Crossing Borders with Nathan Lustig

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Pedro Pablo del Campo, Partner of Magma Partners Pedro Pablo del Campo is a Chilean entrepreneur and the newest addition to our Magma Partners team. Born in Punta Arenas, one of the most Southerly cities in the world, Pedro Pablo traveled the world in his youth since his father was in the Ai...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Rebecca Fischer, cofounder and CEO of Divibank. Before Divibank, small and medium enterprises in Brazil only had two financing options: getting debt from a bank or raising venture capital. But most startups don’t meet bank financing requirements, and not every company can raise VC or wants t...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Juan José Leaño, founder and CEO of Parco. As an intern at a law firm, Juan hated parking in cash-only parking lots. After having to go to the ATM or getting countless parking tickets, he thought there had to be a better way. In 2016, Parco was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and has since expa...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Luis Rubén Chávez, founder and CEO of Zenfi. Luis Rubén Chávez, co-founder and CEO of Zenfi, is changing the way people in Mexico think about financial health. Zenfi is a complete digital finance platform focused on lending that strives for the financial health of its customers. With more th...

Online payments in Latin America are rapidly growing, creating significant opportunities for businesses and consumers. In 2022, cash only represented 37% of all formal retail payments in LatAm's top six markets, marking a decline from pre-pandemic when cash represented around 70%. Aron Schwarzkopf is cofounder and CEO of Kushki, a Latin American digital payments company. Magma invested in Kushki i...

This episode was recorded on March 20, 2023 In the 90s, technology stock valuations soared rapidly in the US. Investors were pouring money into Internet-based companies, and the value of equity markets grew exponentially. In 2000, things started to change. Between 2001 and 2002, the dotcom bubble burst, causing many tech companies to go bankrupt. Monty Schmidt is a serial entrepreneur and CTO who...

Mexico's metabolic health is alarming, with only one out of ten individuals falling in the “healthy” range and nearly 20% of Mexicans have diabetes. Lifestyles have drastically changed over the years, poor eating habits, little physical activity and rest have had a negative impact on people's health, causing an increase in chronic, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases. After successfully star...

Generative AI is becoming a game changer for creative industries by boosting content creation with more efficient and cost-effective processes. Alejandro Matamala is the cofounder and CDO of Runway, a pioneering company that develops AI-powered tools designed to improve creative workflows. I sat down with Alejandro to talk about AI's progress and how Runway is building the future of AI tools for c...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Dan Green , Partner at Gunderson Dettmer. 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 p...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Doménica Obando, CEO, and co-founder of Talently Doménica Obando, CEO and co-founder of Talently, is helping build Latin America into the next tech talent hub while offering better jobs to skilled developers and data scientists. Originally from Peru, Domenica worked in an NGO and the public...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Pedro Moura, Co-Founder, and CEO of Flourish Fi. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did Pedro Moura moved from Natal, Brazil to the US at a young age, overcoming many challenges while always trying to build a better future for himself, his family and his region. His perseveran...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Maricel Saenz, Founder, and CEO of Compound Foods. People continue to experience how global warming can have devastating effects on the world. Crop yields have already started to decline from rising temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and extreme weather events. Climate change is thre...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Javier García, Director of FEMSA Ventures. 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...

For this week on the Crossing Borders podcast, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Mariana Costa, CEO, and Co-founder of Laboratoria. Mariana Costa, founder of Laboratoria, a programming bootcamp for Latin American women, found a way to mix two worlds she was passionate about: technology and helping women. Originally from Peru, Mariana combines technology with social impac...

For this week’s episode of Crossing Borders, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Santiago Aparicio, CEO, and Co-founder of Ontop. The future of work is going to be remote and decentralized, according to Santiago Aparicio, Co-Founder and CEO of Ontop, a payroll software startup that allows companies to legally hire and pay anyone in the world. Santiago is a serial entrepren...

Alejandro Gálvez was an early Mexican angel investor and now is Managing Partner of 99 Startups, a venture capital firm that invests in Latin American pre-seed and seed stage companies. After studying law, Alejandro’s first step into the tech world was learning to code. However, it was networking, angel investing in great founders, and attending events like YC Demo Day that took Alejandro from cod...

Cristobal Perdomo is cofounder and General Partner at Wollef, a Latin American VC firm. Five years ago, I sat down with Cristobal to talk about Latin American venture capital in what turned into Episode 34 of Crossing Borders, where we covered the state of play of VC in 2018. Listen to our conversation for an update into what’s changed since our last sit down. After getting an MBA and working in c...

Cars and motorcycles are the most valuable assets for many Latin American families. People use them to access better opportunities and open income streams. Colombian fintech R5 solves a major pain point for vehicle owners by offering low-cost, fast, and fair insurance and loans for vehicles. Its mission is to help vehicle owners save money. Originally from Venezuela, Fernando Sucre, R5’s cofounder...

Only one inf ten Mexicans has access to a credit card. Many people have monthly incomes that are too low for traditional banks, or they are part of the 55% of Mexicans who form the informal, cash-based economy. Vexi helps Mexicans get their first credit cards by analyzing data that banks don’t in order to issue credit. Users can build credit by using credit responsibly and paying off their bills e...

Twenty years ago, if you wanted to start a mobile telecom company, you had to either buy an existing company or build out extremely expensive infrastructure. Now, Oxio allows you to spin up your personalized, cloud-based mobile service in minutes using a simple API. In this episode, I sat down with Nicolas Girard, founder and CEO of Oxio, the first telecom as-a-service platform that allows compani...

Before Divibank, small and medium enterprises in Brazil only had two financing options: getting debt from a bank or raising venture capital. But most startups don’t meet bank financing requirements, and not every company can raise VC or wants to raise VC. Divibank provides a third alternative for startups and SMEs: revenue-based financing. Divibank launched in 2020 by financing digital marketing c...

Argentina has the most US dollars in circulation of any country after the US. Argentina’s high inflation rate, currency controls, and multiple devaluations make it difficult for people to plan for their future. Saving is hard, and many people don’t have the tools to save efficiently. Manuel Beaudroit is co-founder and CEO of Belo, a digital wallet that helps Latin Americans plan for their financia...

Laura Martínez is a Senior Investment Analyst at Magma Partners, and she joined the team in 2021. Previously, she spent two years at Mastercard, where she helped launch an in-house accelerator program and fell in love with startups. In this episode, we went through Magma’s investment process, what Magma looks for in startups, and Laura’s experience working as an Investment Analyst. How to get fund...

Gregorio Gilardini is the co-founder and CEO of Leasy, a Peru and Mexico-based startup that provides car financing for Latin Americans. Starting with ride-hailing drivers, Leasy is helping drivers who have good credit and income but that banks won't lend to. In this episode, Gregorio shares his experience as an Italian living and creating a business in Peru and what it’s like to raise money and bu...

Almost two-thirds of consumers ages 18 to 40 say ads are disruptive and annoying, while 54% say they don’t spend any time watching television with advertising, according to a study by Marketing Dive. The survey found that 73% of younger consumers trust product reviews from “a person that seems like them,” while 62% trust the recommendations of people who follow the same creators. This yearning for...