Follow the biggest innovators and tech founders in Latin America as they cover valuable insights and inspire entrepreneurs facing challenges in scaling their business and raising capital. Presented by Brian Requarth, Co-founder at Latitud. 

Latitud Podcast

We live in a software-powered world but many practices in the venture capital industry still lack the technology it invests in. We see innovation increasing at an accelerated pace, whereas many of the VC firms that finance innovation seem stuck in time. 

Avlok Kohli has a few possible explanations for this irony, and a lot of propositions to offset it. CEO of AngelList Venture, he's been leading the platform that adds more flexibility and accessibility to the fundraising process. 

Among its products, AngelList changed the game by introducing syndicates and, last year, the rolling fund model. 

In this episode, we explore some of the benefits and details of these initiatives, including: 

The main differences between syndicates, rolling funds, and traditional venture funds 

Check out Latam's first rolling fund at fund.latitud.com

Rolling funds and tech-powered venture capital: Avlok Kohli, AngelList Venture

With a Harvard MBA under his belt, after his role as co-CEO of Groupon, Lucas Vargas had a lot of options for his next step. But he didn't take a step: he took a leap of faith – and decided to join a small proptech startup in Brazil called Viva Real.

As CEO, Brian hired Lucas to be the Vice-President of Sales. Just a couple of years later, Brian knew Lucas was going to be his replacement when he eventually stepped out.

It was a process of intense self-discovery and challenges for Lucas that involved managing highly experienced executives and having to let go of about 400 people, as he led the company through the merger with ZAP and the acquisition by OLX.

Once the deal was finalized, he packed up these lessons to embark on a new journey: Lucas is now leading Nomad, a global digital bank offering financial services and investments for the Brazilian mass affluent.

How vulnerability got integrated into his leadership style

How they used the DISC framework to build cohesive teams

The importance of speed in an early-stage startup environment

And the behind the scenes of our merger with ZAP

Team management ordeals: Lucas Vargas, Nomad

Falling and getting back up is what makes the cycles of an entrepreneurial journey, but some people just enjoy to be constantly getting ideas off the ground, even if the previous ones are growing steady. Alex Torrenegra is an example of this.

Alex has been a friend for 10 years, and I'm proud that his first ever angel investment was in my company, Viva Real. You may also know him as a tiburón in the tv show Shark Tank Colombia. But before all that, Alex bootstrapped a number of companies, including Voice 123 and Bunny Studio, both of which he started with his wife, Tania Zapata.

Then in 2020, after years of being an investor and his own venture capitalist, Alex went out to raise capital for a business of his own for the first time. And while a lot of founders may prefer to not have too many people on their cap table, he intentionally went the opposite way. By design, Torre's first seed round had over 50 investors from more than 15 countries.

His experience fundraising during the pandemic and being rejected

Some of his lessons from 20 years of building remote companies

What was the most memorable pitch he's heard on Shark Tank and why it stuck

Check out Remoter, the why-and-how guide to building remote teams

From zero to one, over and over: Alex Torrenegra, Torre

In the startup world, it's becoming more common for founders to share mistakes they made when they were starting out, but we rarely get to know about early mistakes investors make.

Well, today, Jonathan Lewy is gonna bring the challenges he faced from both sides.

Jonathan moved from Belgium to Mexico right out of college, and built a food delivery app called MiOrden that was sold to SinDelantal in 2012. His experience fundraising until then had been so frustrating that, after the acquisition, he decided to give back. That's when he joined his co-founder Sergio Romo again and together they started a seed capital firm called Investo.

One of their first bets was Rappi, before many had dreamed of being a unicorn. Today, Investo's portfolio companies also include Unbabel, Cambly, Runa and many others.

But that's not all. Jonathan and Sergio also co-founded Grin, a brand you may have seen on scooters around one of their many locations. By merging with Brazil-based Yellow, Grin went from 4 to 2,500 employees in one year and became Grow, a micromobility pioneer.

His counterintuitive tips on crafting a good pitch

Precautions on building a company that depends on VC

And how to deal with conflicting interests

It's an art, not a science: Jonathan Lewy, Investo and Grin

While a lot of VCs may ironically be discouraged by turmoil in emerging markets, Shu Nyatta feels comfortable in messy places. In his own words, because he grew up in one. 

A Nairobi native, he's lived in the US as a young consultant, in the UK as an Anthropology student, and in Dubai as a company operator. He even had a brief career as a recording artist – if you noticed a soundtrack change today, that's his music in the opening of this episode! 

It was through this winding journey that he found where he wanted to place his intellectual energy: financing tech and underrepresented founders. 

Shu joined the investment team at SoftBank in Silicon Valley in 2015, before it started revealing itself to the world as the powerhouse it is today. Since then, he's helped direct roughly 2.5 billion in growth capital to startups in Latin America. He's also behind initiatives like Softbank's AI Academy and the Opportunity Fund. 

In this episode, Shu urges you to embrace the mess as he talks about: 

As the CMO of Cabify, Courtney McColgan led the company's market expansion from series A through series D, across 120 cities. She had roughly 350 people that reported to her. And every month, without exception, she received complaints from team members about issues with their paycheck. 

Motivated by solving a familiar challenge, Courtney founded Runa, a startup that automates payroll for businesses in Latin America. 

By then, from the time she spent at Cabify, she knew a thing or two about building a unicorn in the region. So she was ready to build her own. 

That, of course, came with a lot of challenges she wasn't so familiar with. In this episode, she shares some of the main ones, including: 

Building a senior management team remotely as a solo founder. 

Scaling software between Latin American countries. 

How her pitch changes when she talks to US investors vs local ones. 

And adjusting personal roles to take care of a fast-growing company. 

The trials and triumphs of a solo founder: Courtney McColgan, Runa

Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do. That’s true for companies, it’s true for products, and it's true for VCs too. 

Emergence Capital is known for a few superstar deals, like Crunchbase and Zoom, but also for their focus sourcing and selecting deals. They look at B2B software as a service companies, and nothing else. 

In the early 2000s, when the firm started, it wasn't an obvious space to place a bet. But it turns out that massive value is unlocked when you hone in and focus. Today we talk to General Partner Santiago Subotovsky, who just became one of the first investors from LatAm to make the prestigious Midas List. 

How they assess patterns of successful entrepreneurs. 

What he's learned from the founder of Zoom, their biggest investment to date. 

Are the best deals really the ones where there's controversy? 

Unlock value by focusing: Santiago Subotovsky, Emergence Capital

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Latest Episode

Previous Episodes

Rolling funds and tech-powered venture capital: Avlok Kohli, AngelList Venture

Team management ordeals: Lucas Vargas, Nomad

From zero to one, over and over: Alex Torrenegra, Torre

It's an art, not a science: Jonathan Lewy, Investo and Grin

Embrace complexity: Shu Nyatta, Softbank

The trials and triumphs of a solo founder: Courtney McColgan, Runa

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