Podcasts about us vcs

Welcome to another exciting episode of The SaaS CFO Podcast! In today's episode, we have very special guests who will reveal the secrets to seamless billing in usage-based pricing in the SaaS industry. Joining Ben are Griff Parry and John Griffin, co-founders of M3ter, a groundbreaking platform that is revolutionizing the way companies handle pricing, billing, and revenue operations. Get ready to dive deep into the world of SaaS finance as Griff and John, along with our host Ben, discusses the challenges of traditional pricing models, the power of usage-based pricing, and how M3ter is empowering CFOs to take control of their pricing strategies. Whether you're a SaaS company looking to optimize your revenue streams or a finance professional seeking innovative solutions, you won't want to miss this episode. So grab your headphones, sit back, and get ready to unveil the secrets of successful SaaS invoicing on The SaaS CFO Podcast! Highlights: [00:01:13] Early engineering career led to big data. Sold and built systems, worked with Griff. Specialized in complex IT systems for media companies. Expanded to work with Disney, AT&T, Liberty. Used basic tools like IBM, WebSphere, Oracle. [00:04:32] Usage based pricing pain points inspired Meta. [00:06:48] M3ter helps CFOs control pricing decisions, billing, and revenue through their platform, which consolidates data sources and provides real-time billing and revenue information. [00:13:29] Billing is difficult, revenue leakage is common, customer experience and continuous pricing are important. 00:15:47 Pricing agility and automation saves time, money. [00:20:15] M3ter excels at complexity, billing, and usage-based models. Ideal customers are mid-sized software companies. Key decision-makers are CFOs or product leaders. Primarily focused on North America and Western Europe. Rapidly expanding customer base in APAC. [00:24:34] Seed stage company, not established product-market fit. [00:28:40] Easier the second time around for founders. [00:29:34] Choose partners carefully; UK and US VCs helpful. [00:33:29] Customer case studies showing platform impact. Links: Griff Parry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/griffinparry/ Founder and CEO John Griffin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpgriffin/ Founder and CRO m3ter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/m3ter/ m3ter's Website: https://www.m3ter.com/ SaaS Fundraising Stories: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/m3ter-raises-17-5-million-in-seed-round Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray/

Lucas Timberlake, general partner at Fintech Ventures Fund, the US VC that has a focus on fintech and insurtech, and Ricardo Schäfer,early-stage investor and partner at Revolut backer Target Global, discuss the differences between European VC and US VC funds while also offering insights into the European fintech market.Timberlake, though, says the most prominent difference is between US West Coast VCs and US East Coast VCs, which are more aligned to European VCs.Timberlake says, generally speaking, US West Coast VCs are looking for binary outcomes, while US East Coast and European VCs are more focused on revenue and loss aversion.Schäfer said it was difficult to generalise about the differences between US and European VC funds, given fund-to-fund differences.That said, he said European VC funds tend to be a little smaller in size.The pair also discuss the trend of US VCs, such as Sequoia and General Catalyst, opening London offices, Schäfer said: “When I first went to the US ten years ago, I remember talking to funds on Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road and they wouldn't even fly to Los Angeles. Europe was really kind of far away.“Of course, if you are on the ground and you can play at seed, and if you hit the winners you will obviously be a lot better at deploying capital because you have to build relationships.”He said this strategy of US VCs ploughing more resources into Europe was seeming to work.Timberlake says: “I think it makes sense specifically for the multi-stage funds to have a presence in Europe from seed onwards.”On whether the trend of US VCs investing heavily in Europe would continue, Schäfer said: “Obviously what you have seen over the last couple of years is big fintechs emerge out of Europe. If you look at Wise, if you know look at Revolut, obviously Klarna and a bunch of others. That has definitely created a lot of attention.”

Our expert hosts, David M. Brear, is joined by some great guests for this latest edition of Fintech insider Focus! In this episode, we're looking at the turmoil in the VC space, what has changed in 2023, and what the next half of the year might look like for investment in fintech. This week's guests include: David Rolf, Head, Visa Ventures Sasha Pilch, Principal, Fin Capital Vivek Krishnamurthy, Principal, Commerce Ventures In the latest strand of Fintech Insider, in association with Visa, we taking a burning question from financial services across the globe and put it under the microscope with explainers, expert panels, and in-depth interviews – all to bring the global community into focus. This episode is sponsored by Visa Visa's Fintech Fast Track program is streamlining the onboarding process for fintechs – enabling them to gain access to Visa's powerful capabilities and network. Visa and their enablement partners help fintechs launch and scale cards, virtual credentials, and disbursement programs. To learn more visit, partner.visa.com. Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. It's hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David M. Brear, Ross Gallagher, Benjamin Ensor, and Kate Moody - as well as a range of brilliant guests. We cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and please leave a review Send us your questions for the Fintech Insider Mailbag here (https://11fscompany.typeform.com/to/kBMan5qL?typeform-source=t.co) Follow us on Twitter: @fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com! Special Guests: David Rolf, Sasha Pilch, and Vivek Krishnamurthy.

Melissa Widner is the CEO of Lighter Capital, the pioneer and leader in revenue-based financing for tech startups, founders, and companies. Seattle-based Lighter Capital is backed by National Australia Bank and Silicon Valley Bank as well as US VCs.  Previously, Melissa was the Managing Director of NAB Ventures, the VC arm of the National Australia Bank, and a General Partner at Seattle based SeaPoint Ventures. She was the founder and CEO of 7Software, a Silicon Valley based enterprise software company acquired by Concur (Nasdaq: CNQR, acquired by SAP). She was also the CEO of Northwest Industrial Supply. Under her leadership, both companies generated over a 10X return to investors. She is the co-founder and Chairperson of Sydney-based Heads Over Heels, an organization that supports women entrepreneurs running companies with high growth potential.

Der Osterhase bringt dieses Jahr Bluesky Invite Codes. Wir spekulieren über die Bewertung von Yfood. LanguageTool - das europäische Grammarly - wurde von Learneo übernommen. Wer nutzt Stripe? Was raten wir einem Gründer, der nebenher Zeit für andere Projekte möchte? Samsungs IP landet bei ChatGPT und offenbart ein Datenschutz Problem. Substack wird (nicht) das neue Twitter. Philipp Glöckler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippgloeckler/) und Philipp Klöckner (https://twitter.com/pip_net) sprechen heute über: (00:00:45) Bluesky (00:03:00) Twitter (00:06:00) Bob Lee in SF erstochen (00:16:30) Nestlé & Yfood (00:25:30) Wandeldarlehnen oder GmbH (00:29:15) Stripe (00:36:00) LanguageTool  (00:44:10) Frage zum Gründen (00:49:20) Substack (01:03:45) Samsungs IP in ChatGPT (01:09:45) Layoffs und Betriebsräte (01:17:00) Bluesky Invite Codes Shownotes: Werbung: Jetzt auf https://doppelgaenger.io/kuhn einen Termin bei KUHN Maßkonfektion machen und 20% mit dem Gutscheincode “Doppelgänger” sparen, wenn du dich bis Ende April 2023 vor Ort beraten und vermessen lässt. Elon & NPR: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/06/1168455846/elon-musk-says-nprs-state-affiliated-media-label-might-not-have-been-accurate Yfood: https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/06/nestle-takes-a-big-swig-of-yfood-in-a-deal-that-values-the-meal-replacement-startup-at-469m/?utm_source=artifact Samsung ChatGPT: https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/06/samsung_reportedly_leaked_its_own/ VCs & China: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/sequoia-and-other-u-s-backed-vcs-are-funding-chinas-answer-to-openai?rc=tomcgv Bluesky Social: Invite Code für Jack Dorseys neues Social Network https://www.doppelgaenger.io/bluesky-social-invite-code-fuer-jack-dorseys-neues-social-network/ Finance Forward Konferenz (inkl. OMR Festival) und DG + Kassenzone Party: https://www.doppelgaenger.io/omr Doppelgänger Tech Talk Podcast Sheet https://doppelgaenger.io/sheet/ Disclaimer https://www.doppelgaenger.io/disclaimer/ Passionfroot Storefront www.passionfroot.xyz/doppelgaenger Post Production by Jan Wagener https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-wagener-49270018b/ Aktuelle Doppelgänger Werbepartner https://lollipod.de/sn/doppelgaenger-werbung

This week I am speaking to Melissa Widner, CEO of Lighter Capital. She has an incredible story of going from operator to capital allocator. Now she takes the helm of the largest brands in revenue based financing in the world. Melissa Widner is the CEO of Lighter Capital, the pioneer and leader in revenue-based financing for tech startups, founders, and companies. Seattle-based Lighter Capital is backed by National Australia Bank and Silicon Valley Bank as well as US VCs.Previously, Melissa was the Managing Director of NAB Ventures, the VC arm of the National Australia Bank, and a General Partner at Seattle based SeaPoint Ventures. She was the founder and CEO of 7Software, a Silicon Valley based enterprise software company acquired by Concur (Nasdaq: CNQR, acquired by SAP). She was also the CEO of Northwest Industrial Supply. Under her leadership, both companies generated over a 10X return to investors.She is the co-founder and Chairperson of Sydney-based Heads Over Heels, an organization that supports women entrepreneurs running companies with high growth potential.What You Will Learn:- Alternatives to Equity- Identifying Shark VCs- Debt vs. Revenue Based Financing

Wer als europäisches Startup vor einer Finanzierungsrunde durch US VCs steht, kennt das Spiel: Noch immer wollen viele US Venture Capital Geber (darunter Y-Combinator) nur in eine Delaware Holding investieren.  Die Lösung: Die deutsche oder europäische Gesellschaft in eine Delaware Holding "flippen". Der Delaware Flip bedeutet die Einbringung eines Nicht-US-Unternehmens in eine Delaware-Holdingstruktur. Das Gründen einer Delaware-Holdinggesellschaft ist besonders für ausländische Unternehmen interessant, die sich am US-Markt listen lassen wollen oder Investoren suchen. Denn die Vereinigten Staaten sind nach wie vor der wichtigste Markt für Risikokapital und andere private Finanzierungsquellen und auch weltweit führende Aktienmärkte sitzen dort. Der Delaware Flip kann ein vielversprechender Weg zu einer neuen Finanzierung und langfristigen Steigerung des Unternehmenswertes sein, jedoch erfordert er auch eine äußerst sorgfältige Planung und bedeutet einen großen Zeitaufwand. Daher muss man bei diesem Unterfangen mit Rechts-, Buchhaltungs- und Steuerberatern zusammenarbeiten.

Timestamps: 10:10 - The Gymhopper story 22:00 - Stepping down from the CEO role 25:47 - How Silvan met Christian Hirsig 30:28 - Juggling two jobs plus Swisspreneur 36:52 - Where the Swiss ecosystem is headed About Silvan Krähenbühl: Silvan Krähenbühl is the host and managing director at Swisspreneur and current CEO at Rentouch, a Swiss enterprise software company developing products geared towards e-collaboration, and best known for the PIplanning app. He holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of St Gallen. After his bachelors at HSG, Silvan created Gymhopper, a B2B SaaS startup which gives individual gyms the network of a big chain, together with his co-founder Louis, whom he had met at HSG's Young Entrepreneurs Club. This partnership turned out to be an unfortunate one, since Louis and Silvan did not have shared values. But this realization would come later – in the meantime, Gymhopper hired its CTO, João Sobral, in Lisbon, and grew within the span of 6 months to be the biggest gym network in Switzerland. Investors then wanted them to expand and become the biggest network in all of Europe, but the Gymhopper team soon realized that their business model was Swiss-specific and would not work in other countries, because abroad there is often a legal preference for monthly gym memberships (in contrast to the Swiss annual membership model). Their expansion to Denmark and Austria was therefore not very fruitful. They tried to counteract this through a corporate fitness model, which not only brought in more revenue but also attracted the attention of the Austrian company myclubs, who wished to expand their corporate fitness offering in Switzerland. Gymhopper was acquired by myclubs in 2018 and Silvan stepped down from the CEO role, switching to a part-time Head Of Business Development position at myclubs. It was also in 2018 that Silvan joined Swisspreneur. One of the startup coaches that he'd met while building Gymhopper was Christian Hirsig, a serial entrepreneur and former Swisspreneur host, who invited Silvan to take over from him as host. Silvan was at first quite hesitant about being on camera and taking on such a large role, but was eventually convinced by Chris and nowadays feels very thankful for having made this decision. From 2018 to 2022, Silvan and his team grew Swisspreneur from a show with 16 published episodes to the biggest Apple Podcasts business podcast in Switzerland, with its own coaching service, masterclasses and syndicate. Silvan credits the success of Swisspreneur to his amazing team. In 2020 Silvan started working at Rentouch as Enterprise Account Director. In 2021 he left his position at myclubs and started working full time for Rentouch, and in 2022 he became the new Rentouch CEO. Ansuya Ahwalia, founder of Anamii and host of this episode, will be joining Silvan in the host team, occasionally interviewing guests. Memorable Quotes: "Most founders are actually unhappy. As companies grow, they can get bogged down by the workload and feel like they're being stretched too thin." "There's a big momentum developing in the Swiss ecosystem right now. The big US VCs are starting to invest here." Recommended Resources: Oura Ring The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz If you'd like to listen to Silvan's interview with Chris Hirsig, check out episode 17.

0:00 Bestie intros! 1:03 SPAC updates, state of the public/private markets 20:26 US VCs have $290B in dry powder and raised a record amount in H1 2022, is the market nearing a bottom? 31:14 Risks of backing Putin into a corner, Russia's end game, conditions for conflict 50:45 Government-heavy climate plans, Dilbert/ESG backlash 1:01:20 Poker plans, chess cheating scandal Follow the besties: https://twitter.com/chamath https://linktr.ee/calacanis https://twitter.com/DavidSacks https://twitter.com/friedberg Follow the pod: https://twitter.com/theallinpod https://linktr.ee/allinpodcast Intro Music Credit: https://rb.gy/tppkzl https://twitter.com/yung_spielburg Intro Video Credit: https://twitter.com/TheZachEffect Referenced in the show: https://youtu.be/AODfsBMGzGQ https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1461453308623659010 https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/byjus-releases-delayed-audit-report-showing-large-losses-2021 https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q2-2022-pitchbook-nvca-venture-monitor https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/10/tiger-global-hit-by-17b-hedge-fund-losses-has-nearly-depleted-its-latest-vc-fund https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/world/europe/russia-ukraine-retreat-putin.html https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/douglas-macarthur-atomic-bombs-will-win-the-korean-war/ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/world/europe/russia-ukraine-retreat-putin.html https://sites.tufts.edu/css/mip-research/#:~:text=According%20to%20our%20data%2C%20the,these%20missions%20occurred%20after%201999 https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar https://www.wsj.com/articles/gavin-newsoms-2024-climate-platform-california-40-climate-bills-energy-electricity-blackouts-11663702766 https://twitter.com/UncommonYield/status/1572743593508638722 https://twitter.com/Jason/status/1572399621389062145

The FinTech Report Podcast: Episode 24: Interview with Jaco Veldsman, Co-Founder, PaytronWe started with payments and accounting, customers then asked us for corporate cards and FX, and Open Banking for Business will be a game changer, says Paytron Paytron is a cloud-based payments platform built for SMEs and accountants.  In 2020, Jaco Veldsman met co-founder Francois Henrion, where they lamented the disparity of finance tools available to SMEs and accountants versus bigger businesses.  Together they focused on developing Paytron, an all-in-one payment platform that removed the manual work for SMEs and accountants covering accounts payable, accounts receivable, cashflow management, FX, and payroll and employee expenses. In this episode we cover:·       Accounting packages haven't innovated, Paytron saw the opportunity·       Focus is on SMEs, small business up to $100m turnover·       Paytron's philosophy was to launch fast, and innovate fast·       Laser focus on what the customer wants; out of this came the request for corporate cards·       Partnership with JP Morgan is huge·       FinTech & Banks are a perfect partnership and each brings their own skills and advantages·       Next major problem is business banking, business financing needs, which can include corporate cards·       Business banking needs to change, and Paytron will be moving hard and fast in this sector·       Expansion plans to English speaking Commonwealth countries; NZ, Singapore, South Africa, Canada, UK. The JP Morgan partnership opens up other countries, eg USA·       Great benefits of being in the Commonwealth; same language and very similar regulations, taxes etc·       Paytron will expand into FX (foreign exchange)·       Jaco explains the role of corporate cards·       Jaco explains their amazing funding journey (US VCs as well as Australia), and building the team·       Open Banking is huge and will be big; banks need to ‘choose a side' says Jaco·       FinTechs can access bank accounts (via Open Banking) and offer new services: when fintechs can have “read and write” access, then fintechs will offer services as well as payments Qy2Pt8Aij9VtVpZbbxU1 

On this episode of the Scaleup Valley podcast, Mike Dias speaks with Hsu Ken Ooi, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Iterative Key Takeaways: 1. The differences between Southeast Asia and Silicon Valley (and a few insights on similarities shared by SEA and Europe); 2. How VCs in both regions approach decision-making regarding probability and magnitude of success - US VCs are bolder; 3. What to prove in order to be well-equipped to raise a pre-seed, seed and A round.

Tomorrow (3/14) is Pi day! Yes, guilty as charged. I’m a recovering math and science nerd. Pi day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant “pi” which relates to the circumference of a circle. It’s also a great excuse to eat lots of pie. In honor of Pi day, I wanted to take a walk around the world and touch on a couple crypto relevant stories Ukraine vs Russia: Crypto in war? EU may ban proof of work - misguided? Jambo: Can Play to earn take off in Africa?Holy metaverse?1. Ukraine 🇺🇦 vs Russia 🇷🇺: Crypto in war? The good: War is an ugly business. It brings out the worst of humanity. Yet even in those dark days, heroes emerge and necessity gives birth to innovation. Over $100M of crypto has been donated to Ukraine from around the world. Without crypto, many of these donations would have taken 2+ business days to be processed and charged up to 6% fees. But with crypto, we have solutions that provide instant, free-to-near-free international payments. Speed can be the difference between life and death. Imagine you lived in the US but your loved ones were under siege in Ukraine. They urgently requested money to flee. It could be heart wrenching having to wait 2+ business days. Mind you, if the request came on Friday, funds might not arrive till Tuesday. This could be unnecessary exposure. The ban:Many Western governments and companies have put in place sanctions against Russians. This culminated in 7 leading Russian banks being cut-off from the SWIFT global payment network. SWIFT is a global payment messaging system. It links over 11,000 banks across 200+ countries. The system does not transfer money rather its like an email system for banks. It conducts about 42 million messages every day. The ban on 7 Russian banks would cause inconvenience but I expect they might eventually develop workarounds over time. It remains to be seen how effective the sanctions are. Could crypto provide a workaround?The other sideIn Nigeria, we say, when two elephants fight, the grass suffers. Deep wounds are being gored on both sides. Much of the US news coverage is focused on Ukrainian courage amidst Putin’s over-reach. I have also been thinking about regular Russian citizens - they did not choose this war.The sanctions and exits of Western companies are dealing a heavy blow to the their economy. Global companies like McKinsey & Company, Visa, PWC, McDonald’s are among the dozens which have ceased operations in the country. Many Russians now find themselves without a job at the exact moment their local currency (the ruble) has lost 40% of value against the US dollar and inflation rising. Crypto could offer some solutions for them too. Russians could convert their life savings from rubles to US-dollar backed stablecoins or Bitcoin. Out-of-work Russians could consider Play-to-Earn games. Crypto payments could provide optionality in the event that sanctions. My heart goes out to Ukraine 🇺🇦 and all who have had their lives disrupted by the invasion.2. EU 🇪🇺may ban proof-of-workThe European Union (EU) has a legislative framework for governing digital currencies, it’s called Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA). It contains a provision that could limit the use of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum Proof-of-work has been a lightning rod as it is an energy-intensive mechanism. Some environmentalists have decried coal-powered bitcoin mining in China as detrimental to the fight against climate change. It is in the in this vein that proof-of-work came under heavy scrutiny. However, I don’t think this premise is based on full understanding of the current state. Bitcoin miners are highly mobile and incentivized to pursue the lowest energy source. Today, 39% of bitcoin mining is powered by renewable energy while only 13% of US power generation is renewable (EIA). Bitcoin mining can subsidize capital investments to build more renewable energy facilities. The EU is right to consider opportunities to reduce carbon footprint. But it is odd to start with Bitcoin mining given its miniscule carbon footprint compared to other related activities like the traditional banking system (650x), gold mining (90x), and paper currency printing (11x). Furthermore, a 1% reduction in carbon emissions from global aviation sector would be 5x larger than total carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining. Shouldn’t we focus on that?3. Jambo: Play to earn in Africa💰Last year, I shared the story of how Play-to-earn NFT games were providing thousands of Filipinos a means of livelihood. Africa has many of the same strong fundamentals: 60% of the population is below 24 years old and almost 50% of university graduates in Africa are unemployed. James Zhang, a 3rd-generation Chinese-Congolese, founded Jambo in Kinshasa to capitalize on the same trends in Africa. Jambo’s goal is to become the Web 3.0 super app for Africa. They have already reached 12,000 students across 14 countries (Morocco, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Madagascar and South Africa). The students go through a 10-weeek program to explore opportunities in play-to-earn gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi). Jambo also takes on some of the students to become local ambassadors. Jambo provides scholarships which enables students to earn money. In some cases, students are making 2x what their salary might be. Jambo recently raised $7.5M from a group of investors including Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research and other notable crypto investors. The goal is to achieve 1M downloads by the end of year.Too often, US VCs looking to invest in Africa focus in on Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. It makes sense these are some of the most mature and dynamic hubs on the continent. However, it belies the difference and opportunities in the other 51 countries in Africa. I’ve been impressed by Jambo’s strategy of quickly getting boots on the ground in a a variety of countries. 4. Holy Metaverse ⛪️✝️This week, I learned that there is a VR Church in the metaverse! They host Sunday services, weekly groups, and offer volunteer opportunities…100% in the metaverse. The clincher is that it was established in 2017! One of the great hopes of the metaverse is to improve access. This has proved true in the VR Church. One of the leaders shared how she had been diagnosed with a neuro-muscular condition which effectively left her homebound since 2010. VR Church has given her an avenue to be actively engaged in a community. Just when I was thinking this was pretty fringe stuff, today my sister and brother-in-law shared that their church was planning to run part of their youth summer program in the metaverse. Church attendance in the US has declined in recent decades. It makes sense to leverage technology to reach the next generation. However, VR Church proves that there is staying power. It delivers on creating a more accessible and global experience. What a great time to be alive. I hope you have a wonderful Pi Day and week ahead. O daboAfo This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afolabio.substack.com

Greatest Hits Episode: Christian Van der Henst: Helping Latin America Learn with Platzi, Ep 155​​For this week's episode of Crossing Borders, we're revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Platzi's Christian Van der Henst.How did a curious young web developer from Guatemala become one of the first Latin American entrepreneurs to enter YCombinator? Christian Van der Henst fell in love with the internet in the 90s when he realized he could use it as a tool to communicate with the whole world. He knew he wanted to share his knowledge with people and collaborate with a global tech community long before Latin America's tech revolution even started.Christian is a lifelong entrepreneur, but he didn't realize it until he was studying his Masters in Barcelona while running a massive online platform, Maestros del Web, a proto-Stack Exchange for Latin America, at night. He eventually put his passion for education into Platzi, alongside Colombian co-founder Freddy Vega, and helped grow the company to US$3M in yearly revenue in just four years. In this episode, Christian talks about how he transitioned from Maestros del Web to Mejorando.la (before they rebranded to Platzi), how Platzi became the first startup serving Latinos to enter YCombinator, and why entrepreneurship is so important in Latin America right now.A curious web developer – with 10 million monthly page viewsMaestros del Web, Christian's first real business, started as a pet project for Christian to communicate with and learn from other web developers around the world. In the early days of the internet, the few portals that existed to help web developers solve problems were all in English, and Christian wanted a solution for his local community, too.While the site was a huge success, Christian could barely manage his four person team remotely as he studied for his Master's in Barcelona. He had accidentally built a huge community online – and realized he loved the feeling of bringing people together to talk about tech. Learn how Christian jumped from Maestros del Web to Platzi by befriending a competitor and starting to dream bigger.From 100 audience members to 1200 viewersPlatzi started out as an in person course, until Freddy and Christian realized that almost every attendee (including themselves!) was traveling to join the class. Platzi quickly migrated online, and the first online course had more than twice as many students as the co-founders expected. The server crashed and the first streaming was a failure, says Christian, but the audience was forgiving.Why? Transparency has been a key to Platzi's success from the start. The founders explained their tech problems to their users, fixed them, then kept providing classes. In this episode of Crossing Borders, learn why Christian thinks failing the first live stream made Platzi stronger and more resilient.If you really want something, keep tryingPlatzi was rejected from YCombinator the first time they applied. Christian almost didn't apply again, until a mentor mentioned that he should give it another shot. Platzi is now known for being the first fully Latin American company to enter the accelerator.Christian thinks that every startup should apply for YC, just as an exercise to find out if what they are doing is worth building. He encourages Latino founders to ask for what they want (a tip he's learned from working in San Francisco); in Silicon Valley, trying hard and failing is better than never trying at all. That's how Platzi has reached US$3M in revenue a year, and still offers free courses on YouTube.Platzi has already become an internationally-recognized brand for online education as they help the Spanish-speaking market become digitally native. The platform is an example of what it means to listen to your local community and build a product for them before launching it globally. Christian Van der Henst is passionate about building entrepreneurial communities in Latin America, and Platzi is just one of the tools helping local entrepreneurs get started across the Spanish-speaking world.Outline of this episode:[1:54] – Splitting time between Platzi offices in Bogota, San Francisco, and Mexico City[2:31] – What does Platzi do?[3:46] – Were you always an entrepreneur?[4:57] – How did you get started with Maestros del Web?[5:56] – Growing up in Guatemala[8:40] – How Christian fell in love with the internet at a young age[11:26] – Going from Guatemala to Barcelona[12:37] – What were some of the biggest challenges you had to overcome going from 0 to 10M page views?[15:42] – What was like going from being a solo founder to teaming up with somebody?[16:55] – Why Mejorando.la went from live classes to streaming and YouTube[18:24] – Why mistakes are good for learning[19:39] – Why Latino founders should learn to put themselves out there and stop fearing failure[22:53] – Rebranding: Your users care more about product than name[24:15] – Why they targeted the Spanish-speaking market[25:23] – What was it like to enter YCombinator as the first fully Latin American company?[27:30] – Biggest surprises participating in YCombinator[29:19] – Why Colombia is leading the way for international investment in LatAm[31:17] – When did you know Platzi would grow to be something big?[34:25] – Why keep an office in San Francisco?[36:24] – What advice would you give to other Latin American founders when they are trying to raise money?[38:02] – Why should more US VCs be looking at companies from LatAm?[40:26] – Why fintech is so important in LatAm[42:53] – What's your advice for people that want to start learning to code?[44:05] – If you could go back to when you were first starting Mejorando.la, what advice would you give yourself?This episode of Crossing Borders is brought to you by AWS Startups.AWS Startups supports entrepreneurs in Latin America across multiple programs, including Cloud Credits to help startups test features and extend runway, technical support to help optimize AWS solutions and integrations with your product, and – on the business side – help you build strategic contacts with investment funds, accelerators, and corporations to accelerate your growth.For more information, check out aws.amazon.com/es/campaigns/founders, where you can access $1,350 in AWS credits for your startup.

Gil is the Founding Partner of UpWest, the only Seed fund that's purposefully designed to help Israeli startups break into the US market.  Headquartered in Silicon Valley and operating since 2012, UpWest was the first investor in SentineOne, HoneyBook and 80 other startups that raised over $2B in follow-on funding from top US VCs. Prior to UpWest, Gil was the VP of Operations Management at Yahoo! after working with the company's Corporate Development group. Gil also served as a consultant advising Fortune 500 companies for the Boston Consulting Group in New York.

Bruce Croxon is a legend in the Toronto startup scene. He’s led successful startups as an operator, but also is known as a mentor and investor, and of course he’s also become a bit of a media celeb. It was great to chat with him about the Canadian startup ecosystem, how much it’s grown and where it’s headed.About Bruce:Bruce Croxon is a Canadian entrepreneur, television personality, and venture capitalist. Croxon is currently a partner at Round13 Capital and co-host of BNN's TV show, The Disruptors. Croxon co-founded the dating website Lavalife and joined the cast of CBC's Dragons' Den from 2011-2013.Support for this podcast comes from Silicon Valley Bank“What’s next?”“What if?”“Now what?”Silicon Valley Bank understands these questions can keep founders up at night.For over thirty-five years, Silicon Valley Bank has helped high growth companies through scalable financial solutions, plus insights and expertise that many other banks just can’t.In 2019 we opened an office in Toronto dedicated to lending to Canadian businesses and their investors.Find out more at svb.com/CanadaSilicon Valley Bank – Built for What’s Next.In this episode we discuss:03:42 The Canadian Tech Scene today compared to the late-1980s07:36 How homegrown capital has changed the game10:37 Maintaining competitive advantage of Canadian VC16:51 Helping spark the entrepreneurial spirit in potential Canadian founders20:00 Is the blitz-scaling style of startups compatible with Canadian Investors25:51 The changing mindset of Canadian LPs28:34 Getting into growth stage rounds of companies31:17 Why founders need to take seriously who they are take investment from33:34 The next industries Canada investors should back38:03 Keeping talent local41:10 What the Canadian government should do to spur startup growthFast FavoritesPodcastsBill SimmonsSpittin’ ChicletsNewsletter/BlogLogic PeakBeta KitTech GadgetAirpodsNew TrendDemocratization of ProductionBookChasing the Scream by Johann HariFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

My guest today is Kanyi Maqubela, co-founder of seed-stage VC firm Kindred Ventures, which he started with his partner Steven Jang in 2019. Before founding Kindred Ventures, Kanyi was a general partner at Collaborative Fund. In our conversation, we discuss the parallels between today and the Roaring ’20s of the last century, the misunderstood risk curve of seed investing, and dive deep into how Kanyi evaluates founders and businesses at the earliest stage of company formation. We also discuss Kanyi’s experience teaching the Design Your Life class at Stanford and how some of those principles convinced him to take the leap to start his own fund. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Kanyi Maqubela.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ------ This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.   With Tegus, you can learn everything you’d want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 10,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more. ------ This episode is brought to you by NordVPN. NordVPN is the best VPN to keep your internet experience private.   It has over 5,500 servers in 60 countries to ensure super-fast internet while protecting your information no matter where you are. As working from home and remote work become more prevalent, now is the time to protect your personal and business information without any data logging.   NordVPN works on all popular platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, and supports up to 6 simultaneous connections across your devices.   To get started, go to nordvpn.com/patrick or use code PATRICK to get a 2-year plan plus 1 additional month with a huge discount and a 30-day money-back guarantee. ------ Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:04:11] - [First question] - Understanding the roaring 20s and their potential resurgence [00:06:14] - Seed-stage investing today compared to a few years ago [00:09:02] - Lessons learned from studying the 1920s  [00:11:52] - Supply chain infrastructure in the 21st century [00:14:49] - His investment philosophy and what influenced it [00:17:47] - Defining the risk curve and early-stage divergence [00:21:31] - Assessing risk in seed-stage investing [00:23:32] - Other moments that influenced Kanyi’s investment philosophy [00:26:50] - Assisting early-stage companies as a VC  [00:29:31] - How he approaches VC differently than traditional US VCs [00:31:55] - Non-consensus ways and unique views when evaluating founders [00:35:19] - Domain insight and its importance [00:36:53] - What he looks for in a company when considering investing in them [00:38:17] - Assessing a team in whether or not they have characteristics of longevity [00:40:59] - Questions he most enjoys asking people [00:42:24] - What makes for a good problem space [00:44:26] - Early-stage crypto investing [00:47:27] - How the crypto space and NFTs will change and influence other sectors [00:50:37] - Emerging trends that are catching his attention [00:54:20] - The potential for upward mobility in the coming decade [00:56:30] - Teaching the Design Your Life course [01:01:21] - Advice for modern investor-operators [01:03:26] - If he could change one major thing in the industry [01:06:57] - The biggest lesson learned from Obama’s campaign [01:07:44] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Online event from February 25th 2021, with guest speakers Matthew Browne (Black Nova Group - Sydney) and Andy Leroux (Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center - San Francisco) and moderated by Startup&Angels co-founder, Leo Denes. Andy helps us understanding better how to raise funds in the US; a very heavy and long process that he describes for us. He also warns that since 2018, it's getting harder for early stage startups to raise as investors are looking at scale-ups mainly... On the Australian side, Matt talks about a good seed and pre-seed focus which is more encouraging for early stage founders! Our panel also discussed the remote disruption in fundraising, with US VCs accepting and opening more and more to foreign companies through digital meetings and process flows. Matt also mentioned a recent “propensity of US investors to invest in Australia" which is a great news for the ecosystem. The pandemic has seen a “sophistication of the Australian ecosystem” with a better maturity of programs, accelerators and investors, diversifying to early stage startups. Best quotes: “Think about investors as partners as opposed as bankers” - Andy “Get working on the engine room as early as possible to have strong data to show investors” - Matt “Know yourself, where you want to go, who is with you and who you need” - Andy   Contacts: Andy Le Roux: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresleroux/ Matthew Browne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brownematthew/   Become a member of the Startup&angels community (free) >> https://startupsandangels.ramenlife.co/home and build your network, find your investor, meet your co-founder, share with your peers, connect with customers and make things happen! This podcast is sponsored by Australiance, your recruitment and business partner in APAC.   Podcast production: Sophie Champagne Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-champagne-63a89351/    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Online event from February 25th 2021, with guest speakers Matthew Browne (Black Nova Group - Sydney) and Andy Leroux (Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center - San Francisco) and moderated by Startup&Angels co-founder, Leo Denes. Andy helps us understanding better how to raise funds in the US; a very heavy and long process that he describes for us. He also warns that since 2018, it's getting harder for early stage startups to raise as investors are looking at scale-ups mainly... On the Australian side, Matt talks about a good seed and pre-seed focus which is more encouraging for early stage founders! Our panel also discussed the remote disruption in fundraising, with US VCs accepting and opening more and more to foreign companies through digital meetings and process flows. Matt also mentioned a recent “propensity of US investors to invest in Australia" which is a great news for the ecosystem. The pandemic has seen a “sophistication of the Australian ecosystem” with a better maturity of programs, accelerators and investors, diversifying to early stage startups. Best quotes: “Think about investors as partners as opposed as bankers” - Andy “Get working on the engine room as early as possible to have strong data to show investors” - Matt “Know yourself, where you want to go, who is with you and who you need” - Andy   Contacts: Andy Le Roux: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresleroux/ Matthew Browne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brownematthew/   Become a member of the Startup&angels community (free) >> https://startupsandangels.ramenlife.co/home and build your network, find your investor, meet your co-founder, share with your peers, connect with customers and make things happen! This podcast is sponsored by Australiance, your recruitment and business partner in APAC.   Podcast production: Sophie Champagne Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-champagne-63a89351/    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gil is the Founding Partner of UpWest, the only Seed fund that's purposefully designed to help Israeli startups break into the US market. UpWest was the first investor in "unicorn" SentinelOne and its portfolio companies have raised well over $1B in follow-on funding from top US VCs. Previously, Gil was part of the Corporate Development group at Yahoo! and served as a consultant advising Fortune 500 companies for the Boston Consulting Group in New York.

cc: growth journeys from emerging ecosystems to global markets. Raul Popa is the founder of TypingDNA, the AI-based typing biometrics technology company that identifies users by the way they type. The need for keystroke dynamics and authentication has skyrocketed and TypingDNA leveraged its first-mover advantage to dominate new verticals in a well-established industry. What’s in this episode? 1) How Raul can understand who you are as you type! 2) Competitors in the authentication space and growing niches 3) Raising $Ms from local, EU and US VCs, all in the same round 4) Fundraising tips and tricks to attract top tier VCs as an international founder 5) New York vs. Silicon Valley for international founders You can reach us through our website or @getcced on Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and Linkedin. Hosted by Enis Hulli and Rina Onur.

cc: is a podcast on locally incubated global startup success stories. Hosted by Enis. Berkay exited his company, OpsGenie, to Atlassian for $295M last year. After servicing large enterprises in the infrastructure operations and management space, Berkay decided to focus on IT incident management and build a scalable product in an upcoming industry. OpsGenie only raised 1 round of funding and was sold to Atlassian 5 years after it was born. What’s in this episode? 1) Importance of close communication with customers and fast iterations 2) Narrowing scope and dominating a growing niche 3) Talent advantages in Turkey and hiring problems in the US 4) Fundraising from US VCs as an international team 5) Reasons why Atlassian decided to acquire OpsGenie You can reach us through our website or @getcced on Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and Linkedin.

In this week’s episode, Grace and Michelle interview Nicki Carrea, the founder and CEO of Genuine Glow. She talks about her experience working at a Fortune 500 company and how she applied that experience to building her own company and growing it to a $2M business in less than four years. She also shares two pieces of advice she received from her mentors that she thinks about frequently as well as a few tips for those looking to start their own companies. You can connect with Nicki on LinkedIn and/or check out Genuine Glow’s website here. Here are a couple of tidbits of information that we referenced during this episode in case you’d like to check them out:Great news! Two female-founded startups (Glossier and Rent The Runway) recently entered the unicorn status, being valued at $1.2 billion and $1 billion, respectively, as reported by TechCrunch. Not so good news… According to All Raise, only 9% of US VCs are women (this includes partners, GPs and MDs with check-writing abilities at firms with fund size > $25M). But the good news is… Your Four of a Kind hosts (especially Grace) and many others out there are very passionate about improving that! If you have any questions or comments, or just want to share a story, please email us at fourofakindpodcast@gmail.com. Don’t forget to hit subscribe and follow us on Instagram for updates!

The Mexican venture capital and startup ecosystem is changing fast. And ALLVP’s Federico Antoni has been there helping it grow since 2012 when he and his partner Fernando Lelo de Larrea started their first fund. The once-CEO of a Mexican fashion company started investing after he failed to reinvent an aging consumer brand. The transition from a corporate position to the world of entrepreneurship might not be obvious, but Federico leveraged his experience teaching at universities to help him raise not one, but three venture capital funds that have gone on to support not only Mexican but also Latin America startups. I sat down with Federico on this episode of Crossing Borders to discuss how he raised US$6M in 2012, before startups were popular, lessons learned while raising his second and third funds, the Cornershop acquisition for $225M by Walmart, in which ALLVP was an early investor, CORFO’s effect on the Chilean VC ecosystem, and China’s impact on the Latin American ecosystem. Check out this episode to hear Federico’s journey from the corporate world to becoming a prominent player in Latin America’s startup ecosystem. Failure can be an opportunity for reinvention We often talk about how teams that have failed go on to build better startups. Many VCs like to invest in second or third time entrepreneurs because they have the grit to face the difficulty of being a founder. Federico wasn’t didn’t start as an entrepreneur, but still believes that a failure put him on his current path. After six years as CEO of an ageing company, he could not turn it around, and it closed down. Federico used this failure as a learning experience, like any good entrepreneur would. Find out how Federico made the transition to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in this episode of Crossing Borders. The Cornershop Effect It only takes a few big successes to gain credibility in the local ecosystem. For ALLVP, the clear winner of their portfolio so far is Cornershop, the Mexican-Chilean delivery service that was recently acquired by Walmart. It took Federico and his partner, Fernando Lelo de Larrea, seventeen investments to find Cornershop. There is a lot of learning involved in betting on companies, especially in the Latin American ecosystem. When ALLVP started in 2012, family offices weren’t so keen on giving up money for unknown, risky companies. The Cornershop Effect, as we call it, has shown investors and entrepreneurs that they can build businesses that can exit and earn good returns. Potential LPs who originally rejected VC pitches are now reaching out to firms to learn about investment opportunities. Listen the rest of the episode to hear about the other companies ALLVP is backing right now. China is taking the LatAm ecosystem seriously The US has taken Latin America for granted for too long, says Federico. Now, with China looking at Latin America as a serious investment opportunity and a growing market for tech, the US should be gearing up for a competition. Didi Chuxing is already in Mexico, fighting Uber for market share. As Chinese companies enter Latin America, hire talent, and innovate, US investors and startups will need to work harder to keep a toehold. Federico has a suggestion for US VCs who are interested in Latin America: visit Mexico City, or Santiago, or Bogota. Listen to the rest of Federico’s tips about doing business in Mexico and Latin America on this episode. Mexican-born investor Federico Antoni has followed an unconventional path to the startup ecosystem. Yet as an investor in one of Latin America’s biggest exits and success stories, he has turned ALLVP into a prominent player in the local market. Find out what he thinks of the exit, VC in Latin America, and what’s next for the region on this episode of Crossing Borders. Show Notes: [1:22] - Nathan introduces Federico Antoni [1:45] - What does ALLVP do? [3:43] - How many companies have you invested in? [6:43] - What did you do before VC? [9:12] - What made you take the leap to start a fund? [12:50] - Lessons learned from teaching [15:25] - How did you raise your first fund? [18:12] - How has the market changed from 2012 to today? [21:31] - Learning how to invest through VC [24:27] - The market should help entrepreneurs fail faster [25:57] - The Chilean VC ecosystem debate (Cornershop effect) [31:55] - China in Mexico [35:00] - Why should US investors look at LatAm? [41:21] - Federico Antoni’s advice for his younger self Resources Mentioned: ALLVP Cornershop Social Diabetes Alkanza Rocket Man by Robert Kurson (Book) The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer (Book) Abstract: The Art of Design (Documentary) New York Times Op-Ed on Teaching

If you don’t believe entrepreneurship is a grueling job, just ask Ignacio Guglielmetti. Ignacio says he has never worked harder than he does for his startup Cuida Mi Mascota, and he used to be a management consultant - one of the most demanding jobs out there. His path from consulting to building a pet-sitting startup was far from clear; it took him to the Netherlands, USA, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. One might say that Ignacio knows a thing or two about doing business across borders. In this episode of Crossing Borders, I invited Ignacio to discuss his two startups, how he studied in Buenos Aires and Rotterdam, what it was like to merge with a competitor in Latin America, having a startup acquired, the difference between all the accelerators Ignacio has participated in (three, in three different countries!), and how Ignacio became an angel investor. Check out this episode to learn about doing business across Latin America’s biggest economies, including how to do business in Brazil as a Spanish-speaking entrepreneur. Running to the bathroom to answer startup emails It’s a story that many of entrepreneurs will relate to. Ignacio’s first bit of advice to himself for when he started his first startup: quit your job earlier. When Ignacio was working on SinImanes, a food delivery startup in Argentina that was later acquired, he waited six months to quit his management consulting job, running to the bathroom during meetings to answer urgent emails. Trying to do both things at once was just too complicated. After quitting his job, Ignacio was able to take SinImanes to Mexico via a merger. Find out how Ignacio raised US$500K at his first startup and how that led to his founding Cuida Mi Mascota in Mexico, after growing up in Argentina. In acquisitions and mergers, know your strengths Ignacio has gone through both processes, and he knows how complicated those negotiations can get. If you have good traction, look for a partner who has access to a strong network or a bigger addressable market. If your competitor gets acquired, be on the lookout for interest from their acquirer. But you don’t have to accept the first acquisition offer you receive; shop around a bit, get competing offers, then decide. Ignacio has been on all sides of the acquisition and merger process and knows what it takes to find the right partner to help you enter a market. Listen to this episode of Crossing Borders to hear how to deal with acquisitions and mergers when crossing borders in the Latin American market. How to choose where to raise capital Ignacio has received investment and acceleration from institutions in the US, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile, so he has a broad perspective on what entrepreneurs should expect. If you are working with US VCs, for example, expect a quick response; whether it’s a yes or a no, you will know almost right away. On the Latin American side, your network might lead you to the right VC, but they will take their time in due diligence. After gaining experience as an angel investor, Ignacio has a final tip: bring on an investor with experience in your industry. He doesn’t invest in any companies where he wouldn’t be able to provide industry advice because he knows the value of mentorship from an experienced investor. Check out the rest of this episode of Crossing Borders to hear about how Ignacio got started as an angel investor. Ignacio Guglielmetti exemplifies an entrepreneur doing business across borders in Latin America. Now based in Sao Paulo, Ignacio is growing Cuida Mi Mascota, especially as pet sitting has become a very hot market globally. Listen to this episode to hear Ignacio tell the story of how he took his two startups across Latin America, even as the Argentine economy was failing. Shownotes: [1:36] - Nathan introduces Ignacio [2:05] - What does CuidaMiMascota do? [2:40] - How did you start doing business across borders? [5:40] - Why Holland? [6:40] - Ignacio gets his start in management consulting [8:06] - How long did it take for you to realize the food delivery business would be successful? [9:48] - What was it like to raise money in 2011-2013? [12:15] - Start-Up Chile [13:11] - Compare the pros and cons of LatAm accelerators and US accelerators [15:40] - Could you describe the acquisition process? [17:54] - What advice do you have for people to stay in touch with potential acquirers in the ecosystem? [19:30] - Family and friends’ reaction [21:28] - What was it like to merge with a Mexican company? [24:50] - How did you start your next business after the merge? [27:55] - How to start a marketplace in Latin America [31:00] - How Ignacio grew CuidaMiMascota by hand [32:31] - How did you get to 20 cities? [33:47] - Cuida Mi Mascota raises 3 funding rounds [35:00] - Advice for other founders about raising money in USA and LatAm [38:30] - What was it like to acquire to enter the Brazilian market? [39:50] - what is it like to do business in sao paulo? [41:10] - Why did you decide to start angel investing? [44:05] - What’s next for Cuida Mi Mascota? [47:02] - Advice for his younger self [48:03] - Where is the LatAm ecosystem going in the next 2-5 years? Resources Mentioned: Mark Suster’s blog, Both Sides of the Table The Lean Startup - Eric Ries [BOOK] Zero to One - Peter Thiel [BOOK] TechCrunch 500 Startups and 500 Startups LatAm Start-Up Chile HoyPido PetAnjo - Cuida Mi Mascota in Brazil Ignacio’s cofounders: Olga Zambrano Roxana Zambrano Guillermo Schwindt

How did a curious young web developer from Guatemala become one of the first Latin American entrepreneurs to enter YCombinator? Christian Van der Henst fell in love with the internet in the 90s when he realized he could use it as a tool to communicate with the whole world. He knew he wanted to share his knowledge with people and collaborate with a global tech community long before Latin America’s tech revolution even started. Christian is a lifelong entrepreneur, but he didn’t realize it until he was studying his Masters in Barcelona while running a massive online platform, Maestros del Web, a proto-Stack Exchange for Latin America, at night. He eventually put his passion for education into Platzi, alongside Colombian co-founder Freddy Vega, and helped grow the company to US$3M in yearly revenue in just four years. In this episode, Christian talks about how he transitioned from Maestros del Web to Mejorando.la (before they rebranded to Platzi), how Platzi became the first startup serving Latinos to enter YCombinator, and why entrepreneurship is so important in Latin America right now. A curious web developer - with 10 million monthly page views Maestros del Web, Christian’s first real business, started as a pet project for Christian to communicate with and learn from other web developers around the world. In the early days of the internet, the few portals that existed to help web developers solve problems were all in English, and Christian wanted a solution for his local community, too. While the site was a huge success, Christian could barely manage his four person team remotely as he studied for his Master’s in Barcelona. He had accidentally built a huge community online - and realized he loved the feeling of bringing people together to talk about tech. Learn how Christian jumped from Maestros del Web to Platzi by befriending a competitor and starting to dream bigger. From 100 audience members to 1200 viewers Platzi started out as an in person course, until Freddy and Christian realized that almost every attendee (including themselves!) was traveling to join the class. Platzi quickly migrated online, and the first online course had more than twice as many students as the co-founders expected. The server crashed and the first streaming was a failure, says Christian, but the audience was forgiving. Why? Transparency has been a key to Platzi’s success from the start. The founders explained their tech problems to their users, fixed them, then kept providing classes. In this episode of Crossing Borders, learn why Christian thinks failing the first live stream made Platzi stronger and more resilient. If you really want something, keep trying Platzi was rejected from YCombinator the first time they applied. Christian almost didn’t apply again, until a mentor mentioned that he should give it another shot. Platzi is now known for being the first fully Latin American company to enter the accelerator. Christian thinks that every startup should apply for YC, just as an exercise to find out if what they are doing is worth building. He encourages Latino founders to ask for what they want (a tip he’s learned from working in San Francisco); in Silicon Valley, trying hard and failing is better than never trying at all. That’s how Platzi has reached US$3M in revenue a year, and still offers free courses on YouTube. Platzi has already become an internationally-recognized brand for online education as they help the Spanish-speaking market become digitally native. The platform is an example of what it means to listen to your local community and build a product for them before launching it globally. Christian Van der Henst is passionate about building entrepreneurial communities in Latin America, and Platzi is just one of the tools helping local entrepreneurs get started across the Spanish-speaking world. Show Notes [1:54] - Splitting time between Platzi offices in Bogota, San Francisco, and Mexico City [2:31] - What does Platzi do? [3:46] - Were you always an entrepreneur? [4:57] - How did you get started with Maestros del Web? [5:56] - Growing up in Guatemala [8:40] -  How Christian fell in love with the internet at a young age [11:26] - Going from Guatemala to Barcelona [12:37] - What were some of the biggest challenges you had to overcome going from 0 to 10M page views? [15:42] - What was like going from being a solo founder to teaming up with somebody? [16:55] - Why Mejorando.la went from live classes to streaming and YouTube [18:24] - Why mistakes are good for learning [19:39] - Why Latino founders should learn to put themselves out there and stop fearing failure [22:53] - Rebranding: Your users care more about product than name [24:15] - Why they targeted the Spanish-speaking market [25:23] - What was it like to enter YCombinator as the first fully Latin American company? [27:30] - Biggest surprises participating in YCombinator [29:19] - Why Colombia is leading the way for international investment in LatAm [31:17] - When did you know Platzi would grow to be something big? [34:25] - Why keep an office in San Francisco? [36:24] - What advice would you give to other Latin American founders when they are trying to raise money? [38:02] - Why should more US VCs be looking at companies from LatAm? [40:26] - Why fintech is so important in LatAm [42:53] - What's your advice for people that want to start learning to code? [44:05] - If you could go back when you were  first starting Mejorando.la, what advice will you give yourself?  

Tom Bradley is Head of the Ventures Team at Oxford Capital. Tom, previously a partner at both DFJ Esprit and DN Capital, has been involved with successful scale-ups like Performance Horizon, Shazam and Neteconomy. The Oxford Capital Ventures portfolio includes promising startups and scale-ups like import.io, Ultrasoc and Redsift. In this week's episode you'll hear about:  The mindset that the founders of European enterprise software startups must have if they are to succeed globally Tom's key criteria for investing in enterprise software ventures Advice for pre-product and pre-revenue start-ups on how to engage with investors and VCs How European entrepreneurs can leverage US VCs to successfully break into The States Head over to https://www.oxcp.com/investments/venture-capital/ for more details on Oxford Capital's venture portfolio and check out www.alpinasearch.com for advice on globally scaling your software venture.

Peter Weijmarshausen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Shapeways, the world’s leading 3D printing marketplace and community. Shapeways have raised funds from some of the world's leading investors including the likes of USV, Andreesen Horowitz and Index Ventures just to name a few. Prior to Shapeways, Peter was the CTO of Sangine, where he and his team designed and developed satellite broadband modems. Peter was also Director of Engineering at Aramiska, where he was responsible for delivering a business broadband service via satellite. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Peter made his way into startups and came to found Shapeways? 2.) Where are we in the 3D printing cycle today? Has it developed slower or quicker than Peter expected? How was it for Peter inhabiting a space with so much hype? 3.) When does 3D printing make the transition from early adopter market to mass market? What are the determinants that will allow for this to happen? 4.) Having started life in an incubator, why did Peter decide that for the origin of Shapeways? What are the benefits? What type of founder is this model right for? 5.) Shapeways have raised from Index, USV and a16z, so how was the fundraising journey for Peter? What would he like to improve upon for next time? What did he do well? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Peter’s Fave Blog: New York Times Peter’s Fave Book: Leadership and Self-Deception As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Peter on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Pearl believes the latest automotive technology should be available to every driver – whether it's time for you to buy a new car or not. RearVision is our first step in driving this commitment forward. Pearl RearVision is the only wireless backup camera and alert system that installs in minutes and updates throughout its lifetime. Pearl literally takes less than 10minutes to install and is completely wireless because it's solar powered. Since RearVision is software based, we're able to push updates and new features over the Pearl App in the exact same way you receive updates for other apps on your phone. Pearl RearVision is perfect for anyone who wants to upgrade their car in minutes. Pearl RearVision is $499.99 and available at PearlAuto.com. It's also available on Amazon and through Crutchfield. Xero is beautiful, easy-to- use online accounting software for small businesses. With Xero, you can easily manage your accounting anytime, anywhere from your computer or mobile device.When you add Xero to your small business you are able to: Send online invoices and get paid faster. Get an instant view of your cash flow. Track your payroll and keep tabs on your inventory. Partner with your accountant and bookkeeper in real time whenever you like. You can also customize your Xero experience with over five hundred business apps, including advanced solutions for point-of- sale, time tracking, ecommerce and more. Sign up for a free thirty-day trial at xero.com/20vc

Daniel Glazer who leads the Technology practice at the global law firm Fried FrankSince 2012 he's split his time 50/50 between London & NYC advising companies from early-stage start-ups to the Fortune 100He has a particular focus on helping London and UK-based high-growth startups and scale-ups with US expansion, US investment and US commercial matters, and helping US VCs and corporates better access and engage with the London tech community.