The Enthusiast: Founders and VCs beyond the Valley

Rabeel Warraich is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Sarmayacar, the first institutional VC fund in Pakistan. We talk about his way into venture, why Pakistan and why now, how false perceptions of a country can have extraordinary effects and his take on making the most out of the tech revolution taking place in Pakistan now. On this episode you will learn about:The opportunities on the ground in...

Patrick sat down with Laura Constantini, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of leading early stage firm Astella. She is a Kauffman Fellow, Class 2021. On the show, Laura takes us on her unique journey from starting as a research analyst in the financial sector in Brazil, to M&A and subsequently founding Astella together with Edson Rigonatti. On the show you will learn about Betting on the horse o...

Patrick sat down with Jeffrey Paine, one of the pioneers and most respected investors of the South East Asian VC ecosystem. Jeff is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of renowned Singapore based fund Golden Gate Ventures, investor in companies such as Stripe, Omise and Lenddo. Since 2011 they have backed +60 companies, raised 5 funds in total and significantly shaping the ecosystem along the way. On...

Patrick sat down with IFC’s VC Director for Latin American & the Caribbean Stevon Darling to talk about the organisation’s investing approach, its mission, what makes IFC different from traditional VC investors and how they can provide broader financing support beyond equity capital. We also touch upon IFC’s leading VC financing programme Startup Catalyst that backs emerging fund managers glob...

Patrick sat down with Paulo Passoni, Managing Partner of Softbank's Latin America fund investing since 2019 in founders in the region. Paulo talks about the unique inflection point LatAm is in, Softbank's investing approach and how to add value on boards as an investor, but foremost he gives crucial lessons on life, how to give back and what truly matters. A fantastic episode that goes beyond the...

Patrick sat down with Allan Boruchowicz, co-founder and Managing Partner of leading Central American fund Carao Ventures to talk about his journey into VC, the opportunities for the Central American region as an underserved market to invest in, how to maximise value add as a VC and how fast paced due diligence has created new dynamics in LatAm. On this episode, you will learn about:Allan's journey...

Patrick sat down with former Endeavor President Fernando Fabre to talk about how Endeavor has scaled from 9 to 27 markets during his tenure, how culture comes into the mix when scaling an organisation and his current role at Matterscale investing in early stage Latin founders across the globe. On this episode, you will learn about:How to scale an organisation without neglecting cultureHow Endeavor...

Patrick sat down with leading edtech entrepreneur Marcos Fisbhen of Brazilian edtech scaleup Descomplica to talk about his journey, how he is scaling Descomplica to build Brazil's largest education provider and how they approached their recent acquisition of UniAmerica. We dive into his learnings on how to grow as a leader while the company scales, building adjacent services whilst managing comple...

Patrick sat down with serial entrepreneur and social media innovator Andy Tian, co-founder of Asia Innovation Group to discuss all things social and how he grew Asia Innovations Group into one of the world'd leading social media platform builders following a unique customization approach. During the conversation we dive also into his vision for emerging markets, cross-pollination and the edge less...

In this episode Patrick sits down with startup advisor and documentary filmmaker Ryan Williams to talk about his film on emerging ecosystems that took him from Mexico to Argentina, to Uruguay, Portugal and eventually to New Zealand. During the conversation we touch upon a wide range of topics beyond the actual movie. We dive into the art of giving and receiving advice, his personal journey into th...

On this episode Patrick sat down with René Lomelí, Partner at 500Startups for Spanish speaking LatAm to talk about the ecosystem, the evolution of 500S throughout, their new programme "SomosLucha" and how the pandemic has changed the way they provide services to start-ups. Road down memory lane, how the latam ecosystem has evolved and 500S with itHow to lead a tech team as a non-technical founderW...

On this episode host Patrick Alex sat down with Mario Mello, Operating Partner at American- Brazilian fund Valor Capital to discuss their latest US$ 230M SPAC vehicle, how it came into being, the nitty gritty aspects of SPAC structuring and why they are an opportunity for emerging markets to provide more liquidity. During the session, we dive also into Mario experience concerning board structure,...

On this episode host Patrick Alex sat down with leading investor Alexandre (Alex) Lazarow, author of "Out-innovate" and Partner at leading fund Cathay Capital to talk about his vision for emerging ecosystems, his book, how to best add value to entrepreneurs, the opportunities SPACs provide for young ecosystems and last but not least the importance of cross-pollination between ecosystems. On this e...

Patrick sat down with Jason Ball, Partner at Pan-European growth stage fund GR Capital. Jason make a compelling case for later stage investing in Europe and companies with an Eastern European market expansion focus in particular. At GR, he and his colleagues have backed leading scale-ups such as Glovo, Lime, Sennder, Deliveroo and Flaschenpost (recently exited to Dr. Oetker). For Glovo in particul...

Patrick sat down with fellow Endeavor colleague Pete Benedetto, who co-leads Endeavor's expansion efforts globally. Pete talks in detail about Endeavor’s unique growth formula, how Endeavor identifies ecosystems with scale-up potential and determines whether they are ripe for Endeavor to go in and what makes the Romanian ecosystem (one of our newest markets) a perfect use case. About Endeavor: Est...

Tristan Pollock is an American tech entrepreneur and startup investor who has created and sold two companies and invested $30 million into Silicon Valley startups via 500 Startups. He has built startup ecosystems around the globe with the likes of Google for Startups, international VCs, and startup accelerator programs spanning from Russia to Saudi Arabia supporting thousands of startup founders o...

On this episode Patrick sits down with Amanda Jacobson, Chief of Staff at Oyster Financial, a business account provider and all in one financial solution for startups in Mexico. We chat about her journey in the Latin American ecosystem, beginning with her role at Village Capital to finally making the jump from VC to full time at a scale-up. Amanda makes a compelling case for the importance of long...

This episode takes us out of our lockdown homes over to Eastern Africa, where Mbwana with his team is building Savannah Fund, an early stage VC. After taking Russel Simons (Co-founder @Yelp) out on Safari, he became a crucial backer in Fund I. Recently Savannah reached a first close of their second fund at US$ 25M with the backing of IFC and Silicon Valley legend Tim Draper (IFC press release here...

On this episode Patrick sits down with Georg Wolff, a German entrepreneur and co-founder of successful D2C leather accessory brand Buckle & Seam. We dive into his journey as a founder, the challenges they faced producing in-house at their own manufacturing plant in Pakistan, scaling a D2C brand and their goal of "educating 10,000 kids in the country."On this episode you will learn about: How t...

On this episode Patrick sits down with Alex Galvez, an entrepreneur himself, but also a very active angel investor and podcaster. Alex has invested in dozens of deals across Latin America and beyond. He has invested in dozens of deals across Latin America and beyond providing us with compelling insights into the world of angel investing, deal diversification and portfolio construction. Further alo...

On this episode Patrick sits down with Gabriel Weintraub, Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Marcos Singer, Professor and Dean of the MBA programme at Universidad Catolica de Chile to discuss the relevance of universities in creating entrepreneurial ecosystems. We dive into the role of Stanford and explore its replicability to other markets. Marcos and Gabriel alike make a compe...

On this episode Patrick sits down with Katjana Kammin, Head of Portfolio at early stage venture firm MEST, to discuss the latest developments in the Western African ecosystem with a specific focus on Ghana and Nigeria. Based out of the firm's HQ in Accra, Ghana, Katjana leads the firms's start-up portfolio investing in African entrepreneurs at the early stages as well as providing them with key re...

On this episode Patrick sits down with Jenny Johnston, Associate at Flourish, Omidyar Network's fintech fund, to discuss the latest developments in the fintech space in Latam. Based out of the firms HQ in the Bay Area, Jenny leads the organisation's work for Latin America with investments ranging from Neobanks Albo and Neon to Brazilian's Guiabolso. Jenny makes a compelling case for the opportunit...

On this episode Patrick sits down with Dani Tricarico, former Executive Director of ASEA, to talk about the building blocks of entrepreneurial ecosystems, the particularities of the Argentine ecosystem and a call for more collaboration amongst the countries in Latin America. Dani has shaped the Argentine ecosystem over the last decade negotiating and advocating on behalf of the 35,000 members of A...

This episode takes us into the story of Co-Founder and CEO, Gerardo Salandra of Respond.io, a business platform that revolutionizes customer interaction across messenger platforms. We dive into his journey of becoming an entrepreneur, the challenges he has faced on the way, building the team and his take on why tech solutions for emerging markets are future-proof and actually ahead of developed ma...