Latitud Podcast

Communicating safely and practically is something that interests everyone, from government agencies and big banks to small businesses and communities. That's the concept behind Rocket.Chat, an open source communication platform that began in Brazil in 2015 and now has over 12 million users in 150 countries.Besides being highly customizable, Rocket.Chat offers two server options: you can use their cloud or run it on your own server. It's that unique data protection layer that has attracted the likes of the US Department of Defense and the US Navy, besides the 30,000 new companies that become customers every month.Back in February 2021, Rocket.Chat raised a US$ 19 million Series A round. It remains based in Porto Alegre, a city in the south of Brazil where the co-founder and CEO Gabriel Engel was born, and it's still very much an open source project at heart.Stick around to find out:Why Gabriel chose Brazil as the headquarters for a global businessThe challenges and opportunities of an open source companyThe importance of keeping the community engaged to make the product betterBuilding 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

What if Twitch, AngelList and Shark Tank had a baby?That's the question Ali Moiz decided to address as a business opportunity, and the baby is none other than Stonks.Ali is a self-identified Meme Dealer with two multimillion-dollar company exits, over 75 investments as an angel and solid experience in the live streaming space, so I guess you could say he knew a thing or two about what he was getting himself into.Stonks is an online platform for startup demo days set out to democratize access to investment opportunities. Founders from all over the world can apply to raise funds through their platform, and things can get pretty intense: founders get to watch as investment commitments pour in mid-pitch, and investors in the community aren't afraid to put their money where their mouth is.Having founded Stonks in early 2021, Ali and the team raised an impressive $15 million dollar Seed round led by a16z last January – after less than a year of operations.On today's episode, Ali and Brian talk about:The rationale for giving the fundraising process a makeoverWhat he's learned from watching so many pitchesAnd why good sense of humor has a place in all of thisBuilding 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

I think we can call it: Miami has established itself as one of the most important tech hubs not just in the US, but for all countries south of it. As much as the recent boom seems sudden though, the concentration of LatAm startups and opportunities in the area has been on the rise for years.Ana Paula González moved there in 2016, where she launched the Miami operation of 500 Startups. Originally from Guadalajara, she made her career as an investor with a special focus on supporting Latin American founders.In April 2021, Ana Paula became the director of the Miami Initiative at SoftBank, which aims to invest around 250 million dollars in Miami-based companies.In this episode, Ana Paula and Brian talk about:The impact a Miami hub can have for LATAM startupsHow international investors see LATAM opportunities now, after 40+ unicornsWhat makes for a vibrant startup ecosystem and how to get thereBuilding 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

Bolivian entrepreneur Martin Escobari went from growing up in a small town to graduating from Harvard. Upon moving to Brazil, he co-founded one of LatAm’s first startup IPOs in 2005: e-commerce platform Submarino became a huge industry player and went on to merge with local giant Americanas.com.As an investor at General Atlantic since 2012, he now lives between New York and São Paulo and wears the hat of Co-president and Head of Latin America. General Atlantic specializes in a form of investment called growth equity, which sits somewhere between traditional venture capital and buyout firms, focusing on companies in that middle tier that can have their growth accelerated.Since its beginnings in the 1980s, General Atlantic has invested in over 400 companies, with a jaw-dropping $84 billion dollars in managed assets. Its portfolio includes names like XP Investimentos, Hotmart, Quinto Andar and Gympass.Today, Martin and Brian talk about:What he calls the "magic of chaos" and why it mattersThe opportunities and challenges a LatAm investor is better equipped to seeAnd the red flags and the green flags he looks for when making an investment decisionBuilding 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

Santiago Suarez is the Co-Founder and CEO of the “Buy Now Pay Later” solution, Addi. Through Addi’s rapid ascent, Santi has been a central figure in the boom in online sales and e-commerce since the COVID-19 pandemic, securing over 500,000 customers and 1,000 retailers with his company.Addi raised USD 340 million last year, having already secured some lucrative clients such as Nike, Puma, Apple, and Claro. The organization also recently opened offices in Brazil and Mexico, and they are looking to expand throughout the LATAM region.In this podcast, Santi offers insights on topics like:The crucial tips and tricks he picked up while working at JP MorganThe gaping holes in the payment solutions market in South AmericaHow fintech companies can differentiate themselves to ride the waves of opportunityThe key lessons any founder can take on board to be a better CEOBuilding 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

Matias Woloski is the CTO and co-founder at Auth0, a developer-first identity platform born in 2013 that became Argentina's 5th unicorn in 2019. With clients in over 70 countries, it grew to become a global leader in the Identity-as-a-Service arena, and was recently acquired by Okta for US$ 6.5 billion in early 2021.Auth0 has over 2 thousand enterprise customers and handles around 42 million logins every day. That demands a lot of tech working just right, and a lot of top-notch tech support to fix the issues that may come up.That's all part of Matias' job as he oversees people in over 30 countries, most of them working remotely, as well as in headquarters in Buenos Aires, London, Seattle, Sidney, Tokyo and Singapore.Today, Matias and I talk about:What new challenges for cybersecurity are on his mindThe importance of timing for a product fit (and can it be crafted or is it just luck?)How Auth0 made its first connections with Silicon Valley investorsAnd what Matias himself looks for when investing in startups as an angel investorBuilding 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

Mercado Libre began in a Buenos Aires garage in 1999, when online shopping was pretty much all about eBay auctions. Now the biggest company in Latin America, Meli is valued at over 50 billion dollars and active in 18 countries in the region.Brazil is one of the main markets, with around 1.5 million packages delivered everyday, big investments in logistics, machine learning, hiring, and in its own fintech, Mercado Pago.One of Meli's co-founders and our guest today is a Brazilian himself. Stelleo Tolda dedicated 22 years to the company, from those early days in Argentina to his 10 years as General Manager and then President of Commerce in Brazil. He recently left the day-to-day operations to become an advisor.This episode is going to sound a bit different: it was recorded live as a session with our community of Latitud fellows.In this session, Stelleo and I talk about:How tech has changed in the last two decadesThe vital turning points for the businessHow Mercado Libre seized new opportunities during the pandemicBuilding 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

What would you do if you had $1.2M in funding and suddenly realized you need to kill the business? In 2018, Deepak Chhugani had a YC-backed startup in the HR space that wasn't going anywhere. He went back to the drawing board and decided it was time to follow his dad's footsteps into the world of logistics and supply chain. But before pivoting, he offered the money back to each of his investors.Most of them stayed. And to make up for the ones who backed out, they also put in a little bit more to get Deepak back to $1.2M. A few months later, Nuvocargo was born.Nuvocargo is simplifying the highly complex process of transporting goods between borders, by centralizing it under one software-powered roof – starting with US and Mexico. Elected as one of YC’s Top Companies in 2022, they're also backed by over $40M from Tiger Global Management, QED Investors, NFX, and the founders of several unicorns.In this episode, Deepak and I talk about:Getting out of the limbo stageThe balance between hype and substanceDeciding what not to doAnd hiring relentlessly resourceful people – globally.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

Jose Jair Bonilla, Co-founder and CEO of Chiper, talks about opportunities for disruption in retail, the digital transformation landscape in Latin America, and the key components of a good go-to-market strategy. He also discusses the factors accelerating digital transformation in B2B retail and the value of a technical background for a founder and CEO. Additionally, he shares the challenges of being a leader and overcoming obstacles to build a successful company. Finally, he expresses excitement for growth and impact in the B2B e-commerce market.

If you told 13-year-old Miguel Santos with his first Apple device that he'd grow up to build his own billion-dollar tech company, he might have had a hard time believing you.When Miguel started Technisys over 20 years ago, he and his co-founders set up office in a living room with a piano for a desk just as the internet started to become an integral part of everyday life.Their digital banking solution came about 10 years ahead of its market, long before venture capital had turned to Latin America for investment opportunities, and there was no shortage of additional challenges along the way.Miguel survived the Argentine crisis of 2001 and went on to become an Endeavor entrepreneur, expand his company to 15 markets serving over 200 million end users, and raise money from big-name VCs like KASZEK and Riverwood Capital.Technisys was recently acquired by SoFi in a $1.1 billion all-stock transaction.Miguel and I will be having a chat about:Overcoming bureaucracy and inefficient regulations in developing countriesBuilding and scaling products in traditional sectorsAnd the key factors in pulling off a billion-dollar exitBuilding 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