Latitud Podcast

When Marcelo Abritta pitched Buser to a VC for the first time, he didn't have a lot of leverage. His operation was quickly blocked by authorities and incumbents. He wasn't yet working full time on the business. And the cherry on top: he had a six-figure debt from a recently failed company. He did, however, receive a great investment offer from a top-tier fund that same day. Everyone knew from the start that that would be a "make it or break it" type of deal — and it still is. In fact, Marcelo likes to make that clear even to potential hires. But with high risks come high returns.  In this episode, you'll find out: How that first pitch went down.  The behind the scenes of their whole fundraising process. How they stay scrappy and lean. And the challenges and measures you take when you're this heavy on uncertainty. --Go to book.latitud.com to get your copy of Viva The Entrepreneur!Building 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

Brian's book is now available! Go to book.latitud.com to get your copy of Viva the Entrepreneur: Founding, Scaling and Raising Venture Capital in Latin America .This episode is not about that, though, and even less so about him. Yes, sure, our guest today wrote the foreword -- but above all, she's a huge inspiration to me and thousands of other founders around the world.That's because Linda Rottenberg co-founded Endeavor and has led the global entrepreneurship movement since 1997. Back then, people would call her Chica Loca — or “the Crazy Girl”. Why crazy? Linda insisted that high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurs exist outside of Silicon Valley; almost no one believed her.Now with offices in 40 locations, Endeavor rigorously selects, scales up, and co-invests in the fastest growing founders in emerging and underserved markets. There are currently 2,500 Endeavor Entrepreneurs (Brian's one of them!).Endeavor shows how essencial it is for every founder to count on a network of people who are a few steps ahead in the game and then give back. And it proved it works.In this episode, Linda talks about:The key to building great connections and communitiesWhat makes people help other peopleThe importance of solving local problemsAnd the stories that turned crazy into global thought leader.--A couple of Linda's stories and a lot of Brian's are in Viva the Entrepreneur. You can get the ebook NOW for only $0.99 -- This is a limited offer, so make sure to move fast. Go to book.latitud.com to check it out. Building 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

Yuri Danilchenko grew up in Russia during one of the most defining moments in history. He's had a knack for tech and entrepreneurship since before he noticed it, having sold cell phones for pocket money when he was only 13, and fixing his friends' computers even though he didn't own one. Then, after living in the US and getting his masters in AI, he moved to Brazil and worked at several startups.He liked the challenges of startup life so much he ended up co-founding a business himself, called Vemos. But they eventually had to move on, and Yuri joined Kaszek-backed Escale as CTO, bringing in dozens of new engineers to the team and scaling product development through series C.In this episode, he shares:Some of the early-stage pitfalls he fell intoHow to attract and select tech talent when you don't have a tech brandHow to factor in diversity during your hiring processAnd what kind of culture you need to build a tech and product companyStarting something new? Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship programBuilding 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

It’s here: the last episode of 2020. We started this year by interviewing Paulo Veras, the co-founder of 99, the first Brazilian unicorn. Now, we end the season on the highest of notes with the guy that was managing the company when it was sold to Didi. Peter Fernandez held leadership roles at Google and was an angel investor and advisor for 99 before he joined the team in 2016, becoming CEO 10 months later. When he left the position, he went on a sabbatical that took him on an amazing journey of self-discovery. Today, he shares reflections on fulfillment, giving first, and making a positive impact. Also in this episode: The top 3 things that are critical for high-performance teams; What culture boils down to; And why taking care of yourself is also part of your job. - Learn more about the Latitud Fellowship Program at https://latitud.com!Building 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 the early days of Love Mondays, co-founder Luciana Caletti was encouraged by her investors to talk to every player in the industry, including competitors. Not only did that accelerate their learning as a startup, but it also allowed them to build a relationship with their US-born more developed equivalent, Glassdoor. Fast forward 3 years, they joined forces as Glassdoor expanded and Luciana became the Managing Director for Latin America. But even though her title might have changed, her role did not. Today, we talk about her journey leading a venture-backed company and choosing where to focus her attention to generate growth. She also shares a few learnings on: Things to keep in mind when you start hiring How to create news pieces around your company And how to build employer branding organically ---Visit latitud.com to find out more and apply to the Latitud Fellowship.Building 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

Fabricio Pettená is a partner at Global Founders Capital, a stage-agnostic lifecycle global venture capital firm. If you’re wondering what that means, this is the episode where he explains it!  We also talk about: GFC's decision process and how they support startups; What good board meetings should look like; His analysis of Latin American markets; And the signals investors pay attention to. ---  Visit latitud.com to apply to our programs! Building 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

Gina Gotthilf was the VP of Growth at Duolingo, the most downloaded education app in the world, leading the team that built its user base from 3 to 200 million. She also led Tumblr's growth in Latin America and participated in the Mike Bloomberg presidential campaign to help oversee digital ad campaigns at a historical daily spend. In 2020, she joined Brian and Yuri as a co-founder of Latitud, to help engineer serendipity for the top doers and thinkers in the Latam startup ecosystem. In this episode, Gina talks a bit more about what we’ve been up to, but mostly about her own journey, challenges and learnings. Stick around to find out: What hyper-growing startups running seamlessly from the outside are really like in the backstage. Some of the growth tactics early-stage founders can benefit from. Her biggest F-ups. And her takeaway from pitching Duolingo to President Obama in the White House.  ---Visit latitud.com to apply to our programs!Building 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

A few years after getting his degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University, and fresh out of his MBA at Harvard Business School, Antoine Colaço wanted to go into the VC world as an investor. But he’d always heard it’d be better to get operational experience first. So he joined Yahoo!. Then, in 2003, he took a risk and accepted a position at a small startup. It was called Google.Antoine was there for 9 years, founding Google’s operation in India and launching offices all over Latin America. Although it may seem glitzy to build startups within what would become one the largest tech companies in the world, it came with the same challenges any early-stage founder would face. Some of which weren’t the least bit glamorous.It was his impressive curriculum, but also his great feeling for business and love for Latin America, that led Antoine into becoming a partner at Valor Capital Group.In this episode:How different Latam cultures affect his investment approachHow he sees potential paths for founders looking to expand their businessA bit of Valor’s investment criteriaAnd how intuition and luck can play a big part in investing in winning companies.--- Visit 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

A company’s DNA is what makes it stand out. It guides everyone’s behaviors and determines the quality of the people you have by your side, from the initial hires to the hypergrowth stage. It can be the difference between a team that is indifferent and one that is all-in.This is something Eric Santos and his co-founders paid attention to from the get-go. Similar to what Netflix’s culture code means to Silicon Valley founders, Resultados Digitais’ culture code became well-known in the Brazilian startup ecosystem. The team scaled from 30 to 100 employees in just a few months, then to 230 employees the following year. But RD’s DNA remains the same as it was in the very beginning, 10 years ago.In this episode,:How the founding team identified the virtues that were authentic to themSome of the difficult conversations they had upfrontThe challenges they faced while hiring fastAnd how they operationalized these virtues at scale. -- Visit 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

No matter the game, understanding the other player always helps you make better moves. This logic applies to the fundraising game too. Julio Vasconcellos is a great example of this, being a very prolific entrepreneur and investor. Julio was Facebook’s first country manager in Brazil, back in 2010. That same year, he started Peixe Urbano, which became a leading local commerce and services company in Brazil, later expanding to other 6 countries in Latin America and eventually being acquired by Baidu. He’s been an angel investor ever since and is also the co-founder of two VC funds: Canary and Atlantico. In this episode: What makes an incredible investor and what makes an incredible founderGood practices of having a board and sitting on a boardDealing with advice and external opinionsAnd the challenge of balancing emotional involvement and rational thinking -- Learn more about the Latitud Fellowship program at 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