Crossing Borders with Nathan Lustig
156 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 26 ratingsHello and welcome to Crossing Borders with Nathan Lustig, where I interview entrepreneurs doing startups across borders and the investors who support them, with a focus on companies that have some relationship to Latin America.
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Episodes
Santiago Aparicio, Ontop: Transforming the future of work, Ep 158
November 30, 2021 14:23 - 37 minutes - 25.3 MBSantiago Aparicio, Ontop: Transforming the future of work, Ep 158 The future of work is going to be remote and decentralized, according to Santiago Aparicio, Co-Founder and CEO of Ontop, a payroll software startup that allows companies to legally hire and pay anyone in the world. Santiago is a serial entrepreneur and sales passionate who believes in the influence of developing markets in defining the future of work. After long nights working on Excel sheets back in his banking...
Maricel Saenz, Compound Foods: Coffee without Coffee Beans, Ep 157
November 23, 2021 15:39 - 29 minutes - 21.7 MBMaricel Saenz, Compound Foods: Coffee without Coffee Beans, Ep 157 People continue to experience how global warming can have devastating effects on the world. Crop yields have already started to decline from rising temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and extreme weather events. Climate change is threatening the future of many foods, and that includes coffee. This threat and her love for coffee inspired Maricel Saenz to launch Compound Foods, a food science company to reinvent coffee....
Juanma Gironella, Guros: Reshaping The Latin American Insurance Industry, Ep 156
November 19, 2021 18:02 - 34 minutes - 27.3 MBJuanma Gironella, Guros: Reshaping The Latin American Insurance Industry, Ep 156 The traditional insurance experience in Latin America is an inefficient, non tech process. Most people don’t want to buy it but know they have to. At the same time, customer expectations of instant digital transactions sustained seamlessly across digital channels are increasingly the norm. This is exactly what Juanma Gironella is providing with Guros, the operating system for insurance in Latin America. ...
Caterine Castillo, Neivor: Streamlining real estate administration in Latin America, Ep 153
October 21, 2021 13:26 - 23 minutes - 18 MBCaterine Castillo, Neivor: Streamlining real estate administration in Latin America, Ep 153 In Latin America, a building manager typically has to handle thousands of apartment units and tenants. This means simultaneously dealing with building maintenance, reconciling payments, and meeting tenant and landlord requests. Currently, this is done manually with pen and paper, maybe an Excel spreadsheet or through WhatsApp which leads to inefficiencies and unhappy residents. Caterine C...
Gonzalo Blanco, Quansa: Building the future of financial health in Latin America, Ep 152
October 14, 2021 11:00 - 35 minutes - 23.3 MBGonzalo Blanco, Quansa: Building the future of financial health in Latin America, Ep 152 For years, Gonzalo Blanco and Mafalda Barros have seen how the misaligned incentives in Latin American financial products push the average person to make bad financial decisions. Due to this lack of guidance, people improvise and spend money without realizing the impact that their decisions have on their financial health. This frustration with the lack of financial education led them to foun...
Greatest Hits Episode: Marta Forero, Driving Economic Growth in Latin America via Corporate Education with UBits, Ep 151
September 10, 2021 13:23 - 44 minutes - 35.6 MBGreatest Hits Episode: Marta Forero, Driving Economic Growth in Latin America via Corporate Education with UBits, Ep 149 For this week’s episode of Crossing Borders, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring UBits’ Marta Forero. As the only Latin American woman in her Y Combinator cohort, Marta Forero is helping break the mold for women in the tech industry. From a young age, she knew she wanted to make an impact on the world. After university, she took a high-p...
Maribel Dominguez, Círculo de Belleza: Building a vertical marketplace to supply the professional beauty industry, Ep 150
August 31, 2021 14:52 - 32 minutes - 23 MBMaribel Dominguez, Círculo de Belleza: Building a vertical marketplace to supply the professional beauty industry, Ep 150 After graduating from university in the US in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis, Maribel Dominguez decided to move back to her native Mexico until the economy got better. While she was home, Maribel and her dad came up with a business idea. They identified a problem that affects many industries: excess inventory. Together, they decided to found a company that h...
Greatest Hits Episode: Matías Rivera, Building Businesses and Replanting Patagonian Trees, Ep 149
August 26, 2021 13:04 - 43 minutes - 43.8 MBGreatest Hits Episode: Matías Rivera, Building Businesses and Replanting Patagonian Trees, Ep 149 For this week’s episode of Crossing Borders, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Fanatiz’ Matías Rivera. What do Start-Up Chile, the Copa Libertadores, and Latin America’s largest crowdfunding campaign have in common? The answer is that Chilean entrepreneur and philanthropist, Matias Rivera, had some hand in their development. Matias loves to solve problems he...
Benjamin Labra, Houm: Streamlining the Real Estate industry in Latin America, Ep 148 LatamList title: Benjamin Labra, Houm: Fixing Latin America’s broken real estate industry, Ep 148
August 13, 2021 14:43 - 25 minutes - 19.5 MBBenjamin Labra, Houm: Streamlining the Real Estate industry in Latin America, Ep 148 Latin America’s real estate market is opaque, broken and bureaucratic. The home buying process in the region can take up to a year, and even just renting an apartment requires having another property as collateral in some countries. There are many pain points in the industry that are being unaddressed by the market. That’s why Benjamin Labra is looking to fix the broken real estate industry in La...
Nico Barawid, Casai: Providing Consistently High-Quality Hospitality in Mexico, Ep 147
August 03, 2021 13:43 - 40 minutes - 32 MBNico Barawid, Casai: Providing Consistently High-Quality Hospitality in Mexico, Ep 147 In Mexico, the hospitality industry is the third-highest contributor to GDP. Therefore, when COVID-19 initially shut tourists out of the country and forced many hotels to close down, the Mexican economy was hit relatively hard. By the second half of 2020, travel to Mexico was picking up, and the hospitality industry is ready to make a comeback, with some Mexico destinations on pace for more travel ...
Greatest Hits Episode: Daniel Bilbao, Fighting Fraud in Latin America, Ep 146
July 30, 2021 14:23 - 39 minutes - 40.3 MBGreatest Hits Episode: Daniel Bilbao, Fighting Fraud in Latin America, Ep 146 For this week’s episode of Crossing Borders, we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Truora’s Daniel Bilbao. Originally from Cali, Colombia, Daniel studied in the US and started a company in Silicon Valley before realizing he wanted to use his experience to solve a pressing Latin American problem: fraud. Truora, a startup that provides instant background checks, was born to fight that ...
Greatest Hits Episode: Federico Vega, Transforming Transport Logistics in Latin America, Ep 145
July 22, 2021 13:20 - 37 minutes - 24.3 MBGreatest Hits Episode: Federico Vega, Transforming Transport Logistics in Latin America, Ep 145 For this week’s episode of Crossing Borders we’re revisiting one of our greatest hits episodes featuring Cargo X’s Federico Vega. Anytime you have an item that you need to send from here to there you enter the world of transport logistics. It may seem as simple as calling UPS or FedEx, but there’s a lot more that goes into it for the companies that provide the service, not to mention, frei...
Pedro Moura, Flourish: Building the tech infrastructure to help people make better financial decisions, Ep 144
July 06, 2021 14:10 - 27 minutes - 19.6 MBPedro Moura, Flourish: Building the tech infrastructure to help people make better financial decisions, Ep 144 Pedro Moura moved from Natal, Brazil to the US at a young age, overcoming many challenges while always trying to build a better future for himself, his family and his region. His perseverance and grit guided him to create a company that he is truly passionate about. In this episode of Crossing Borders, Pedro tells the story of his career path and how taking a risk on what he r...
Alexander Torrenegra, Torre: Reinventing job-matching and recruitment services, Ep 143
June 01, 2021 16:17 - 43 minutes - 36.4 MBAlexander Torrenegra, Torre: Reinventing job-matching and recruitment services, Ep 143 Alexander Torrenegra believes that most talent is going to waste because it’s not being exposed to the right opportunities. That’s why he founded Torre, a platform that streamlines the application, recruitment, and selection process for remote work. This new professional network matches the best talent in Latin America with companies around the world. Before Torre, Alexander co-founded and boot...
Pete Flint, NFX: Tapping into world-class startups in Latin America, Ep 142
May 26, 2021 15:52 - 41 minutes - 30.9 MBPete Flint, NFX: Tapping into world-class startups in Latin America, Ep 142 During the summer of ‘95, when Netscape went public, Pete Flint decided he wanted to get involved in Internet startups as the next step in his career. He went on to form part of the founding team of lastminute.com in the UK– an online travel site that was later acquired for over $1B. With his eyes set on Silicon Valley, Pete eventually made his way over to the US and founded Trulia, one of the largest an...
Bismarck Lepe, Wizeline: Building world class startups from Mexico and Silicon Valley , Ep 141
May 11, 2021 13:50 - 37 minutes - 27.1 MBBismarck Lepe, Wizeline: Building world class startups from Mexico and Silicon Valley , Ep 141 Bismarck Lepe was part of the first batch of entrepreneurs to leave Google, ready to take the world by storm. And that he did. His first startup was Ooyala, an online video platform company that he built from zero to a $400M exit. Today, a seasoned entrepreneur, Bismarck is President and CEO at Wizeline, a global product development company that helps its clients solve their biggest ch...
David Poritz, Credijusto: Helping SMEs grow in Latin America, Ep 140
May 04, 2021 15:17 - 28 minutes - 22.3 MBDavid Poritz, Credijusto: Helping SMEs grow in Latin America, Ep 140 According to David Poritz, over six million SMEs in Mexico have historically lacked access to credit. That’s one of the reasons why in 2015, David decided to build Credijusto, a tech-enabled lender for SMEs in Mexico. David has always been a strong advocate for human rights, founding his own non profit early in his career. In his quest to build a social enterprise that would promote economic development while suppor...
Maria Fujihara, Sinai Technologies: Helping corporations mitigate climate change through decarbonization software, Ep 139
April 22, 2021 14:59 - 26 minutes - 18.9 MBMaria Fujihara, Sinai Technologies: Helping corporations mitigate climate change through decarbonization software, Ep 139 Maria Fujihara firmly believes in the power of the private sector to be a key piece in combating climate change. After a successful career in Brazil’s Green Building Council, Maria decided that if she was to work in that space again it would be on her own terms. She fulfilled that desire by founding Sinai Technologies, a decarbonization platform that helps co...
Agustin Feuerhake, Fintual: Redefining what it means to invest in Latin America, Ep 138
April 12, 2021 16:10 - 40 minutes - 27.6 MBAgustin Feuerhake, Fintual: Redefining what it means to invest in Latin America, Ep 138 For retail investors in Latin America, the options to invest are limited. This space is often dominated by traditional banks that charge very high fees and involve processes that are quite complex for non-experts. As co-founder and CMO of robo advisor Fintual, Agustin Feuerhake intends to change that reality by helping Latin Americans invest well. Fintual is a digital platform that makes investing...
Jose Miguel Cortes, Fondo de Fondos: Supporting the venture capital industry in Mexico and Latin America, Ep 137
March 23, 2021 13:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBJose Miguel Cortes, Fondo de Fondos: Supporting the venture capital industry in Mexico and Latin America, Ep 137 A fund of funds raises capital from different investors to invest in Venture Capital or Private Equity funds. These investors –mostly institutional– pick funds of funds so that they can trust a professional manager to pick the best VC funds to invest in. Jose Miguel Cortes is the Head of Venture Capital and Impact Investing Strategies for Fondo de Fondos, a leading Me...
Daniel Rodriguez, Picap: Delivery and Logistics in Latin Americans, Ep 136
March 11, 2021 13:14 - 24 minutes - 18.6 MBDaniel Rodriguez, Picap: Delivery and Logistics in Latin Americans, Ep 136 Daniel Rodriguez lives in Bogotá, the third most traffic-congested city in the world. He knows a thing or two about the frustration that comes from spending hours inside a car in slow-moving traffic when you need to get somewhere. Daniel’s usual response to these situations was to hitch a ride on a motorcycle. The ease and speed with which they would navigate Bogota’s congested streets made him realize th...
Brynne McNulty Rojas: Leading Colombia’s Real Estate Industry into the Future, Ep 135
February 19, 2021 15:14 - 19 minutes - 13.7 MBBrynne McNulty Rojas: Leading Colombia’s Real Estate Industry into the Future, Ep 135 Born and raised in New Jersey, Brynne McNulty Rojas’ interest in the real estate industry goes back to one of her classes about international housing finance systems while an undergraduate at Wharton, where she learned about how property ownership rights in informal communities drive economic development. After graduating, she joined Goldman Sachs where she spent 4 years investing in property across...
Rodrigo Sánchez-Ríos, La Haus: Helping Latin Americans Find their Ideal Homes, Ep 134
February 09, 2021 13:00 - 34 minutes - 26.7 MBRodrigo Sánchez-Ríos, La Haus: Helping Latin Americans Find their Ideal Homes, Ep 134 Rodrigo Sanchez Rios’ childhood dream was to be like Bruce Wayne. He grew up in Tijuana, Mexico surrounded by great role models in his family who instilled in him a strong sense of ambition and hunger for knowledge. After obtaining an engineering degree at MIT, working on Wall Street, and completing a Master’s in business at Stanford, Rodrigo decided his next step was to become an entrepreneur. ...
Brian Requarth, Viva the Entrepreneur: Founding, Scaling and Raising Venture Capital in Latin America, Ep 133
February 04, 2021 14:58 - 44 minutes - 33.2 MBBrian Requarth, Viva the Entrepreneur: Founding, Scaling and Raising Venture Capital in Latin America, Ep 133 Over a decade ago, Brian Requarth bought a one-way ticket to Colombia and never looked back. Since then, he’s become a seasoned entrepreneur and investor, having founded, scaled, merged, and exited VivaReal, a leading proptech startup in Brazil. Well acquainted with the challenges that are unique to Latin America, Brian is now focusing on helping early-stage founders buil...
Alejandro Freund: The path to shutting down a Latin American Startup, Ep 132
January 26, 2021 15:01 - 46 minutes - 32.4 MBAlejandro Freund: The path to shutting down a Latin American Startup, Ep 132 It's not easy to shut down a start up anywhere in the world. But in Latin America, founders feel even more pressure to not lose investor money or admit that their company isn't turning out how they wanted it to. Alejandro Freund was the co-founder and CEO of YaEsta, at the time, a leading ecommerce company in Ecuador. Since winding down YaEsta, he’s landed on his feet and is now the Country Manager for Rappi ...
Juliana Sarmiento, Envíoclick: Reimagining the logistics industry in Latin America, Ep 131
December 23, 2020 16:47 - 35 minutes - 26.6 MBJuliana Sarmiento, Envíoclick: Reimagining the logistics industry in Latin America, Ep 131 Juliana Sarmiento always knew she wanted to create value for her community by starting her own company. Raised in a family of entrepreneurs, she knew what she would be getting herself into by choosing this path. Along with the challenges that come with starting a business, she had also been exposed to the positive impact that entrepreneurship could have on society. Today, Juliana is co-founder...
James Currier, NFX: Transforming How Innovators are Funded, Ep 130
December 08, 2020 15:00 - 31 minutes - 22.8 MBJames Currier, NFX: Transforming How Innovators are Funded, Ep 130 James Currier is General Partner at NFX, an early-stage venture capital firm that focuses on network effect businesses. As a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of four VC-backed companies, James has become an expert on network effects and growth. Through software and educational content, James and his co-founders are building a venture firm with a founders first approach that allows them to share their knowledge abo...
Álvaro Silberstein, Wheel the World: Creating Accessible Travel Experiences, Ep 129
December 02, 2020 14:51 - 25 minutes - 17.1 MBÁlvaro Silberstein, Wheel the World: Creating Accessible Travel Experiences, Ep 129 A trip to Torres del Paine in the south of Chile became an opportunity for Álvaro Silberstein to put his startup idea to the test. Most travel platforms provide basic information about price, location, transportation, accommodation, and excursion options. However, few platforms cater to the specific needs of people with disabilities. Álvaro is the co-founder and CEO of Wheel the World, a travel platfor...
Javier García, Femsa: Collaborating with the most disruptive startups in Latin America, Ep 128
November 25, 2020 15:15 - 44 minutes - 30.4 MBJavier García, Femsa: Collaborating with the most disruptive startups in Latin America, Ep 128 Javier García knew that there were at least 50 ways of doing corporate venture capital the wrong way, which is why he took a couple of years to figure out how to do it right with FEMSA. Today, Javier is the Director of Corporate Venturing and Growth Capital at FEMSA’s corporate venture capital fund. FEMSA is a publicly-traded conglomerate company that started out as a brewery and has produced...
Manuel Olguín, Keynua: E-signatures for the Latin American market, Ep 127
November 17, 2020 15:01 - 33 minutes - 23.5 MBManuel Olguín, Keynua: E-signatures for the Latin American market, Ep 127 As a serial entrepreneur in Latin America, Manuel Olguín is very familiar with the unique challenges that the region holds that can turn into amazing opportunities. One of those pain points is the time-consuming process of signing legal documents. While in the US e-signatures have been widely adopted, in Latin America this is still a novelty. Having gone through this process on numerous occasions with his own ...
Amir Salihefendic, Doist: Best Practices for the Remote Work Revolution, Ep 126
November 10, 2020 13:09 - 35 minutes - 26.3 MBAmir Salihefendic, Doist: Best Practices for the Remote Work Revolution, Ep 126 Although Amir Salihefendic has been an advocate for remote work for over a decade, he never envisioned that the worldwide shift to remote would take place as a result of a pandemic. Amir is the founder and CEO of Doist, a remote-first company that specializes in productivity software and currently offers two products: Todoist and Twist. Todoist is one of the most popular task management tools in the world,...
Andrea Baba, FitCo: Digitizing Fitness Centers in Latin America, Ep 125
October 27, 2020 01:07 - 30 minutes - 22 MBAndrea Baba, FitCo: Digitizing Fitness Centers in Latin America, Ep 125 Andrea’s first experience as an entrepreneur was starting her own Zumba studio when she was 18 years old. Within a year of operating, she started to expand her business, hiring more instructors and gaining more clients. However, Andrea saw that managing her business solely on Excel spreadsheets and notebooks was limiting her company’s growth. In true entrepreneurial spirit, Andrea decided to find a solution to he...
Mariana Castillo, Ben & Frank: Direct-to-Consumer Eyewear for the Mexican Market, Ep 124
October 20, 2020 16:01 - 31 minutes - 21.5 MBMariana Castillo, Ben & Frank: Direct-to-Consumer Eyewear for the Mexican Market, Ep 124 Mariana Castillo believes that the eyewear shopping experience in Mexico is broken. It’s generally reduced to an impersonal exchange that only considers the basic optical measurements, rather than catering the product to the customer’s style and personality. Mariana is the co-founder and co-CEO of Ben & Frank, a direct-to-consumer eyewear brand that seeks to transform the way Mexicans buy ey...
Claire Díaz-Ortiz, Magma Partners: Investing in Latin American Female Founders, Ep 123
October 14, 2020 15:33 - 31 minutes - 24 MBClaire Díaz-Ortiz, Magma Partners: Investing in Latin American Female Founders, Ep 123 Claire Díaz-Ortiz has been passionate about investing in women and supporting the underrepresented since her days at Stanford, where she completed an undergrad in Feminist Studies and History. However, it wasn’t until later in her career as an angel investor, and now as a VC Partner, that she truly understood the business case for investing in women. Having spent the last 6 months working in s...
Dan Green, Gunderson Dettmer: Legal Structures for Startups in Latin America, Ep 122
October 07, 2020 12:59 - 26 minutes - 20.3 MBDan Green, Gunderson Dettmer: Legal Structures for Startups in Latin America, Ep 122 An avid traveler from a young age, Dan Green’s relationship with Latin America stretches all the way back to his childhood trips to Mexico and Ecuador and visits from an aunt who dazzled him with stories about doing business in Chile. Driven by his passion for the region, Dan was set on becoming a link between the US and Latin American markets. In 2004, Dan started practicing law in Silicon Vall...
Mandeep Rai, The Values Compass: What 101 Countries Teach Us About Purpose, Life, and Leadership, Ep 121
September 29, 2020 15:25 - 28 minutes - 18.8 MBMandeep Rai, The Values Compass: What 101 Countries Teach Us About Purpose, Life, and Leadership, Ep 121 Mandeep Rai’s meeting with a Sikh person in the middle of Panama during her sabbatical across Latin America led her on a journey to not only start to understand that the tropical country was a cultural melting pot, but was also a pivotal moment on her journey to write a book titled “The Values Compass”, which talks about the power she discovered from understanding the values and cul...
Santiago Pineda, Mensajeros Urbanos: Transforming Latin America’s Last-Mile Delivery Industry, Ep 120
September 21, 2020 23:45 - 24 minutes - 17.1 MBSantiago Pineda, Mensajeros Urbanos: Transforming Latin America’s Last-Mile Delivery Industry, Ep 120 Santiago Pineda started his entrepreneurial journey straight out of highschool at 18 years old. He would spend hours at his university’s library learning how to code to launch his company’s website. Originally from Colombia, where the floral sector represents one of the main industries for the country, Santiago decided to start an e-commerce for flowers during his university years. Af...
Matías Muchnick, NotCo: Building The Future of Food From Chile, Ep 119
September 17, 2020 13:58 - 38 minutes - 26.2 MBMatías Muchnick, NotCo: Building The Future of Food From Chile, Ep 119 Matías Muchnick left the investment banking world in pursuit of a solution that would bring sustainability to the broken food industry. He could not have predicted that a couple of years later he would be training an algorithm to understand humans’ taste preferences to create a plant-based mayonnaise that would appeal to the mass market. In 2015, Matías cofounded NotCo, a food tech company that is using AI to take...
Gustavo Guida, Alloy Card: Starting Companies in Brazil since 2000, Ep 118
September 08, 2020 01:29 - 30 minutes - 21.8 MBGustavo Guida, Alloy Card: Starting Companies in Brazil since 2000, Ep 118 Gustavo Guida has been starting companies in Latin America before it was cool. He founded his first company in 2000, during Brazil’s tech bubble. Bondfaro was a price comparison website which, after merging with Buscapé in 2006, became the largest of its kind in Latin America. Since then, Gustavo has continued founding companies including HelpSaude, and most recently, Alloy Card. As co-founder and co-CEO of All...
Christine Kenna, IGNIA: Building the Foundation of Mexico’s Venture Capital Industry, Ep 117
August 31, 2020 21:48 - 25 minutes - 16.7 MBChristine Kenna, IGNIA: Building the Foundation of Mexico’s Venture Capital Industry, Ep 117 Christine Kenna could not have predicted that a consulting gig in Mexico City would lead her into building an entire career in investing in Latin America. Although Christine is originally from Palo Alto, she has been working and investing in Mexico since 2006. Over the years she has been a huge proponent of women investors and entrepreneurs creating initiatives like Women in Private Equity and Ven...
Deepak Chhugani, Nuvocargo: Using software to modernize trade between Mexico and USA, Ep 116
August 25, 2020 12:00 - 37 minutes - 28.1 MBDeepak Chhugani, Nuvocargo: Using software to modernize trade between Mexico and USA, Ep 116 Deepak Chhugani’s multicultural background was considered rare and unexpected in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where he grew up most of his life. He was born in Kenya to Indian parents who migrated to Ecuador in their late 20s. Logically, after studying at university in the US, Deepak wanted to find a way to connect all of these experiences. When he worked in investment banking in New York and Mexico, he saw ...
Martin Schrimpff, Zinobe: Supporting Underserved SMEs with Fintech, Ep 115
August 17, 2020 23:21 - 27 minutes - 20.7 MBMartin Schrimpff, Zinobe: Supporting Underserved SMEs with Fintech, Ep 115 Almost 20 years ago, after finishing his engineering degree at the University of Edinburgh, Martin Schrimpff jumped at the opportunity to move back to his native Colombia to set up his first software development company with a friend. That company, Sirius, would kick off Martin’s entrepreneurial journey and lead him to found Payu, a payments business with clients like Facebook, Microsoft, Uber, Airbnb, and Google....
Florence Frech, Leal: Bringing Data-Driven Customer Engagement to Latin America, Ep 114
August 11, 2020 19:20 - 36 minutes - 25.5 MBFlorence Frech, Leal: Bringing Data-Driven Customer Engagement to Latin America, Ep 114 Despite coming from a family of entrepreneurs in El Salvador, Florence Frech hadn’t considered being one herself until she met her current co-founder while completing an MBA in Chicago. Up until that point, she had been building a stable career working at banks in the US and El Salvador. One startup competition later, Florence was hooked. In Latin America, where 50% of credit card consumers are comple...
Gonzalo Galindo, Cemex Ventures: Bringing Innovation and Strategic Investments to the Construction Industry, Ep 113
August 05, 2020 18:20 - 27 minutes - 19.3 MBGonzalo Galindo, Cemex Ventures: Bringing Innovation and Strategic Investments to the Construction Industry, Ep 113 The construction industry is known for being slow to adopt new technologies. However, Gonzalo Galindo seeks to break that barrier and bring innovation to an industry that is commonly considered to be monolithic and outdated. Currently, Gonzalo is the Head of Cemex Ventures, the venture capital arm of Cemex, a Mexican company and a global leader in the building materia...
Pedro Góes, InEvent: Revamping the Events Industry in Latam & the US, Ep 112
July 28, 2020 16:10 - 29 minutes - 22 MBPedro Góes, InEvent: Revamping the Events Industry in Latam & the US, Ep 112 Although originally from Salvador, Brazil Pedro Góes went to university in São Carlos where he met his future co-founders Vinicius Neris and Mauricio Giordano. There, Pedro was inspired by other Brazilian entrepreneurs that were providing solutions to problems that were hindering the region’s development. Together, they founded InEvent, a SaaS startup that offers a platform to help enterprise event organize...
Antonia Rojas, ALLVP: Investing in Latin America's Human Capital & Smart Cities, Ep 111
July 21, 2020 16:18 - 24 minutes - 18 MBAntonia Rojas, ALLVP: Investing in Latin America's Human Capital & Smart Cities, Ep 111 Antonia Rojas has been surrounded by machines and technology ever since she can remember. Her grandfather was one of the engineers that developed the first computer in Germany, while her mother was a digital photography pioneer in Chile. Now, Antonia is carving her own path in the tech world with her passion for supporting startups that use technology to provide solutions to real-world problems....
Albert Santalo, 8base: Building the Software of the Future, Ep 110
July 14, 2020 14:42 - 28 minutes - 19.7 MBAlbert Santalo, 8base: Building the Software of the Future, Ep 110 Albert Santalo launched two successful tech companies from South Florida during economic recessions. The first company was right after 9/11 and a year after the dotcom bubble had burst. He recalls that being an entrepreneur in those times was like being “the scourge of the economy.” The second company was in the midst of the 2008 global financial crisis. This company was Carecloud, a cloud-based health tech company that curr...
Ángel Sahagún, Albo: Bringing Financial Inclusion to Mexico’s Underbanked , Ep 109
July 07, 2020 18:52 - 24 minutes - 18.2 MBÁngel Sahagún, Albo: Bringing Financial Inclusion to Mexico’s Underbanked , Ep 109 Originally from Campeche, Yucatan, Ángel Sahagún has been obsessed with fintech for the past ten years. From an early age, he realized that there was limited access to financial products for a large portion of the Mexican population. Since then, he has made it his mission to improve the country’s financial system. Ángel founded Albo in 2016 to help Mexicans optimize the way they manage their money. Tod...
Laura Mendoza, Unima: Developing Low-Cost Diagnostics for 3 Billion People, Ep 108
June 30, 2020 12:00 - 36 minutes - 24.4 MBLaura Mendoza, Unima: Developing Low-Cost Diagnostics for 3 Billion People, Ep 108 Laura Mendoza was already working on solutions for tuberculosis, the leading infectious killer worldwide, before COVID-19 came along. As founder and CPO of biotech Unima, Laura develops fast and low-cost diagnostics for infectious diseases. Her solutions help decision-makers create better programs for the treatment and control of these diseases. From the first mentions of coronavirus early in 2020, L...
Maya Dadoo, Worky: Revolutionizing the HR Industry for Mexican SMEs, Ep 107
June 24, 2020 17:52 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBMaya Dadoo, Worky: Revolutionizing the HR Industry for Mexican SMEs, Ep 107 In Mexico, SME employees rotate at a rate of ~60% per year! With about 20M Mexicans working in this sector, this means 12M are switching jobs on a yearly basis. It’s amazing companies can get anything done! Coming from a background in chemical engineering, Maya Dadoo has always had a passion for making processes more efficient. When she noticed a problem in Mexico’s HR industry that was hindering talent growth in ...