Jimena Pardo started her startup journey after having a chat with the venture capital fund ALLVP. The Mexican venture capital fund focused on solving the hardest problems in Spanish-speaking Latin America and eventually wrote a check for Jimena's car-sharing startup.

Ten years later, Jimena is on the other side of the table. After also spending some years as a product manager at Facebook, she became ALLVP's newest partner. Jimena joins a fund that manages more than US$ 350 million and has a portfolio of over 40 startups. Their emblematic portfolio company is Cornershop, sold to Uber.

‍Today, Jimena and I talk about:

• What the Mexican ecosystem for startups was like a decade ago, and how it has evolved;
• Her journey as a founder and a tech executive, and how that made her a better investor;
• ALLVP’s current thesis, its plans for the following years, and its view on the current investment climate and on the opportunities for LatAm startups

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Brian Requarth

First of all, Jimena, this is great. It was fantastic to have breakfast with you the other day. It's the serendipity of Mexico City, right? All of a sudden, you show up at the wrong meeting and you get to connect with all these investors, and there are all these great conversations happening.

Jimena Pardo

I'm glad that we got to connect. We've connected a few times in person, in fact. Fun fact, the day that you announced that you were joining ALLVP, we also met in person! So, I feel privileged to have you on here, and thanks for making the time.

No, thank you, Brian. It's an honor and I did find it very, very funny to actually see you walk into the restaurant. We didn't know we were joining each other, so it was quite hilarious.

‍Brian Requarth

You know, I kind of took a little turn. I was like, "oh, I think I'm on the wrong day." And then I realized I was. But you were all kind enough to include me in your breakfast, so thank you. I appreciate that, welcoming a newbie to Mexico City. So let's start with your journey as an entrepreneur. You co-founded the car-sharing startup Carrot about a decade ago, from what I understand. Talk a little bit more about what made you start a company and maybe describe a little bit about what the Mexican startup ecosystem was like at the time. 

Jimena Pardo

Yeah, of course. Yeah, it was 2012 and I was actually preparing to do my MBA. I had a happy problem – I hadn't decided if I wanted to go to NYU or LSE, to which I had both been accepted. And really it's how life is, serendipitous, as the other day when we met in breakfast. I got to know Federico and Diego. Federico from ALLVP actually, now my partner. And Diego, who used to be my partner at the car sharing company. In a very funny way, actually, as we had just met the other day and I actually fell in love with the project. I mean, now that you live in Mexico City, you know that the traffic problem is a huge problem. And it's actually a problem for all of LatAm's biggest cities. So imagine that, to the regular citizen, it takes them 3 hours to get from their house to their work, and then back from work to their house. And imagine giving them back 3 hours of the day, so that they can be with their families. And they can work even better. And they can work out. This can have a huge impact on their lives. So, I was inspired by it. And it was easy to cofound it along with [such] a talented co-founder as Diego. So I pushed back my MBA. I pushed it back long enough that I never went to do it. But I do believe my entrepreneurship is also sort of like an MBA, a real-life MBA. And so we launched in 2012. And actually, I can remember only mostly 3 to 5 VCs available in Mexico. Some of them very, very, very small. And we were ALLVP's first investment. We co-founded it with Venture Institute, which was actually ALLVP's accelerator back in that time. And so it was amazing to be like a trailblazer company for the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Mexico.

Brian Requarth

‍And what were the challenges that you faced during that kind of time? Because this was 10 years ago. And you look at things today and you know the amount of people that are excited about joining startups is much different than in 2012, I can imagine. I mean, I was in Brazil even before that, and I think it was quite similar. So, when you think about the Mexican ecosystem specifically, what did the tech scene look like in Mexico, 10 years ago? Because I wasn't really around much in Mexico at the time. 

Jimena Pardo

Sure, yeah. I do believe that Brazilians were a few steps ahead of us. There was one challenge that was capital. Nobody was investing in a busy-packaged thing. It was more a private equity sort of deal. So it was hard to get capitalized. And, second, talent. Back in those days, everybody was taught to be maybe this corporate guy, multinational, and become the CEO of some big and/or global company, and that was the goal. And there weren't enough people open to quit their actual jobs and join a startup, a promising, different, and disruptive enterprise. So, acquiring talent was very difficult. I think it was the hardest thing for us back on that day. And, third, technology. We don't realize how much we've advanced in these 10 years. I remember one of the hardest things we had to do in the platform was [the] payments solution. It was so difficult to get paid. And now I see that there are so many solutions for a tech startup to just get paid. And just like payments, there were so many challenges that I see that technology has become… We have adopted it better. Now that you live in Mexico City, Mexico City has free wi-fi for everybody. Back in those days, we did not have that. We did not have that much adoption of the internet, etc. So it's been a fast development that I don't think anyone takes the time to see.

Brian Requarth

Como mejicana, as someone who understands the culture quite well and has spent your life here, a good portion of your life here, how have you seen the ecosystem evolve in terms of willingness to jump in and join a tech startup versus those early days, in 2012? I imagine there were some difficulties to convince people to jump on board with you. How do you see the current state of affairs and how do you see that projected out, looking forward?

Jimena Pardo

Sure. So, yes, I can happily say that it's been evolving in these 10 years. For example, what happened in Argentina with Mercado Libre, right? What they did is that they developed so many people, and those people then became entrepreneurs. So these big, successful companies become a big engine of talent. We also have seen that in Colombia, with Rappi. Now I get to see a lot of Rappi founders that are mostly working at the speed of Rappi. And I see it now in Mexico. With all these big unicorns going on, many people are willing to actually leave their big corporate jobs to take this risk and to go work in a faster-paced, more motivational, and bigger-outcome [job], right? And what I've also been seeing and hearing is that this not only comes on the good side, that we're developing people. There are some opportunistic people. I've also heard from a few entrepreneur friends that, with all the capital available last year, many people started working in some companies and startups and it was very difficult to retain talent. Because they will be jumping from one unicorn or one startup to the other. And that is a shame because sometimes it does take you more than 6 months to actually get to know the business, to actually develop the skills, and to become really talented in those specific tasks. So I can tell that, or my recommendation would be for people to actually find some topic that they are passionate about and find the startup which's solving that. And maybe try to get a good career out of it. And that will be the talented people that will found the next big unicorns in the region. 

Brian Requarth

Yeah, I think you can really progress and make a massive impact if you stick around for one of these companies that's on that growth trajectory. What I often like to reflect on is the individual stock price of the person. When you're part of a success story, your individual stock price goes up too because you learn at a much faster rate – and you don't get that knowledge jumping from different place to different place because you don't get to finish what you started. In your career after Carrot, you spent a few years as a product manager at Facebook. Why, and how did that happen? You made the jump from entrepreneur to tech executive and now investor, so you've kind of covered the whole playing field here. Tell us about that jump to joining Facebook. 

Jimena Pardo

Of course. So, basically, after Carrot I was… I'll be completely honest with your audience, but I was burned out. And I needed corporate work to rest. And actually, if you think about Facebook or Meta, it's not a company where you go to rest, right? It's moving so fast and it's breaking things – that's even the mojo of the company, move fast and break things. But I needed the stability of a big corporate. And what I found in Meta was the best product school that I could find. Even when I was inside, I called it my entrepreneurial rehab. And I do believe I spent four years in rehab. Nevertheless, once you've been on the other side, on the entrepreneurial side… I started to feel a lot of FOMO. What everybody was building outside, how fast things were moving, how the ecosystem was evolving, and how it was growing? For example, Latitud, right? How big of an engine has it become in the region? I needed to come back, and I think it happens a lot in these big tech companies that people go, get knowledge and then go out and build something. For me, [joining ALLVP] it was "come back to this side of the table". But with a lot of respect for the founders, because I've been there, a lot of empathy, and trying to get to help them with more than a check, right?

Brian Requarth

I think that that's so critical. And I think it's underestimated, the value and importance of the empathy portion. It's so hard, stressful, and lonely as a founder. Founders love talking to other founders and we've really discovered that at Latitud. It's just, this thing, it's kind of magical. Someone might be one or two steps ahead, but you know you can really just get some solace, get some advice. It's a mix of things that allow for that. What would you say that you learned from both your operating experience and then your experience as a founder that makes you a better investor?

Jimena Pardo

Wow, that is a tough question. I think one is that you need to be passionate about what you're doing on both sides of the table, that is one key thing that I've learned. Second, even on the investor side, product adoption is everything for a business. And if you're not solving something, it doesn't matter how many businesses you get convinced and how many clients you get acquired. You need to have real product adoption, and real product adoption metrics in order to be sustainable in the long run. That would be the second. And the third one will be the people you surround yourself with. As an operator building your team or as a VC, who are you investing in or who is investing in you? Try to get as many quality people, and people you like, as possible. It's important who you work with, right? 

Brian Requarth

It's so critical. I mean, you're spending a lot of time with these folks, whether it's on the founding team, the recruits, or your investors. That kind of chemistry is really important to build over time. And I guess the chemistry was kind of natural for you to join ALLVP because, being ALLVP's first investment, you were both pioneers in a sense. Responsible for kicking off a lot of this developing Mexican startup ecosystem, kind of at the same time. If you think back to the founder’s perspective, what was the value proposition of ALLVP at that time? Why did you choose them as partners and then how did that evolve? And what do you think about the value proposition of ALLVP today? 

Jimena Pardo

Sure. I do think we've learned from both sides. For me, ALLVP made sense because Diego and I were so young and so inexperienced, but at the same time, we were so ambitious. We needed a lot of advice, and advice from Federico. [He] has a lot of operational skills and he helped us out from the beginning with that, and I think we both learned a lot. It was ALLVP's first investment. And now the ALLVP that I see today… There are some strong things that are still the same. For example, how ALLVP is very founder-friendly and how we try to get this empathy, to get the vision of the founder instead of just imposing ours or just giving advice from thin air. But, nevertheless, the thing that ALLVP has become best at is choosing teams and trying to understand the entrepreneur. What's behind them trying to find this brilliant concept they have? How are they competent? How are they able to take this leadership? And how are they like looking into this ambitious dream, as Diego and I did, but also with their feet on the ground? With foundations and stuff that will make it more possible to get to the point where they want to be.

Brian Requarth

Now, at ALLVP you're investing in startups that solve some of the hardest problems in Spanish-speaking LatAm. And you're putting money behind these new solutions in markets that are super regulated. They're complex, they're inefficient. The financial sector, education, healthcare… These are big, meaty business sectors. What is ALLVP's approach to helping early-stage startups tackle such a daunting scenario? If you're building a fintech in a highly regulated area, how does ALLVP roll its sleeves up and help? I'd love to hear from you. I've heard from founders, and I've heard some good comments. But I'd like to hear from you: how's your perspective and how do you discuss that internally? 

Jimena Pardo

Of course. So, basically, we do not invest in things we don't understand, or we don't think we will be able to actually give value other than a check. I know this sounds redundant, but sometimes we do pass a lot of great deals because we're not the right fit, because we don't get them, maybe we're not smart enough, or we don't have the network to actually help them out. So, for those guys that we've done so, I promise we do recognize you have this amazing solution for the region, but we're passing because we are not the smartest money you could get. Leaving aside that, and that's what we try to focus on the teams: how is ALLVP actually gonna be helpful to you? For example, with [our] team "fintech", we feel a very strong knowledge about regulations in Spanish-speaking LatAm, not only in Mexico. That's an industry we feel comfortable going into because we know we can help you out with that. Also, we have a big and strong network in Mexico. As you know, I'm Mexican. Federico is French-Mexican. We have strong networking in Chile. Tonia [Antonia Rojas Eing], my partner, is Mexican too. We have people from Colombia, we have people from Peru. These are regions where we know we can help you out with our own connections, and that's another strong value proposition from ALLVP. Additionally, we have the operational skills for the industries we go into. Otherwise, I would recommend the entrepreneur to actually get someone who would be best fitted to help them. 

Brian Requarth

I think it's really, really important advice for the founders listening: when you're talking to ALLVP, or to any investor for that matter, you should research the type of investing they do, look at the portfolio. I see so many founders that send me, they're like "hey, I'm fundraising", and they send me a hit list of like 50 investment funds, VCs. And there are certain funds that are just either stage agnostic or they're not, maybe they only do Series D or Series C, or they don't invest in certain sectors. We call it "sharpening the axe" when you're thinking about going to fundraise. And part of sharpening the axe is just making sure that your target list matches. Spend time understanding what those funds are looking at, and you'll come up a little more educated. And I know that you're branching out a little bit, and you want ALLVP to expand its horizons, maybe pushing on themes like blockchain, metaverse, and web3. If I'm not mistaken, that's something that I think that you have taken an interest in. I would love to hear and see in those areas a solution for that problem of stale industries, maybe. ALLVP's gone after finance education and healthcare, which are massive industries, and [there are] tons of room for disruption. But how do you see web3 and any of the other different kinds of… Maybe [let's] call them "shiny objects", that are definitely exciting, that people are still trying to uncover and understand how they'll be leveraged.  How do you see those new focuses, and do you think that's something that you'll spend more time on? 

Jimena Pardo

Sure, and great. Thank you also for doing your homework, and getting to know me better, to make the good questions! Basically, I did have a lot of exposure when I was in Meta to the metaverse, right? It is a company that actually changed its name to the metaverse. So, I was able to step, to set a foot on it, and what I'm trying to get, and I invite anyone who's listening, is that we see a lot of web3, we see a lot of crypto, we see a lot of NFTs. And I do understand the value of it, like trading, digital scarcity, etc. But what I'm trying to find is this gem that is actually solving a very functional need with blockchain. I want to see it not only in fintech, collectibles, or in gaming. I would like to find this hard problem being solved with these new technologies. I think it's there, and I haven't received it in my inbox. So it's basically an invitation for your audience. 

Brian Requarth

I'm sure there's someone out there cooking something up. It's one of those things where… The criticism of, for example, blockchain is that there's a central database. "I think you can use a typical database, you don't need to use blockchain." I think that, the people that are skeptics… It feels very familiar to pretty much every era of innovation. Maybe it's hard to articulate exactly what the solutions are. But when there are that many people, smart people, working on something, it's a strong signal. And you got to get ahead of it. For those people that are critical of it, you know they're definitely going to be playing catch-up at some point. It's just a question of timing and seeing how the market develops. But I'm glad it's something you're thinking about because clearly there are parts of Latin America that seem like… Crypto specifically, if you look at Argentina and Uruguay, there are a lot of crypto enthusiasts that are coming out of that part of the world. Clearly, a lot of engineers are thinking about it and working on it, so we'll see how it all evolves. But I'm glad to hear that you're bringing that, bringing a little fresh energy into ALLVP to kind of anticipate what's coming next. So, transitioning a little bit, you at ALLVP usually it's kind of the pre-seed and seed [round]. And then Series A, like Carrot. Does that focus stem from the fact that ALLVP needs to be really close to the founders to tackle those hard problems? Is there any reason why you're very stage-specific, in the early days of capital? Are there any thoughts of going further down the stack and investing in growth rounds? 

Jimena Pardo

Yeah, exactly. Exactly, I think you nailed it. So, basically, we are 3 partners. So, since we like to be very involved with our portfolio and we have only enough headspace for a few companies, right, each one [of us], we cannot be invested in as many as we want. Since we do want to be game changers for them and actually be involved with them. So it's mostly seed and Series A. We like to see a little bit of adoption already moving and, basically, that's it. Since we want to be close to you [the founder], we can only accept a few of them. So we're very, very, very specific. And then, again, for those projects that we sometimes miss, it's not that they're not great projects. But we have to be very disciplined in our heuristics since we cannot accept that many companies.

Brian Requarth

Now, something I love about ALLVP is that you're very open in the investment process, right? You even have a step-by-step guide on your website, from the initial to the final meeting. The whole thing takes a couple of weeks. How efficient and how consistent are you in meeting that timeline? I know you haven't been there that long but I know that you're deeply entrenched in everything, and you spend a lot of time with Fede and Antonia. How accurate is that process? Because that's one of the biggest complaints that founders have about VCs, I'd say, in Latin America. Anywhere, but especially in Latin America, is that. I actually had dinner the other night with a bunch of successful entrepreneurs, artists, and folks in different kinds of roles, and I asked them what's some advice that for me, as a foreigner coming to Mexico, would help me. And one of the things, the first thing that – it was actually Tanya Ross, she has a line of jewelry here in Mexico City –, Tanya said was, "well, a yes is not always a yes, and a maybe is probably a no." And I was like, "Shit, thank you for telling me that, that may have saved me some stress." And so, that was a long way of asking: how effective are you in meeting your timelines, and how do you make it quick?

Jimena Pardo

Sure. So the first thing is: I am super glad there's a process, and to trust that process is amazing. It takes such a heavy weight from your shoulders just saying yes, go all in, or no, I'll pass. If you have a process, that makes it so much easier. And the great thing about the process is to actually follow it and have the discipline to execute it. And, as a founder, I know how important it is to get the answer as soon as possible. So, myself, I do try to get it as fast as possible. And, as you've probably seen on our page, after the first meeting the second step is that all of ALLVP's team, we discuss the project together. Everyone, in the same room. Well, sometimes remote. But, after that, you must get an immediate answer. Like, yes, we can follow on, or I'm sorry, we did not find enough conviction to follow on. And another part of our discipline is that we try to give value to each entrepreneur from the first meeting. So we try to share with you guys why we are not following on. Maybe there wasn't a fit with what we're investing, maybe we were skeptical about something, or maybe we missed something in the deck that would have made us change our minds, etc. So it's very important to not only be super fast at the result but actually try to give them value. So next time, and for other VCs, they'll be stronger. And that they actually will get something back.

Brian Requarth

It's very hard in a world where investors want to keep their optionality. So, how do you separate that, and the temptation to be like "not right now, keep us posted." Because you know this game is a game of momentum, and if there's some momentum, that picks up. Even the strongest investors with incredible conviction get a little FOMO once in a while. So, how do you ensure that you're not closing the door on the founder and at least maintaining some optionality? Or is that just something that you live with and you're just happy to give them the real deal? 

Jimena Pardo

Then again, it's a tough answer. One is: since we do have this discipline in the process, not participating in a round is easier than if it was just your thought or your intuition. Of course, there's a lot of your intuition, but you have reasons for why you did not participate, right? So, that makes it easier. To have strong reasons for why you didn't. Nevertheless, me, personally, I don't see an upside in being rude, mean, or anything around it. Basically, I believe that if I am super honest with the founder and maybe I tell them, "hey, I'm really not participating right now because it is still too small for us, please contact me whenever you have product adoptions, you're building your series A or your seed, or whatever", I'm being completely transparent on it. So, I think it's about respect, right? And that's, basically, how I follow on. 

Brian Requarth

No, I think that's… You actually earn a lot of credit when you're able to just be super authentic and direct with the founder because founders really enjoy certainty. And it allows them to move on and kind of reset. And that's something that's really, really valuable for founders, so [that] they can stay focused on what they need to do. At Latitud we've been thinking a lot about this and we're working on some ideas here, no spoilers, on just how to make things more efficient. We're obviously not leading rounds like you, but we do think that velocity is really important. And it's something that I think can be a competitive advantage if you can get it right. And so it's something, hopefully, we'll figure out. Some innovative ideas on how to deploy capital. We're not a fund, but we have a small fund, so that's something we often talk about. So, ALLVP has invested in over 40 startups, managing US$ 350 million in 3 funds, closing the last, third fund. And then, whisperings of a fourth fund. What do you think about the portfolio construction? Sectors, countries, and then first checks, follow-ons… If you could give us a bit of a breakdown in terms of how that's managed at ALLVP, and what the fund structure is like?

Jimena Pardo

Sure, of course. So, yes, we are finalizing our deployment for fund III and we are raising IV. So, we won't stop investing. And what we're looking at fund IV is [having the] same discipline of the last one. We're investing in four industries, that are fintech, smart cities, human capital, and future of commerce. And they can be solved, as we've mentioned, with different technologies, for example, blockchain. And we are looking at Spanish-speaking LatAm, but also Brazil. Not Brazil to win Brazil, but Brazilian companies who want to win Spanish-speaking LatAm. I think we could be very helpful for them. And we're looking that fund IV will have probably another 15 companies in the portfolio. And, as I've mentioned, we're only 3 partners and we want to be very invested in them. That's why we keep limiting to maybe 5 companies each one. It will be deployed maybe in 4 to 5 years. We're not in a rush, as we're very selective and disciplined. It's part of the thesis. So, please, help us get all these talented people to come. 

Brian Requarth

That's awesome. And, just to wrap up here, we're in this current environment and, actually, during our breakfast of that day, there was that conversation around "are there less startups being created?", "are there less opportunistic founders than when the money was plentiful?" Just would love your perspective because there's plenty of dry powder, and there has been a correction in valuations. I think I've seen you mention once that the best entrepreneurs always stay resilient. And I'm sure that you had to be really resilient as a founder starting over a decade ago. So, did your experience as a founder in your company, when that ecosystem was a lot smaller… Do you think that created this certainty that we're all moving forward, even with corrections and it's all going to work out? And how does that perspective, how did that experience change your perspective and enable you to see the current moment?

Jimena Pardo

Sure. And, well, a lot of things to mention. But, yeah, being an entrepreneur is hard, right? You've been one yourself, and it's harder in LatAm because of regulation. Because we're missing some of the services that you have worldwide. And so, yes, we do need people who are actually really passionate about it and who will not back off at the first barrier that they find. But I am very optimistic since I've seen talent growth. [Growth] In a lot of talent now, [coming] from the successful startups in LatAm. And I've also seen the correction. If you eliminate the craziness of last year, the environment seems like it's growing. It feels like it was an outlier [2021]. And if you take that from the delta, point is, [it's] still going up. Of course, money is expensive right now. But, I mean, we're still growing. As you've mentioned, there's dry powder. And the last thing is that there are so many needs in Latin America and they haven't been solved. And they won't be solved unless these talented people actually get their hands on it. And the technology is already available, we just need to build it correctly in our region. So, I'm super positive of what's happening in Latin America. And I want to thank everyone who's being a stakeholder on it. VCs, accelerators, other entrepreneurs, angel investors, etc. that keep pushing throughout it. 

Brian Requarth

That's awesome. I want to quote our friend Linda Rottenberg. I know that we're both Endeavor Entrepreneurs, so maybe this is a good way to seal the end of the podcast here. But she says: when economies turn down, entrepreneurs turn up. And I think that's the quintessential thought process that I think we both share and we both believe in, the opportunities. So it's gonna be fun to see how it all evolves. And I think it's great that Latin America, that Mexico has another investor who's been in the seat of a founder and who's able to share, to impart some wisdom, experience, empathy, all of the above to pull forward this next generation of founders. So it's great to have you on the podcast and I'm really excited to see everything that ALLVP does with this next fund.

Jimena Pardo

Thank you, Brian. It's been an honor. And it's always a pleasure, it's always fun. 

Brian Requarth

Awesome! Well, thank you so much. Vamos, LatAm, and appreciate your time.