deals really the ones where there's controversy? Check out Latam's first rolling fund at fund.latitud.com Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

We live in a software-powered world but many practices in the venture capital industry still lack the technology it invests in. We see innovation increasing at an accelerated pace, whereas many of the VC firms that finance innovation seem stuck in time. Avlok Kohli has a few possible explanations for this irony, and a lot of propositions to offset it. CEO of AngelList Venture, he's been leading the platform that adds more flexibility and accessibility to the fundraising process. Among its products, AngelList changed the game by introducing syndicates and, last year, the rolling fund model. In this episode, we explore some of the benefits and details of these initiatives, including: The main differences between syndicates, rolling funds and traditional venture funds Best practices for engaging LPs And the future of the VC industry. Check out Latam's first rolling fund at fund.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

With a Harvard MBA under his belt, after his role as co-CEO of Groupon, Lucas Vargas had a lot of options for his next step. But he didn't take a step: he took a leap of faith – and decided to join a small proptech startup in Brazil called Viva Real.As CEO, Brian hired Lucas to be the Vice-President of Sales. Just a couple of years later, Brian knew Lucas was going to be his replacement when he eventually stepped out.It was a process of intense self-discovery and challenges for Lucas that involved managing highly experienced executives and having to let go of about 400 people, as he led the company through the merger with ZAP and the acquisition by OLX.Once the deal was finalized, he packed up these lessons to embark on a new journey: Lucas is now leading Nomad, a global digital bank offering financial services and investments for the Brazilian mass affluent.In this episode:How vulnerability got integrated into his leadership styleHow they used the DISC framework to build cohesive teamsThe importance of speed in an early-stage startup environmentAnd the behind the scenes of our merger with ZAPStarting something new?Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship program. Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Falling and getting back up is what makes the cycles of an entrepreneurial journey, but some people just enjoy to be constantly getting ideas off the ground, even if the previous ones are growing steady. Alex Torrenegra is an example of this.Alex has been a friend for 10 years, and I'm proud that his first ever angel investment was in my company, Viva Real. You may also know him as a tiburón in the tv show Shark Tank Colombia. But before all that, Alex bootstrapped a number of companies, including Voice 123 and Bunny Studio, both of which he started with his wife, Tania Zapata.Then in 2020, after years of being an investor and his own venture capitalist, Alex went out to raise capital for a business of his own for the first time. And while a lot of founders may prefer to not have too many people on their cap table, he intentionally went the opposite way. By design, Torre's first seed round had over 50 investors from more than 15 countries.In this episode:His experience fundraising during the pandemic and being rejectedSome of his lessons from 20 years of building remote companiesThe model behind Torrenegra AcceleratorWhat was the most memorable pitch he's heard on Shark Tank and why it stuckMentioned in this episode:Check out Remoter, the why-and-how guide to building remote teams: https://www.remoter.com/en/remoter Learn more about Torre: https://torre.co/ Pitch by Kiwi on Shark Tank Colombia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_KE4ShB3-M Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

In the startup world, it's becoming more common for founders to share mistakes they made when they were starting out, but we rarely get to know about early mistakes investors make.Well, today, Jonathan Lewy is gonna bring the challenges he faced from both sides.Jonathan moved from Belgium to Mexico right out of college, and built a food delivery app called MiOrden that was sold to SinDelantal in 2012. His experience fundraising until then had been so frustrating that, after the acquisition, he decided to give back. That's when he joined his co-founder Sergio Romo again and together they started a seed capital firm called Investo.One of their first bets was Rappi, before many had dreamed of it being a unicorn. Today, Investo's portfolio companies also include Unbabel, Cambly, Runa and many others.But that's not all. Jonathan and Sergio also co-founded Grin, a brand you may have seen on scooters around one of their many locations. By merging with Brazil-based Yellow, Grin went from 4 to 2,500 employees in one year and became Grow, a micromobility pioneer.In this episode, Jonathan tells us aboutThe hiccups in his journeyHis counterintuitive tips on crafting a good pitchPrecautions on building a company that depends on VCAnd how to deal with conflicting interestsStarting something new? Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship program. Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

While a lot of VCs may ironically be discouraged by turmoil in emerging markets, Shu Nyatta feels comfortable in messy places. In his own words, because he grew up in one. A Nairobi native, he's lived in the US as a young consultant, in the UK as an Anthropology student, and in Dubai as a company operator. He even had a brief career as a recording artist – if you noticed a soundtrack change today, that's his music in the opening of this episode! It was through this winding journey that he found where he wanted to place his intellectual energy: financing tech and underrepresented founders. Shu joined the investment team at SoftBank in Silicon Valley in 2015, before it started revealing itself to the world as the powerhouse it is today. Since then, he's helped direct roughly 2.5 billion in growth capital to startups in Latin America. He's also behind initiatives like Softbank's AI Academy and the Opportunity Fund. In this episode, Shu urges you to embrace the mess as he talks about: The myth of the pipeline problem. Why momentum trumps market size. And how complexity becomes opportunity.  Starting something new?  Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship program. Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

As the CMO of Cabify, Courtney McColgan led the company's market expansion from series A through series D, across 120 cities. She had roughly 350 people that reported to her. And every month, without exception, she received complaints from team members about issues with their paycheck. Motivated by solving a familiar challenge, Courtney founded Runa, a startup that automates payroll for businesses in Latin America. By then, from the time she spent at Cabify, she knew a thing or two about building a unicorn in the region. So she was ready to build her own. That, of course, came with a lot of challenges she wasn't so familiar with. In this episode, she shares some of the main ones, including: Building a senior management team remotely as a solo founder. Scaling software between Latin American countries. How her pitch changes when she talks to US investors vs local ones. And adjusting personal roles to take care of a fast-growing company. Starting something new?  Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship program. Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Kevin Efrusy is low-key. You won't find a lot of interviews with him, and that's by design. One of his reasons is that he believes entrepreneurs should be the ones taking all the credit, and that's a testament to what an outstanding investor he is. But truth be told: Kevin has done a lot for many founders, Brian included, both as an angel and as a partner at Accel, a top-tier global VC firm, which he joined in 2003. He has incredible experience as an operator, having worked with Elon Musk in his first company, in the late 90s, and then moving on to founding a couple of really successful startups. Kevin was also an early investor in Facebook, when no one wanted that deal, and a lead investor in pioneering companies such as Groupon, Couchbase, and Despegar. Because of his special connection with Latin America, which he'll explain in the episode, Kevin leads Accel’s initiatives in the region. It also got him involved with the creation of LALA, an amazing world-class leadership academy that finds, connects, and develops Latin America's most promising young leaders. This is a fun – and rare! – chat that covers tons of lessons and untold anecdotes, so stick around to hear about: The early days of his journey as an entrepreneur and how that shaped him as an investor. The story behind the early investment in Facebook. And his advice on building and managing boards. Starting something new? Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship program. Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Stop fishing in the sludge. There's a lot more healthy fish where people don't go as often. And while some investors care too much about other investors' signals and might see particular markets as small ponds, Claire Diaz-Ortiz uses that as an advantage by searching for overlooked big opportunities.Claire is a VC, angel investor, author, and speaker who was an early employee at Twitter. Named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and called “The Woman Who Got the Pope on Twitter” by Wired, she joined Magma Partners in 2020 as an investing partner in Latin America. There, she runs Brava, the first initiative of its kind to invest in female founders across the region.In this episode:Her journey at Twitter until she became a VCThe dynamics of leverage and signalingIdeas to shockwave change towards investments in underrepresented foundersAnd tips to get the right investor's attentionCome on in, the water's warm!Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

When Marcelo Abritta pitched Buser to a VC for the first time, he didn't have a lot of leverage. His operation was quickly blocked by authorities and incumbents. He wasn't yet working full time on the business. And the cherry on top: he had a six-figure debt from a recently failed company. He did, however, receive a great investment offer from a top-tier fund that same day. Everyone knew from the start that that would be a "make it or break it" type of deal — and it still is. In fact, Marcelo likes to make that clear even to potential hires. But with high risks come high returns.  In this episode, you'll find out: How that first pitch went down.  The behind the scenes of their whole fundraising process. How they stay scrappy and lean. And the challenges and measures you take when you're this heavy on uncertainty. --Go to book.latitud.com to get your copy of Viva The Entrepreneur!Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Brian's book is now available! Go to book.latitud.com to get your copy of Viva the Entrepreneur: Founding, Scaling and Raising Venture Capital in Latin America .This episode is not about that, though, and even less so about him. Yes, sure, our guest today wrote the foreword -- but above all, she's a huge inspiration to me and thousands of other founders around the world.That's because Linda Rottenberg co-founded Endeavor and has led the global entrepreneurship movement since 1997. Back then, people would call her Chica Loca — or “the Crazy Girl”. Why crazy? Linda insisted that high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurs exist outside of Silicon Valley; almost no one believed her.Now with offices in 40 locations, Endeavor rigorously selects, scales up, and co-invests in the fastest growing founders in emerging and underserved markets. There are currently 2,500 Endeavor Entrepreneurs (Brian's one of them!).Endeavor shows how essencial it is for every founder to count on a network of people who are a few steps ahead in the game and then give back. And it proved it works.In this episode, Linda talks about:The key to building great connections and communitiesWhat makes people help other peopleThe importance of solving local problemsAnd the stories that turned crazy into global thought leader.--A couple of Linda's stories and a lot of Brian's are in Viva the Entrepreneur. You can get the ebook NOW for only $0.99 -- This is a limited offer, so make sure to move fast. Go to book.latitud.com to check it out. Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Yuri Danilchenko grew up in Russia during one of the most defining moments in history. He's had a knack for tech and entrepreneurship since before he noticed it, having sold cell phones for pocket money when he was only 13, and fixing his friends' computers even though he didn't own one. Then, after living in the US and getting his masters in AI, he moved to Brazil and worked at several startups.He liked the challenges of startup life so much he ended up co-founding a business himself, called Vemos. But they eventually had to move on, and Yuri joined Kaszek-backed Escale as CTO, bringing in dozens of new engineers to the team and scaling product development through series C.In this episode, he shares:Some of the early-stage pitfalls he fell intoHow to attract and select tech talent when you don't have a tech brandHow to factor in diversity during your hiring processAnd what kind of culture you need to build a tech and product companyStarting something new? Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship programBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

It’s here: the last episode of 2020. We started this year by interviewing Paulo Veras, the co-founder of 99, the first Brazilian unicorn. Now, we end the season on the highest of notes with the guy that was managing the company when it was sold to Didi. Peter Fernandez held leadership roles at Google and was an angel investor and advisor for 99 before he joined the team in 2016, becoming CEO 10 months later. When he left the position, he went on a sabbatical that took him on an amazing journey of self-discovery. Today, he shares reflections on fulfillment, giving first, and making a positive impact. Also in this episode: The top 3 things that are critical for high-performance teams; What culture boils down to; And why taking care of yourself is also part of your job. - Learn more about the Latitud Fellowship Program at https://latitud.com!Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

In the early days of Love Mondays, co-founder Luciana Caletti was encouraged by her investors to talk to every player in the industry, including competitors. Not only did that accelerate their learning as a startup, but it also allowed them to build a relationship with their US-born more developed equivalent, Glassdoor. Fast forward 3 years, they joined forces as Glassdoor expanded and Luciana became the Managing Director for Latin America. But even though her title might have changed, her role did not. Today, we talk about her journey leading a venture-backed company and choosing where to focus her attention to generate growth. She also shares a few learnings on: Things to keep in mind when you start hiring How to create news pieces around your company And how to build employer branding organically ---Visit latitud.com to find out more and apply to the Latitud Fellowship.Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Fabricio Pettená is a partner at Global Founders Capital, a stage-agnostic lifecycle global venture capital firm. If you’re wondering what that means, this is the episode where he explains it!  We also talk about: GFC's decision process and how they support startups; What good board meetings should look like; His analysis of Latin American markets; And the signals investors pay attention to. ---  Visit latitud.com to apply to our programs! Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Gina Gotthilf was the VP of Growth at Duolingo, the most downloaded education app in the world, leading the team that built its user base from 3 to 200 million. She also led Tumblr's growth in Latin America and participated in the Mike Bloomberg presidential campaign to help oversee digital ad campaigns at a historical daily spend. In 2020, she joined Brian and Yuri as a co-founder of Latitud, to help engineer serendipity for the top doers and thinkers in the Latam startup ecosystem. In this episode, Gina talks a bit more about what we’ve been up to, but mostly about her own journey, challenges and learnings. Stick around to find out: What hyper-growing startups running seamlessly from the outside are really like in the backstage. Some of the growth tactics early-stage founders can benefit from. Her biggest F-ups. And her takeaway from pitching Duolingo to President Obama in the White House.  ---Visit latitud.com to apply to our programs!Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

A few years after getting his degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University, and fresh out of his MBA at Harvard Business School, Antoine Colaço wanted to go into the VC world as an investor. But he’d always heard it’d be better to get operational experience first. So he joined Yahoo!. Then, in 2003, he took a risk and accepted a position at a small startup. It was called Google.Antoine was there for 9 years, founding Google’s operation in India and launching offices all over Latin America. Although it may seem glitzy to build startups within what would become one the largest tech companies in the world, it came with the same challenges any early-stage founder would face. Some of which weren’t the least bit glamorous.It was his impressive curriculum, but also his great feeling for business and love for Latin America, that led Antoine into becoming a partner at Valor Capital Group.In this episode:How different Latam cultures affect his investment approachHow he sees potential paths for founders looking to expand their businessA bit of Valor’s investment criteriaAnd how intuition and luck can play a big part in investing in winning companies.--- Visit latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

A company’s DNA is what makes it stand out. It guides everyone’s behaviors and determines the quality of the people you have by your side, from the initial hires to the hypergrowth stage. It can be the difference between a team that is indifferent and one that is all-in.This is something Eric Santos and his co-founders paid attention to from the get-go. Similar to what Netflix’s culture code means to Silicon Valley founders, Resultados Digitais’ culture code became well-known in the Brazilian startup ecosystem. The team scaled from 30 to 100 employees in just a few months, then to 230 employees the following year. But RD’s DNA remains the same as it was in the very beginning, 10 years ago.In this episode,:How the founding team identified the virtues that were authentic to themSome of the difficult conversations they had upfrontThe challenges they faced while hiring fastAnd how they operationalized these virtues at scale. -- Visit latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

No matter the game, understanding the other player always helps you make better moves. This logic applies to the fundraising game too. Julio Vasconcellos is a great example of this, being a very prolific entrepreneur and investor. Julio was Facebook’s first country manager in Brazil, back in 2010. That same year, he started Peixe Urbano, which became a leading local commerce and services company in Brazil, later expanding to other 6 countries in Latin America and eventually being acquired by Baidu. He’s been an angel investor ever since and is also the co-founder of two VC funds: Canary and Atlantico. In this episode: What makes an incredible investor and what makes an incredible founderGood practices of having a board and sitting on a boardDealing with advice and external opinionsAnd the challenge of balancing emotional involvement and rational thinking -- Learn more about the Latitud Fellowship program at latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Startups are the wildest roller coasters. You can have your best day and your worst day oftentimes in the same day. You really need to learn how to deal with the ups and downs and accept that there are things that you simply cannot control.Oskar Hjertonsson has been on a crazy ride for the past 14 years. Born in Sweden, he met one of his co-founders, Daniel Undurraga, in Chile, where they first created Needish. Later rebranded Clandescuento, it was acquired by Groupon, and Oskar and Dani led the expansion in Latin America.They later took their entrepreneurial expertise into building Seahorse, but that didn’t quite work out like they expected.In 2015, Cornershop was born — launched first in Mexico and Chile as an on-demand grocery delivery service. In less than 2 years, conversations started with Walmart for a potential exit. The deal was announced in 2018, but after a long stressful wait, the antitrust authorities in Mexico ruled against it moving forward.In this episode:Oskar's fundraising journey. Takeaways on leadership. And the emotional loops, dips, highs and turns that founders go through.-- Learn more about the Latitud Fellowship program at latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Starting a business is a game of persistence. As our guest Sergio Furio says in this episode, “we build businesses to thrive over 10-20 years, but we don’t know what’s happening tomorrow.”Sergio was born in Spain and moved to Brazil after his wife, Silvia, told him about the high interest rates in the country. He founded BankFácil in 2011, which later became Creditas.Much later, in fact. Sergio had to adapt his strategy a few times, and has persisted a lot, but he’s staying ahead of the game. Creditas is now the largest fintech for secured loans in Brazil.Today, Sergio talks about:His experience going-to-market (again and again)His biggest mistakes he made when Creditas started to grow, andThe fundraising journey that led him to raise over 300 million dollars-- Learn more about the Latitud Fellowship program at latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Thomas Floracks and Brian Requarth have been partners for 16 years -- Germany and USA joined forces in Colombia to ultimately build a successful proptech scale-up in Brazil: Viva Real. They've been through thick and thin together, and the experience made Thomas a product and growth expert. Today he’s back in Colombia as the Chief Product Officer of LaHaus, another amazing proptech company where Brian is also an investor.This episode is a chat between old friends and co-founders, but also a lesson on building great tech products. Thomas shares tactical advice on:How to manage product and engineering teams as a non-technical founderHow to engage everyone with a clear purposeAnd what are the 3 things that good products do.-- Visit latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Support, knowledge-sharing and collaboration go a long way — they’re just as important as other resources. Building an environment with these characteristics helps us grow individually, and it continues to do so as we give back and create value for the whole, rather than the parts. Brad Feld is the co-founder of Techstars, one of the first accelerators in the US, and runs the Foundry Group, his fund based in Boulder, Colorado. He also wrote a book called Startup Communities back in 2012 and he is soon releasing a sequel called The Startup Community Way, where he and Ian Hathaway describe the properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and how interactions affect prosperity.In this episode, he talks about why it is important for us to feed these ecosystems and for you, the entrepreneur, to be an active participant in your local startup communities.-- Visit latitud.com  -  Track: Accralate by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3336-accralate License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop