The J Curve with Olga Maslikhova

Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova. Last week I got to spend a few days in cidade maravilhosa—Rio de Janeiro—for Web Summit, which this year attracted over 37,000 people. The event was action-packed—both inside the venue and across the city, with an incredible lineup of side events. It was a milestone week for The J Curve. We recorded our very first live episode on stage—a...

Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve 🎙️ This week, I sit down with Marcelo Lutz and Roberto Biselli, the co-founders and co-CEOs of Capim—a vertical SaaS + fintech company that started as an MBA class project and is now doing $10M+ in ARR, serving thousands of dental clinics across Brazil. Their story breaks every rule—and proves that in Latin America’s most fragmented industries, the right wedge is...

Welcome to this special solo episode of Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova. Every few months, I take a step back from the interviews to zoom out, connect the dots, and reflect on the themes that emerged from our conversations with Latin America’s most driven founders and sharpest investors. This quarter, the learnings hit hard. From Paulo Passoni’s breakdown of growth-stage capital a...

Gustavo Mapeli is Co-Founder of Kanastra, a Brazilian fintech replacing the $300B private credit market infrastructure still running on Excel. In this episode, Gustavo shares how Brazil became fertile ground for fintech infrastructure as regulation, wealth decentralization, and embedded finance created the perfect storm, the contrarian decision to go multi-product from day one and why Kanastra had...

Roberto Oliveira is Founder and CEO of Blip, the Brazilian company powering billions of WhatsApp conversations across Latin America and backed by Warburg Pincus, SoftBank, and Microsoft. Roberto bootstrapped Blip for two decades before raising outside capital. In this episode, Roberto shares why websites and apps are being replaced by messaging and how brands need to adapt now, how AI is transform...

Guilherme Horn is Head of WhatsApp for Strategic Markets — Brazil, India, and Indonesia — and previously founded Agora and Orama, two Brazilian fintech pioneers. In this episode, Guilherme breaks down how WhatsApp became the default commerce, banking, and business infrastructure in Brazil, what conversational AI means for retail and financial services, why Brazil is Meta’s most valuable market glo...

Andre Penha is Co-Founder of QuintoAndar — a $5B+ Brazilian real estate platform that raised $750M from SoftBank, General Atlantic, Kaszek, and others — and CEO of IBBX, a wireless electricity startup aiming to eliminate cables and batteries. In this episode, Andre shares why product beats storytelling in fundraising and how investors went from doubting QuintoAndar to fighting to get in, how Quint...

Paulo Passoni is Managing Partner at Valor Capital. He previously led SoftBank’s multi-billion-dollar investments in Latin America, serving on the boards of QuintoAndar, VTEX, and Creditas. This is the most-played episode in J Curve history. We cover why M&A is a broken exit strategy for LatAm VCs and why startups need to think bigger, the hard truth that a company needs $300M+ in revenue to reali...

🎙️  No Guests, Just You & Me  🌍 Season 3 of  The J Curve  is officially wrapped, and I’m here to unpack the journey so far. From doubling our Spotify streams to hitting the top 5% of videocasts globally (what?!), this year has been a wild ride. In this solo ep, I’m breaking down: 🔥 Why podcasting is THE medium of the future. 🌎 LATAM’s tech explosion—blockbuster M&As, IPOs, and a pipelin...

Welcome to Season 3 of  The J Curve , a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. Today we sit down with Allen Taylor, Managing Partner at Endeavor Catalyst, to explore his 18-year journey with Endeavor and the rise of emerging markets as thriving hubs for entrepreneurship. We discuss Allen’s personal path from California to becoming a global advocate for high-impact entrepreneurs, the crea...

On this special episode of The J Curve, I swap roles with the incredible Veronica Serra—founding partner at Innova Capital and Endeavor Global board member. With dirty martinis in hand, I shared my entrepreneurial journey, life lessons, and love for Latin America’s startup ecosystem. A rare and unforgettable moment 🥂 Enjoy!

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. Today we sit down with Marcelo Lombardo, the founder of Omie, to explore the journey from a seven-person startup to a 1,600-strong team transforming Brazil’s SMB ERP market. We discuss his unconventional path to entrepreneurship, pivotal business decisions like the shift to accountant partnerships, and how Omie...

Welcome to Season 3 of  The J Curve,  a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America with me, Olga Maslikhova. My guest today is Adhemar Milani Neto , founder and CEO of Kovi , an ‘all-inclusive’ car subscription platform for gig workers. Kovi has raised $145M from top investors like Valor Capital, Prosus Ventures, Quona, Monashees, Norte, Maya Capital, Globo Ventures, and Peter Thiel’s family...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is  ⁠Sergio Furio⁠ , chairman of the board of Endeavor Brazil and founder and CEO of Creditas, Brazil’s leading fintech lender that is transforming Brazil's lending landscape by offering secured loans at significantly lower interest rates, bringing essential financial access to millions across the...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Marcelo Abritta , founder and CEO of Buser , a Brazilian bus transportation platform that connects passengers with underutilized charter buses, offering affordable travel while disrupting the traditional $10 billion intercity bus industry. Most recently, Buser raised $138m Series C from the lik...

Igor Marinelli is Founder and CEO of Tractian — the industrial AI company whose solutions now touch 5% of global industrial output, serving John Deere, Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, Goodyear, and Bimbo. Tractian has raised capital from NEA, General Catalyst, Next47, and Y Combinator, and was named to the Forbes AI 50 as the only company representing the industrial sector. In this episode, Igor sh...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guests today are Marcelo Maziero and Fernando Fontes , founders at Brazil's leading financial market infrastructure provider Cerc , that has raised up to $100m in a round led by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investor Mubadala Capital with a follow on from Valor Capital.   This episode is a must-listen for anyone...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is  ⁠Andre Maciel⁠ , founder of the Brazilian venture capital firm  ⁠Volpe Capital⁠ , whose current and former portfolio includes the likes of Vtex, CRM&Bonus, Connectly, and Atlas Governance. Before starting Volpe, André was the founding managing investment partner at SoftBank Latin America,...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Marcelo França , founder & CEO at Celcoin , a brazilian financial infrastructure company that has recently raised a $125M in a Series C round led by global growth equity investor Summit Partners with the participation from the existing investor Innova Capital and John Coughlin, a former sen...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Dileep Thazhmon , founder and CEO at Jeeves , a corporate spend and expense management platform for global businesses. Jeeves has raised over $260m from the likes of GIC, Tencent, a16z, CRV and more. Its last reported valuation was $2.1B. Since its public launch early in 2021, Jeeves scaled acr...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Rafael de Albuquerque , CEO & founder at Zoox Smart Data , a global tech company that offers integrated solutions in big data, analytics, AI & ML. Zoox has over 1650 enterprise customers in 25 countries including the likes of Pepsi, Burger King, F1, PWC and Telefonica. Rafael’s journey...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Dave Nangle , founder and CEO of VEF , an emerging markets-focused, growth-stage fintech investment firm. VEF's Latam portfolio includes the likes of Creditas, Solfacil, Gringo and Konfio. We talked about Dave’s investment strategy, focusing on growth-stage companies that have nailed unit e...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Geraldo Thomaz , founder and co-CEO at NYSE-traded enterprise e-commerce platform VTEX . VTEX is an incredible example of Brazilian company that grew to become a global player in a digital commerce with Walmart, Coca-Cola and L'Oreal among customers. Prior tp going public in 2021 VTEX raise...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Susan Segal . Susan has been the President and CEO of Americas Society / Council of the Americas since August 2003, following a distinguished 30-year career in the private sector working with Latin America and other emerging markets. As a partner and head of the Latin American Group at Chase Ca...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Daniela Binatti , co-founder and CTO at the Brazilian payments infrastructure company Pismo , which was recently acquired by Visa for $1 billion in cash . This conversation is very special as Pismo stands out as a globally successful tech company with roots in Brazil. Moreover, Daniela herself...