Episodes
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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, he’s also the author of The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World.
In this chat, Scott and I talk about:
• What makes him confident about investing early on and in multiple countries;
• The difference between fuzzy and techie entrepreneurs;
• And the advice Scott shares most often with startup founders.
My name’s Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
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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 also be generating revenue in 6 months.
Santiago reached out to his network and signed a 3-month contract with Rappi to map out problems within the company that they could solve through software. After an intense quarter, they came up with a platform to conciliate all the financial transactions ran through the super app, and an easy and reliable way for any company to manage their financial data.
Simetrik was born, with Rappi's founders investing 2 million dollars in its pre-seed round. The product naturally evolved and now has customers in over 35 countries. Santiago and Alejandro also got a lot more funding – including a $20M Series A in 2022 and a $55M Series B announced just a few days ago.In this chat, we talk about:
How Simetrik's culture contributed to its success The tricky balance between technical excellence and rapid growthAnd the challenges in fundraising that they didn't see comingBuilding good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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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 it's harder to operate a startup in LatAm or the US;
— His company-building lessons, including how to efficiently use AI in your startup;
— And how to divide roles between co-founders.
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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 participating in this new round as well.
In this episode, co-founder Rohan Ramanath and I talk about:
The problems Hyperplane is solving through artificial intelligence;The benefits of taking your time to learn and develop your startup;What companies investing in AI often overlook, and how the convergence between AI and fintech will play out in the next few years.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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 into success later on;
- How to deal with competition and choose co-founders;
- And how to survive through tough times and create a valuable company.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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 link to pre-register for our next, incredible edition of VLS.
In this episode, Eduardo L'Hotellier, Daniel Scandian, and Marcia Netto talk about:- Early product development and fundraising challenges;
- How to deal with and learn from business crises;
- And how to attract, engage, and retain top employees.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
A 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, and Antoine Colaço talk about:
- The state of early and late-stage fundraising in LatAm in 2023 and 2024;
- The metrics and milestones VCs take into consideration at the Series A stage;
- And the perspective for downstream capital in LatAm, from Series B onward.
My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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-register for our next, incredible edition.In this episode, Eduardo Zilberberg, Reed McBride, Alexandra Clynes, and Adan Muller talk about:
- The different corporate structures for fundraising and their trade-offs;
- How founders and their startups should legally prepare for fundraising;
- And what's the current state of fundraising and exits in LatAm.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
A 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 the investors Jonathan Lewy, from Investo, and Mercedes Bent, from Lightspeed Venture Partners, talk about:
- How investor relationships changed in the past few years;
- The signs of a good and a bad partner, no matter if they're founders or investors;
- How startups can differentiate themselves from competitors, and how founders can sell the value prop to investors.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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 product-market fit;
- And why achieving PMF, making small pivots, and talking to investors are constant efforts.
My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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-class talent;
- How to develop a “killer instinct” and deal with self-doubt as a founder;
- And why Sebastian is optimistic about Latin America.My name’s Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, Latam!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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 Ventures.
In this episode, Hernan and I talk about:
- His biggest learnings as a startup founder;
- What made Mercado Libre a success;
- And how he evaluates segments, types of founders, and the current state of the market as a startup investor.
This is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, Latam!Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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 from financial exec to startup founder, including a journey to Africa;And the constant effort of leveling up.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
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 and Miguel got to know LatAm;
- Their thesis as angel investors and now as VCs at BFF;
- The advice Derek and Miguel have shared the most with startup founders in the past decade, and the advice they're sharing the most right now.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
We've been hearing startup founders all over LatAm for a while now. And we noticed a common reflection from those on a fundraising journey: how a simple and clean investment template could take much of the friction away.
That's why we partnered up with law offices such as Gunderson Dettmer to launch MISTO in Brazil. MISTO is a document with optimized terms for investing, with language and practices understood and accepted by both founders and investors.
Christel Moreno is a partner at Gunderson, leads their São Paulo office, and was deeply involved in the creation of MISTO. In this episode, Christel and I talk about:
From a legal standpoint, how dealing with startups in LatAm is different from dealing with traditional companies around the world;What exactly is MISTO, and what makes it unique in comparison to other startup investment templates;Finally, the advice Christel would give startup founders with no legal experience.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
Atlantico's back with its annual Latin America Digital Transformation Report. The study reflects on some of the forces transforming LatAm today, from the renewal of the entrepreneurial spirit in the region to the rise of artificial intelligence.
We had early access to these findings here at Latitud, and decided to chat with Atlantico's Ana Martins and Julio Vasconcellos about the most impressive insights.
In this episode, Ana, Julio, and I talk about:
How LatAm founders are currently balancing excitement, optimism, and caution;How close we are to the end of the startup fundraising winter;Some trends to look out for in Latin America, from mobile to AI.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
Parker Treacy voyaged down from the US to Brazil back in 2014 for two reasons. First, for the adventure. Second, and that's in his own words, for being irrationally convinced that he'd be successful.
In the end, Parker stuck the landing. He took his experience in the auto industry to create Cobli, a startup that builds technology for fleet management. Now, Cobli has over 5 thousand clients and investors such as Fifth Wall, the IFC, and SoftBank.
In this episode, Parker and I talked about:
- How to balance curiosity and focus as a startup founder;
- The story of how Parker landed in Brazil and co-founded Cobli;
- How to balance founders' and investors' interests, and the importance of product-channel fit.
My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
From the Brazilian city of Recife, André Ferraz co-founded a startup out of a research project. That was In Loco Media, a company that used geopositioning technology for marketing. Eventually, the retail giant Magazine Luiza bought the startup.
But years before that sale, André was already working for years on using that same technology to solve another huge problem: online security. His new company, Incognia, has gone on to raise a Series A and be present in 200 million devices worldwide.
In this episode, André and I talk about:
André's journey from a computer science researcher to a startup founder;Lessons on cap table management, pivoting, exiting, and fundraising;Incognia's creation and André's view on the future of artificial intelligence.My name's Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
Sujay Tyle sold his used cars marketplace to Naspers back in 2019. He could have stopped there. But he decided to double down on a segment and a market that still had a lot to offer.
Sujay co-founded Merama, a marketplace that invests in and partners with e-commerces brands all over Latin America. Merama’s now a unicorn, and Sujay also became a startup investor to share what he’s learned with other founders.
In this episode, Sujay and I talk about:
- How he discovered and leveraged e-commerce in Latin America;
- How to prepare for an exit and deal with competitors from your startup’s early days;
- And the most common advice Sujay gives founders as an investor.My name’s Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, Latam!
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop -
Wanna win a free ticket to Vamos Latam Summit, and bring your friends along with a discount? Participate in our exclusive raffle for Latitud Podcast listeners! Click the following link and comment your favorite episode's title + tag two friends: https://bit.ly/latitud-podcast-vls-raffle
Connections are really powerful — and even more so when we take the time to be together in real life. That’s why startups have adopted promoting their events as a brand and sales strategy.We’re no exception. I started promoting events at Viva Real, and now we’re taking that strategy to the next level at Latitud. Our next big thing is Vamos Latam Summit: we’re gathering the top startup founders and investors in the region so that they can learn and build relationships.
4,000 people will be at VLS, on September 28th and 29th, in São Paulo. And you can win your ticket and even bring some of your friends with a discount. We’re doing an exclusive raffle for our podcast listeners. Click on the link in the description and learn how to join the raffle.
Now, we don’t want to stop there. Founders have been sending us a lot of questions about how they can also make memorable events and leverage brand and sales with that. So Mariana Fonseca, Latitud’s Content Lead, and I gathered these questions and talked in this episode about:
Why adopt the events strategy if you’re thinking of strengthening your brand and sales;How you can build events even on a tight budget;The top metric you should keep an eye on and how to produce results after your startup’s event.My name’s Brian Requarth and this is the Latitud Podcast. Vamos, LatAm! And see you at Vamos Latam Summit.
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop - Show more
