Latitud Podcast

The last 10 years have completely changed Latin America's financial landscape but, when compared to other more established regions, we still lack basic infrastructure, and that's what Pablo Viguera set out to build.With experience in UK open banking from his time at Revolut, Pablo wanted to pave the road for the next generation of financial businesses, so he and co-founder Oriol Tintore decided to build what is now the leading Open Banking and financial information API platform in LatAm.Dubbed the "Plaid of Latin America" by TechCrunch, Belvo is providing the ‘picks and shovels’ for big players in the fintech space looking to innovate in the region. With operations in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, they're endorsed by a partnership with Visa and backed by a $43 million Series A with participation of Kaszek and David Vélez.Today, Pablo and I talk about:The unique regulatory challenges of open finance in LatAmEducating users on the best use of their financial dataPropelling economic development by building infrastructureBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Born in the US and raised in Uruguay, Nathan is a football enthusiast currently splitting his time between Silicon Valley and Mexico City. As a third-time founder, his passion is in building companies that tackle Latin America's biggest problems.The problem he is tackling at Flexio is B2B payments: Helping businesses manage their cash flow.As an entrepreneur-in-residence at Google Launchpad Accelerator for LatAm, he's giving back to the ecosystem by helping less experienced founders navigate the startup world.On today's episode, Nathan touches on:The unique challenges of cashflow management in Latin AmericaHow players in the fintech industry are building complementary solutionsThe learnings of being a third-time founderBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Making history in LatAm's fintech industry is very on brand for today's guest.Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Pierpaolo Barbieri left Argentina to study in the US as a young adult. He returned 12 years later with a Harvard University degree and a career as an economic historian and published author, but you may know him from being the founder and CEO of Ualá.Ualá's complete financial ecosystem was created with the ambition of unifying all financial services into one app and, with 3.5 million cards issued in the 4 years since, I'd say they're on track to meet their goals. With a $350 million Series D led by SoftBank and a $2.45 billion valuation, they're now locked and loaded to expand across all of Latin America.Join Pier and I for a chat about:Making financial services accessibleThe role of fintech in promoting social mobilityWhat challenger banks can and should do differentlyBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Children are often fascinated with technology, and Sahil Lavingia's story isn't any different: he first started getting into computers at about 12, playing around with graphic design tools like Photoshop, and it soon naturally developed into building websites for family and friends.One Computer Science and Engineering degree later, Sahil turned what started as a casual project for himself into a marketplace for others like him to get paid doing what they were good at: Gumroad went from a weekend project to a sustainable business that became a staple of the gig economy. But the road wasn't without its bumps.Now having published his book "The Minimalist Entrepreneur", Sahil is known not only for his transparency about his challenges as a founder, but also for talking about the alternative path for founders that aren't looking to build a VC-backed unicorn.In this episode we talk about:Community-driven products and the art of problem-solvingShaping the future of workAnd the delicate balance between profitability and scaleBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Universal as it may seem now, in 2014 access to banking services was still very much limited in several LatAm countries. That realization was what sparked Daniel Vogel's idea of democratizing financial services through the existing but underused infrastructure of mobile phones. With the Bitso app, buying and selling cryptocurrencies become as easy as ordering pizza.Daniel's founder journey got him in the MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 list as one of the youngest CEOs of this generation. Having started in Mexico, Bitso quickly expanded in Latin America.With a $2.2bn valuation and backed by the likes of Tiger Global and Kaszek, Bitso has pledged to invest $270M to take the Brazilian crypto market by storm.In this episode you can learn about:Skills every founder should pick upCrypto as a vehicle of financial inclusionThe future of blockchain in Latin AmericaBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

With over 10 years of experience in Brazil's VC scene, Rodrigo Baer was hearing pitches and offering offering term sheets long before the LatAm capital craze started. He has an unquestionable understanding of the country's entrepreneurial landscape, and is a believer of sharing knowledge with the world, which he has been doing for the last four years through his Youtube channel "Pergunte ao VC".Previously a partner with Redpoint Ventures and a board member for companies such as Movidesk and Cortex Intelligence, he is now a Managing Partner for SoftBank's Latin America fund with a $5bn initial commitment and then an additional $3bn being allocated.Today, Rodrigo and I are going over:Qualities VCs look for in foundersCommon questions founders have about exit strategiesSoftBank's plans with the latest LatAm fundBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

In his own words, Daniel Bilbao is a friend to all latino entrepreneurs. He went from spreading papelitos in Comic Sans looking for engineers to shaping the future of fraud prevention in Latin America. Born and raised in Colombia, his mentality is one of giving back to our region first.Daniel first dipped his toes into the cybersecurity space with his previous company Paladin Cyber in 2017. Now CEO and co-founder of Truora and backed by the likes of Kaszek, Magma Partners and Y Combinator, he managed to take his business from 0 to $10M annual recurring revenue in two short years.In this episode, Daniel and I talk about:The role founders play in combating inequity in LatAmHow to sell your company's idea to investorsWhat the Latin America startup scene will look like 10 years from nowBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Alex Vilhena was born in Rio de Janeiro, but moved to Los Angeles to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Communications and had a chance to try out the startup scene in the US. Big lover of jiu-jitsu, he has over 10 years of client-facing roles under his purple belt, and helped build Santander's Loyalty Program before moving on to his own projects in the financial industry.Now CEO of Plug Pagamentos, he gets to brag about being a YC portfolio company while he and his co-founders are simplifying payment services by providing a one-stop solution to manage multiple providers through a single API integration.Building something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Andres Bilbao is a Colombian triple threat, and that goes far beyond being fluent in three languages: he's a unicorn entrepreneur, an angel investor, and a trusted advisor to many others in the LatAm startup ecosystem.He was one of the co-founders of Rappi and reached an impressive $5.25 billion valuation within six years of starting operations. Now Andres is putting down roots in blockchain as co-founder of Invert, a company pledging to change the way we do conservation through the power of crypto and NFTs.In this episode, Andres and I will talk about:Fostering entrepreneurship in a teamWhat qualities to look for in a mentor or advisorHow blockchain and conservation can intersect to shape the futureBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Entrepreneurship is much like running into a wall until you knock it down, and German-born Florian Hagenbuch has committed to making sure that the wall stays down for those coming after him.Florian founded Loft to digitalize the real estate market and make it accessible to millions of Brazilians dreaming of owning a home. Their latest funding round bumped them up to a nearly 3 billion-dollar valuation.With a portfolio of over 100 companies he has personally invested into as an angel, his trajectory naturally evolved into the formation of a VC fund. Canary, a pre-seed and seed-stage investment firm in Latin America, has now over $150M in assets under management.In this episode, Florian goes over:The lifecycle of disruption opportunitiesHow fast-growing companies can accelerate careersThe potential of addressable markets in Latin AmericaAngel investing as a way to give backBuilding something new? Apply for the Latitud Fellowship at apply.latitud.comBuilding good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop