Startupable

This week I talked to David Zhou, Head of Investor Relations at Alchemist Accelerator, to understand who emerging Limited Partners (LPs) are and what motivates them, and how General Partners (GPs) can raise capital from them.Over a year ago, David wrote “The Non-Obvious Emerging LP Playbook”, which has become one of the best blog posts on the somewhat obscure world of Limited Partners, the money behind the Venture Capital industry. Since then, David has become one of the best community builders in Silicon Valley, focused on helping emerging Limited Partners think and invest like the most established Limited Partners. David also hosts a fabulous podcast called Superclusters, focused on demystifying the world of Limited Partners.GET THE BEST OF THE INTERVIEWS IN OUR NEWSLETTER🗞️ Register here: https://rebrand.ly/tssnwsrss

There are nearly 5 million Latino-owned businesses in the US and nearly 1 in 4 new businesses are started by Latinos. And yet, access to banks and financial products is not as easily available for these entrepreneurs.  Sean Salas decided to change that by co-founding Camino Financial. Through technology and AI, they offer affordable loans to satisfy the demand for credit that rises to 20 billion dollars from Latino micro and small businesses.Camino raised over 150 million dollars of debt and equity funding, and in 2023 they merged with Fundation, an SMB tech-enabled lender and specialist in bank channel partnerships.Sean and I talked about the Latino market in the US and the challenges it faces, how the business model of Camino works to allow them to serve micro businesses, and the lessons he has learned about building a company and fulfilling his vision.GET THE BEST OF THE INTERVIEWS IN OUR NEWSLETTER🗞️ Register here: https://rebrand.ly/tssnwsrss

 Numerous startups like online bootcamps and MOOCs have tried to disrupt and reimagine the higher education system. However, the idea of merging these modern educational models with traditional universities seemed far-fetched until recently.With over 120k paid subscribers and 1M users, Alura made headlines by acquiring FIAP, a well-known private technology university in Brazil. This move was a strategic step towards offering comprehensive courses and in-person classes complementing their online programs. I sat with Paulo Silveira, Alura’s founder, to understand the reasoning behind acquiring a traditional university, why online education can’t grow as fast as SaaS, how to balance rapid growth with the quality of learning, and whether startups will actually be able to disrupt traditional universities. GET THE BEST OF THE INTERVIEWS IN OUR NEWSLETTER🗞️ Register here: https://rebrand.ly/tssnwsrss

Today’s guest has a habit of explaining how the payment ecosystem works on any opportunity he gets. Leveraging this expertise, Richie Serna founded Finix, a fintech that started as a payment infrastructure startup and gradually expanded into facilitating and processing payments.To date, Finix has raised more than 130 million dollars and processes tens of billions of dollars in payments.Riche and I talked about all things payments, the product insights he gained from the industry’s history, Finix's business model evolution from enabling vertical SaaS to becoming a payment processor, and how payments will shape the future of software.GET THE BEST OF THE INTERVIEWS IN OUR NEWSLETTER🗞️ Register here: https://rebrand.ly/tssnwsrss

Elias is the co-founder of Drift, a software platform that’s reimagining the B2B buying experience by helping businesses deliver personalized conversations with their customers. Drift serves over 50,000 customers including companies like ServiceNow, Okta, Mindbody, Adobe and Snowflake; and reached unicorn status in 2021 when private equity firm Vista Equity Partners acquired a majority stake. Prior to this, Drift had raised more than $100 million in funding from the likes of Sequoia Capital, CRV and General Catalyst.GET THE BEST OF THE INTERVIEWS IN OUR NEWSLETTER🗞️ Register here: https://bit.ly/3uanRoU

This is my first episode, and I couldn't be more grateful to start with such an incredible guest. Today, I had Kevin Efrusy on the show. Kevin joined Accel Partners in 2003 and was the lead investor in companies like Groupon, Couchbase, and Facebook, which is likely one of the best venture investments of all time. The story of how he leveraged a “prepared mind” to source Facebook and convince Mark Zuckerberg in 2005 to accept the Accel deal earned him a feature in Sebastian Mallaby's book 'The Power Law'.Kevin also began Accel's Latin America initiatives, leading to investments in Despegar, Gympass, Nuvemshop, and Quinto Andar. He has been a significant supporter of LatAm’s startup ecosystem since its early days, personally investing in two of the leading venture funds in the region, Kaszek and Monashees, and helping many other founders.GET THE BEST OF THE INTERVIEWS IN OUR NEWSLETTER🗞️ Register here: https://bit.ly/3uanRoU