The J Curve with Olga Maslikhova

Is hustle culture the biggest startup lie? Is Brazil the end of credit cards? Can a fintech run like a pharmaceutical lab?In this episode of The J Curve, I sit down with Piero Contezini — founder and executive chairman of Asaas, one of Brazil’s most influential fintech platforms serving thousands of SMEs and processing billions in payments. Backed by SoftBank, Bond, Bradesco, and other top investors, Asaas has evolved from a Stripe-for-Brazil experiment into a full-stack financial operating system with 37 revenue streams.Piero’s story is one of relentless experimentation, radical cultural rules (like an 8-hour workday and zero-bug policy), and building in sync with Brazil’s regulatory revolution around PIX and Open Finance.Here’s what we cover:• Why service companies can’t scale like product companies• How one SME pain point grew into 37 revenue streams• The fintech monetization model tied directly to customer success• The culture rules that shaped Asaas: 8-hour workdays and zero bugs• How PIX and Open Finance reshaped Brazil’s fintech landscapeJoin The J Curve Community:⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠: Weekly deep dives into LATAM's hottest deals, emerging trends, and market intelligence⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠: Daily market insights and exclusive founder updates⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠: Behind-the-scenes podcast moments and quick industry takes⁠⁠⁠Hit subscribe⁠⁠⁠ and share this episode with fellow entrepreneurs and investors

Julio Vasconcellos, Managing Partner at Atlantico and digital transformation expert, dives into the dramatic shifts in Latin America's tech scene. He reveals why local VCs are outperforming global ones and discusses Mexico's burgeoning fintech landscape compared to Brazil. The impact of PIX on digital payments and its threat to traditional card networks is explored, along with the rapid AI adoption among Brazilians. Julio emphasizes how geopolitical sentiments influence investment decisions and why founders should leverage emerging trends for innovation.

Tiago Dalvi is the solo founder and CEO of Olist, Brazil's leading e-commerce operating system serving 45,000+ merchants and processing 60 billion reais annually. Olist has raised $314M from investors including SoftBank, Wellington Management, Goldman Sachs, Valor Capital Group, and Accel partner Kevin Efrusy, and operates in Brazil's $60B+ e-commerce market.The Brazilian unicorn founder discusses marketplace strategy, venture capital, M&A integration, and building Latin America's leading SMB commerce platform.Here's what we cover:From Marketplace to Ecosystem: Olist began as a single storefront. Today it's an operating system for 45,000+ merchants. What does it really take to expand from one product to a multi-product platform?The Three Pillars of a High-Performing Board: Behind every enduring company is a board built on the right foundation. What makes boards truly high-performing—and why do the best ones keep evolving?The M&A Integration Playbook: Acquisitions can accelerate growth—or sink the ship. Tiago shares the hardest lessons from integration, why protecting new acquisitions from the gravitational pull of core operations is critical for innovation, and why earnouts are so tricky to get right.Olist's Vision of Intelligent Commerce: What if your business could think for itself? Tiago explains how AI-powered decision-making could reshape SMB operations across Latin America's fragmented ecosystem.The Investor Breakup Playbook: Not every relationship lasts forever—including with investors. Why does Tiago part ways with board members he "really likes," what tough conversations are required when someone who got you to $10M isn't right for $100M, and how secondaries help recycle the cap table without burning bridges?Join The J Curve Community:⁠Newsletter⁠: Weekly deep dives into LATAM's hottest deals, emerging trends, and market intelligence⁠LinkedIn⁠: Daily market insights and exclusive founder updates⁠Instagram⁠: Behind-the-scenes podcast moments and quick industry takes⁠Hit subscribe⁠ and share this episode with fellow entrepreneurs and investors

Why do 90% of LATAM founders struggle to raise venture capital funding? It's not their product or market - it's because they don't understand the game they're playing. This episode reveals the patterns behind every major VC success story from Nubank to QuintoAndar. I cover the fund economics that drive every investment decision, the founder profiles that get fast-tracked, the three business models that dominate portfolios, and the four-element framework for stacking odds in your favor. Plus: why fundraising is actually sales, how to evaluate VCs before they evaluate you, and the exit math that determines premium outcomes.Key Insights & Takeaways:The Goldman/McKinsey pattern: Why majority of funded LATAM founders share investment banking or top consulting backgrounds—and how to borrow credibility if you don't have itFund math reality check: How a $300M fund needs $6B+ outcomes from single deals, and why this changes everything about what VCs actually fundThe Stanford platform mindset: How to shift from "solving problems" to "designing market architecture" and why this mindset separates venture capital winners from the restMarket timing: How 2012's 3G+smartphones created unicorns, and why 2025's Pix+AI+Open Finance could be biggerThe 4-element fundable startup framework: Backable founder profile + compounding business model + broken market + perfect timing = venture capital magnetFundraising as B2B sales: Why treating VCs as prospects with systematic qualification, relationship-building, and follow-up changes outcomesVenture capital fund cycle: How a $100M fund in year 2 beats a $500M fund in year 8, and how to research this before pitchingThe multi-country premium: Why regional businesses price higher than local ones, and how to build global buyer optionality from day oneJoin The J Curve Community:⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠: Weekly deep dives into LATAM's hottest deals, emerging trends, and market intelligence⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠: Daily market insights and exclusive founder updates⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠: Behind-the-scenes podcast moments and quick industry takesShare this with one founder who needs to hear this playbook: ⁠Hit subscribe⁠⁠ and help us reach more Latin American entrepreneurs and investors

Three ecosystem builders who created $1B+ in exits share the exact strategies behind Latin America's biggest tech wins in this rare roundtable, recorded live in São Paulo with AWS.Daniela Binatti: Built Pismo into one of Visa's largest fintech acquisitions ($1B cash)Romero Rodrigues: Sold Buscapé to Naspers for $374M, now Managing Partner at Headline. Early investor in Pismo and WellhubCarlos Costa: Valor Capital Managing Partner ($2B+ AUM) behind CloudWalk ($2.15B valuation), WellHub ($2.2B valuation), and Pismo ($1B exit)Key Insights & Takeaways:The "bonds vs options" framework: How Brazilian companies use stable local cash flow to fund aggressive global expansion betsWhy LATAM-to-LATAM expansion is a trap: Same operational complexity as global markets but with negligible valuation impactThe 25-year compounding curve: Why Pismo's real growth phase began after the $1B acquisition, not beforeGlobal infrastructure strategy: Building multi-country, multi-currency architecture from day one vs. retrofitting laterMarket education playbook: Converting banks from on-premise skeptics to SaaS believers across 78 countriesThe Brazil advantage: How a 150M+ user domestic market creates unique pressure-testing for global-ready productsTiming global expansion: When borderless business models should skip local validation entirelyJoin The J Curve Community:⁠Newsletter⁠: Weekly deep dives into LATAM's hottest deals, emerging trends, and market intelligence⁠LinkedIn⁠: Daily market insights and exclusive founder updates⁠Instagram⁠: Behind-the-scenes podcast moments and quick industry takesShare this with one founder who needs to hear this playbook: Hit subscribe⁠ and help us reach more Latin American entrepreneurs and investors

Dr. Vitor Asseituno is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sami, Brazil's fastest-growing health insurance startup. Sami has raised $65M total funding and serves 20,000+ customers across 11 Brazilian cities in the $60B private health insurance market.Key Insights & Takeaways:1. The "pipeline mathematics" behind turning 100+ VC rejections into Series B success2. Investor psychology: what resonates when pitching complex healthcare business models3. How embracing broker networks after everyone said "avoid them" drives 50%+ of sales4. AI workflow implementation: $800+ monthly savings per clinician and 30% EMR compliance improvement5. Loss ratio optimization tactics: the specific changes that improved margins from 85% to 53%6. Why regional focus beats national scale in Brazil's complex healthcare marketJoin The J Curve Community:Newsletter: Weekly deep dives into LATAM's hottest deals, emerging trends, and market intelligenceLinkedIn: Daily market insights and exclusive founder updatesInstagram: Behind-the-scenes podcast moments and quick industry takesHit subscribe and share this episode with fellow entrepreneurs and investors

Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova.This week, I sit down with Federico Vega, founder and CEO of Frete.com—the largest freight matching platform in Latin America.Federico’s story is anything but conventional: he grew up in a small town in Patagonia, left a career in investment banking at JP Morgan in London, and moved—without speaking the language—to Brazil to reinvent an entire industry. What started as a Facebook group for truck drivers has evolved into a logistics giant, processing nearly $18 billion in freight transactions annually and serving ~900,000 active drivers—roughly 80% of Brazil’s entire trucking fleet.In this episode, Federico shares how Frete.comsolved the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma, scaled a fragmented industry from the ground up, and transformed Brazilian complexity into a competitive moat. It’s a masterclass in grit, product obsession, and doing things that don’t scale.Here’s what we cover:How to break network effects open in traditional industriesWhy doing unscalable things early creates lasting strategic edgeWhat Brazilian truck stops taught Federico about product designHow to use AI and data to combat fraud and drive operational leverageThe culture-building playbook behind Frete.com’s growthFor founders building in complex markets—and investors betting on logistics and fintech as the future—this episode is a must-listen.More from us: Subscribe to our weekly newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The J Curve Insider⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where we go beyond the podcast to break down the most exciting investment & tech trends in LATAM. Sharp. Concise. Real business strategies and market insights you won’t find anywhere else. Delivered straight to your inbox.Follow us on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram

Welcome to this special solo episode of Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova.Every few months, I zoom out to reflect on the lessons that stuck with me from the show. Think of this as your quarterly operator’s memo—especially if you’re building, raising, or investing in Latin America.Q2 was full of sharp insights and real operator depth. But in this edition of The J Curve Insider, I won’t recap every episode.I’ll go deep into three. João Del Valle (EBANX), Mike Packer (QED), and Gustavo Mapeli (Kanastra).We’ll unpack EBANX’s global growth playbook, explore how QED built conviction around LATAM as an outsider VC—and what they’re betting on next—and break down how Kanastra scaled by defying startup orthodoxy.Here’s what I’ll get into:→ In LATAM, complexity isn’t a bug—it’s the moat.→ Revenue is the best anti-dilution strategy.→ In frontier markets, global expansion is a risk management.→ Outsiders win in LATAM when they think like founders: test, learn, commit.→ Multi-product vs. single-product: what founders need to ask before picking a lane.If you enjoy today’s episode, please rate us on Spotify, subscribe to our newsletter at ⁠blog.thejcurve.com⁠, and follow us on YouTube (@thejcurvepodcast) and Instagram (@olgamaslikhova).Let’s get into it.

Caetano Lacerda and Raphael Dyxklay, co-founders of Brazilian fintech Barte, discuss their impressive journey from $0 to $20M ARR, focusing on innovative growth strategies. They highlight the power of building in public as a tool for attraction and trust. Insights on navigating Brazilian market complexities and prioritizing product bets provide a fresh perspective on B2B success. Additionally, they stress the importance of adapting to customer feedback and the role of AI in streamlining payment processes for sustainable growth in Latin America.

Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova.This week, I sit down with João Del Valle, co-founder and CEO of EBANX—one of Latin America’s most iconic fintech stories and a company that built one of the most expansive cross-border payment platforms in the world.Founded in Curitiba—well outside Brazil’s traditional tech hub of São Paulo—EBANX was built for scale from day one. Its global-by-design approach quickly became a powerful competitive moat, allowing the company to expand into 29 countries, process billions in cross-border payments, and power transactions for global giants like Spotify and AliExpress.In this episode, we talk about what it really takes to scale global infrastructure from Latin America, why complexity is a competitive advantage, and how João evolved from founder and CTO to CEO of a company backed by Advent International in one of their largest-ever tech deals.Here’s what we cover:• How embracing regulatory and payment complexity became core to EBANX’s GTM playbook• What 2022–2023 taught João about discipline, cold-blooded decision-making, and founder-mode leadership• How João leads distributed teams across the U.S., China, and Latin America• What it means to scale sustainably without blitzscaling—and still attract a firm like Advent International• How João thinks about long-term planning, investor alignment, and the path to liquidity• Tactical insight on navigating cross-border regulation, local payment rails, and real-time systems like Pix and UPIFor global operators, fintech builders, and investors looking for real lessons in execution—this episode is packed with insight.More from us: Subscribe to our weekly newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The J Curve Insider⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where we go beyond the podcast to break down the most exciting investment & tech trends in LATAM. Sharp. Concise. Real business strategies and market insights you won’t find anywhere else. Delivered straight to your inbox.Follow us on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram