Lifetime Value

How does one create a credit origination company when a region has no defined credit system? In today's episode, my guest, Nebojsa Kovacevic, CEO of Kiban.mx, helps answer this question as well as tell us about his experience as a French expat living and growing a startup in Mexico for the past 12 years. Neb also gives us an insight on how to bootstrap a profitable startup without needing massive external funding and how Kiban gives companies like Nubank, Alphacredit and te creemos an edge in terms of KYC and origination of credit. Finally, Neb talks about his views on the future of tech space in Latam, shares some exciting news about the company and gives advice to budding entrepreneurs.

Today, I have one of the most important guests on the show so far. Carlos Torres is a lawyer at YGConsultores, specialising in helping FinTechs with their legal needs and working closely with the Mexican regulator, CNBV, on the FinTech law. Carlos gives us a peek into his professional journey and how he moved from being a criminal lawyer to a legal expert on fintechs. He also talks to us about the fintech law in Mexico (IFPE), the first of its kind in the whole of Latam. Finally, Carlos gives advice to anyone thinking of joining the startup world as a lawyer.

Miguel is the co-president & host of Wharton FinTech, where he is also pursuing his MBA and Masters of International Studies. Coincidentally, the wharton fintech podcast was a massive inspiration this podcast. Miguel's background includes working at various financial institutions in structured finance while also pursuing entrepreneural endeavors like creating a facebook comedy page garnering 3 million followers as well as pursuing his own VC, Gilgamesh Ventures. Miguel talks to us about podcasting and how his journey into podcasting has affected his life and the interesting guests he has spoken to. Finally, Miguel talks about his passion for fintech in and what drives him in life.

David Pacheco is one of the most interesting engineer friends I have. His CV speaks for itself as he has traversed big Tech companies like Oracle to FinTechs like Konfio and CrediJusto to Banks like Santander. Currently, he is the VP of Engineering at RappiPay, helping Rappi expand into the banking sector and help millions of unbanked Mexicans become banked. Today, he is here to explain his journey into fintech as an engineer, his experience as an entrepreneur, how Rappi is here to help Mexicans and discuss some important future trends he is observing.

In this new edition of the podcast, called "Bonus Content", I bring 2 people who are extremely passionate about their work and have a conversation about 1 topic. Sab & Nick are one of the most fascinating people I've ever met. Since college, they've always surprised me as one of the most entrepreneurial and with an extremely high EQ. Most recently, they have ventured into the mental health industry, an area that is constantly under looked in work places. Sabrina is the co-founder of Calm Collective Asia, a grassroots community for sharing mental well-being strategies in the Asian context. Nick is the founder of Ekho Academy, focussed on a simple vision “everyone mentally healthy and strong”. Thus, the topic of this bonus content is “Importance of mental health”.

In the latest episode of lifetime value, my guest is Gerardo Bonilla, President and Co-founder of Cacao Paycard, one of latam's first fintech as a service companies. Gerardo shares his experience as a founder and how cacao has managed to disburse more than 1 million cards in around 4 years of operation. Finally, Gerardo shares his journey as a leader and how to navigate uncertainty.

For the first mystery guest of the 2nd season, I'm extremely excited to have my good friend Pablo Amaya. Pablo and I met each other back in college and now, Pablo is a Senior Leader of Revenue Strategy at Aeromexico. Today, Pablo shares his experience in the aviation industry and how covid has affected the industry and what the future holds. He also shares what the aviation industry is doing to allow passengers to fly again. Pablo is also currently in the process of getting a pilot's license and tells us what it feels to fly a plane.

In my latest episode, I speak with Jorge Hoth Gonzalez, Director of Bizdev at Iké Asistencia. Jorge has around 10 years of experience in marketing and his experience includes working at Credijusto.com, DiDi and Volaris.Today, Jorge shares his experience in marketing, the learnings he has made through his career, the importance of a good marketing team in a FinTech startup and how Iké is helping Mexicans during the pandemic. Finally, Jorge shares advice for founders designing their marketing campaigns.

Welcome to Lifetime Value!

Today, Carla's here to explain what it is to be a designer in a highly growth startup like Konfio while explaining basic concepts of design. As someone who comes from the black and white (ie finance/strategy) part of the startup world, design methodology and thinking has fascinated me as it feels so foreign but is so essential to making the best product for the user. Finally, Carla gives advice to people trying to break into the design sector and what a potential career path looks like

Patricio is the global director of new revenues at Kavak.com, Mexico's first Unicorn. Patricio's experience includes consulting work at BCG as well as being the COO of Clinea. He holds a Bachelors in Public Policy from Princeton. Today, Patricio talks about his journey as towards becoming the head of Kavak 360 as well as his thoughts on growing across different geographies in Latam.

For my latest mystery guest, I have Ricardo Chavez, who is a classically trained physicist by trade but chose to follow his passion and became a professional photographer. Ricardo shares his fascinating journey, from working at CERN to winning an open photography contest for GUESS Inc., which led to his entry into the photography & advertising business. He also gives advice to people trying to enter the photography business.

Today, my guest is one of the most interesting entreprenuers, Pablo Armida, who went from working in VC in Mexico to being the co-founder of a lending & insurance startup, Grupo R5 in Colombia. Pablo's experience at Ideas & Capital saw him being part of investments in several successful startups like Next U, Inc. and today he gives us a peek into the Colombian Fintech scene and how Grupo R5 is helping solve issues in the lending space there. Finally, Pablo gives great advice on what to look out for when raising capital for first time entreprenuers.

Jüsto is the first 100% e-grocery store in Mexico. Today, I'm joined by its Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Alejandro Sisniega, who talks about the company's incredible success of raising 20 mm USD in less than year and having a 330% increase in growth in such a short time (with their pillar of success), what makes the Mexican market so attractive for the e-grocery marketplace and what the Mexican startup ecosystem can do to become the next tech hub.

Today, I have Carl Wallace, the head of data science at Rappipay on the podcast. Carl has a Bachelor's in Physics and has a Master's in Computer Science. In this episode, Carl shares his experience in the data science field and helps demystify regularly used words like machine learning and artificial intelligence. He also explains how data science is being applied across different industries and gives advice to people planning to enter the field.

Daniel is one of the top comedians in Mexico. He currently has 2 Netflix specials, around 660k followers on Instagram, almost 200k subscribers on YouTube and has acted in shows in Amazon Prime (LOL), Comedy Central, TEDx amongst many others, all at the ripe age of 26. Daniel is also part of the group of comedians who have disrupted the perception of standup comedy in Mexico and been at the forefront of making it a viable profession for anyone. Today, he is here to share his journey into comedy as well as share insights into the business of comedy (for eg: what is the business behind a Netflix special).

Carlos Torija is one of my oldest and closest friends in Mexico. Carlos and I worked together at Konfio where in a short span on 4 years, Carlos went from Junior Software Engineer to Lead Architect for Konfio. Carlos is currently the VP of Engineering at Fondeadora, a Mexican Neobank. Today, Carlos will cover the ins and outs of being an engineer in the Mexican FinTech environment, the current challenges and opportunities in the tech sector as well as his love for the Japanese language.

Rubens is one of the most fascinating and accomplished people I've ever met. His background includes working at softbank, ubereats, paypal, CMR-Mexico, mckinsey. Rubens holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and has started his own restaurant. He shares his experience on the strategy and operations side of the startup world and gives insight on why Latin America is a huge fintech opportunity and where things can improve.

Ale is a dear friend who is one of the most ambitious women I have met. Her background includes working at PwC and is currently leading Biz Ops at Nexu.mx, a Mexican FinTech, focused on auto-leasing. Ale is here today to shine a light on the female perspective of working in a traditional male dominated field of finance and tech and a male dominated society of Mexico. She also explains why she is hopeful about the industry and gives advice for someone thinking of entering Latin American fintech. In her spare time, Ale is also a huge fan of Indian matchmaking on Netflix

Tony is our first monthly mystery guest. He currently does Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) for Warner Bros while maintaining a blossoming acting career. Today, he is going to shine a light on movie finance, how do studios value movies and why A-list actors get paid the way they do. Finally, we will look at how tech is changing the movie business, for better or for worse. One might think that there might be little overlap between FinTech and Movie Finance but you would be surprised to learn that these two industries share a lot in common.

Fernando is a Product Manager at Kavak.com, one Latam's fastest growing startups backed by SoftBank, Kaszeck and QED investors. Fernando's work experience includes pretty much all high value startups in Mexico, including Konfio, Clip and currently Kavak. Fernando will be sharing his journey in Mexico's fintech, shedding light on the success behind Kavak and his thoughts on being a product manager.

Paul is the founder and CEO of UniPagos, a Mexican payments company that is facilitating the movement of Mexico towards digital finance. He has around 30+ years in the industry and was previously the CEO of Apriva, which had 95% of market share in the USA. With UniPagos, Paul is helping digitize Mexico's financial industry and was instrumental in helping DiDi launch it's debit card to its drivers. In this episode, Paul gives a great background and guide to the payments industry, why he chose to come to Mexico, his thoughts on Banks vs Fintechs and his advice for founders.

In our first episode, I speak with the CFO of Konfio, Carlos Arredondo. Carlos tells us about his journey at Konfio and touches on topics like raising capital, reaching profitability and how to navigate as a CFO in the COVID environment.