The Enthusiast: Founders and VCs beyond the Valley
By Pat Alex
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Category: Entrepreneurship
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Episodes: 100
Description
"Entrepreneurial Talent is Global" - On The Enthusiast, Host Pat Alex chats with some of the most fascinating Founders, Operators and Investors Beyond Silicon Valley.
Every two weeks, he sits down with the likes of Arjuna Costa (Flourish), Paulo Passoni, Jeffrey Paine (Golden Gate Ventures), Gerry Giacoman (Clara) and Monica Brand Engel (Quona) to dissect their challenges around scaling, fundraising, managing boards and company leadership. Taken together, the guests have raised venture capital in the hundreds of millions and are behind their regions' biggest business and venture successes paving the way towards a more equitable and diverse future.
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| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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Pedro Vallenilla (Cashea) on bringing consumer credit back to Venezuela, scaling to 10M customers in 3 years and becoming Kaspi
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Nov 11, 2025 |
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Bernardo Garcia (Félix) on doing things that don’t scale, the power of your first 20 customers and getting the flywheel going
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Sep 16, 2025 |
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Puren Ucar (fmr. Head of Talent @Earlybird) on why founders need to spend 40% of their time on hiring, the unequal impact of AI on startup roles and revenue / employee as a metric
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Aug 18, 2025 |
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Gaurav Biswas (Trukker) building the uber of trucks in MENA, scaling in a fragmented industry and growing on century old logistic routes from Turkey to Kaszakstan
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Jul 29, 2025 |
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[Operator Stories] Lucas Vargas (Nomad) on diversifying your assets, investing like the 1% and scaling to 100M+ in ARR
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Jul 15, 2025 |
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[Operator Stories] Pedro Arnt (dLocal) on preserving startup agility whilst becoming big company, the IPO is just the beginning and his new chapter as dLocal CEO
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May 20, 2025 |
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[Investor Journey] Camila Vieira (QED) on prioritizing moats over themes, the fund’s structure through multiple instruments and know where you land on Liquidity
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Apr 29, 2025 |
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[Investor Journey] Michael Lints (Golden Gate Ventures) launching the fund’s MENA presence, synergies between South East Asia and the GCC, liquidity and the role of secondaries
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Apr 15, 2025 |
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Mihai Faur (UiPath) on timing and IPO readiness, Act 2 for the company from UiPath to AiPath combining the power of AI and automation
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Apr 01, 2025 |
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[Investor Journey] Rafael Costa (Across Capital) driving alpha through portfolio concentration, inflection stage capital for LatAm & US
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Mar 11, 2025 |
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[Investor Journey] Milena Oliveira (Volpe Capital) on taking concentrated bets in Latin America, dynamics of early growth investing and lessons on portfolio construction
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Feb 25, 2025 |
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[Operator Stories] Alexis Pantazis (Hellas Direct) scaling an insurtech, profitable markets vs. TAM, vertical integration as a moat
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Feb 11, 2025 |
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[Investor Journey] Jimena Prado (Hi Ventures) on filtering through the AI noise, investing in lines not dots and transitioning from founder to funder
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Jan 28, 2025 |
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[Investor Journey] Izabel Gallera (Canary) on getting to conviction in early stage investing, pattern recognition and what will be the next Nubank of Brazil?
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Jan 14, 2025 |
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[Investor Journey] Christine Kenna (Ignia) on navigating ambiguity in investing, introducing Mexican pension funds to VC and driving DPI
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Dec 10, 2024 |
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[Operator Stories] Pavel Fedorov (Salmon) on building a challenger bank in the Philippines, the Tinkoff Playbook and why credit first
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Nov 26, 2024 |
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[Investor Journey] Esteban Sosnik (Reach Capital) on building a sector specific fund, challenges of digitizing education and new value unlock through AI
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Nov 12, 2024 |
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[Investor Journey] Alex Lazarow on Emerging Markets Fintech Quo Vadis - Data, Delivery, Distribution
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Oct 29, 2024 |
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[Operator Stories] Coen Jonker (TymeBank) on building a multi-country emerging markets digital bank from South Africa to the Philippines & maintaining CAC low
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Oct 15, 2024 |
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[Operator Stories] Mikhail Lomtadze (Kaspi) on building a $20Bn business out of Kazakhstan, the superapp strategy and secrets on execution
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Oct 01, 2024 |
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[Strategic DeepDive] Erin Renzas on finding the metric your business cares about and move it, what makes a great CMO and how to avoid peanut-buttering in marketing spent
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Jul 23, 2024 |
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[Operator Stories] Ralf Wenzel (JOKR) on how to achieve profitability in grocery delivery models, value chain integration and what founders and artist have in common
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May 28, 2024 |
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[Investor Journey] Ali Karabey (212vc) on bringing VC investing to Türkiye, playing the platform game right without losing focus and building conviction
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Apr 02, 2024 |
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[Operator Stories] Hamdi Tabbaa (Abwaab) on scaling edtech in MENA, market expansion for a highly localized product offering and upselling
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Mar 19, 2024 |
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[Investor Journey] Dave Nangle (VEF) on successful founders go macro as well as micro, timing your entry moments and building global dealflow
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Mar 05, 2024 |
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[Investor Journey] Ramiro Lauzan (L Catterton) on timing your exit and fundamentals of themes based investing
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Feb 21, 2024 |
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[Investor Journey] Carl Fritjofsson (Creandum) consistency as a driver of VC success, avoiding shiny objects & finally the advent of European tech leadership?
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Feb 06, 2024 |
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[Investor Journey] Christopher Schroeder on the Venn Diagram between the private & the public sector, unleashing entrepreneurial talent and US leadership in tech
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Jan 23, 2024 |
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[Operator Stories] Omair Ansari (Abhi) on tackling access to credit in Pakistan and going multi-product and multi-country early on
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Jan 09, 2024 |
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[Strategic Deepdive] Leah Barto (Endeavor) on where unicorn founders come from, ecosystem building in emerging market and patterns vs. biases
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Nov 07, 2023 |
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[Investor Journey] Julian Roeoes (Picus Capital) on long term investing in transformational companies, their Americas strategy and muscles of private vs. public markets investing
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Oct 26, 2023 |
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[Investor Journey] Yana Yasevich & Yash Vardhan Kanoi (Alter Global) on investment roles in venture, curating dealflow and building trust with founders
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Oct 10, 2023 |
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[Investor Journey] Victor Chua (Vynn Capital) on raising capital & investing in SEA, adding value on boards, trends for the region
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Sep 25, 2023 |
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[Operator Stories] Victor Noguera & Bernardo Cordero (Flat.mx) on fixing real-estate transactions in Mexico, the evolution of the industry and branching out into investing with Nascent.vc
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Sep 12, 2023 |
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[Investor Journey] Fersen Lambranho (GP Investments) on what makes a great CEO, looking back onto 30 years of investing and differences between PE in Brazil vs. US
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Jul 18, 2023 |
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Ganesh Rengaswamy (Quona) & Kulin Shah (Onsurity) on the insurtech landscape in India, the founder-investor relationship and scaling Onsurity
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Jul 05, 2023 |
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[Operator Stories] Karim Jouini (Expensya) how to avoid value destruction in M&A, scaling across borders and the expense-management space
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Jun 15, 2023 |
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[Operator Stories] Razaq Ahmed (Cowrywise) on revolutionising retail investing in Nigeria, playing the volume game, and using social media as an engagement tactic
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Jun 06, 2023 |
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[Operator Stories] Sandra Nolasco (Twinco Capital) on fixing global trade finance, growth potential for emerging markets SMEs and sustainability
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May 15, 2023 |
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[Operator Stories] Pedro Conrade (Neon) dreaming up the future of financial services in Brazil, when is it the right time to introduce new products and lessons learned from 5 acquisitions
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May 02, 2023 |
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[Operator Stories] Wiktor Schmidt (Netguru) on optimising for execution risk, scaling Netguru and the launch of Endeavor Poland
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Apr 18, 2023 |
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[Investor Journey] Inanc Balci (Crestone VC) on scaling Lazada in SEA, launching an emerging markets Fintech VC and parallels between LatAm & Asia
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Apr 04, 2023 |
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[Investor Journey] Lolita Taub (Ganas Ventures) on breaking into VC, community as a moat and creating generational wealth
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Mar 21, 2023 |
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[Operator Stories] Gerry Giacomán (Clara) on always be changing, building compounding value and how to balance profitability and growth
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Mar 07, 2023 |
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[Investor Stories] Jonathan Whittle (Quona) on why and when it pays to become a bank, parallels to previous bust cycles and Brazil's fintech masterplan
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Feb 21, 2023 |
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[Operator Stories] Sergiu Negut (FintechOS) on reducing friction in fintech product development, legacy infrastructure and low-code solutions
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Feb 07, 2023 |
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[Investor Journey] Ricardo Kanitz (Spectra) on GP due diligence, emerging fund managers and secrets of portfolio construction
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Jan 17, 2023 |
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[Strategic DeepDive] Axel Christensen (Blackrock) on a new investment paradigm, asset prices, inflation and implications for emerging economies
|
Jan 03, 2023 |
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[Investor Journey] Arjuna Costa (Flourish) challenges in achieving true financial inclusion, waves of fintech adoption and embedded finance
|
Dec 20, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Robin Butler (Sturgeon Capital) investing at the frontier from Pakistan to Uzbekistan, ecosystem maturity, liquidity and creating momentum
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Dec 06, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Wenyi Cai (Polymath) on building businesses for the LatAm middle class, parallels to Asia & how to make company building work
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Nov 22, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] Noureddine Tayebi (Yassir) on closing a $150M Series-B in the Maghreb region, paying it forward and the multiplier effect
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Nov 07, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] Jacobo Singer (dLocal) on bringing their payment solutions to Africa, lessons on expansion and promoting talent from within
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Oct 25, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Francisco Alvarez-Demalde (Riverwood Capital) on board dynamics, keeping the bar high in founder selection & the importance of human capital in building a generational fund
|
Oct 11, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] Reflecting on 6 years at Rappi - Clara Gold on execution, hustle and scaling growth teams
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Sep 27, 2022 |
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[Strategic DeepDive] Matt Cole (Suma SaaS) on the art of leadership, agility and supporting SMEs in LatAm
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Sep 13, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] Tiago Costa Alves (Golden Gate Ventures) on building tech teams, mapping Asia and the value of an Entrepreneur in Residence
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Aug 30, 2022 |
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Endeavor Deciphering LatAm VC Study - Panel with Magdalena Coronel (IDB Lab), Daniela Izquierdo (Foodology), Andy Tsao (SVB), Adolfo Blasco (Nazca)
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Aug 16, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Charlie Graham-Brown (Seedstars) on investing in emerging markets, the beginnings of Seedstars and how to build strong growth teams
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Aug 02, 2022 |
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[Strategic DeepDive] Dan Green (Gunderson Dettmer) on the current VC environment and what it means for deal negotiations, contractual features and more
|
Jul 19, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Allen Taylor (Endeavor Catalyst) on scaling the fund to US$500M AUM doubling down on Endeavor’s mission & current macro-environment and implications for emerging markets
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Jul 05, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] Rafaella Baraldo (PodsFinance) on the digitalisation of banking, understanding DeFi and hedging crypto
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Jun 21, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Federico Gomez Romero (Seaya Cathay) on empathy, the importance of the founding team in deal selection and Seaya Cathay’s new Latam fund
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Jun 07, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] Marcelo Sampaio (Hashdex) - Building the S&P 500 for Crypto, pushing for mainstream adoption & unlocking value
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May 24, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Luiz Ribeiro (General Atlantic) on the origins of GA, manoeuvring bear markets, macro outlook & tips on going public
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May 10, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] Janan Knust (KLog) on being uncomfortable as a state of mind, bootstrapping to $100M in revenues and revolutionising the logistics industry at the same time
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Apr 26, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Patrick Arippol & Bianca Martinelli (Alexia Ventures) on the next Gen of VC in LatAm and sustaining moats through tech enabled communities
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Apr 12, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Tackling poverty through financial inclusion - Monica Brand Engel (Quona) on the intersection of profit and purpose, measuring impact and managing boards
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Mar 29, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] From Coca-Cola to NotCo - Flavia Buchmann (NotCo) on building consumer brands, the NotConcept and guerrilla marketing
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Mar 15, 2022 |
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[Operator Stories] Pedro Sônego de Oliveira (TruePay) on the next wave of B2B fintech in Brazil, building TruePay and making the switch from investor to founder
|
Mar 01, 2022 |
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[Strategic DeepDive] Angie Udry (KASZEK) on scaling culture, incentive structures and managing multi-cultural teams
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Feb 15, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Laura González-Estéfani (TheVentureCity) on talent has no zip code, founders turned funders and trust across cultures
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Feb 01, 2022 |
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Justin Norman (The Flip) underestimated talent, soft power and ecosystem development in Africa
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Jan 18, 2022 |
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[Investor Journey] Luiz Manzano & Alex Mello (BigBets) on effective altruism in venture as a strategy and dynamics of early stage investing
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Jan 04, 2022 |
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Alex González Ormerod (Rest of World) on tech disruption, regulation and economic development for LatAm
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Dec 21, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Unlocking VC in Pakistan - Rabeel Warraich (Sarmayacar) on starting the first institutional fund in the country, false perceptions and getting the flywheel going
|
Dec 07, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Laura Constantini (Astella) on building a VC firm from 0-$100m, mechanics of early stage investing & winning over LPs
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Nov 23, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Jeffrey Paine (Golden Gate Ventures) on the human factor in VC, apprenticeship model, investing in SEA and founder development
|
Nov 09, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Backing founders and emerging fund managers - Stevon Darling (IFC) on investing, dealflow trends and talent attraction for startups
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Oct 26, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Paulo Passoni (Softbank) on dealflow, board construction, happiness & success in life and differentiating factors to Tiger
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Oct 12, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Allan Boruchowicz (Carao) on investing in Central America, fast due diligence and contrarian views on market expansion
|
Sep 28, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Fernando Fabre (Matterscale) on scaling Endeavor, playing the VC game & the link between employee engagement and culture
|
Sep 14, 2021 |
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[Operator Stories] Every cycle is a new cycle - Marco Fisbhen (Descomplica) on scaling edtech, acquisitions & cultural fit and growing as a leader
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Aug 31, 2021 |
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Andy Tian (Asia Innovations Group) on building social media products for emerging markets, global expansion and user protection across cultures
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Aug 17, 2021 |
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Ryan Williams on giving & receiving advice, a film on emerging ecosystems and the entrepreneur as a surfer from Uruguay to NZ
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Aug 03, 2021 |
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René Lomelí on the evolution of 500S in LatAm to SomosLucha, reducing biases in selecting founders & going remote
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Jul 20, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Mario Mello (Valor) on the making of a SPAC - Insights into Valor’s latest feat, Adding Value on Boards & Staying humble
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Jul 06, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Alex Lazarow (Cathay) on innovation through cross-pollination, the last frontier & entrepreneurs as creators
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Jun 22, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Jason Ball (GR Capital) on growth stage investing, LP relationships and the opportunity in Eastern Europe
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Jun 08, 2021 |
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Pete Benedetto on how Endeavor hacked market expansion to build the world’s leading community of high impact entrepreneurs
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May 25, 2021 |
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[Strategic DeepDive] Community centred business models & vulnerability for leaders - Tristan Pollock on how to build a mission driven company and craft your authentic self
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May 10, 2021 |
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[Operator Stories] What does a Chief of Staff at a scale-up actually do - Amanda Jacobson (Oyster) on relationship building and B2B financial infrastructure
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Apr 13, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Bridging Silicon Valley & Africa - Mbwana Alliy (Savannah) on fund structuring, LPs and retaining scale-up talent
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Mar 30, 2021 |
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[Operator Stories] Profit vs. Impact? Georg Wolff (Co-founder Buckle & Seam) on scaling a D2C fashion brand, producing in Pakistan and a company's purpose
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Mar 08, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] On investment opportunities and portfolio construction - A deep dive into angel investing with Alex Galvez (Co-Founder @Sila)
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Feb 22, 2021 |
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Educating future entrepreneurs - Gabriel Weintraub (Stanford) & Marcos Singer (Universidad Catolica) on the role of universities, integration with industry and whether entrepreneurship can be taught
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Feb 06, 2021 |
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[Investor Journey] Katjana Kammin (Head of Portfolio, MEST) on digitisation, new sector trends and opportunities
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Dec 29, 2020 |
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[Investor Journey] Jenny Johnston (Flourish) on the potential of fintech innovation, the digital hustle and Omidyar's leading role
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Dec 12, 2020 |
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Building entrepreneurial ecosystems in Latam - Dani Tricarico (ASELA Co-Executive Director) on the importance of public policy, resilience and regional collaboration
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Nov 14, 2020 |
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[Operator Stories] From El Salvador to Malaysia - Gerardo Salandra (Co-Founder, Respond.io) on scaling, people management, decentralized teams and opportunities in emerging markets
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Nov 07, 2020 |