The J Curve: Recent Episodes
Olga Maslikhova
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guests today are Marcelo Maziero and Fernando Fontes, founders at Brazil's leading financial market infrastructure provider Cerc, that has raised up to $100m in a round led by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investor Mubadala Capital with a follow on from Valor Capital.This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in fintech innovation across Latin America and other emerging economies.
We explore the complexities of scaling in highly regulated market, the importance of building a strong partnership, and the critical role that understanding local market dynamics played in their success.
In today's episode we discuss:
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CERC’s $5 trillion bet: how reinventing receivables is transforming Brazil’s financial infrastructure?
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Regulation as strategy: how CERC turned compliance into a competitive advantage in Brazil’s fintech landscape?
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Brazil-specific strategy: how deep understanding of industry pain points can fuel innovation?
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Co-founder chemistry: how the right partnership drives startup success?
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Long-horizon funding: how CERC secured $100M by aligning with investors who understand infrastructure and share a long-term vision?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Andre Maciel, founder of the Brazilian venture capital firm Volpe Capital, whose current and former portfolio includes the likes of Vtex, CRM&Bonus, Connectly, and Atlas Governance. Before starting Volpe, André was the founding managing investment partner at SoftBank Latin America, and prior to that, he spent nearly 17 years in investment banking and private equity at JP Morgan.
This is a special conversation where we dive into the evolution of startup investing in Brazil and Latin America, unpack various exit strategies, and set realistic return expectations for portfolio managers. We also explore AI’s transformative role in boosting productivity, particularly in sectors like tax prep and automation. Finally, we discuss why LATAM is such a hotbed for innovation, offering tech giants like Google and Meta an incredible $700 billion market opportunity.
In today's episode we discuss:
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AI’s Big Bet: why the application of AI is a critical factor in unlocking productivity in Latin America?
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The $700B question for Meta, Google and ByteDance: why Brazil is big tech’s most wanted market?
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The 2021 exit gap: how LATAM VCs missed a golden opportunity to deliver LP returns?
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The path forward: How can Latin America cultivate a robust local LP market?
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LATAM vs. Silicon Valley: What sets their founders apart?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Marcelo França, founder & CEO at Celcoin, a brazilian financial infrastructure company that has recently raised a $125M in a Series C round led by global growth equity investor Summit Partners with the participation from the existing investor Innova Capital and John Coughlin, a former senior executive with Corpay.This financing comes at a time of rapid growth for Celcoin,which recorded US$63 million in annual recurring revenue in the first quarter of 2024 – a 140% increase compared to the same period last year. Celcoin processes over 200 million Pix transactions monthly and has already established itself as the leading provider of Open Banking solutions for licensed institutions in Brazil. Notably, this investment marks Summit Partners' first venture into Brazil and Latin America.
We talk about the evolution of the Brazilian financial ecosystem, focusing on pivotal moments like the Central Bank’s PIX initiative, which revolutionized digital payments in Brazil. We also touch on the decision to pivot Celcoin from a B2C model to an infrastructure provider and the strategic importance of M&A in their growth.
In today's episode we discuss:
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Banking on change: the defining moments of Brazil's fintech evolution
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Mastering the pivot: three key decisions that elevated Celcoin to the top of Brazil’s BaaS and embedded finance markets
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Navigating growth capital: key lessons from the frontlines
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Merging minds and products: how M&A became a catalyst for Celcoin's rapid expansion?
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Tech that grows: Celcoin’s strategy for sustainable scalability
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Dileep Thazhmon, founder and CEO at Jeeves, a corporate spend and expense management platform for global businesses. Jeeves has raised over $260m from the likes of GIC, Tencent, a16z, CRV and more. Its last reported valuation was $2.1B. Since its public launch early in 2021, Jeeves scaled across 22 countries in North America, South America, the UK and Europe. In Latam the list of its customers include Bitso, Hotmart, Avenue, Buser and Cayena.
In our conversation we unpacked Jeeves unique playbook for entering new markets, discussed why Latin America and Brazil in particular is such a lucrative opportunity for Jeeves and how to build strong relationships with investors when pursuing a contrarian strategy like global expansion across 22 countries.
In today's episode we discuss:
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Vamos Latam: why focusing on Brazil and Mexico can be a game-changer for US fintech startups?
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Jeeves global expansion playbook: practical strategies for entering new markets with a localized approach
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Choose the right market: why fintech infrastructure and regulatory environments matter for scaling?
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Cap table strategy 101: how to excel at raising capital with a contrarian go-to-market strategy?
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Low ego, high output mentality: how to hire leaders who build exceptional teams and drive success at scale?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Rafael de Albuquerque, CEO & founder at Zoox Smart Data, a global tech company that offers integrated solutions in big data, analytics, AI & ML. Zoox has over 1650 enterprise customers in 25 countries including the likes of Pepsi, Burger King, F1, PWC and Telefonica.Rafael’s journey from selling Wi-Fi routers door-to-door to building a $100m in revenue global data analytics business from Brazil is nothing short of remarkable and paved with countless setbacks and failures. His relentless drive to overcome obstacles and pivot business models serves as a valuable example for other entrepreneurs. In our conversation, we explored how building a successful company without VC funding demands strategic thinking and resourcefulness. Leveraging early investor relationships and focusing on customer-driven growth were crucial in scaling the business. We also discussed the importance of family support for sustaining long-term business success and performance.In today's episode we discuss:1. Zoox Sales Playbook: how to build a robust enterprise sales strategy? 2. Mastering the pivot: how and why (!) to leverage customer feedback to transform your enterprise?3. Optimize your startup cap tablet: key benefits of strategic investors vs. traditional VCs4. Customer-centric innovation: how to boost growth and market relevance by co-creating with customers?5. Turning failure into fortune: Rafael’s lessons in business
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Dave Nangle, founder and CEO of VEF, an emerging markets-focused, growth-stage fintech investment firm. VEF's Latam portfolio includes the likes of Creditas, Solfacil, Gringo and Konfio.
We talked about Dave’s investment strategy, focusing on growth-stage companies that have nailed unit economics and product-market fit. We discussed the most common mistakes founders make when pitching to VEF, what makes Brazil one of the most attractive markets in the world from a venture capital perspective, why trying to predict exit timing in emerging markets is often a losing game, and why Dave prefers M&A over IPO as the go-to exit strategy. Dave also shared his perspective on the most underrated tech company in Latin America.
In today's episode we discuss:
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VEF’s investment strategy playbook: single country, single product focus and big scale up market
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Build for exit: how to make M&A a viable exit strategy in VC and why an IPO might be less attractive than you think?
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The holy grail of private markets: the pros and cons of a permanent capital vehicle structure in venture capital
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Emerging markets are not all the same: what makes some particularly attractive for venture capital investors?
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Brazil deconstructed: key factors making it a top tech investment market
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Geraldo Thomaz, founder and co-CEO at NYSE-traded enterprise e-commerce platform VTEX. VTEX is an incredible example of Brazilian company that grew to become a global player in a digital commerce with Walmart, Coca-Cola and L'Oreal among customers. Prior tp going public in 2021 VTEX raised over $360m in capital from the likes of Softbank, Riverwood Capital, Tiger Global and Endeavor Catalyst.
In our conversation, we dive into the importance of intentionally targeting your customer segment, the transformative journey of a CEO leading a publicly traded company, and the critical need to maintain core fundamentals, even in the toughest times.
In today's episode we discuss:
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From zero to Walmart: key strategies for landing enterprise customers
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Optimize for scalability: key trade-offs VTEX made for global growth
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Building a high-performing partnership: trust, complementary skills, and a divide-and-conquer management approach
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From founder to public company CEO: main lessons on leadership transformation
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Take LatAm to the World: how to inspire global entrepreneurial ambitions in the region?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Susan Segal. Susan has been the President and CEO of Americas Society / Council of the Americas since August 2003, following a distinguished 30-year career in the private sector working with Latin America and other emerging markets.
As a partner and head of the Latin American Group at Chase Capital Partners, Susan pioneered early-stage venture capital investing in Latin America. She played an active role during the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s, serving on numerous advisory committees and chairing the Chilean and Philippine Advisory Committees.
Susan's board memberships include Mercado Libre, Vista Oil & Gas, Robinhood, Americas Society/Council of the Americas, the Tinker Foundation, and the Bretton Woods Committee. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
We talked about the importance of strong governance and financial prudence, dug into the key traits of highly successful Latin American founders, and got Susan's perspective on the future of tech entrepreneurship in the region. We also looked at why startups in Latin America are in a great position to ride the wave of AI advancements.
In today's episode we discuss:
1. Strong governance matters: why should startups establish robust governance structures early on?
2. Build personal relationships: how can cultivating meaningful relationships with partners, investors, and teams impact your business success?
3. Traits of exceptional founders: What signature traits set apart highly successful founders in Latin America?
4. From Latam to the world: why the future of regional entrepreneurship is global?
5. The rise of AI: why Latam startups are well-positioned for AI breakthroughs?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Daniela Binatti, co-founder and CTO at the Brazilian payments infrastructure company Pismo, which was recently acquired by Visa for $1 billion in cash. This conversation is very special as Pismo stands out as a globally successful tech company with roots in Brazil. Moreover, Daniela herself is an exceptional example of female leadership in technology, breaking barriers and setting new standards in a predominantly male-dominated field.
We talk about how leveraging advanced technology from sectors like social media and streaming could revolutionize traditional industries like financial services, why embracing global ambitions early allowed Pismo to rapidly adapt and expand into new markets. We also discuss navigating VC founder relationships and why it’s important to balance investor insights with founder intuition. And finally we touch on the rationale behind selling Pismo to Visa.
In today's episode we discuss:
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Embracing global mindset: how this foundational decision enabled scalability and flexibility, allowing Pismo to rapidly adapt and expand into new markets?
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Cross-industry innovations: how leveraging advanced innovations from alternative sectors can revolutionize traditional industries and provide startups with a competitive edge?
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Unified front: what are the key ingredient for fostering enduring co-founder relationships?
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Building critical infrastructure: what startups must get right from the get-go?
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Power dynamics: the fundamentals of a successful founder-VC relationship
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Alexandre Zolko, founder and CEO at CRM&BONUS, Brazilian customer loyalty management platform that has just raised $80m in Series B led by Bond Capital with the participation from Valor Capital. This round valued the company at 2.2B Brazilian reais or over $400M dollars, more than doubling its Series A valuation. Bond Capital is the fund that was created by Mary Meeker, a former Kleiner Perkins partner, whose internet trends report is considered one of the most influential reports in the world of tech and venture capital. With CRM&BONUS Bond makes its first bet in Latin America. The list of CRM&BONUS’s prior backers includes the likes of Softbank, Riverwood Capital, Volpe Capital and Igah Ventures. The company, which is Alexandre’s 8th entrepreneurial adventure, was started in 2018, been profitable since the third month of operations and was bootstrapped until the Series A in 2021.
Together we explore Alexandre’s early fascination with sales, learnings from his prior entrepreneurial experiences, his approach towards building the ecosystem of products in customer loyalty space and what it takes to raise capital from some of the best investors in the world.
In today's episode we discuss:
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Ownership mentality: how to build a company that puts customer first?
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Profitability as a fundraising strategy: how to attract high quality VC investments in a startup?
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The CRM&BONUS playbook: how to strategically build a product ecosystem?
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Speed: The Power of focus in accelerating startup growth
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Beyond AI: what is the future of customer loyalty market?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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Welcome to season three of the J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America with me, Olga Maslikhova. My guests today are Andre Florence and Guilherme Azevedo, co-founders at Brazilian healthcare startup Alice backed by the likes of Softbank, ThornTree Capital Partners, Kaszek and Globo Ventures. Their latest Series C of $127m was the largest funding round raised by a healthtech in Latin America to date. Prior to co-founding Alice Andre was a CFO at Brazilian ride sharing company 99 and led it though the acquisition by Didi and Guilherme was a co-founder of a chain of healthcare clinics Dr. Consulta. We discuss their methodical approach to partnership, shifting focus from growth at all cost towards sustainability and lessons learned from that process and what it actually takes to drive a systematic change in such a complex market as healthcare.
In today's episode we discuss:
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Alice partnership playbook: how to build a co-founder relationship that lasts
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Growth at all cost is dead: five lessons learned from pivoting towards efficiency
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The vicious cycle: why healthcare innovation is broken in Brazil and how tech natives can fix it?
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Fasten your seatbelts how to build a resilient startup culture in a volatile market?
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Breaking the mold: the biggest challenges of challenging the status quo
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Thibaud Lecuyer, CEO at Loggi, Brazilian delivery company that has raised close to $500m over 6 rounds from the likes of Iporanga Ventures, Softbank, Monashees, GGV, CapSur Capital and Microsoft. Prior to that Thibaud was a co-founder at Brazilian online fashion retailer Dafiti.
Together we explore Thibaud’s transition from finance and J.P. Morgan in Europe into entrepreneurship in Brazil. We discuss his experience of launching and scaling Dafiti in the environment in which venture capital was scarce. We also talk about strategies and tactics Thibaud used to put Loggi on a path to profitability while maintaining a high rate of growth and discuss why Brazil represents a lucrative opportunity for global investors.
In today's episode we discuss:
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From disruption to transformation: how to turnaround a billion dollar tech business?
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Founders' blind spot: how to think about capital efficiency?
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The case for optimism: why global investors should invest in Brazil?
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The last mile delivery challenge: how to win in a crowded market?
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Doing business in Brazil: what founders need to know?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Joao Barbosa, co-founder at corporate wellness platform Gympass (now Wellhub), that has raised over $600M from the likes of EQT Growth, Softbank, General Atlantic and Valor Capital.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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The global leap: key challenges of scaling in different markets
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The art of the pivot: how to find a business model that fits?
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Building a winning team: how to hire and fire at scale?
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Pricing strategy in B2B: how to approach it?
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Economies of scale: what are they really?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Vitor Torres, Endeavor entrepreneur and founder and CEO at Brazilian accounting platform Contabilizei, that has raised over $100m from the likes of SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, IFC, Kaszek and Endeavor Catalyst.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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The cultural moat: how Contabilizei has built corporate culture into competitive edge?
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Responsible innovations: how to disrupt a regulated industry?
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The future of accounting: the very real impact of AI
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Word of mouth marketing: how to make it work?
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Leadership in a startup: how to rise above challenges?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Michele Levy, the private equity investor and banker turned fashion entrepreneur behind the successful growth of the Melissa shoe brand in the USA as well as the premium beauty brand Costa Brazil.In today's episode we will discuss:1. How to sell branded commodities?2. The secret sauce to high-performing teams3. Creative storytelling strategies for B2C businesses4. How to find a good problem to solve? 5. Hunger, passion and purpose: how and why to empower women in business?If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple. Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Gaston Irigoyen, founder and CEO at Argentinian fintech infrastructure company Pomelo that has recently raised $40m in Series B from the likes of Kaszek, monashees, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Endeavor Catalyst and Section 32. The latest financing brings the startup’s total raised since inception to $103 million. Gaston is a third-time founder, with two previous exits and former CEO of Naranja X, one of Argentina’s largest neobanks.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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$103m from top VCs in 3 years: how to get real good at fundraising?
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Horizontal growth strategy: pros, cons and examples
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Beyond Brazil: why Argentina is a hot bed for tech talent?
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Products, operations, regulations: a compete guide to fintech startup moats
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From 3 to 300 people in 2 years: Pomelo's guide to building a great startup team
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Doug Storf, Endeavor entrepreneur and founder and CEO at Sao Paulo-based payment infrastructure company Swap that has raised ~$30M from the likes of Tiger Global, Endeavor, Global Founders Capital, ONEVC and Flourish Ventures.
Prior to starting Swap, Doug was Head of Corporate Strategy at 99, Brazil's first known tech unicorn that was acquired by Chinese Didi in 2018.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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How to raise VC capital: from building a funnel to running a sales process.
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Fintechs in Brazil: opportunities and threats in ever-changing environment
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Swap's go-to-market playbook: a cheat code for growth
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The art of war: what startups can learn from China's work culture?
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From 30 to 200 employees: how to scale a startup team?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Martin Migoya founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Globant, NYSE-traded IT and software development company focused on reinventing businesses through innovative technology solutions.
Globant powered digital transformation of the likes of FIFA, McDonald's, Nissan, and Novartis, and its most recent market cap is over $10B.
Martin is a member of young president's organization and a board member of Endeavor Argentina.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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The future of AI and humans in business: what lies ahead?
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From LatAm to the world: how to boost global expansion of local Latin American startups?
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Globant framework: how to foster a culture of innovation in big businesses?
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Twenty years strong: the secret sauce of long-lasting business partnership
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The multiplier effect: how Endeavor helps entrepreneurs reshape startup ecosystems?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Marcelo Sampaio, founder and CEO at Hashdex, Brazilian crypto asset manager backed by the likes of Coinbase Ventures, SoftBank and Valor Capital.
Hashdex is the only LatAm spot bitcoin ETF among 11 ETFs recently cleared by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the event that some called a watershed moment for crypto adoption. Please note, that this is a two-part conversation. The first part follows our regular format in which we deconstruct Marcelo’s personal leadership and talk about the pivotal stages and critical lessons of his career. In the second part of our conversation, we talk about what the recent SEC approval means for the industry, its pros and cons as well as the real-world application of crypto and bitcoins.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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Lessons from Oracle: how to win at enterprise sales?
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Bitcoin fundamentals: why open-source is important for blockchain and vice versa?
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From LatAm to the world: what's the next billion dollar company nobody's building yet?
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AI or Crypto: which will have the bigger Impact?
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The game of law: why cryptocurrencies should be regulated?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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In this final episode of the year we are going through some growth metrics we've managed to achieve this year as well as taking a look back at top 10 most listened-to episodes of the year and sharing our favorite moments from each and every one of them.
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple. That is the best way to support the show.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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Hi everyone and welcome to The J Curve. This time we have a very different format. In this episode, I answer the questions posed by the students of entrepreneurship class at Purdue University on entrepreneurship, early stage investing, tech in Latin America and so much more. We discuss:1. How to stay on top of emerging tech trends? 2. What is preferred capital structure of the early stage startups? 3. What are the red flags for startup investors?4. What are the big reasons to invest in Latin America?5. What is the main difference between tech entrepreneurs in Brazil and US? 6. How to resist the herd mentality prevalent in VC? 7. What are the industries I am excited about as an investor? 8. How to assess startups in terms of market potential? The talk was slightly edited for length and clarity. Hope you enjoy!If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple. Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Gabriela Toribio, Managing Director at telco giant Telefonica’s Brazilian corporate venture capital arms Vivo Ventures and Wayra. Vivo Ventures and Wayra have invested in 30+ startups in Brazil including a low-code integration platform Digibee. Prior to joining Telefonica, Gabriela launched venture capital arms in Votorantim and Companhia Siderurgica Nacional, two large industrial corporations in Brazil.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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Investor pick: what qualities do CVCs look for in founders?
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Pay forward: how to build long lasting connections in business and life?
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Permission to fail: what large companies get wrong about corporate venture capital?
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Cash, infrastructure, distribution: how can a corporate venture capital fund help your startup?
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Women mean business: how to succeed in the corporate world as a female?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Roberto Dagnoni, an Endeavor Entrepreneur and the Executive Chairman and CEO at 2TM, a holding company of Mercado Bitcoin, the largest crypto exchange in Latin America that was valued at $2.1B after raising $200 million in Series B funding from the SoftBank Latin America Fund. Roberto has also invested in 60+ early stage startups including Brazilian digital bank Neon.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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From financial services to loyalty programs: why the future is blockchain?
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Blockchain the Brazilian way: what are the three big reasons why Brazil is a hotbed for crypto adoption?
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Corporate investment philosophy: what Mercado Bitcoin executives are looking for in startups?
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Going remote: how to build a successful remote-first company?
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The law of trust and other critical elements of successful business partnerships
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Alec Oxenford, serial entrepreneur, managing partner at Myelin VC, co-founder at online marketplace platforms OLX (acquired by Naspers after raising capital from the likes of Founders Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners and General Catalyst) and letgo (merged with OfferUp). Alec is an important Argentinian contemporary art collector.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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Buying the dream: what venture capital and contemporary art have in common?
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AI vs Artist: how technology can shape the future of art ?
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Escape the box: how to win in a competitive market?
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Hard at play: how to create a fun work culture in a startup and why is it important?
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Martian approach: why the future of tech will (still) be concentrated in the US?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Fabio Carrara, founder and CEO at Brazilian renewable energy firm Solfacil, that has raised over $130m from the likes of QED, Fifth Wall, Softbank, VEF and Valor Capital.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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Window of opportunity: why market timing is everything?
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The heat of the crowd: how to thrive in commoditized market?
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Go slow to go fast: how to become an ecosystem player?
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Solar space market in Brazil: market opportunity, key profit pools and obstacles to adoption.
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First principles thinking: structured approach to disrupting complex markets.
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Eduardo della Maggiora, founder and CEO at LatAm's first social unicorn Betterfly, that hit $1b valuation after raising $125m in a Series C funding round led by Glade Brook Capital and joined by Greycroft, Mundi Ventures, Lightrock, QED Investors and DST Global Partners. The list of Betterfly's prior backers also includes the likes of Valor Capital, Endeavor Catalyst and the SoftBank Latin America Fund.Eduardo has represented Chile in six occasions at the Ironman World Championships. He is a two-time world champion runner-up in his category at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, as well as a three-time finisher of the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.In 2022 he was awarded as "Entrepreneur of the Year" in Chile by Ernst & Young and in 2022 and 2021 he was recognized among the 500 most influential people in Latin America by Bloomberg.
In today's episode we will discuss: 1. The Ironman Mindset: lessons from triathlon every entrepreneur should learn.2. From 0 to $1B: how to scale yourself as a startup leader?3. The purpose-driven business: how to embed impact in your startup's DNA? 4. From LatAm to the world: key pitfalls to avoid when scaling a startup globally.5. Leaving $4M on a table: when, why and how to pivot a startup?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
For this episode I am thrilled to welcome Patricia Moraes, Founder and Managing Partner at Unbox Capital, Sao Paulo-based venture capital firm that Patricia co-founded together with Luiza Trajano, Brazilian billionaire and the chairman of retailer Magazine Luiza. Unbox Capital portfolio includes the likes of Solinftec, Rock Content and Incognia.
Prior to starting Unbox Capital, Patricia spent over 22 years as a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan.
In today's episode we will discuss:
1. The story of adaptability: what makes Brazilian founders globally competitive?
2. Startup governance: common mistakes startup founders make with their board of directors
3. People-first leadership: why success in business hinges on your people and putting them first?
4. Key elements of successful business partnership: from radical transparency to putting company's best interests first
5. Mulheres do Brasil: how women are bringing community to the world of business
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Lucas Vargas, CEO at Brazilian fintech Nomad, that has recently raised $61m in an investment round led by Tiger Global with participation from prior investors including Monashees, Stripes and Globo Ventures.
Prior to joining Nomad, Lucas was CEO at Viva Real which he led through the merger with Grupo ZAP and acquisition by OLX, the leading marketplace group in Brazil.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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Raising growth capital during the market downturn: what to expect?
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Startup culture in fast-growing companies: how to build the one that scales?
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Leading through a layoff: the startup CEO guide to letting people go.
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Money isn't everything: the powerful role non-financial incentives can play in a startup.
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Riding the wave of PIX adoption: what are the trends that will shape Brazil's financial industry in the next decade?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Julio Vasconcellos, founding partner at Brazilian early stage venture capital firm Atlantico, founder at Canary, former Brazil country manager for Facebook and former entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) atBenchmark. I am also thrilled to welcome Ana Clara Martins, partner at Atlantico and co-founder at Brazil at Silicon Valley, one of the largest annual conferences that connect entrepreneurs, executives and investors from Brazil with global tech community.
This is the special edition of The J Curve in which we go into the nitty gritty details of The 2023 Atlantico Digital Report , the most comprehensive overview of key tech trends in Latin America.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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Tectonic shifts: what are the five key forces shaping the future of Latin America?
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From LatAm to the world: why will we see more global companies coming out of Latin America?
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Beyond US and China: the rise of LatAm's startup ecosystem
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Top reasons startups fail: what to avoid?
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Lessons from Pix: what the world can learn from Brazil's instant payment method?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Shownotes:
Curious article on Pix: https://thefintechtimes.com/the-story-of-pix-and-what-us-banks-can-learn/
Eric Schmidt interviewed by Julio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TesYzPxN7AU
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For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Veronica Serra, Founding Partner at Brazilian VC growth fund Innova Capital, whose current investments include Semantix AI and Clearsale. Veronica is a former board member and investor of Mercado Libre and Movile-iFood and current board member of Endeavor Global and Harvard Business School Latam Advisory Board.
In today's episode we will discuss:
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Endeavor flywheel: insider's look into the global entrepreneurship powerhouse
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From Movile to Mercado Libre: the common traits of exceptional founders
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Smart beyond the money: how great VC investors make decisions?
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Veronica's advice to women getting started with investing: 'Don't be afraid and take the risk'
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Building momentum: what's next for Innova Capital and VC growth investing in Latin America?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olga-maslikhova/message
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Diego Barreto, CFO & VP of Strategy at iFood, the largest food tech company in Latin America; author of the best seller “New Economy” ('Nova Economia') and mentor at Endeavor. Prior to that Diego was Director of Finance at Suzano, the largest paper and pulp company in Latin America.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- Garage to riches: the secret sauce of iFood success
- Brazilian gig economy: what are the trends that will shape its future?
- Food delivery revolution: the impact of AI
- Power of mentorship: how to unlock economic growth through guidance?
- The next tech thing: top scalable startup business models in Brazil
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olga-maslikhova/message
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Gabriela Gonçalves, founder and managing partner at Namari Capital; managing partner at Brasil Venture Debt, whose portfolio includes the likes of Exact Sales (acquired by RD Station), Solfacil and Digibee. Prior to that Gabriela was a co-founder and managing director at Rocket Internet-backed Lazada (acquired by Alibaba).
We hope to make in person recordings our new normal, so please do check out our new YouTube channel.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- Inside Rocket Internet: what is it like to work at a startup clone factory and what does it teach you about business?
- The founder's guide to venture debt: what is it and how it works? How is it different from venture capital?
- Flying high through lows: why 2023 is the golden year for startup investing?
- Present value: why financial literacy is a must for startup founders?
- Overcoming sunk cost fallacy: fail fast, fail forward
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Pedro Sirotsky Melzer, partner at Patria Investments; founding partner at Igah Ventures, whose portfolio includes the likes of Infra Commerce, Unico, Avenue Securities, Hashex, Conexa Saude, CRM&Bonus and more.
We hope to make in person recordings our new normal, so please do check out our new YouTube channel.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- Deconstructing VC decision making framework: how does Igah evaluate startups?
- From Unico to Contabilizei: what do successful founders have in common?
- Gambling is not a thesis: why investment discipline outweighs hypothetical upsides? iFood example
- Startup governance: how to run a high performing Board?
- Igah & Patria Investments: how to build a lasting VC business within the largest alternative investment firm in Latin America?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Fersen Lambranho, Brazilian entrepreneur and investor; chairman of the board of GP Investments and G2D Investments, member of the board of Centauro, Spice Private Equity and The Craftory. Fersen is also the former CEO of Lojas Americanas and the current board member of several non-profits including São Paulo Museum of Art. Additionally, he actively invests in deep tech initiatives in the USA, UK and Brazil through his family office Volpini Ventures.
We hope to make in person recordings our new normal, so please do check out our new YouTube channel.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- Bridging the gap: how digitalization can tackle social inequality?
- From Brazil to the world: what are the top opportunities for local deep-tech startups to make global difference?
- Bumps in the road: what are the key challenges of building a deep tech startup in Brazil?
- GP and G2D Investments playbook: how did it evolve and what are the key startup evaluation factors today?
- The power of mentorship: who are the key influential figures in Fersen's life and what are their most important lessons?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
Olga on Twitter
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Cassio Bobsin, Endeavor entrepreneur and the founder and CEO at Zenvia. Zenvia is LatAm’s leading customer experience communications platform and the first Latam-based SaaS company to IPO on Nasdaq. Cassio is also the founder of WOW Accelerator, the largest independent startup accelerator in Brazil.
We hope to make in person recordings our new normal, so please do check out our new YouTube channel.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What are Cassio's biggest learnings from bootstrapping Zenvia for almost two decades?
- Maximizing startup growth: How to Avoid Being a Bottleneck as a Founder?
- You put a dollar on one, side, you gotta make more than $1 on the other side; that's business: why the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank might be a turning point in the history of tech?
- Fostering the culture of Innovation as a publicly traded companies: Zenvia's approach.
- Make it work end-to-end: what is Cassio's biggest advice to startup founders?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
Olga on Twitter
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Vander Corteze, founder and CEO at Brazil's leading at home healthcare company Beep Saude, backed by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Valor Capital Group, Banco Bradesco, DNA Capital and the founder of Nubank David Velez.
Prior to that, Vander founded a Brazilian chain of occupational health clinics BR Med, and prior to that he served as an emergency doctor at a fire department in Rio de Janeiro.
We hope to make in person recordings our new normal, so please do check out our new YouTube channel.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What the concept of dark kitchen has to do with healthcare?
- What makes Endeavor and Endeavor Brazil so special and different from any other entrepreneurial networks?
- Why having mentors is important and how one mentorship session with Diego Barreto, iFood CFO changed the way Vander thought about his business?
- Customer Obsession: how to maintain a 95 Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the at home vaccination business?
- Be Prepared: How startup founders should handle the downturn?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
Olga on Twitter
For our third in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Gustavo Brigatto, founder and chief editor of Startups Brazil, a media platform that covers tech and venture capital in Latin America and beyond. Before becoming a founder, Gustavo spent 15 years as a business journalist, 12 of which were at Valor Economico, the largest economics, finance and business newspaper in Brazil.
We hope to make in person recordings our new normal so please do check out our new YouTube channel.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- Journalism meets AI: will ChatGPT and AI ever replace journalists?
- How to build a community around a startup? What are the key benefits of using communities to scale?
- LinkedIn as a growth engine: how does it differ from other platforms?
- Why you should never rely on social media alone to grow your startup?
- Thinking big: what does the future hold for Startups if everything goes right? What's the scale of Gustavo's ambitions?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
Olga on Twitter
April 27: For our second in studio episode, I am thrilled to welcome Talita Lacerda, CEO at Petlove, the largest pet e-commerce platform in Brazil and Latin America, that has raised over $225M+ from some of the best investors in Latin America including L Catterton, Riverwood Capital, SoftBank, Kaszek, Monashees, Globo Ventures, Porto Seguro and Tarpon. Petlove has recently announced its plan to go public within 2-3 years.
We hope to make in person recordings our new normal so please do check out our new YouTube channel.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What was Talita's approach towards adopting and localizing Amazon's single-threaded leadership principle, focus on the input metrics together with Google's OKR system for the Petlove's organizational design?
- What is the secret sauce of successful fundraising? What are the questions founders must ask themselves when they choose their investors?
- Meritocracy vs Partnership: what matters more from Talita's perspective?
- What is Petlove's approach towards building sustainable customer-focused and business?
- Why having an omni-channel strategy is important for digitally native brands?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
Olga on Twitter
April 18: For our first in person episode ever released I am thrilled to welcome Jose Renato Hopf, the serial entrepreneur and the founder of GetNet, which became one of the largest companies in Latin American was acquired by Santander in 2014 for just south of $500M. Jose Renato is also a founder of venture builder 4ALL and co-founder and president at South Summit Brazil, the leading tech summit in the South of Brazil that dragged over 22000 attendees, 900 speakers and over 3000 thousand startups just this year.
We hope to make in person recordings our new normal so please do check out our new YouTube channel.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What are Jose Renato's key learnings from building, scaling and selling GetNet to Santander?
- What is the premise of a high-performing private-government partnership?
- What is the operational secret behind Uber, Airbnb and Netflix?
- What are the main downsides of a Silicon Valley mindset?
- What are the big industries in Brazil that are ready to be disrupted?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channeland follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
Olga on Twitter
March 21: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Bernardo Milesy, founder & managing partner at GLOCAL, the first certified B Corp agrifoodtech venture capital firm, whose portfolio includes the likes of Agrofy, Frizata and Kilimo
In today's episode we will discuss:
- Why impact investing is a lucrative business opportunity from venture capital standpoint?
- Which agrifoodtech industries are ripe for unicorn production in Latin America?
- What does it take to raise an impact-focused VC firm in Latin America?
- What are the key pieces of advice Bernardo can give to founders aiming at building and scaling communities?
- What are the biggest mistakes startups make while pitching to a VC?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on Twitter
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
March 13: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with George Roche, investment director at Yara Growth Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Yara International, the world's leading crop nutrition and agriculture company out of Norway with $11b market cap. Yara Growth Ventures portfolio includes the likes of SP Ventures, Agrolend and Agrofy.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What is George's startup evaluation framework?
- Why 'No, I won't invest' is the hardest answer for VCs?
- What's George's advice to entrepreneurs on whether or not they should raise venture capital?
- What are the biggest trends in agribusiness that get George and Yara Growth Ventures excited?
- Why does ag space still struggle to attract VC investors?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on Twitter
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
February 21: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Camilla Junqueira, managing director at Endeavor Brazil, the leading global community of, by and for high impact entrepreneurs.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What makes Endeavor so good at building community? What are the lessons that founders can learn from Endeavor's approach towards building community??
- What's next for Endeavor? Hint: it has everything to do with globalizing Brazilian entrepreneurship and increasing diversity within the network
- Who are the legendary founders in Brazil from Camilla's point of view?
- What are the ultimate traits of hyper successful founders in Endeavor community?
- How did the Brazilian ecosystem and the profile of Endeavor entrepreneur evolve over the last two decades?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on Twitter
Olga on LinkedIn
Olga on Instagram
February 14: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Adolfo Roullion, founder and CEO at Frizata, a direct-to-consumer vertically integrated frozen food tech company that has raised ~ $10M from the likes of the founder of Mercado Libre Marcos Galperin, SP Ventures and Norte.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What are the building blocks of 25 year strong partnership between Adolfo and his co-founder Jose Robledo?
- Why big food companies suck at innovating?
- What are Adolfo's 3 most important lessons learned from becoming a successful serial entrepreneur?
- What are the distinctive characteristics of Brazilian market that make it so attractive for launching a D2C food tech company?
- What are the pros and cons of building a vertically integrated company in food industry in Brazil and Latin America?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.com
and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhova
Olga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/
Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/
February 2: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Victor Santos, founder and CEO at Liv Up, a São Paulo-based D2C healthy frozen food company that has raised over $70M from the likes of Kaszek, ThornTree Capital Partners, Lofoten Capital and many more.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What are the core skills required to manage complex businesses that combine tech and operations capabilities?
- What are the most important lessons of Victor's entrepreneurial career? Disclaimer: it has everything to do with managing expectations and controlling your own destiny.
- What is Victor's advice to founders building a D2C business in Latin America?
- What is Liv Up's approach towards building a win-win relationships with small rural farmers?
- From a small kitchen to to a one and a half football field facility: how did Liv Up evolve and what's next?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.com
and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhova
Olga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/
Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/
January 24: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Francisco Jardim, co-founder and general partner at SP Ventures, a São Paulo-based pioneer venture capital investor in agrifoodtech space in Latin America whose portfolio include the likes of Agrolend, Agrofy and Frizata and that's backed by corporate and industry giants like Yara Growth Ventures, Syngenta and Banco do Brasil.
In today's episode we will discuss:
- What are the ultimate traits that VCs look for in a founder? What makes an early stage startup VC fundable?
- What are do's and don'ts of pitching a startup to SP Ventures?
- What are the pros and cons of being a sector specific VC?
- What makes Francisco and the team at SP Ventures so bullish on agrifoodtech sector in Brazil and LatAm? Why Brazilian agricultural sector is ready for mass production of unicorns?
- VC exit environment in agriculture: how will it evolve?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.com
and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhova
Olga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/
Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/
January 17: For the first episode of the J Curve in 2023 I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Alan Glezer, co-founder and CFO at Agrolend that has recently raised over $27M in Series B led by Lightrock and joined by Yara Growth Ventures, SP Ventures and Valor Capital Group.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. Profitability vs growth. What should founders focus on during adverse market environment?
2. What are the focus areas in agriculture Alan is excited about?
3. What is Agrolend go-to-market playbook? How to leverage partnerships for new customers acquisition?
4. What are major challenge to agricultural development in Brazil today?
5. What's Alan's take on the future of Agrolend if everything goes right?
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.com
and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhova
Olga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/
Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/
In this final episode of the year we are taking a look back at top 10 most listened episodes of the year and sharing our favorite insights from each and every one of them.
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.com
and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/
Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhova
Olga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/
Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/
December 12: For the final episode of the J Curve in 2022 I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Marcos Salama, founder and CEO at Inventa, Brazil's leading digital marketplace for small retailers and suppliers in Latin America that has raised over $80m in venture capital from the likes of Greylock, a16z, Founders Fund, Tiger Global, monashees, One VC and MAYA.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. What are the unique challenges of building and scaling a B2B marketplace solution in Latin America?
2. How did the product-market fit look like for Inventa?
3. What is Inventa's high growth playbook? What are the key challenges of managing high pace of growth for Marcos and Inventa's leadership team?
4. What are the ultimate benefits of building a multicultural team from day Zero? How does being hybrid and multicultural impact corporate culture at Inventa?
5. What's Marcos's take on the future of Inventa if everything goes right?
November 21: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Weigert, founder and CEO at Conexa Saude, Brazil's leading telemedicine and digital health platform that manages over 20M lives and that has recently raised ~$40M Series C from the likes of General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs and Igah Ventures.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. When, why and how to pivot a healthcare business: Conexa's experience
2. What were the most challenging aspects of managing Conexa's rapid growth during Covid-19? Spoiler alert: it had everything to do with hiring.
3. How to build a sustainable Product-Led Growth Strategy: Conexa's playbook
4. Why Data Science is the ultimate competitive edge and value driver for Conexa?
5. What are the unique challenges of disrupting the healthcare market in Brazil?
November 7: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Eduardo Carone, founder and CEO at Atlas Governance, Brazil's leading software platform for corporate governance management that has recently raised $5M Series A from the likes of Volpe Capital and DSK Capital.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. What's subjectivism and how to apply that philosophy to business?
2. What are the biggest mistakes startups make as they build enterprise sales?
3. What does it take to build a diverse organization? How do you test for ethics and values as you hire?
4. What are the mission critical things startups should learn from large corporates?
5. How do you optimize for sustainability as an early stage startup?
October 31: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Marcelo Lombardo, founder and CEO at Omie, a São Paulo based ERP platform that has raised over $138M from the likes of SoftBank, Tencent, Riverwood Capital, Dynamo, Velt, Bogari Capital, Hix Capital, Brasil Capital and Astella.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. Why is it so hard to build partnerships as a core sales channel? What was the impact of switching from digital ads to partnering with accountants on Omie's unit economics?
2. How to build, retain and scale trust with partners and customers in a low trust environment?
3. What are the unique characteristics of SMBs in Brazil? What are the unique challenges of launching an SMB-centric ERP platform in Brazil?
4. What's Marcelo's take on pricing model and why charging by the number of users or features doesn't work?
5. What's Marcelo's advice the the founders who have to switch from 'growth at all cost' mindset to sustainability mode?
October 17: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Rodrigo Tognini, a founder and CEO at Conta Simples, a São Paulo based financial platform for SMBs that has recently raised $24M Series A from Tinder founders Justin Mateen's JAM Fund, Valor Capital, Base10 Partners, Y Combinator and Big Bets.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. How do you define a product market fit? What are the actual signs of it?
2. How to think about market segmentation when launching fintech for SMBs?
3. What are the potential consequences of the inter charge fee reduction introduced by Brazilian Central bank for the fintech ecosystem in Brazil?
4. What's the most counter intuitive thing Rodrigo learned while doing business in Brazil?
5. How being an athlete impacts Rodrigo's entrepreneurial mindset?
October 3: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Daniel Ibri, a founder and General Partner at Mindset Ventures, an early stage Sao Paulo based VC firm that invests in B2B startups in Israel and the United States, that just did the first closing of their brand new $100M Fund IV and whose portfolio includes tech unicorns Brex and Turing.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. How to build a high performing portfolio on competitive markets like Israel and the US?
2. What's Daniel's biggest investment mistake and what are the key learnings from it?
3. What is the logic of raising 3 subsequent funds in 6 years?
4. Why recession in the best time to invest in startups?
5. What are the challenges of valuating early stage tech companies?
September 14: For this episode of the JCurve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Benjamin Gleason, founder and CEO at Kamino, Sao Paulo-based end-to-end financial hub for high growth businesses in Latin America that has recently raised over $6M in pre-seed capital from Inspired Capital, Global Founders Capital, Fontes, Picus Capital and Flourish.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. What are Benjamin's key learnings of building Guiabolso and how the experience is different with Kamino?
2. What are the fintech trends in Brazil Benjamin is excited about?
3. What's Benjamin's advice to founders who have to raise in adverse market environment?
4. What are the critical elements of building productive teams?
August 31: For this episode of the JCurve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Parker Treacy, founder and CEO at Cobli, Brazilian telematics and fleet management platform that has recently raised $35M Series B from the likes of Softbank, Fifth Wall, Qualcomm Ventures and Valor Capital. Prior to that, Parker founded First Help Financial now one of the largest independent auto finance companies in the United States.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. What are Parker's key learnings of starting First Help Financial fresh out of college?
2. How to build a high performing sales organization for SaaS companies?
3. Why founders' competitive advantage is their pace of learning?
4. What would be Parker's approach towards fundraising and running operations if he were to raise Series B during recession?
5. What are the next billion dollar company building opportunities nobody's pursuing yet?
August 22: For this episode of The JCurve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Azevedo, founder and Head of Health at Brazilian healthcare company Alice that has recently raised $127M Series C from the likes of SoftBank, Kaszek and Globo Ventures. Prior to that Guilherme co-founded another health company Dr. Consulta and Brazil's largest tilapia fish farm GeneSeas.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. What are the critical elements of building a founding team?
2. What are the key challenges of disrupting a health care system in Brazil?
3. What's the hardest aspect of Guilherme's work today given the adverse market environment?
4. Is Brazilian tech ecosystem sustainable at this point?
Monday, August 8: For this episode of The JCurve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Antoine Colaço, a managing partner at Valor Capital, the leading US / Brazil cross-border multi-stage VC firm, whose portfolio includes over 15 tech unicorns including the likes of Gympass, CargoX, Olist and Loft. Prior to that, Antoine spend 9 years in Google, launching operations for various divisions of the company in India, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.
In today's episode we will learn:
1. What are the key advantages of being a cross-border VC and why so few funds in LatAm are doing that?
2. What are the major headwinds that still inhibit the growth of tech & VC ecosystem in Brazil?
3. Why delivering venture rate of growth and building sustainable tech businesses are not mutually exclusive?
4. What are the similarities and differences between the current recession and the the prior market crises?
5. What are the key pillars of a productive VC / founder partnership?
Friday, July 22: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Assis, founder at Sao-Paulo based Iporanga Ventures whose portfolio includes the likes of Buser, Loggi, Olist and investment platform Gorila in which Guilherme is also a founder and CEO. Most recently Gorila raised over $20M in Series B from Ribbit, Apis and Monashees.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What were Guilherme's key learnings of building and scaling Gorilla across different market cycles?
2) What are some of the unique challenges of company building in Latin America?
3) What is Guilherme's advice to founders that have to raise in tough market environment?
4) What are the key Brazilian industries that have huge potential for IPO-ready companies in less than a decade?
5) Why crypto will change the way people interact?
Tuesday, July 5: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Ana Zucato, founder and CEO ar Noh, a Brazilian fintech operating in shared finance space that has recently raised $3M seed funding from the Ikes of Kindred Ventures, Positive Ventures, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and The Twenty Minute VC by Harry Stebbings.
Prior to founding Noh, Ana worked at Intuit, Truora and GuiaBolso.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What are the unique challenges of launching consumer-focused fintech products in Brazil?
2) What are three things founders should NOT be doing while fundraising?
3) What are the ultimate advantages of building a diverse organization from day zero?
4) What are the creative go-to-market strategies Noh used to launch its product in Brazil?
5) How did the Brazilian fintech market evolve over the last decade?
Tuesday, May 31: For this episode of The J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Jorge Vargas Neto and Vanessa Muglia, co-founders at BHub a Brazilian startup that offers full back-office SaaS for small and medium businesses in Latin America, that has recently raised $20m in Series A from the lines of Monashees, Valor Capital and QED Investors.
Prior to BHub, Jorge co-founded Zen Finance that was sold to Rappi and Biva that was acquired by PágSeguro. Vanessa was a co-founder at Civi, an app that makes cities safer by providing security-related information and notifications in real time and prior to that she spent a decade as a lawyer.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What are most challenging aspects of managing growth?
2) How did the fundraising environment change with rising interest rates and inflation?
3) What's Jorge and Vanessa's fundraising advice for tech founders?
4) What are the out-of-the-box go-to-market hacks that BHub used to launch?
5) What are the key learnings of building and selling Zen Finance and Biva that Jorge brought to BHub?
6) How big of a role luck plays in startup success?
Monday, May 16: For this episode of The J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Bonifácio and Diego Libanio, founders at Merce do Bairro, a Brazilian marketplace that manages the entire purchasing and delivery process for micro groceries that has recently raised $10 million series A from the likes of Flourish Ventures (The Omidyar Group‘s investment fund), Global Founders Capital (GFC), Domo, MAYA, and Alexia Ventures
Prior to Merce do Bairro, Diego and Guilherme co-founded alcohol beverage delivery platform Zé Delivery and one of the first Brazilian tech unicorns iFood respectively.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What are the core pillars of long lasting partnership?
2) What are the nuances of building services for micro groceries in Brazil?
3) What are the biggest mistakes founders make when fundraising? Hint - it has everything to do with control rights
4) What should founders look for in the potential financial partner?
5) As angel investors, what traits do Guilherme and Diego look for in the founders?
6) What's the next billion dollar company nobody's building in Brazil?
Monday, May 2: For this episode of The J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Freire, co-founder and CEO at Dolado, a Brazilian startup that digitizes small retailers in peripheral areas and small cities that has recently raised $10 million Series A from the likes of Valor Capital Group, Flourish (The Omidyar Group‘s investment fund), Global Founders Capital (GFC), IDB Lab, and Endeavor.
Prior to Dolado, Guilherme co-founded LIVO Eyewear and Grow Mobility.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What being passionate triathlete taught Guilherme about business?
2) What are the main risks of building products for a customer with low level of tech awareness and adoption?
3) How to build and raise capital for tech business if you start with a problem that's generally perceived as super niche?
4) How does Guilherme think about financial discipline and pros and cons of raising too much capital too soon? What's Guilherme's advice to the founders on control rights and board composition?
5) What traits does Guilherme look for in the founders he considers backing as an angel?
Wednesday, April 13: For the final episode of The J Curve's LatAm Power Women in Tech Series I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Laura Constantini, co-founder and managing partner at Astella, Sao Paulo-based early stage venture capital firm with over $100M assets under management and over 50 companies invested including the likes of Omie and RD Station. Laura is the industry O.G., the pioneer among women investing in venture capital in Latin America. Laura is a co-host at "Astella around the world" show, where she interviews global VCs, LPs and thought leaders. Prior to starting Astella, Laura built an impressive career in Banking and M&A in Banco Santander and Cicerone Capital.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What prompted Laura to give up on successful career in finance and make a move into venture capital way ahead of the pack in 2008?
2) What were Laura's key learnings from the fundraising for Fund I and Fund II when interest rates were high and market knowledge about venture capital as an asset class low?
3) How does the decision making process look like in Astella?
4) What is the right time in a startup cycle to form a Board and what's the actual value of the Board for an early stage startup?
5) What is Laura's advice to founders raising in a highly liquid market?
Friday, March 25: For this episode I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Mariana Donangelo, partner at KaszeK, Latin America's leading venture capital firm founded by MercadoLibre co-founder Hernan Kazah and its former CFO Nicolas Szekasy. KaszeK has recently raised $1B across two funds and since 2011 has backed over 90 companies including tech unicorns Nubank, Creditas, QuintoAndar, Gympass, Loggi and Kavak. Prior to KaszeK Mariana led growth at Invoice2Go and worked in Accel where she was heavily involved with Accel's initiatives in Brazil and Latin America. And finally, Mariana is a successful angel investor who backed some of the region's leading tech unicorns including Gympass, Nuvemshop and QuintoAndar super early.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What are the essential traits of great founders in general and in LatAm specifically?
2) What are the key pillars of LatAm market evolution Mariana witnessed over the last decade?
3) How does the investment decision making process look like at KaszeK?
4) What does it take to be successful in the business of venture capital?
5) What is Mariana's single piece of advice for first time founders?
Thursday, March 17: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Monica Saggioro, co-founder at MAYA Capital, Latin American early stage venture capital firm, whose portfolio includes the likes of Alice, EmCasa, Gupy, Kovi, Merama, NotCo and many more. Prior to MAYA Capital, Monica was Head of Operations for RBI Latin America where she managed the operations of 1,800 Burger King restaurants across 30 countries in Latin America and prior to that Monica was Strategic Planning and Product Manager at Whirpool.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What does it take to raise money from MAYA? What does MAYA's investment process look like?
2) How did Monica's operational background impact her investment approach?
3) What does MAYA do to democratize the access to venture capital for founders based outside of tech bubbles in Brazil?
4) What are the markets and industries Monica is especially excited about?
5) What are the ways to attract more females to tech and VC?
Tuesday, February 22: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Courtney McColgan, a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO at Runa HR, one of the leading payroll software providers for SMBs in Spanish speaking Latin America. Prior to starting Runa, Courtney was the CMO of Cabify, a taxi application for Latin America, where she grew the company from 3 cities and $20M valuation to 130 cities across 12 countries and a $1.5B valuation. Previously, she also worked in venture capital and finance at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Morgenthaler and Morgan Stanley.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What were the key leadership decisions Courtney had to make to navigate Runa HR through covid-19 crisis?
2) What are the critical elements of Runa's corporate culture?
3) How to think about fundraising? Does venture capital as a source of capital work for all kind of founders? And what was Courtney's rationale behind taking venture capital money?
4) What are the most important things founders have to get right to build scalable organizations?
5) What are the unique challenges founders face while building business in Latin America?
Thursday, February 10: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Gina Gotthilf, co-founder at Latitud, a platform helping build the next generation of iconic tech startups in Latin America through a dedicated fellowship and fund.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What was it like to build Latitud amidst Covid-19 pandemic? And what is the value Latitud brings to the tech ecosystem in Latin America?
2) What are the unique problems Latin America faces today that could become premises for scalable tech businesses tomorrow?
3) What are some of the growth hack tips Gina can share with entrepreneurs who achieved product / market fit?
4) How do you create a culture of psychological safety around failure?
Tuesday, February 1: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Milena Oliveira, founding partner at Volpe Capital, a brand new Sao Paulo-based early and growth VC firm with $100M AUM and the likes of Softbank, BTG. and Banco Inter affiliates among anchor investors.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) How did the legal environment in Brazil evolve over the course of the last several years?
2) What is the biggest challenge Latin American venture capital industry will face in the next few years?
3) What are some important pieces of advice Milena has for the first time tech entrepreneurs in LatAm?
4) What are three important truths everyone who wants to invest in Latin America should know?
Friday, January 21: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Bianca Martinelli, partner at Alexia Ventures, Sao Paulo-based early stage VC that invests in SaaS, data & analytics and AI that has recently raised $80M from some of the best entrepreneurs in the region and whose portfolio includes the likes of Merce do Bairro and Hashdex.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What is the ultimate value a VC with global operational background can bring to Latin American table?
2) What are the distinctive qualities of entrepreneurs doing business in Brazil and LatAm?
3) What Bianca and team at Alexia Ventures look for in the founders when they evaluate investment opportunities?
4) What are the three biggest lessons from Bianca's 12 year tenure in Endeavor?
5) Why having mentors and role models is mission critical for personal and professional growth?
Friday: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Manoela Mitchell, co-founder and CEO at Pipo Saude, Brazilian operator of health benefits platform, whose corporate customers include Brazilian Unicorns MadeiraMadeira and Buser and that has recently raised $20M Series A from the likes of Thrive Capital, Monashees, Kaszek, Atlantico and Nubank's co-founder David Velez.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What is the impact of diversity on high growth tech company performance and employee retention?
2) What are the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when fundraising? What is the valuation trap?
3) What are the critical things to know for anyone building tech business in Brazil?
4) What is one book every entrepreneur should read in Manoela's opinion?
Friday: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Izabel Gallera, partner at Canary, one of the leading early stage venture capital firms in Latin America, that has recently raised $100M Fund III and whose portfolio includes the likes of Loft, Buser and Alice.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) What are the ultimate turn offs when Izabel talks to the founders? What are the key mistakes Latin America entrepreneurs make when talk to VCs in the region?
2) Who is 'the best founder' from Canary's perspective and what is the framework of evaluating their potential?
3) What is 'the right fund at the right time' mindset?
4) How to use data to support investment decisions and reserve allocation?
Tuesday: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Rafael Clo, co-founder and CEO at Azos, Sao-Paulo-based tech startup democratizing life insurance in Brazil, that is backed by some of the best investors in Latin America including Naspers, KaszeK and MAYA.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) How Rafael turned his negative personal experience with life insurance provider into a venture-backed high growth tech business aimed to disrupt $49b industry in Brazil?
2) How to design tech products for scale and compounding competitive advantage?
3) What are the ways to 'democratize' entrepreneurship in Brazil ?
4) How to think about financial discipline in the era of venture capital abundance?
5) What are some practical tips for founders raising pre-product?
Thursday: For the very first episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Michael Kapps, the founder and CEO at Vitalk, Sao-Paulo, Brazil based digital health startup that aims to make mental healthcare accessible for the underserved population in Brazil. Vitalk has recently raised Series A from the likes of Vox Capital, Valor Capital, Green Rock and Goodwater Capital.
In today's episode we will learn:
1) How Michael made his way in the world of impact-driven entrepreneurship by first becoming a cowboy and learning Portuguese on a ranch?
2) How to optimize organization for scalable leadership and nurture the culture of experimentation and failure tolerance?
3) What are the critical things to know for anyone building tech business in Brazil?
4) What are the things entrepreneurs should not be doing when fundraising?
5) What are the things VCs get wrong when evaluating startups in Brazil?