From his first days at university, Rodrigo realized he wasn’t going to follow a traditional path. An internship at the Brazilian payment company Stone was enough to inspire him to create his own startup. Through a mix of expense management software and financial services, Conta Simples now helps tens of thousands of companies stay on top of their finances and unlock their full potential.Conta has also raised more than 60 million dollars with investors – and I was fortunate enough to have...
Groupon, VivaReal, Nomad: Lucas Vargas spent over a decade sharpening his growth playbook for startups in Latin America.The end result is the true embodiment of founder mode. Be it product or marketing decisions, Lucas went against the grain and trusted his intuition on the road building Nomad, a bank for Brazilians who include dollarization in their financial life planning.2 million customers later, Nomad is expanding its offers and combining financial and travel services. This episode...
If you're Brazilian or have lived in Brazil but you've never heard of Dr. Consulta, you've probably been living under a rock. So many people in the world don't have access to healthcare plans, and this is definitely the case in Brazil.Over a decade ago, Thomaz Srougi started working on this problem. And now, Dr. Consulta has already supported over 6 million Brazilians. Thomaz recently embarked on a new startup journey to disrupt healthcare once again. With the help of artificial intelligence ...
Download Atlantico’s Latin America Digital Report 2024: https://www.atlantico.vcThe new edition of Atlantico’s Latin America Digital Report is out today — and it’s all about how LatAm does it best when it comes to creating winners in tech.Ana Martins, Julio Vasconcellos, and I sat down and chatted about the biggest findings from the report, and what they mean for founders and investors in the region. Mercado Libre, iFood, and Nubank are just the beginning for Latin America. What you’ll h...
Lautaro Schiaffino and Ezequiel Sculli are two startup founders with a clear mission: enabling small and medium businesses to compete with players of all sizes. Working with these SMBs for over a decade in Latin America, they've conquered both an exit and a new frontier to work on: artificial intelligence. Darwin AI brings companies not only software, but an employee capable of making decisions that'll boost their sales.Darwin AI has raised 2.5 million dollars with investors, Latitu...
The Latitud Podcast is back with a new season — but that’s not all. We’re entering a new phase: Tomas Roggio will join me, Brian Requarth, as we uncover the playbooks used by founders and investors transforming Latin America. We hope you’ll leave each episode with a new approach to take your startup to 0, 1, and beyond.We couldn’t have found a better first guest than André Penha — the computer scientist who saw metrics that were better than he ever forecasted when he co-founded and became the...
Scott Hartley was a researcher and went on to work with product and operations at companies like Facebook and Google. But the most well-known part of Scott’s journey began when he hit Sand Hill Road.Scott went on to become a co-founder of Two Culture Capital and Everywhere Ventures. Across these two VC firms, he invested in over 300 startups around the world — Latitud and LatAm included.In a world now ruled by AI, Scott talks instead about IA, or intellectual amplification. On a similar note,...
Back in 2018, Santiago Gomez and Alejandro Casas were just two young and hopeful founders, fresh into YC. However, with a team of 25 working on an e-commerce business, they struggled to find funding. "There's no founder-product fit", the investors would say. After a while, it clicked that their passion was elsewhere.They were challenged by a mentor to kill the startup and start building something, just the two of them, that really lit a fire under their feet. Oh yeah, and they should als...
Over a decade ago, Matias Recchia created a startup to take home maintenance services online. IguanaFix expanded across Latin America, and eventually attracted the Brazilian unicorn Madeira Madeira.After the sale, Matias dived into a new challenge: bringing more efficiency to the US real estate market. Keyway uses data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to improve how Americans manage investments in commercial properties.In this episode, Matias and I talk about:— Whether i...
AI has been the talk of the town for a while. But have you seen it in your run-of-the-mill bank yet? Well, Hyperplane is changing that.About a dozen banks in Brazil are already getting all the information they have, running it by the startup's artificial intelligence, and then predicting customer behavior and building personalized experiences.The startup finally came out of stealth a few weeks ago, with a USD 6M round to boot. We're over the moon about being early investors in Hyperplane and ...
Unicorn stories generally look at the beginning and the end of the journey. There's not a lot out there about the messy middle, filled with patience and hard work.That's why we invited the co-founders of Pismo, 99, and Upload Ventures to our most recent Vamos Latam Summit. By the way, you can already click this link to pre-register for our next, incredible edition of VLS.In this episode, Daniela Binatti, Paulo Veras, and Rodrigo Baer talk about:- How previous failures and learnings played int...
Most of the time, the road to startup success is not a straight and short one. Founders can face unexpected roadblocks and then take detours – especially in Latin America.Kristen Durham, the VP of SMBs and Startups at Zendesk, chatted with the founders of GetNinjas, Madeira Madeira, and Silverguard in our most recent Vamos Latam Summit. They shared the obstacles seen in their long journeys as entrepreneurs, from product development to employee retention. By the way, you can already click this...
A Series A is a crucial moment for every venture-backed business. Raising this round is a turning point for startups, from validation to scale.So at our most recent Vamos Latam Summit, we invited investors from Latitud Ventures, Canary, Valor Capital Group, and Fintech Collective to share their perspectives on the path to a Series A. By the way, you can already click this link to pre-register for our next, incredible edition of VLS.In this episode, Tomas Roggio, Carlos Torras, Marcos Toledo, ...
Fundraising the right way to end up with a healthy cap table isn't usually a top-of-mind priority for startup founders. But it should be. Making a dilution mistake in the earlier stages can bring you and your startup a lot of problems when it's time to raise new rounds.That's why we called experts from BZCP, Carta, Campbells, and Gunderson Dettmer. They shared the best cap table management practices during this year's Vamos Latam Summit. By the way, you can already click this link to pre-regi...
A founder-investor relationship is like a marriage: hopefully, you're both sticking to each other through thick and thin, for years to come.Finding the right partner and crafting this lasting relationship is no easy task. That's why we called founders and investors to share their experiences during this year's Vamos Latam Summit. By the way, you can already click the link in the description to pre-register for our next, incredible edition.In this episode, Cumbuca's founder Daniel Ruhman and t...
Product-market fit can make or break your startup. Being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market is an essential but difficult task.That's why we asked the founders of BHub, Foodology, and Pomelo to come to Vamos Latam Summit and share their own journey of reaching PMF.In this episode, Jorge Vargas Neto, Daniela Izquierdo, and Gastón Irigoyen talk about:- What were the strategies to acquire their first customers in competitive markets;- What metrics they use to measure pr...
Sebastian Mejia is the co-founder and president of Rappi. And for the past 18 months, he’s been focused on a single goal: having the best team in the world. At Vamos Latam Summit, Sebastian shared how we went about it, and his journey as a startup founder. This is only one of the impressive panels we’ve had at VLS. And by the way, you can already click this link to pre-register for our next, incredible edition.In this episode, Sebastian and I talk about:- Why and how to hire world-c...
Here’s Gina Gotthilf, co-founder of Latitud together with Brian and Yuri. You might have noticed this episode’s a bit different — but not only because I’m the one presenting it.This week onward, we’ll be sharing the most impressive panels we’ve had at Vamos Latam Summit. By the way, you can already click this link to pre-register for our next, awesome edition.There’s no better way to open this series than with the chat I’ve had with Hernan Kazah, co-founder of Mercado Libre and Kaszek Venture...
After spending a decade at JP Morgan, all the way to becoming VP, Eduardo della Maggiora decided he wanted to go from company advisor to company builder. Betterfly got 99 nos and 1 yes in the beginning, as Eduardo puts it. After fundraisings and pivots, the corporate benefits platform became a unicorn back in 2022. Now, it's focusing on its global expansion.In this episode, Eduardo and I talk about:How to practice essentialism in our personal and professional lives;Eduardo's transition f...
Derek Hall and Miguel Burger-Calderon weren't born in Latin America but saw just how many opportunities the region has. They went from founders to angel investors in the US and LatAm, putting money into companies such as Clara, Cobli, and Nowports.Now, Derek and Miguel are venture capital investors for LatAm. At BFF, which is not "best friends forever" but "by founders for founders", they look for startups that can impact the 99%.In this episode, Derek, Miguel, and I talk about:- How Derek an...