The J Curve with Olga Maslikhova Susan Segal, CEO of Americas Society/Council of the Americas: Pioneering LATAM Venture Capital and Why the Region Will Thrive with AI
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).