Crossing Borders With Nathan Lustig

Daniel Rodriguez, Picap: Delivery and Logistics in Latin Americans, Ep 136   Daniel Rodriguez lives in Bogotá, the third most traffic-congested city in the world. He knows a thing or two about the frustration that comes from spending hours inside a car in slow-moving traffic when you need to get somewhere.    Daniel’s usual response to these situations was to hitch a ride on a motorcycle. The ease and speed with which they would navigate Bogota’s congested streets made him realize that many other Colombians could benefit from this solution. So he decided to launch Picap, a ride-hailing platform that boasts one of the largest motorcycle fleets in Latin America.   I sat down with Daniel to talk about some of his first endeavors from selling empanadas at school to eventually founding his first startup Smart Taxi. We also discuss the real problems that Picap is solving through its ride-hailing and logistics services, as well as how they overcame the regulatory hurdles that disruptive businesses often have to face

Brynne McNulty Rojas: Leading Colombia’s Real Estate Industry into the Future, Ep 135 Born and raised in New Jersey, Brynne McNulty Rojas’ interest in the real estate industry goes back to one of her classes about international housing finance systems while an undergraduate at Wharton, where she learned about how property ownership rights in informal communities drive economic development.   After graduating, she joined Goldman Sachs where she spent 4 years investing in property across the US. She later joined a proptech startup in New York before studying for two years at Harvard, and spent time at a San Francisco online mortgage origination startup. These experiences made her aware of how tech was affecting an antiquated industry, something that remained with her as she moved to another country.    I sat down with Brynne to talk more about her experience in real estate and decision to start Habi. We also discuss the process of buying and selling a property in Colombia and how Habi is improving it, and som

Rodrigo Sánchez-Ríos, La Haus: Helping Latin Americans Find their Ideal Homes, Ep 134   Rodrigo Sanchez Rios’ childhood dream was to be like Bruce Wayne. He grew up in Tijuana, Mexico surrounded by great role models in his family who instilled in him a strong sense of ambition and hunger for knowledge. After obtaining an engineering degree at MIT, working on Wall Street, and completing a Master’s in business at Stanford, Rodrigo decided his next step was to become an entrepreneur.   A trip to Colombia with his Stanford classmates Tomas and Jeronimo Uribe opened his eyes to the amazing business opportunities the Colombian market has to offer. Together, they founded Jaguar Capital, a real estate development and investment fund that currently has $350M in assets under management. As Rodrigo learned more about Colombia’s challenging real estate industry, he realized that there was an opportunity to disrupt the market and decided to start La Haus, a proptech that is helping Latin Americans find their ideal home.  

Brian Requarth, Viva the Entrepreneur: Founding, Scaling and Raising Venture Capital in Latin America, Ep 133   Over a decade ago, Brian Requarth bought a one-way ticket to Colombia and never looked back. Since then, he’s become a seasoned entrepreneur and investor, having founded, scaled, merged, and exited VivaReal, a leading proptech startup in Brazil.   Well acquainted with the challenges that are unique to Latin America, Brian is now focusing on helping early-stage founders build the next generation of world-class tech companies through his newest project, Latitud.   In his second time around on the podcast, I sat down with Brian to talk about the growing pains of merging operations with Grupo Zap and why acquihiring is one of the most underutilized strategies of large tech companies in the region. We also discuss how the ecosystem has evolved since 2009 and what inspired him to write his book Viva the Entrepreneur: Founding, Scaling and Raising Venture Capital in Latin America. Merging with a competitor

Alejandro Freund: The path to shutting down a Latin American Startup, Ep 132 It's not easy to shut down a start up anywhere in the world. But in Latin America, founders feel even more pressure to not lose investor money or admit that their company isn't turning out how they wanted it to.   Alejandro Freund was the co-founder and CEO of YaEsta, at the time, a leading ecommerce company in Ecuador. Since winding down YaEsta, he’s landed on his feet and is now the Country Manager for Rappi in Ecuador.   I want to thank Alejandro for this moment of vulnerability and leadership where he shares with me and the rest of the world the painful process of shutting down a company. In this episode, he talks about the hardships and sacrifices that come with the job, such as managing personal relationships and knowing when to let go of a startup. YaEsta in hindsight When Alejandro launched YaEsta, he believed that all the conditions were in his favor for them to succeed: the idea, the team, the funding. Ecuador was shaping

Juliana Sarmiento, Envíoclick: Reimagining the logistics industry in Latin America, Ep 131 Juliana Sarmiento always knew she wanted to create value for her community by starting her own company. Raised in a family of entrepreneurs, she knew what she would be getting herself into by choosing this path. Along with the challenges that come with starting a business, she had also been exposed to the positive impact that entrepreneurship could have on society.   Today, Juliana is co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Envíoclick, a Mexico City-based logistics platform that connects freight and courier companies with businesses in Latin America. Their clients range from leading e-commerce companies like Mercado Libre to small and medium-sized businesses that need help in running more efficient operations.   I sat down with Juliana to talk about how Envíoclick’s solution is transforming the logistics and delivery industry in Mexico and Latin America. We also discuss how the e-commerce landscape has changed since 20

James Currier, NFX: Transforming How Innovators are Funded, Ep 130 James Currier is General Partner at NFX, an early-stage venture capital firm that focuses on network effect businesses. As a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of four VC-backed companies, James has become an expert on network effects and growth.    Through software and educational content, James and his co-founders are building a venture firm with a founders first approach that allows them to share their knowledge about growth and network effects to build impactful companies.   I sat down with James to talk about his experience as an entrepreneur and an investor and starting and working with some of today’s leading internet companies. James gives great advice on starting a company, choosing a co-founder, and approaching a meeting with a VC. We also touch on NFX’s selection criteria for founders and how they tripled the rate at which they were investing when COVID-19 hit. Building a website with 175M users when the Internet had 600M   After g

Álvaro Silberstein, Wheel the World: Creating Accessible Travel Experiences, Ep 129 A trip to Torres del Paine in the south of Chile became an opportunity for Álvaro Silberstein to put his startup idea to the test. Most travel platforms provide basic information about price, location, transportation, accommodation, and excursion options. However, few platforms cater to the specific needs of people with disabilities.   Álvaro is the co-founder and CEO of Wheel the World, a travel platform that goes one step further by empowering people with disabilities with travel experiences around the world that are more inclusive and accessible.   In this episode, I sat down with Álvaro to talk about how Wheel the World changes the user experience for people with disabilities that want to explore the world. We also discuss their fundraising process and participation in different accelerator programs, as well as how they’ve responded to the COVID-19 pandemic which has put traveling on hold for most people. Entrepreneurship

Javier García, Femsa: Collaborating with the most disruptive startups in Latin America, Ep 128   Javier García knew that there were at least 50 ways of doing corporate venture capital the wrong way, which is why he took a couple of years to figure out how to do it right with FEMSA. Today, Javier is the Director of Corporate Venturing and Growth Capital at FEMSA’s corporate venture capital fund. FEMSA is a publicly-traded conglomerate company that started out as a brewery and has produced popular brands like Dos Equis and Tecate.    Founded in 1890, FEMSA has since branched out into other business verticals such as drugstores, gas stations, and restaurants, including OXXO, the  largest chain of small-format stores in Mexico.   I sat down with Javier to talk about his transition from consulting to working at FEMSA and getting involved with Latin America’s venture capital ecosystem. We discuss innovation in corporations and Javier shares tips on how to collaborate with startups and large corporations. Getting a

Manuel Olguín, Keynua: E-signatures for the Latin American market, Ep 127 As a serial entrepreneur in Latin America, Manuel Olguín is very familiar with the unique challenges that the region holds that can turn into amazing opportunities. One of those pain points is the time-consuming process of signing legal documents. While in the US e-signatures have been widely adopted, in Latin America this is still a novelty.   Having gone through this process on numerous occasions with his own startups, Manuel decided to co-found Keynua, an electronic signature provider that has the added component of identity verification through facial recognition. At Magma Partners, we’ve invested in Keynua’s disruptive solution which has also received backing as part of YCombinator’s 2019 winter batch.    I sat down with Manuel to talk about his first experience as an entrepreneur when LatAm’s VC industry was just getting started and how he combined his love of tech and his experience in the movie industry to found Cinepapaya. We

Amir Salihefendic, Doist: Best Practices for the Remote Work Revolution, Ep 126 Although Amir Salihefendic has been an advocate for remote work for over a decade, he never envisioned that the worldwide shift to remote would take place as a result of a pandemic. Amir is the founder and CEO of Doist, a remote-first company that specializes in productivity software and currently offers two products: Todoist and Twist.   Todoist is one of the most popular task management tools in the world, while Twist helps teams balance work with collaborative conversations. As a remote-work pioneer, Doist’s 80 person team is spread across 30 countries and multiple time zones and has an employee retention rate of over 95%.    This is the second time I sit down with Amir to talk about the future of work. In this episode, Amir talks about how he experiences remote work in a post-COVID world and provides tips to those who have only recently transitioned into this modality. We also discuss the power of asynchronous work and how to

Andrea Baba, FitCo: Digitizing Fitness Centers in Latin America, Ep 125 Andrea’s first experience as an entrepreneur was starting her own Zumba studio when she was 18 years old. Within a year of operating, she started to expand her business, hiring more instructors and gaining more clients. However, Andrea saw that managing her business solely on Excel spreadsheets and notebooks was limiting her company’s growth.    In true entrepreneurial spirit, Andrea decided to find a solution to her own problem. Together with her co-founder Alex, they set out to build a tool that would help fitness centers in Latin America to scale their businesses. And Fitco was born.    I sat down with Andrea to talk about how she combined her passion for fitness and her background in finance to start Fitco in Peru’s budding startup ecosystem. We also discuss their experience at Techstars’ Boulder Accelerator as the first LatAm startup to be accepted into the program and how Fitco has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Becoming Fitco

Mariana Castillo, Ben & Frank: Direct-to-Consumer Eyewear for the Mexican Market, Ep 124   Mariana Castillo believes that the eyewear shopping experience in Mexico is broken. It’s generally reduced to an impersonal exchange that only considers the basic optical measurements, rather than catering the product to the customer’s style and personality.    Mariana is the co-founder and co-CEO of Ben & Frank, a direct-to-consumer eyewear brand that seeks to transform the way Mexicans buy eyewear by providing fashionable and affordable options.   I sat down with Mariana to talk about why an internship at ALLVP played a key role in her decision to become an entrepreneur, the lessons she learned from working at Mexico’s Central Bank, and the insights she’s gained about the direct-to-consumer category in Latam; from building a brand to fundraising. And lastly, Mariana shares advice on how to remove biases in the ecosystem to empower female founders. A career-defining moment at ALLVP Before discovering her entrep

Claire Díaz-Ortiz, Magma Partners: Investing in Latin American Female Founders, Ep 123   Claire Díaz-Ortiz has been passionate about investing in women and supporting the underrepresented since her days at Stanford, where she completed an undergrad in Feminist Studies and History. However, it wasn’t until later in her career as an angel investor, and now as a VC Partner, that she truly understood the business case for investing in women.    Having spent the last 6 months working in stealth mode, Claire joined Magma Partners as a Partner to lead both Southern Cone and Brava, an initiative that seeks to invest in more Latin American female founders. Brava is committed to investing in at least 20 female-founded Latin American startups through Magma’s fund III.    I sat down with Claire to officially welcome her on the team and talk about the importance of investing in women and doing business in emerging markets. We touch on topics of privilege and the biases that exist in the world that are reflected in the ven

Dan Green, Gunderson Dettmer: Legal Structures for Startups in Latin America, Ep 122   An avid traveler from a young age, Dan Green’s relationship with Latin America stretches all the way back to his childhood trips to Mexico and Ecuador and visits from an aunt who dazzled him with stories about doing business in Chile. Driven by his passion for the region, Dan was set on becoming a link between the US and Latin American markets.    In 2004, Dan started practicing law in Silicon Valley, immersing himself in the venture capital and startup world. Today, Dan is a corporate partner at Gunderson Dettmer, a law firm that focuses on global venture capital and emerging technology and has been practicing in and around Latin America for over 15 years.   I sat down with Dan to talk about how his trip to Latin America during his 20s inspired him to focus on building a bridge between Silicon Valley and the region, supporting top-level entrepreneurs like the current founders of Cornershop. We also discuss the advantages a

Mandeep Rai, The Values Compass: What 101 Countries Teach Us About Purpose, Life, and Leadership, Ep 121   Mandeep Rai’s meeting with a Sikh person in the middle of Panama during her sabbatical across Latin America led her on a journey to not only start to understand that the tropical country was a cultural melting pot, but was also a pivotal moment on her journey to write a book titled “The Values Compass”, which talks about the power she discovered from understanding the values and cultures of different countries and how we can learn from them to lead a more fulfilled life.   She’s only an international best-selling author, but also an investor, mentor, and broadcast journalist for the BBC World Service. Mandeep started her career in investment banking at JP Morgan, and has worked for the United Nations, the European Commission, and several grassroots NGOs.   I sat down with Mandeep to talk about how a short trip to Latin America served as inspiration for her international best-selling book. We also discuss

Santiago Pineda, Mensajeros Urbanos: Transforming Latin America’s Last-Mile Delivery Industry, Ep 120 Santiago Pineda started his entrepreneurial journey straight out of highschool at 18 years old. He would spend hours at his university’s library learning how to code to launch his company’s website. Originally from Colombia, where the floral sector represents one of the main industries for the country, Santiago decided to start an e-commerce for flowers during his university years.   After his first experience as a founder, Santiago was hooked on the idea of building a big company. Today, he is the CEO of Mensajeros Urbanos, a last-mile logistics platform that is using technology and a diverse collaborative logistics network to bring fast low-cost deliveries to Latam.   I sat down with Santiago to talk about his early entrepreneurial beginnings, followed by his experience founding a stock simulator with his brother, to eventually joining Mensajeros Urbanos. We also discuss the opportunity that the last-mile

Matías Muchnick, NotCo: Building The Future of Food From Chile, Ep 119 Matías Muchnick left the investment banking world in pursuit of a solution that would bring sustainability to the broken food industry. He could not have predicted that a couple of years later he would be training an algorithm to understand humans’ taste preferences to create a plant-based mayonnaise that would appeal to the mass market.    In 2015, Matías cofounded NotCo, a food tech company that is using AI to take animals out of the equation in the production of milk, cheese, eggs, and meat. Just eight months after launching their first product in 2017, NotCo achieved 8% market share of the total mayo category in Chile in the first stores they launched in, a country that has ranked third in mayo consumption per capita in the world.   I sat down with Matías to talk about his experience in the investment banking world, starting a vegan food startup in 2012 and, ultimately, his decision to leave the company. We also discuss his transforma

Gustavo Guida, Alloy Card: Starting Companies in Brazil since 2000, Ep 118 Gustavo Guida has been starting companies in Latin America before it was cool. He founded his first company in 2000, during Brazil’s tech bubble. Bondfaro was a price comparison website which, after merging with Buscapé in 2006, became the largest of its kind in Latin America. Since then, Gustavo has continued founding companies including HelpSaude, and most recently, Alloy Card.   As co-founder and co-CEO of Alloy Card, Gustavo is bringing automation to the world of finance. The fintech startup offers consumers a credit card that uses automation to help people have more control over their finances. Alloy Card was also part of 500 Startups’ recent batch and is set to officially launch in the US first.   I sat down with Gustavo to talk about his experience starting a company in Brazil’s tech bubble, then merging with Buscapé, and getting acquired by Naspers. We also discuss his decision to continue starting companies after his first ex

Christine Kenna, IGNIA: Building the Foundation of Mexico’s Venture Capital Industry, Ep 117 Christine Kenna could not have predicted that a consulting gig in Mexico City would lead her into building an entire career in investing in Latin America. Although Christine is originally from Palo Alto, she has been working and investing in Mexico since 2006. Over the years she has been a huge proponent of women investors and entrepreneurs creating initiatives like Women in Private Equity and Venture Capital in Mexico and Mujeres Invirtiendo.   Now, Christine is Partner at IGNIA, a venture capital firm based in Mexico City where she invests in companies that are serving the emerging middle class of the region. They focus on companies that are expanding into LatAm or are based in LatAm and are growing within the region.   I sat down with Christine to talk about how she ended up in Latin America and how her perception of venture capital completely changed when she started working at IGNIA. We also discuss how the indu