The J Curve with Olga Maslikhova

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Alexandre Zolko , founder and CEO at CRM&BONUS , Brazilian customer loyalty management platform that has just raised $80m in Series B led by Bond Capital with the participation from Valor Capital. This round valued the company at 2.2B Brazilian reais or over $400M dollars, more than doublin...

Welcome to season three of the J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America with me, Olga Maslikhova. My guests today are Andre Florence and Guilherme Azevedo , co-founders at Brazilian healthcare startup Alice backed by the likes of Softbank, ThornTree Capital Partners, Kaszek and Globo Ventures. Their latest Series C of $127m was the largest funding round raised by a healthtech in...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Thibaud Lecuyer , CEO at Loggi , Brazilian delivery company that has raised close to $500m over 6 rounds from the likes of Iporanga Ventures, Softbank, Monashees, GGV, CapSur Capital and Microsoft. Prior to that Thibaud was a co-founder at Brazilian online fashion retailer Dafiti. Together we e...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Joao Barbosa , co-founder at corporate wellness platform Gympass (now Wellhub), that has raised over $600M from the likes of EQT Growth, Softbank, General Atlantic and Valor Capital. In today's episode we will discuss:  1. The global leap: key challenges of scaling in different markets 2. T...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Vitor Torres ⁠ , Endeavor entrepreneur and founder and CEO at Brazilian accounting platform Contabilizei , that has raised over $100m from the likes of SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, IFC, Kaszek and Endeavor Catalyst. In today's episode we will discuss:  1. The cultural moat: how Contabilizei has...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is ⁠Michele Levy, the private equity investor and banker turned fashion entrepreneur behind the successful growth of the Melissa shoe brand in the USA as well as the premium beauty brand Costa Brazil. In today's episode we will discuss: 1. How to sell branded commodities? 2. The secret sauce to hi...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Gaston Irigoyen , founder and CEO at Argentinian fintech infrastructure company Pomelo  that has recently raised $40m in Series B from the likes of Kaszek, monashees, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Endeavor Catalyst and Section 32. The latest financing brings the startup’s total raised since...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Doug Storf , Endeavor entrepreneur and founder and CEO at Sao Paulo-based payment infrastructure company Swap that has raised ~$30M from the likes of Tiger Global, Endeavor, Global Founders Capital, ONEVC and Flourish Ventures. Prior to starting Swap, Doug was Head of Corporate Strategy at 99,...

Martin Migoya is Co-Founder and CEO of Globant — one of the few Latin American technology companies to achieve a $10B+ market cap on the NYSE, serving clients including Google, Disney, and LinkedIn. Martin and his co-founders started Globant from Argentina in 2003 with $5,000. In this episode, Martin shares how Globant scaled to 30,000+ employees across 33 countries, the partnership principles tha...

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is Marcelo Sampaio , founder and CEO at Hashdex , Brazilian crypto asset manager backed by the likes of Coinbase Ventures, SoftBank and Valor Capital. Hashdex is the only LatAm spot bitcoin ETF among 11 ETFs recently cleared by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the event that some calle...

In this final episode of the year we are going through some growth metrics we've managed to achieve this year as well as taking a look back at top 10 most listened-to episodes of the year and sharing our favorite moments from each and every one of them. If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, please subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Hi everyone and welcome to The J Curve. This time we have a very different format. In this episode, I answer the questions posed by the students of entrepreneurship class at Purdue University on entrepreneurship, early stage investing, tech in Latin America and so much more. We discuss: 1. How to stay on top of emerging tech trends? 2. What is preferred capital structure of the early stage startup...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome  Gabriela Toribio , Managing Director at telco giant Telefonica’s Brazilian corporate venture capital arms Vivo Ventures and Wayra. Vivo Ventures and Wayra have invested in 30+ startups in Brazil including a low-code integration platform  Digibee . Prior to joining Telefonica, Gabriela launched venture capital arms in Votorantim and Companhia Sid...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Roberto Dagnoni , an Endeavor Entrepreneur and the Executive Chairman and CEO at 2TM, a holding company of Mercado Bitcoin, the largest crypto exchange in Latin America that was valued at $2.1B after raising $200 million in Series B funding from the  SoftBank Latin America Fund . Roberto has also invested in 60+ early stage startups including Bra...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Alec Oxenford , serial entrepreneur, managing partner at Myelin VC, co-founder at online marketplace platforms OLX (acquired by Naspers after raising capital from the likes of Founders Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners and General Catalyst) and letgo (merged with OfferUp). Alec is an important Argentinian contemporary art collector. In today's...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Fabio Carrara , founder and CEO at Brazilian renewable energy firm Solfacil⁠ , that has raised over $130m from the likes of QED, Fifth Wall, Softbank, VEF and Valor Capital. In today's episode we will discuss: 1. Window of opportunity: why market timing is everything? 2. The heat of the crowd: how to thrive in commoditized market? 3. Go slow...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Eduardo della Maggiora , founder and CEO at LatAm's first social unicorn Betterfly , that hit $1b valuation after raising $125m in a Series C funding round led by Glade Brook Capital and joined by Greycroft, Mundi Ventures, Lightrock, QED Investors and DST Global Partners. The list of Betterfly's prior backers also includes the likes of V...

For this episode I am thrilled to welcome  Patricia Moraes , Founder and Managing Partner at Unbox Capital , Sao Paulo-based venture capital firm that Patricia co-founded together with Luiza Trajano , Brazilian billionaire and the chairman of retailer Magazine Luiza. Unbox Capital portfolio includes the likes of Solinftec , Rock Content and Incognia . Prior to starting Unbox Capital, Patricia spen...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Lucas Vargas , CEO at Brazilian fintech Nomad , that has recently raised $61m in an investment round led by Tiger Global with participation from prior investors including Monashees , Stripes and Globo Ventures . Prior to joining Nomad, Lucas was CEO at Viva Real which he led through the merger with Grupo ZAP and acquisition by OLX , the leading m...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome  Julio Vasconcellos , founding partner at Brazilian early stage venture capital firm Atlantico , founder at Canary , former Brazil country manager for Facebook and former entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) at Benchmark. I am also thrilled to welcome Ana Clara Martins , partner at Atlantico and co-founder at Brazil at Silicon Valley , one of the larg...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Veronica Serra , Founding Partner at Brazilian VC growth fund Innova Capital⁠ , whose current investments include Semantix AI and Clearsale . Veronica is a former board member and investor of Mercado Libre and Movile - iFood and current board member of  Endeavor Global and Harvard Business School Latam Advisory Board. In today's episode we wi...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Diego Barreto , CFO & VP of Strategy at iFood , the largest food tech company in Latin America; author of the best seller “New Economy” ('Nova Economia') and mentor at Endeavor . Prior to that Diego was Director of Finance at Suzano , the largest paper and pulp company in Latin America. In today's episode we will discuss:   1. Gar...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Gabriela Gonçalves , founder and managing partner at Namari Capital ; managing partner at Brasil Venture Debt , whose portfolio includes the likes of Exact Sales (acquired by RD Station ), Solfacil and Digibee . Prior to that Gabriela was a co-founder and managing director at Rocket Internet-backed Lazada (acquired by Alibaba). We hope to make in...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Pedro Sirotsky Melzer , partner at Patria Investments ; founding partner at Igah Ventures , whose portfolio includes the likes of Infra Commerce , Unico , Avenue Securities , Hashdex , Conexa Saude , CRM&Bonus and more. We hope to make in person recordings our new normal, so please do check out our new YouTube channel . In today's episod...

For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Fersen Lambranho , Brazilian entrepreneur and investor; chairman of the board of GP Investments and G2D Investments , member of the board of Centauro , Spice Private Equity and The Craftory . Fersen is also the former CEO of Lojas Americanas and the current board member of several non-profits including São Paulo Museum of Art . Additionally, he a...