March 13: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with George Roche , investment director at Yara Growth Ventures , the corporate venture capital arm of Yara International , the world's leading crop nutrition and agriculture company out of Norway with $11b market cap. Yara Growth Ventures portfolio includes the likes of SP Ventures , Agrolend and Agrofy . In today's episode we will discuss: 1. What is George's startup evaluation framework? 2. Why 'No, I won't i...
Mar 13, 2023•40 min
February 21: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Camilla Junqueira , managing director at Endeavor Brazil , the leading global community of, by and for high impact entrepreneurs. In today's episode we will discuss: 1. What makes Endeavor so good at building community? What are the lessons that founders can learn from Endeavor's approach towards building community?? 2. What's next for Endeavor? Hint: it has everything to do with globalizing Brazilian en...
Feb 21, 2023•37 min
February 14: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Adolfo Roullion , founder and CEO at Frizata , a direct-to-consumer vertically integrated frozen food tech company that has raised ~ $10M from the likes of the founder of Mercado Libre Marcos Galperin , SP Ventures and Norte. In today's episode we will discuss: 1. What are the building blocks of 25 year strong partnership between Adolfo and his co-founder Jose Robledo? 2. Why big food companies suck at i...
Feb 14, 2023•38 min
February 2: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Victor Santos , founder and CEO at Liv Up , a São Paulo-based D2C healthy frozen food company that has raised over $70M from the likes of Kaszek , ThornTree Capital Partners , Lofoten Capital and many more. In today's episode we will discuss: 1. What are the core skills required to manage complex businesses that combine tech and operations capabilities? 2. What are the most important lessons of Victor's e...
Feb 02, 2023•37 min
January 24: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Francisco Jardim , co-founder and general partner at SP Ventures , a São Paulo-based pioneer venture capital investor in agrifoodtech space in Latin America whose portfolio include the likes of Agrolend , Agrofy and Frizata and that's backed by corporate and industry giants like Yara Growth Ventures , Syngenta and Banco do Brasil . In today's episode we will discuss: 1. What are the ultimate traits that V...
Jan 24, 2023•35 min
January 17: For the first episode of the J Curve in 2023 I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Alan Glezer , co-founder and CFO at Agrolend that has recently raised over $27M in Series B led by Lightrock and joined by Yara Growth Ventures , SP Ventures and Valor Capital Group . In today's episode we will learn: 1. Profitability vs growth. What should founders focus on during adverse market environment? 2. What are the focus areas in agriculture Alan is excited about? 3. What is Agrolen...
Jan 17, 2023•36 min
In this final episode of the year we are taking a look back at top 10 most listened episodes of the year and sharing our favorite insights from each and every one of them. If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our newsletter on our website https://www.thejcurve.com and follow us on Spotify or Apple . The J Curve on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejcurvepodcast/ Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Tech...
Dec 30, 2022•34 min
December 12: For the final episode of the J Curve in 2022 I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Marcos Salama, founder and CEO at Inventa, Brazil's leading digital marketplace for small retailers and suppliers in Latin America that has raised over $80m in venture capital from the likes of Greylock, a16z, Founders Fund, Tiger Global, monashees, One VC and MAYA. In today's episode we will learn: 1. What are the unique challenges of building and scaling a B2B marketplace solution in Latin...
Dec 12, 2022•30 min
November 21: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Weigert, founder and CEO at Conexa Saude, Brazil's leading telemedicine and digital health platform that manages over 20M lives and that has recently raised ~$40M Series C from the likes of General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs and Igah Ventures. In today's episode we will learn: 1. When, why and how to pivot a healthcare business: Conexa's experience 2. What were the most challenging aspects of mana...
Nov 21, 2022•35 min
November 7: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Eduardo Carone, founder and CEO at Atlas Governance, Brazil's leading software platform for corporate governance management that has recently raised $5M Series A from the likes of Volpe Capital and DSK Capital. In today's episode we will learn: 1. What's subjectivism and how to apply that philosophy to business? 2. What are the biggest mistakes startups make as they build enterprise sales? 3. What does it...
Nov 07, 2022•38 min
October 31: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Marcelo Lombardo, founder and CEO at Omie, a São Paulo based ERP platform that has raised over $138M from the likes of SoftBank, Tencent, Riverwood Capital, Dynamo, Velt, Bogari Capital, Hix Capital, Brasil Capital and Astella. In today's episode we will learn: 1. Why is it so hard to build partnerships as a core sales channel? What was the impact of switching from digital ads to partnering with accountan...
Oct 31, 2022•35 min
October 17: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Rodrigo Tognini, a founder and CEO at Conta Simples, a São Paulo based financial platform for SMBs that has recently raised $24M Series A from Tinder founders Justin Mateen's JAM Fund, Valor Capital, Base10 Partners, Y Combinator and Big Bets. In today's episode we will learn: 1. How do you define a product market fit? What are the actual signs of it? 2. How to think about market segmentation when launchi...
Oct 17, 2022•27 min
October 3: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Daniel Ibri, a founder and General Partner at Mindset Ventures, an early stage Sao Paulo based VC firm that invests in B2B startups in Israel and the United States, that just did the first closing of their brand new $100M Fund IV and whose portfolio includes tech unicorns Brex and Turing. In today's episode we will learn: 1. How to build a high performing portfolio on competitive markets like Israel and th...
Oct 03, 2022•32 min
September 14: For this episode of the JCurve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Benjamin Gleason, founder and Head of Strategy & Corporate Development at Kamino, Sao Paulo-based end-to-end financial hub for high growth businesses in Latin America that has recently raised over $6M in pre-seed capital from Inspired Capital, Global Founders Capital, Fontes, Picus Capital and Flourish. In today's episode we will learn: 1. What are Benjamin's key learnings of building Guiabolso and h...
Sep 13, 2022•34 min
August 31: For this episode of the JCurve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Parker Treacy, founder and CEO at Cobli, Brazilian telematics and fleet management platform that has recently raised $35M Series B from the likes of Softbank, Fifth Wall, Qualcomm Ventures and Valor Capital. Prior to that, Parker founded First Help Financial now one of the largest independent auto finance companies in the United States. In today's episode we will learn: 1. What are Parker's key learnings of...
Aug 31, 2022•30 min
August 22: For this episode of The JCurve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Azevedo, founder and Head of Health at Brazilian healthcare company Alice that has recently raised $127M Series C from the likes of SoftBank, Kaszek and Globo Ventures. Prior to that Guilherme co-founded another health company Dr. Consulta and Brazil's largest tilapia fish farm GeneSeas. In today's episode we will learn: 1. What are the critical elements of building a founding team? 2. What are th...
Aug 22, 2022•24 min
Monday, August 8: For this episode of The JCurve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Antoine Colaço, a managing partner at Valor Capital, the leading US / Brazil cross-border multi-stage VC firm, whose portfolio includes over 15 tech unicorns including the likes of Gympass, CargoX, Olist and Loft. Prior to that, Antoine spend 9 years in Google, launching operations for various divisions of the company in India, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. In today's episode we will learn: 1. What a...
Aug 08, 2022•30 min
Friday, July 22: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Assis, founder at Sao-Paulo based Iporanga Ventures whose portfolio includes the likes of Buser, Loggi, Olist and investment platform Gorila in which Guilherme is also a founder and CEO. Most recently Gorila raised over $20M in Series B from Ribbit, Apis and Monashees. In today's episode we will learn: 1) What were Guilherme's key learnings of building and scaling Gorilla across different m...
Jul 22, 2022•25 min
Tuesday, July 5: For this episode of the J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Ana Zucato, founder and CEO ar Noh, a Brazilian fintech operating in shared finance space that has recently raised $3M seed funding from the Ikes of Kindred Ventures, Positive Ventures, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and The Twenty Minute VC by Harry Stebbings. Prior to founding Noh, Ana worked at Intuit, Truora and GuiaBolso. In today's episode we will learn: 1) What are the unique challenges of launc...
Jul 05, 2022•33 min
Tuesday, May 31: For this episode of The J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Jorge Vargas Neto and Vanessa Muglia, co-founders at BHub a Brazilian startup that offers full back-office SaaS for small and medium businesses in Latin America, that has recently raised $20m in Series A from the lines of Monashees, Valor Capital and QED Investors. Prior to BHub, Jorge co-founded Zen Finance that was sold to Rappi and Biva that was acquired by PágSeguro. Vanessa was a co-founder at C...
May 31, 2022•31 min
Monday, May 16: For this episode of The J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Bonifácio and Diego Libanio, founders at Merce do Bairro, a Brazilian marketplace that manages the entire purchasing and delivery process for micro groceries that has recently raised $10 million series A from the likes of Flourish Ventures (The Omidyar Group‘s investment fund), Global Founders Capital (GFC), Domo, MAYA, and Alexia Ventures Prior to Merce do Bairro, Diego and Guilherme co-fou...
May 16, 2022•32 min
Monday, May 2: For this episode of The J Curve I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Guilherme Freire, co-founder and CEO at Dolado, a Brazilian startup that digitizes small retailers in peripheral areas and small cities that has recently raised $10 million Series A from the likes of Valor Capital Group, Flourish (The Omidyar Group‘s investment fund), Global Founders Capital (GFC), IDB Lab, and Endeavor. Prior to Dolado, Guilherme co-founded LIVO Eyewear and Grow Mobility. In today's e...
May 02, 2022•42 min
Wednesday, April 13: For the final episode of The J Curve's LatAm Power Women in Tech Series I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Laura Constantini, co-founder and managing partner at Astella, Sao Paulo-based early stage venture capital firm with over $100M assets under management and over 50 companies invested including the likes of Omie and RD Station. Laura is the industry O.G., the pioneer among women investing in venture capital in Latin America. Laura is a co-host at "Astella ar...
Apr 13, 2022•37 min
Friday, March 25: For this episode I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Mariana Donangelo, partner at KaszeK, Latin America's leading venture capital firm founded by MercadoLibre co-founder Hernan Kazah and its former CFO Nicolas Szekasy. KaszeK has recently raised $1B across two funds and since 2011 has backed over 90 companies including tech unicorns Nubank, Creditas, QuintoAndar, Gympass, Loggi and Kavak. Prior to KaszeK Mariana led growth at Invoice2Go and worked in Accel where sh...
Mar 25, 2022•32 min
Thursday, March 17: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Monica Saggioro, co-founder at MAYA Capital, Latin American early stage venture capital firm, whose portfolio includes the likes of Alice, EmCasa, Gupy, Kovi, Merama, NotCo and many more. Prior to MAYA Capital, Monica was Head of Operations for RBI Latin America where she managed the operations of 1,800 Burger King restaurants across 30 countries in Latin America and prior to that Monica was Strategic Planning ...
Mar 17, 2022•34 min
Tuesday, February 22: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Courtney McColgan, a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO at Runa HR, one of the leading payroll software providers for SMBs in Spanish speaking Latin America. Prior to starting Runa, Courtney was the CMO of Cabify, a taxi application for Latin America, where she grew the company from 3 cities and $20M valuation to 130 cities across 12 countries and a $1.5B valuation. Previously, she also worked in ven...
Feb 22, 2022•36 min
Thursday, February 10: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Gina Gotthilf, co-founder at Latitud, a platform helping build the next generation of iconic tech startups in Latin America through a dedicated fellowship and fund. In today's episode we will learn: 1) What was it like to build Latitud amidst Covid-19 pandemic? And what is the value Latitud brings to the tech ecosystem in Latin America? 2) What are the unique problems Latin America faces today that could bec...
Feb 10, 2022•35 min
Tuesday, February 1: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Milena Oliveira, founding partner at Volpe Capital, a brand new Sao Paulo-based early and growth VC firm with $100M AUM and the likes of Softbank, BTG. and Banco Inter affiliates among anchor investors. In today's episode we will learn: 1) How did the legal environment in Brazil evolve over the course of the last several years? 2) What is the biggest challenge Latin American venture capital industry will face ...
Feb 01, 2022•21 min
Friday, January 21: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Bianca Martinelli, partner at Alexia Ventures, Sao Paulo-based early stage VC that invests in SaaS, data & analytics and AI that has recently raised $80M from some of the best entrepreneurs in the region and whose portfolio includes the likes of Merce do Bairro and Hashdex. In today's episode we will learn: 1) What is the ultimate value a VC with global operational background can bring to Latin American tab...
Jan 20, 2022•26 min
Friday: For this episode, I am thrilled to bring you my conversation with Manoela Mitchell, co-founder and CEO at Pipo Saude, Brazilian operator of health benefits platform, whose corporate customers include Brazilian Unicorns MadeiraMadeira and Buser and that has recently raised $20M Series A from the likes of Thrive Capital, Monashees, Kaszek, Atlantico and Nubank's co-founder David Velez. In today's episode we will learn: 1) What is the impact of diversity on high growth tech company performa...
Dec 17, 2021•32 min
