The Enthusiast: Founders and VCs beyond the Valley

On this episode Pat sits down with Ramiro Lauzan, Partner at growth and private equity investing giant L Catterton to dissect their investment thesis, consumer trends and thematic investing and the playing field in Latin America and why he is bullish on the region. You will learn about:How L Catterton makes long term, thematic driven investment decisionsThe role long-term consumer trends play in d...

On this episode Pat sits down with Carl Fritjofsson, Creandum's partner for the US to dive into what made the VC firm stand out and turn into one of the top European venture firms out there, his take on the future of European tech talent and why he is both optimistic and cautious about 2024. On this episode you will learn about:Carl's journey from former operator to investor Key takeaways for buil...

On this episode Pat sits down with the one and only Christopher Schroeder, author, investor, operator and advisor of startups in emerging markets. He has worn many heads during his stellar career amongst them CEO and President of Washington Post's online presence , founder of HealthCentral and President of Legi-Slate as well as senior policy positions during Georg Bush's administration. You will l...

On this episode Mikal Khoso joins Pat to chat with Omair Ansari, Founder and CEO of Pakistan Fintech Abhi about his journey into the world of entrepreneurship, scaling the company, going multi-product early on in the company's lifecycle as well as the expansion into the UAE and neighbouring Bangladesh. You will learn about:The state of the financial services industry in PakistanWhere Abhi fits int...

On this episode Pat sits down with Endeavor's Senior Director of Research Leah Barto to discuss research at Endeavor, why studies on emerging ecosystems are important and Endeavor's most recent ground breaking research on founder pathways. You will learn about:The setup of Endeavor Insight, the very own research arm of EndeavorWhere successful unicorn founders come from and what they have in commo...

On this episode Pat sits down with Julian Roeoes, Partner and Head of the Americas for global early stage fund Picus Capital. We dive into his journey into venture, Picus's born global investment strategy, how to branch out into investing in emerging markets and get off the ground and the business models he believes will shape the next wave of emerging markets entrepreneurship successYou will lear...

On this episode Pat sits down with Yana and Yash of Alter Global, a leading early stage investment firm that has backed companies in the seed to Series-A stage in LatAm, Africa, South East Asia, Middle East and beyond. We dive intoYana and Yash's role at AlterHow Alter is set up as a decentralised, global early stage VC with a lean team Identifying founder talent on the ground at the early stage Y...

On this episode Pat sits down with Victor Chua, Managing Partner of Southeast Asian venture firm Vynn Capital to dive into Victor's investor journey, lessons learned along the way, raising as a first time fund manager and the evolution of the venture and startup ecosystem in the region. You will learn about:Victor's journey into ventureHis time at Gobi Partners and how it prepared him for launchin...

On this episode Pat sits down with Victor Noguera & Bernardo Cordero, Co-Founders at leading Mexican proptech Flat.mx to discuss their founder journey, the evolution of the proptech space in Latin America, how Flat is adding valuable building blocks to a more inclusive real-estate market in Mexico and their angel investing activity through their vehicle Nascent.vcOn this episode you will learn...

On this episode Pat sits down with Brazilian investment icon Fersen Lambrahno, Chairman of GP Investments. We dive into his long career, the evolution of Brazilian PE and investment space, what makes PE in Brazil to operate fundamentally differently to the US or Europe and much more. You will learn about: Fersen’s way into investing and lessons learned looking back to a fulfilling careerThe evolut...

On this episode Pat sits down with seasoned entrepreneur and investor Ganesh Rengaswamy, co-founding partner of leading fintech inclusion fund Quona and Kulin Shah, Co-Founder and CEO of Onsurity, a leading Indian insurtech. We dive into the founder-investor relationship, the insuretech space in India and how to manage boards successfully. So much to unpack here with the two of the on the show. Yo...

On this episode Pat sits down with Tunisian tech entrepreneur Karim Jouini, Co-Founder and CEO of Expensya. We dive into his journey into tech, scaling out of his native Tunisia, drivers for M&A success and much more. You will learn about: Building an international company from day oneHow to reduce value destruction that comes with an M&A dealThe latest trends and developments in the expen...

On this episode Pat sits down with Razaq Ahmed, Co-Founder and CEO of Nigerian Fintech Cowrywise, that is all but revolutionising the retail investment space in the country providing access to investment products to millions of young Nigerians. You will learn about: Razaq's journey into the world of startups and founding Cowrywise after a stint at Investment BankingThe particularities of building...

On this episode Pat sits down with Sandra Nolasco, CEO and Co-founder of Spain based Twinco Capital, a B2B fintech focused on supply chain financing. On the episode you will learn about:The intricacies of supply chain financing and why the status quo is not helping SMEs in emerging marketsTwinco’s value proposition The role of supply chain traceability and ESG criteriaHow Twinco can become the sta...

On this episode Pat sits down with one of LatAm Fintech greats, Pedro Conrade, Co-Founder and CEO of Neon, a leading challenger bank in Brazil that serves more than 23M customers and has raised an impressive $700M. We dive into the making of Neon, how the company has scaled, when is it right time to introduce new product features and how to manage acquisitions successfully. On this episode you wil...

On this episode Pat sits down with Polish IT entrepreneur Wiktor Schmidt, co-founder and executive chairman of Netguru, a IT company that has scaled to 30M in revenues providing its services at a global scale. Aside from his role at Netguru, Wiktor is the founding board chair of Endeavor Poland. We dive into his role in the Polish ecosystem, his experience scaling Netguru and what is next for the...

On this episode Pat sits down with Inanc Balci, Co-Founder and Partner at emerging markets fintech fund Crestone Venture Capital where he invests across South East Asia and Latin America. We dive into his journey as an operator turned VC, scaling in SEA, similarities between LatAm and SEA in terms of fintech models and much moreYou will learn about: How Inanc ended up in SEA as an operator and Co-...

On this episode Pat sits down with Lolita Taub, founding partner of Ganas VC, an early stage fund that invests in community-driven business models in the Americas. We dive into Lolita's journey into venture, why immigrant communities, especially Latinx still have an ownership gap to other communities in the US and how that translates into a low representation in start-up founders and VC and how co...

On this episode Pat sits down with Gerry Giacomán, CEO and Co-Founder of leading B2B fintech Clara. We dive into Gerry's journey into the world of startups, his learnings along the way, how he scaled the company in rapid pace and what role culture and team-building played in this. Crucially we explore the intersection between profitability and growth and why it pays to always be changing. On this...

On this episode Pat sits down with Jonathan Whittle, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of emerging markets fintech inclusion fund Quona Capital. We dive into his journey from operator to VC, lessons learned from the dot-com bust and what it means for today's market correction, the status of Fintech in emerging markets and why it pays to become a bank at the final stage of a B2C fintech's growth jour...

On this episode Pat sits down with Sergiu Negut, Co-Founder of leading low-code platform FintechOS to dive into the scale-up journey for the company, how they attracted an impressive roster of banks and insurance companies to use their platform to develop digital products, why the digital transformation of incumbents is relevant and how to build a global company from day one. You will learn about:...

On this episode Pat sits down with Ricardo Kanitz, founding partner of Spectra Investments to talk about the founding of the alternatives investment firm, how they gained the trust of their LPs, their strategy on performing due diligence on GPs, diversifying their portafolio, the current state of alternatives in LatAm during a period of high interest rates and much more. On this episode you will l...

On this episode Pat sits down with Axel Christensen, Chief Investment Strategist and Managing Director for Latin America & Iberia at leading asset manager Blackrock to dive into the current macro environment, how it affects investment decisions and what it means for emerging markets. On this episode you will learn about: The interplay between interest rates and investment decisionsCurrency flu...

On this episode Pat sits down with Arjuna Costa, Managing Partner at leading fintech fund Flourish, which is part of the Omidyar network, we dive into the challenges of achieving true financial inclusion and access to capital for everyone, how the next waves of fintech products will evolve and making the most out of embedded financeOn this episode you will learn about: Arjuna's journey into VC The...

On this episode Pat sits down with Robin Butler, Partner and Head of Impact at frontier investment firm, Sturgeon Capital. Robin eloquently unpacks the $300bn opportunity in frontier markets in Central Asia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Egypt and how you can combine profit and impact making a lasting impact on growth and innovation in these markets. You will learn about: Sturgeon's thesis and why thes...