The J Curve with Olga Maslikhova

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Cassio Bobsin, Endeavor entrepreneur and the founder and CEO at Zenvia. Zenvia is LatAm’s leading customer experience communications platform and the first Latam-based SaaS company to IPO on Nasdaq. Cassio is also the founder of WOW Accelerator, the largest independent startup accelerator in Brazil.We hope to make in person recordings our new normal, so please do check out our new YouTube channel.In today's episode we will discuss:  1. Cassio's Journey: Key Lessons from Bootstrapping Zenvia for 20 Years2. Maximizing startup growth: How to Avoid Being a Bottleneck as a Founder?3. Silicon Valley Bank Collapse: A Turning Point in Tech History?4. Fostering the culture of Innovation as a publicly traded companies: Zenvia's approach.5. Cassio's Top Startup Advice: Making It Work End-to-EndIf 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. 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 LinkedInOlga on InstagramOlga on Twitter 

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Vander Corteze, founder and CEO at Brazil's leading at home healthcare company Beep Saude, backed by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Valor Capital Group, Banco Bradesco, DNA Capital and the founder of Nubank David Velez.Prior to that, Vander founded a Brazilian chain of occupational health clinics BR Med, and prior to that he served as an emergency doctor at a fire department in Rio de Janeiro.We hope to make in person recordings our new normal, so please do check out our new YouTube channel.In today's episode we will discuss:  1. What the concept of dark kitchen has to do with healthcare? 2. What makes Endeavor and Endeavor Brazil so special and different from any other entrepreneurial networks?3. Why having mentors is important and how one mentorship session with Diego Barreto, iFood CFO changed the way Vander thought about his business? 4. Customer Obsession: how to maintain a 95 Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the at home vaccination business?5. Be Prepared: How startup founders should handle the downturn?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. 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 LinkedInOlga on InstagramOlga on Twitter 

For our third in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Gustavo Brigatto, founder and chief editor of Startups Brazil, a media platform  that covers tech and venture capital in Latin America and beyond. Before becoming a founder, Gustavo spent 15 years as a business journalist, 12 of which were at Valor Economico, the largest economics, finance and business newspaper in Brazil.We hope to make in person recordings our new normal so please do check out our new YouTube channel.In today's episode we will discuss:  1. Journalism meets AI: will ChatGPT and AI ever replace journalists? 2. How to build a community around a startup? What are the key benefits of using communities to scale?3. LinkedIn as a growth engine: how does it differ from other platforms?4. Why you should never rely on social media alone to grow your startup? 5. Thinking big: what does the future hold for Startups if everything goes right? What's the scale of Gustavo's ambitions?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. 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 LinkedInOlga on InstagramOlga on Twitter 

April 27: For our second in studio episode, I am thrilled to welcome Talita Lacerda, CEO at Petlove, the largest pet e-commerce platform in Brazil and Latin America, that has raised over $225M+ from some of the best investors in Latin America including L Catterton, Riverwood Capital, SoftBank, Kaszek, Monashees, Globo Ventures, Porto Seguro and Tarpon. Petlove has recently announced its plan to go public within 2-3 years.  We hope to make in person recordings our new normal so please do check out our new YouTube channel.In today's episode we will discuss:  1. What was Talita's approach towards adopting and localizing Amazon's single-threaded leadership principle, focus on the input metrics together with Google's OKR system for the Petlove's organizational design? 2.  What is the secret sauce of successful fundraising? What are the questions founders must ask themselves when they choose their investors? 3. Meritocracy vs Partnership: what matters more from Talita's perspective?4. What is Petlove's approach towards building sustainable customer-focused and business?5. Why having an omni-channel strategy is important for digitally native brands?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. 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 LinkedInOlga on InstagramOlga on Twitter 

April 18: For our first in person episode ever released I am thrilled to welcome Jose Renato Hopf, the serial entrepreneur and the founder of GetNet, which became one of the largest companies in Latin American was acquired by Santander in 2014 for just south of $500M. Jose Renato is also a founder of venture builder 4ALL and co-founder and president at South Summit Brazil, the leading tech summit in the South of Brazil that dragged over 22000 attendees, 900 speakers and over 3000 thousand startups just this year. We hope to make in person recordings our new normal so please do check out our new YouTube channel.In today's episode we will discuss:  1.  What are Jose Renato's key learnings from building, scaling and selling GetNet to Santander?2. What is the premise of a high-performing private-government partnership?3. What is the operational secret behind Uber, Airbnb and Netflix? 4. What are the main downsides of a Silicon Valley mindset?5. What are the big industries in Brazil that are ready to be disrupted? 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. 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 LinkedInOlga on InstagramOlga on Twitter 

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/