Bolivian entrepreneur Martin Escobari went from growing up in a small town to graduating from Harvard. Upon moving to Brazil, he co-founded one of LatAm’s first startup IPOs in 2005: e-commerce platform Submarino became a huge industry player and went on to merge with local giant Americanas.com.
As an investor at General Atlantic since 2012, he now lives between New York and São Paulo and wears the hat of Co-president and Head of Latin America. General Atlantic specializes in a form of investment called growth equity, which sits somewhere between traditional venture capital and buyout firms, focusing on companies in that middle tier that can have their growth accelerated.
Since its beginnings in the 1980s, General Atlantic has invested in over 400 companies, with a jaw-dropping $84 billion dollars in managed assets. Its portfolio includes names like XP Investimentos, Hotmart, Quinto Andar and Gympass.
Today, Martin and Brian talk about:
- What he calls the "magic of chaos" and why it matters
- The opportunities and challenges a LatAm investor is better equipped to see
- And the red flags and the green flags he looks for when making an investment decision
Building good sh*t in Latin America?
