Shows
Latitud Podcast#166 — The path to your Series A: Latitud Ventures, Canary, Valor Capital Group, and Fintech Collective at Vamos Latam SummitA 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 e...2023-12-0635 minLatitud Podcast#157 – The renewal of the entrepreneurial spirit: Ana Martins and Julio Vasconcellos, AtlanticoAtlantico'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;S...2023-08-311h 00Latitud Podcast#153 — Memorable events as a startup strategy: Brian Requarth, LatitudWanna 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-raffleConnections 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’...2023-08-0239 minLatitud Podcast#150 – Latitud Podcast's special on how to overcome difficult times: 99, Buser, Loggi, Atlantico, Cracks Fund, Ganas Ventures, General AtlanticLatitud Podcast has been going strong for three years, and we’ve finally reached episode #150. So we decided to take a trip down memory lane and revisit some stories about how to survive through difficult times. These difficult moments can appear in your upbringing, in your startup’s ups and downs, in the market as a whole, or in your own limitations.Whatever your tough moment of the day is, we have a founder or investor who went through something similar. We’ll remember the challenges that entrepreneurs at the startups 99, Buser, and Loggi faced. We’ll also sha...2023-07-061h 15Latitud Podcast#148 - How to build products your customers want: Steve BlankGet out of the building! If you've never heard this advice before as a founder… wait, what am I saying, of course you have. Today, we welcome a true titan of the startup world, the man who coined "GOOB" and pioneered the Customer Development methodology, which has been instrumental in shaping the Lean Startup movement.Steve Blank is not only a serial entrepreneur with 8 ventures and 4 IPOs under his belt, but he is also an accomplished author, having penned four influential books, including "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" an...2023-06-2059 minLatitud Podcast#134 – Meridian by Latitud: the fintech for venture-backed startups in LatAm: Patrick Kolencherry and Brian Requarth, LatitudThis is a special episode about a product we have been working on for some time now. Meridian is the business account for LatAm startups. You can manage your company's runway, move capital across borders, and keep your flow of funds compliant. To learn more about Meridian, go to https://meridian.latitud.com/In this conversation with Patrick Kolencherry, we discussed the latest developments with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), our decision to launch Meridian, and why it is a revolutionary fintech product. Vamos LatAm! Building good sh*t in Latin Amer...2023-03-1527 minLatitud Podcast#131 – Everything tech: Yuri Danilchenko, LatitudYuri Danilchenko is Latitud's tech-co founder, and I have introduced him many times before. Personally, what I find very compelling about his story is that we can see clearly how his personal experience helped shape who he is and how he works. He was born naturally curious about technology and is a great translator between product x business, and tech. He grew up in Russia during some history-defining moments and moved to the US, where he got his masters in Artificial Intelligence. He worked at several startups and, later, in Brazil, he co-founded Vamos. In thi...2023-02-2153 minLatitud Podcast#130 – Latitud and Jeeves presents: Demystifying fundraising for LatAm startups.It takes an effort of titans to elevate the startup ecosystem in Latam. At Latitud, we know it's not possible to do it alone; that's why we partnered with Jeeves to help provide access to financial tools to help founders in the most critical stages of their startups.In today's episode, we will have an honest conversation with four great talents: Dileep from Jeeves, Antonia from ALLVP, Gabriel from a16z, and Jonathan from Investo. We will focus on demystifying fundraising for Latin American startups. There is a lot of good information here, and I a...2023-02-141h 09Latitud Podcast#124 - The opportunities yet to be seized, in the eyes of startup founders: The LatAm Tech ReportLatin America is a giant. It's a market worth over 5 trillion dollars. A population of over six hundred million people. And a territory that stretches from Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego.These big numbers also come with big challenges. You might be thinking that they are barriers we can't overcome. But we've seen time and time again that it works much like the opposite.Startup founders are diving head-first into opportunities that are as vast as The Amazon River. And some of them have yet to be seized.We've launched the first edition...2022-12-0715 minLatitud Podcast#117 – Global funds looking for Latin American founders: a16z, Founders Fund, and Harlem Capital at Vamos Latam SummitProminent global venture capital funds already have startups from Latin America on their radar, and founders should be prepared to attract these VCs. I know that first-hand, with Andreessen Horowitz being one of Latitud's investors.To become closer to global firms, it's essential to understand their decision-making process. That's why we invited Gabby Cazeau, from Harlem Capital; Gabriel Vasquez, from a16z; and Matias Van Thienen, from Founders Fund, to talk about their investment strategies.We'll share right now the chat these VCs had with Fernanda Caloi...2022-10-1943 minLatitud Podcast#115 – Building strong founder communities: Ian Hathaway, Camilla Junqueira, and André Barrence at Vamos Latam SummitBuilding a community is a powerful tool for any startup – but it's not an easy task to create a gathering that becomes a reference. There might be a few names that come to your mind when talking about founder communities, maybe Techstars, Endeavor, Google for Startups, and Latitud itself.Ian Hathaway, Camilla Junqueira, and André Barrence shared their best practices for building founder communities with Virginia Campo, Latitud's Director of Programs and Community, during the Vamos Latam Summit.In our connections and knowledge flagship event, they talked about:Wha...2022-10-1240 minLatitud Podcast#101 - The Latitud Fundraising Playbook: Tomi Roggio, LatitudAs a founder, you likely go out to raise money a handful of times during your journey. Investors, on the other hand, live and breathe pitches and term sheets everyday. Leveraging your position in the face of asymmetry is not an easy task – but it can be done.Tomi Roggio has over a decade of experience in consulting and investing. He joined Latitud as a founding member, launched our rolling fund and, as Head of Ventures, leads the team that invested in over 80 companies in less than a year and a ha...2022-07-1939 minLatitud Podcast#100 - How we raised our $13M seed round: Brian Requarth, LatitudYou might have heard on the news a while back that Latitud raised a $13M seed round co-led by a16z and NfX.Today, we are going to do something a bit different: to celebrate our podcast's 100th episode, I'm going to tell you how we raised said round. I decided to provide an open and candid reflection about the process.Think of it as our on "how I built this" – except we're very early.Find the full article at latitud.com/seedBuilding good sh*t in...2022-07-1221 minLatitud Podcast#93 - Why share what you know: Matias Woloski, Auth0Matias Woloski is the CTO and co-founder at Auth0, a developer-first identity platform born in 2013 that became Argentina's 5th unicorn in 2019. With clients in over 70 countries, it grew to become a global leader in the Identity-as-a-Service arena, and was recently acquired by Okta for US$ 6.5 billion in early 2021.Auth0 has over 2 thousand enterprise customers and handles around 42 million logins every day. That demands a lot of tech working just right, and a lot of top-notch tech support to fix the issues that may...2022-05-1049 minLatitud Podcast#92 - Polishing an opportunity like a diamond: Stelleo Tolda, Mercado LibreMercado Libre began in a Buenos Aires garage in 1999, when online shopping was pretty much all about eBay auctions. Now the biggest company in Latin America, Meli is valued at over 50 billion dollars and active in 18 countries in the region.Brazil is one of the main markets, with around 1.5 million packages delivered everyday, big investments in logistics, machine learning, hiring, and in its own fintech, Mercado Pago.One of Meli's co-founders and our guest today is a Brazilian himself. Stelleo Tolda dedicated 22 years...2022-05-0348 minLatitud Podcast#91 - Knowing when to pivot: Deepak Chhugani, NuvocargoWhat would you do if you had $1.2M in funding and suddenly realized you need to kill the business? In 2018, Deepak Chhugani had a YC-backed startup in the HR space that wasn't going anywhere. He went back to the drawing board and decided it was time to follow his dad's footsteps into the world of logistics and supply chain. But before pivoting, he offered the money back to each of his investors.Most of them stayed. And to make up for the ones who backed out, they also put in a little bit more to get Deepak...2022-04-2642 minLatitud Podcast#90 - Creating a business expansion playbook: Jose Jair Bonilla, ChiperJose Jair Bonilla co-founder and CEO of Chiper, the leading B2B e-commerce platform for independent corner stores in Latin America.He co-founded and led software studio imaginamos in Colombia and served clients in 10+ countries, pioneering the implementation of digital transformation processes across the region and accumulating over 15 years of development experience in the process. He was a part of building Rappi from the ground up, but has been deeply ingrained in the LatAm startup ecosystem long before that.His latest challenge is solving problems...2022-04-1942 minLatitud Podcast#89 - A billion dollar exit 20 years in the making: Miguel Santos, TechnisysIf you told 13-year-old Miguel Santos with his first Apple device that he'd grow up to build his own billion-dollar tech company, he might have had a hard time believing you.When Miguel started Technisys over 20 years ago, he and his co-founders set up office in a living room with a piano for a desk just as the internet started to become an integral part of everyday life.Their digital banking solution came about 10 years ahead of its market, long before venture capital had turned to Latin America for investment opportunities...2022-04-1237 minLatitud Podcast#88 - Altitud | Tackling the trade finance gap in LatAm: Santiago Molina, FinkargoColombian-born Santiago Molina got his degree in business administration and finance from Houston Baptist University on a soccer scholarship, and moved back to his home country after his MBA to start his entrepreneurial journey. Santi is second-time founder focused on promoting financial inclusion, and is now on a quest to create an innovative solution to democratize access to capital in Latin America.He and his co-founders Andres Ferrer and Tomas Shuk came together to start Finkargo, LatAm's first import financing platform. They're enabling small and medium-sized importers to...2022-04-0709 minLatitud Podcast#87 - Impact entrepreneurship on the blockchain: Brett Hagler, New StoryBy 2030, the UN predicts that 3 billion people will be living without shelter. Today's guest is doing something to combat that.Brett Hagler is a Y Combinator graduate, a published author and cancer survivor, but you may know him best for his non-profit New Story and for his impactful key note speaking.Brett started New Story at 25 years old. In the years since they have funded over 2,300 homes, built 16 communities and raised over $25M, so it's no wonder they were named one of ...2022-04-0638 minLatitud Podcast#86 - Investing in the future of LatAm tech: Angela Strange, a16zAngela Strange is a multiple marathon winner and once achieved 7th place in Canada's distance running national ranking, but you may know her best as an investor on behalf of Andreessen Horowitz.Before joining the world of venture capital, Angela launched and scaled up Chrome for Android and Chrome for iOS during her time at Google, and her previous experiences have uniquely positioned her as an investor that's been in the trenches and knows what it's like to build something from scratch.As a General Partner at...2022-03-2847 minLatitud Podcast#85 - Building from first principles: Francisco Larraín, TopsortFrancisco Larraín's professional journey tells a story of coming full circle.It all started as a founding team member for advertisement network Tapjoy. Having gotten a taste for the world of startups, he went on to found payment technology solution Zappedy and to have a $30 million exit to Groupon, where he stayed as Head of Local Engineering for 3 years.It wasn't long before Francisco got back on the saddle and founded Maxxa, the largest insurtech company in Chile, and he scaled it up to o...2022-03-2246 minLatitud Podcast#84 - The paths to founder liquidity: Pierre Schurmann, nuviniPierre Schurmann has never shied away from great adventure: he and his family left Brazil when he was 15 with the goal of sailing around the world, and after 4 years of traveling with them, he disembarked in the US to obtain a degree in Business Administration.Since then, Pierre has become an accomplished multi-time founder and an established investor through VC firm Bossa Nova, which he founded under the premise of "entrepreneurs backing entrepreneurs".nuvini, his latest venture, is a B2B SaaS platform in Brazil servicing end-to-end business needs...2022-03-1548 minLatitud Podcast#83 - Changing the VC narrative: Lolita Taub, Ganas VenturesLolita Taub has made it her mission to create generational wealth in community.As the daughter of a Mexican immigrant family, providing underestimated founders and funders with resources is at the core of what Lolita has set out to do. With 15 years working in the Silicon Valley ecosystem, she's made +90 investments as an angel and VC at Backstage Capital and The Community Fund.Lolita also co-founded the Startup-Investor Matching Tool in 2020, which has since made over +3K intros and helped founders raise $6 million...2022-03-0840 minLatitud Podcast#82 - Earning a seat at the table: Bedy Yang, 500 GlobalBorn and raised in a chinese-brazilian family, Bedy Yang has a lengthy track record of consulting for global companies on go-to-market strategies in Brazil. She moved to the US at a time when there weren't many links between Silicon Valley and Latin America, and so she helped build and strengthen them.It started in 2009, when she founded Brazil Innovators, scaling its network from 0 to over 10,000 people. Two years later, she joined 500 Global as a consultant before tackling the role of Managing Partner and the challenges of ecosystem development.2022-03-0149 minLatitud Podcast#81 - Altitud | Building the e-commerce landscape in Venezuela: Vicente Zavarce, YummyVicente Zavarce was born and raised in Venezuela, but went abroad to study in the US during his university years. He quickly found his way into their booming startup ecosystem, and went on to join Postmates' User Acquisition efforts in Silicon Valley before moving on to be Director of User Acquisition for Getaround.His experiences led him to a lightbulb realization: what if there was an app to combine all delivery and transportation needs for countries that don't have a consolidated digital infrastructure?That's how Yummy...2022-02-2415 minLatitud Podcast#80 - From 0 to unicorn in 8 months: Gerry Colyer, ClaraBefore he knew he wanted to build a company, Gerry knew he wanted to make people’s lives better.Born in Monterrey, Gerry Colyer left Mexico to attend Yale University, then went on to pursue a degree from Stanford Business School. His initial game plan was to go into public service, but he soon stumbled upon the realization that technology was the key to drive change at scale. Eager to learn, he relocated to Silicon Valley, and co-founded Uva Scooters shortly after.One successful exit later, he returned to La...2022-02-2238 minLatitud Podcast#79 - Altitud | Bridging the technical skill gap: Fabio Muniz, AwariFabio Muniz is a product designer turned founder and CEO. He worked with clients such as Google and Viacom before transitioning to VC-backed startups until he found out we wanted to build his own.Awari came to be when Fabio realized that there were many career opportunities in tech and not enough qualified professionals. Awari's goal is to help Brazilian talent learn technical skills through a wide curriculum of courses, a strong community of like-minded individuals, and a mentorship program supported by thought leaders from some of the strongest companies in t...2022-02-1820 minLatitud Podcast#78 - Upskilling and reskilling for growth: Marta Forero Sepúlveda, UBITSThere's a famous anecdote in which a CFO asks the CEO: "What happens if we invest in developing our people and they leave us?" To that, the CEO responds: "What happens if we don't and they stay?"Upskilling teams is vital for businesses to evolve and UBITS has made that decision a no-brainer for Latin American companies. The woman behind it is co-founder and COO Marta Helena Forero Sepúlveda. She sustains that with her constant purpose of "designing and building extraordinary online courses, getting results, solving problems, beating the competition, and growing the business."An...2022-02-1542 minLatitud Podcast#77 - Altitud | Radically challenging the status quo: Rafael Stark, Stark BankRafael Stark is an engineer with problem-solving in his blood. He started his own Product Studio called Hummingbird and came across a client wanting to automate refunds, and that's where he realized there was a market-wide opportunity to simplify several payment processes at scale.Stark Bank was born to modernize the financial infrastructure in Brazil through the power of integrations. They were a part of YC's 2020 batch, and are now helping companies such as Loft, Quinto Andar and Buser make operations smoother than ever.2022-02-1018 minLatitud Podcast#76 - Social mobility through open finance: Pablo Viguera, BelvoThe last 10 years have completely changed Latin America's financial landscape but, when compared to other more established regions, we still lack basic infrastructure, and that's what Pablo Viguera set out to build.With experience in UK open banking from his time at Revolut, Pablo wanted to pave the road for the next generation of financial businesses, so he and co-founder Oriol Tintore decided to build what is now the leading Open Banking and financial information API platform in LatAm.Dubbed the "Plaid of Latin America" by TechCrunch, Belvo is providing the ‘pi...2022-02-0849 minLatitud Podcast#75 - Altitud | Shaping the future of B2B payments: Nathan Schorr, FlexioBorn in the US and raised in Uruguay, Nathan is a football enthusiast currently splitting his time between Silicon Valley and Mexico City. As a third-time founder, his passion is in building companies that tackle Latin America's biggest problems.The problem he is tackling at Flexio is B2B payments: Helping businesses manage their cash flow.As an entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Launchpad Accelerator for LatAm, he's giving back to the ecosystem by helping less experienced founders navigate the startup world.On today's episode, Nathan touches on:...2022-02-0414 minLatitud Podcast#74 - Building the Netflix of finance: Pierpaolo Barbieri, UaláMaking history in LatAm's fintech industry is very on brand for today's guest.Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Pierpaolo Barbieri left Argentina to study in the US as a young adult. He returned 12 years later with a Harvard University degree and a career as an economic historian and published author, but you may know him from being the founder and CEO of Ualá.Ualá's complete financial ecosystem was created with the ambition of unifying all financial services into one app and, with 3.5 million cards issued in the 4 ye...2022-01-3151 minLatitud Podcast#73 - Community-driven companies: Sahil Lavingia, GumroadChildren are often fascinated with technology, and Sahil Lavingia's story isn't any different: he first started getting into computers at about 12, playing around with graphic design tools like Photoshop, and it soon naturally developed into building websites for family and friends.One Computer Science and Engineering degree later, Sahil turned what started as a casual project for himself into a marketplace for others like him to get paid doing what they were good at: Gumroad went from a weekend project to a sustainable business that became a staple of the gig...2021-12-1657 minLatitud Podcast#72 - Financial inclusion through Crypto: Daniel Vogel, BitsoUniversal as it may seem now, in 2014 access to banking services was still very much limited in several LatAm countries. That realization was what sparked Daniel Vogel's idea of democratizing financial services through the existing but underused infrastructure of mobile phones. With the Bitso app, buying and selling cryptocurrencies become as easy as ordering pizza.Daniel's founder journey got him in the MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 list as one of the youngest CEOs of this generation. Having started in Mexico, Bitso quickly expanded in Latin America.With...2021-12-091h 02Latitud Podcast#71 - The runway from seed to exit: Rodrigo Baer, SoftBankWith over 10 years of experience in Brazil's VC scene, Rodrigo Baer was hearing pitches and offering offering term sheets long before the LatAm capital craze started. He has an unquestionable understanding of the country's entrepreneurial landscape, and is a believer of sharing knowledge with the world, which he has been doing for the last four years through his Youtube channel "Pergunte ao VC".Previously a partner with Redpoint Ventures and a board member for companies such as Movidesk and Cortex Intelligence, he is now a Managing Partner for SoftBank...2021-12-0244 minLatitud Podcast#70 - Building teams that bridge gaps: Daniel Bilbao, TruoraIn his own words, Daniel Bilbao is a friend to all latino entrepreneurs. He went from spreading papelitos in Comic Sans looking for engineers to shaping the future of fraud prevention in Latin America. Born and raised in Colombia, his mentality is one of giving back to our region first.Daniel first dipped his toes into the cybersecurity space with his previous company Paladin Cyber in 2017. Now CEO and co-founder of Truora and backed by the likes of Kaszek, Magma Partners and Y Combinator, he managed to take his...2021-11-2548 minLatitud Podcast#69 - Altitud | Alex Vilhena from Plug Pagamentos and the future of payment solutionsAlex Vilhena was born in Rio de Janeiro, but moved to Los Angeles to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Communications and had a chance to try out the startup scene in the US. Big lover of jiu-jitsu, he has over 10 years of client-facing roles under his purple belt, and helped build Santander's Loyalty Program before moving on to his own projects in the financial industry.Now CEO of Plug Pagamentos, he gets to brag about being a YC portfolio company while he and his co-founders are...2021-11-2316 minLatitud Podcast#68 - Achieving ridiculous goals: Andres Bilbao, Rappi and InvertAndres Bilbao is a Colombian triple threat, and that goes far beyond being fluent in three languages: he's a unicorn entrepreneur, an angel investor, and a trusted advisor to many others in the LatAm startup ecosystem.He was one of the co-founders of Rappi and reached an impressive $5.25 billion valuation within six years of starting operations. Now Andres is putting down roots in blockchain as co-founder of Invert, a company pledging to change the way we do conservation through the power of crypto and NFTs.In this episode, Andres and I...2021-11-1948 minLatitud Podcast#67 - Fueling innovation in LatAm: Florian Hagenbuch, LoftEntrepreneurship is much like running into a wall until you knock it down, and German-born Florian Hagenbuch has committed to making sure that the wall stays down for those coming after him.Florian founded Loft to digitalize the real estate market and make it accessible to millions of Brazilians dreaming of owning a home. Their latest funding round bumped them up to a nearly 3 billion-dollar valuation.With a portfolio of over 100 companies he has personally invested into as an angel, his trajectory naturally evolved into...2021-11-111h 08Latitud Podcast#66 - Building with no-code: Jeff Orr, webuildyourapps.comVery few people are product builders at heart, and Jeff Orr is one of them - he founded Maply to connect people to events happening in real-time around them, and has helped the likes of Delt.ai and Noonlight improve their own product and experiences.He first came into Latitud's radar as a Fellow in our 3rd cohort, but I soon realized that he shared our passion and vision for emerging markets. Now Jeff is spearheading Latitud Launch and taking part in our mission by building the go-to place to launch and discover...2021-11-0531 minLatitud Podcast#65 - Raising a record-breaking Series A in LatAm: Dhaval Chadha, JustosStarting four different companies AND dabbling into music production isn't for everyone, but Dhaval Chadha has managed to balance the two passions just fine.Other than his musician profiles on streaming platforms, you'll find Dhaval's name attached to companies like ClassPass, which acquired his previous company Vivo, and where he led LatAm Expansion.Now CEO of Justos, Dhaval and his co-founders are set out to build a fairer and safer world by making car insurance more accessible to all with a data-driven approach to pricing. Having raised...2021-10-2541 minLatitud Podcast#64 - The power of network effects: Pete Flint, NFXBorn in Essex, England, Pete Flint is a brit deeply immersed in Silicon Valley startup culture. He's a titan of disruptive innovation and a widely respected leader in the tech industry, and was one of my early supporters at Viva Real.Two times unicorn, he was part of the founding team of travel industry pioneer lastminute.com before starting Trulia, one of the most popular real state apps in the US.With tales of a successful IPO and an exit valued at $3.5b, Pete is...2021-10-2151 minLatitud Podcast#63 - Reaching a $500 million valuation in a year: Dileep Thazhmon, JeevesFounders outside of Silicon Valley have always had a harder time accessing capital, and Latin America is no exception. Add that to the difficulty of paying for global company expenses in local currency and you have yourself a market ripe for disruption.Dileep Thazhmon founded Jeeves to provide startups with an all-in-one cross country, cross currency expense management platform, making capital accessible through debt and combating equity over-dilution all in one fell swoop.If you haven't heard of it, that's because Dileep built Jeeves stealthily but, having raised a whopping $131...2021-10-1446 minLatitud Podcast#62 - Creating the YC of fund managers: Winter Mead, Oper8rWinter Mead grew up on a maple syrup farm in New England. After writing his grad-school thesis on technology trends in digital media, he relocated to Silicon Valley to test his own theories. Now teaching about entrepreneurship and venture capital at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, it's safe to assume his instincts were right on the money.With 20 years in financial services, Winter has invested over $1bi across 80 private equity and venture capital firms during his time with Sapphire Ventures and Hall Capital Partners. This first-hand experience lead to...2021-10-0758 minLatitud Podcast#55 - Altitud | Salvador Rivero from Levo and building a high-yield savings account for MexicoSalvador Rivero is a self-proclaimed fintech geek. Born and raised in Mexico City, he's trained in Political Science and Finance at Science-Po in France. With 9 years of experience in the investment industry, he allocated more than $1.5B USD in Latam equity markets.As a 3rd-time founder, he now joins forces with Max Mergenthaler, also 3rd-time founder, to build the high yield savings account for Mexico. Levo started last year and it's already backed by Latitud, Y Combinator, Magma Partners, and ...2021-09-0113 minLatitud Podcast#54 - Building a $30 billion "skyscraper": David Vélez, NubankWhen he was 12, David Vélez made his first investment: a cow. Bought with birthday money and savings from summer jobs, that one cow eventually became six, which were then sold and turned into his college tuition at Stanford.After graduating, David spent a few years working at investment banking and private equity before he joined Sequoia Capital. As Partner, he was responsible for all Latin American investments, leading him to move to Brazil in 2011. But shortly after that, Sequoia decided to pull back: the tech space was just not developed e...2021-08-261h 01Latitud Podcast#52 - Pioneering open banking in LatAm: Benjamin Gleason, GuiabolsoNine years ago, the terms fintech and open banking barely even existed in Latin America.But Benjamin Gleason was already working on building Guiabolso, a personal finance platform that helped improve the lives of millions of Brazilians and transform the country's financial landscape.The early days back in 2012 were rough, but Ben says product-market fit became clear when the app ranked higher than Tinder in the list of most downloaded apps in Brazil. Fast forward to today and Guiabolso has proven to be a great success story, having been acquired by...2021-08-1356 minLatitud Podcast#51 - The future of Fintech in LatAm: Ana Cristina Gadala-Maria, QED InvestorsFintech is a global trend at the moment, and having people who truly understand it is as valuable as ever.With a Bachelor's from Stanford and a Harvard MBA, Ana Cristina Gadala-Maria certainly fits this description. Ana leads Fontes, a seed-stage fund for Latin America fintech at QED, and is a supporter of the LatAm ecosystem through Mosaico, a content platform. She's passionate about democratizing access to financial services, a strong believer in entrepreneurship as the driving force behind transformative solutions, an...2021-08-0648 minLatitud Podcast#50 - Redefining venture capital: Ben Casnocha, Village GlobalBen Casnocha was practically born an entrepreneur. In his teenage years, he started and scaled a couple of companies, before becoming Chief of Staff at LinkedIn and Greylock, both founded by Reid Hoffman. From this partnership, two books were born, co-authored by Ben and Reid, including New York Times bestseller The Start-Up of You.Since 2017, Ben has been a co-founder and Partner at Village Global, an early stage venture capital firm that aims to work not simply as a traditional VC, but also as a network. With...2021-07-2349 min