March 21: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Bernardo Milesy, founder & managing partner at GLOCAL,  the first certified B Corp  agrifoodtech venture capital firm, whose portfolio includes the likes of Agrofy, Frizata and KilimoIn today's episode we will discuss:  1. Why impact investing is a lucrative business opportunity from venture capital standpoint? 2. Which agrifoodtech industries are ripe for unicorn production in Latin America?3.  What does it take to raise an impact-focused VC firm in Latin America?4. What are the key pieces of advice Bernardo can give to founders aiming at building and scaling communities?5. What are the biggest mistakes startups make while pitching to a VC? If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website and follow us on Spotify or Apple. The J Curve on InstagramOlga 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).Olga on Twitter Olga on LinkedInOlga on Instagram

March 13: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with George Roche, investment director at Yara Growth Ventures,  the corporate venture capital arm of Yara International, the world's leading crop nutrition and agriculture company out of Norway with $11b market cap. Yara Growth Ventures portfolio includes the likes of SP Ventures, Agrolend and Agrofy. In today's episode we will discuss:  1. What is George's startup evaluation framework? 2. Why 'No, I won't invest' is the hardest answer for VCs?3.  What's George's advice to entrepreneurs on whether or not they should raise venture capital?4. What are the biggest trends in agribusiness that get George and Yara Growth Ventures excited?5. Why does ag space still struggle to attract VC investors? If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website and follow us on Spotify or Apple. The J Curve on InstagramOlga 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).Olga on Twitter Olga on LinkedInOlga on Instagram

February 21: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Camilla Junqueira, managing director at Endeavor Brazil,  the leading global community of, by and for high impact entrepreneurs.  In today's episode we will discuss:  1. What makes Endeavor so good at building community? What are the lessons that founders can learn from Endeavor's approach towards building community?? 2. What's next for Endeavor? Hint: it has everything to do with globalizing Brazilian entrepreneurship and increasing diversity within the network3. Who are the legendary founders in Brazil from Camilla's point of view? 4. What are the ultimate traits of hyper successful founders in Endeavor community? 5.  How did the Brazilian ecosystem and the profile of Endeavor entrepreneur evolve over the last two decades?If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website and follow us on Spotify or Apple. The J Curve on InstagramOlga 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).Olga on Twitter Olga on LinkedInOlga on Instagram

February 14: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Adolfo Roullion, founder and CEO at Frizata,  a direct-to-consumer vertically integrated frozen food tech company that has raised ~ $10M from the likes of the founder of Mercado Libre Marcos Galperin,  SP Ventures and Norte. In today's episode we will discuss:  1. What are the building blocks of 25 year strong partnership between Adolfo and his co-founder Jose Robledo? 2. Why big food companies suck at innovating?3. What are Adolfo's 3 most important lessons learned from becoming a successful serial entrepreneur? 4. What are the distinctive characteristics of Brazilian market that make it so attractive for launching a D2C food tech company? 5.  What are the pros and cons of building a vertically integrated company in food industry in Brazil and Latin America?If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.comand follow us on Spotify or Apple. The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/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).Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhovaOlga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/

February 2: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Victor Santos, founder and CEO at Liv Up, a São Paulo-based D2C healthy frozen food company that has raised over $70M from the likes of Kaszek, ThornTree Capital Partners, Lofoten Capital and many more. In today's episode we will discuss:  1. What are the core skills required to manage complex businesses that combine tech and operations capabilities?2. What are the most important lessons of Victor's entrepreneurial career? Disclaimer: it has everything to do with managing expectations and controlling your own destiny. 3. What is Victor's advice to founders building a D2C business in Latin America? 4. What is Liv Up's approach towards building a win-win relationships with small rural farmers? 5. From a small kitchen to to a one and a half football field facility: how did Liv Up evolve and what's next?If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.comand follow us on Spotify or Apple. The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/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).Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhovaOlga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/

January 24: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Francisco Jardim, co-founder and general partner at SP Ventures, a São Paulo-based pioneer venture capital investor in agrifoodtech space in Latin America whose portfolio include the likes of Agrolend,  Agrofy and Frizata and that's backed by corporate and industry giants like Yara Growth Ventures, Syngenta and Banco do Brasil. In today's episode we will discuss:  1. What are the ultimate traits that VCs look for in a founder? What makes an early stage startup VC fundable?2. What are do's and don'ts of pitching a startup to SP Ventures?3. What are the pros and cons of being a sector specific VC? 4. What makes Francisco and the team at SP Ventures so bullish on agrifoodtech sector in Brazil and LatAm? Why Brazilian agricultural sector is ready for mass production of unicorns? 5. VC exit environment in agriculture: how will it evolve?If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.comand follow us on Spotify or Apple. The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/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).Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhovaOlga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/

January 17: For the first episode of the J Curve in 2023 I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Alan Glezer, co-founder and CFO at Agrolend that has recently raised over $27M in Series B led by Lightrock  and joined by Yara Growth Ventures, SP Ventures and Valor Capital Group. In today's episode we will learn:  1. Profitability vs growth. What should founders focus on during adverse market environment?2. What are the focus areas in agriculture Alan is excited about?3. What is Agrolend go-to-market playbook? How to leverage partnerships for new customers acquisition? 4. What are major challenge to agricultural development in Brazil today?5. What's Alan's take on the future of Agrolend if everything goes right?If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.comand follow us on Spotify or Apple. The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/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).Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhovaOlga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/

In this final episode of the year we are taking a look back at top 10 most listened episodes of the year and sharing our favorite insights from each and every one of them.If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.comand follow us on Spotify or Apple. The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/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).Olga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/olgamaslikhovaOlga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgamaslikhova/Olga on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olgamaslikhova/

December 12: For the final episode of the J Curve in 2022 I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Marcos Salama, founder and CEO at Inventa, Brazil's leading digital marketplace for small retailers and suppliers in Latin America that has raised over $80m in venture capital from the likes of Greylock, a16z, Founders Fund, Tiger Global, monashees, One VC and MAYA.In today's episode we will learn:  1. What are the unique challenges of building and scaling a B2B marketplace solution in Latin America?2. How did the product-market fit look like for Inventa?3. What is Inventa's high growth playbook? What are the key challenges of managing high pace of growth for Marcos and Inventa's leadership team? 4. What are the ultimate benefits of building a multicultural team from day Zero? How does being hybrid and multicultural impact corporate culture at Inventa?5. What's Marcos's take on the future of Inventa if everything goes right?

November 21: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Weigert, founder and CEO at Conexa Saude, Brazil's leading telemedicine and digital health platform that manages over 20M lives and that has recently raised ~$40M Series C from the likes of  General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs and Igah Ventures.In today's episode we will learn:  1. When, why and how to pivot a healthcare business: Conexa's experience2. What were the most challenging aspects of managing Conexa's rapid growth during Covid-19? Spoiler alert: it had everything to do with hiring. 3. How to build a sustainable Product-Led Growth Strategy: Conexa's playbook4. Why Data Science is the ultimate competitive edge and value driver for Conexa?5. What are the unique challenges of disrupting the healthcare market in Brazil?