The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: From Struggling to Raise Funding to IPOing at Close to $9BN Just Five Years Later; The $8BN Company You Might Not Know | How To Build Large Companies with Small Teams | The Biggest Hiring Lessons and Mistakes with Seba Kanovich, CEO @ dlocal

4 snips

Sep 16, 2022

Seba Kanovich, CEO of DLocal, shares his remarkable journey from a dinner at his mother-in-law’s to leading an $8BN payments powerhouse. He discusses the importance of execution speed in startups and how it influences leadership effectiveness. Seba reveals his biggest leadership insecurities and the painful lessons learned along the way. He emphasizes the balance between hiring for cultural fit versus prestigious backgrounds and offers insights into navigating market expansion while managing remote teams. A must-listen for aspiring leaders!

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Accidental CEO

Seba Kanovich became D-Local's CEO by chance after a conversation at his mother-in-law's party.
He transitioned from trading stocks and bonds, having no prior experience in payments.

INSIGHT

Defining High Performance

High performance is characterized by energetic individuals focused on solutions, not problems.
These individuals take ownership and deliver, contributing energy to the team.

ADVICE

Prioritizing Speed

Prioritize speed in early-stage startups to rapidly iterate and gather feedback.
As companies grow, consider regulations and potential mistakes, but generally favor speed.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Seba Kanovich is the CEO @ dlocal, the #1 payments leader with a single solution focused on Latin America and other emerging markets. In June 2021, dlocal raised $617M in their NASDAQ IPO listing valuing the company at nearly $9BN. Before their IPO, dlocal raised from some of the best including General Atlantic, Bond Capital, and Oren Zeev to name a few. Prior to dlocal, Seba was CEO @ AstroPay, a leading payment solution provider in Emerging Markets.

In Todays Episode with Seba Kanovich We Discuss:

1.) The Journey to CEO of an $8BN Company:

How Seba made his way to the role of CEO of an $8BN company through dinner at his mother-in-law's house?
What does Seba know now that he wishes he had known when he first became CEO?

2.) Leadership 101:

What does "high performance" in business and leadership mean?
How important are velocity and speed of execution in startups? When should one trade speed for quality? Where is the nuance?
How does Seba approach prioritization? What framework does he use to determine what to focus on?
How does Seba think through effective delegation? How can leaders determine what only they can do?

3.) Leadership: The Challenges and Lessons:

What are Seba's biggest insecurities in leadership today? How does he manage them? How have they changed over time?
What is the single most painful leadership lesson Seba has learned that he is also pleased to have learned?
What gets easier with scale as a leader? What gets harder?
In a scaling organization, what is the first thing to break? What can be done to mitigate this?

4.) The Funding and The IPO:

Why did dlocal bootstrap for 4 years instead of raise funding? How did that process change their mindset toward capital efficiency? What was good about it? What was bad?
What are the single biggest advantages great investors can bring to the table?
Why did Seba decide 2021 was the right time to go public?
What was the biggest surprise about going public? What is better and what is worse about being a public company?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Seba's Favourite Book: Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse