Crossing Borders With Nathan Lustig

Investing in Latin American startups is not the first thing that was on Santiago Zavala’s radar growing up. Even though he grew up in a home where his father was working in tech from the early days of the internet, Santiago wasn’t drawn to the finance side of business at that point. He was totally into programming. He’d have been the last person to anticipate what would happen in his life. This conversation tells of the unexpected path of a man who’s become intricately involved in the VC scene for startups in Latin America. His involvement in his own Mexico-based startup accelerator and then transitioning onto the team at 500 Startups has given him a wealth of experience and insight into what it takes for a startup in Latin America to be successful. It's an intriguing conversation you won't want to miss. The teams that are able to achieve have founders who are willing to walk through walls. One of the things I like to know from the people I interview is what characteristics they’ve seen in the founders of com

  Can you imagine what it would be like to be from the US, but trying to build a successful company in Latin America? My guest on this episode did exactly that. Brian Requarth took advantage of his season in life as a young guy who’d just finished college to try his hand in the entrepreneurial world. He’d spent a little time in Latin America so he decided to integrate his experience into his business ideas. The result many years later is VivaReal, an online portal for real estate in Brazil, one of the largest Latin American markets. On this episode you’re going to hear Brian’s story, how he’s grown personally and has learned many valuable but hard lessons as co-founder of a very successful Latin American startup that's raised more than $74M in venture capital.   How can you know if you should take the leap into entrepreneurism? One of the things I ask Brian Requarth about was what he would recommend to a young guy or gal who is considering the entrepreneurial option. He was quick to say that the easiest time

It’s always exciting when I get to sit down with someone like Sebastian Vidal. In his experience working as part of the Startup Chile team and now as the leader of Parallel18, a startup accelerator based in Puerto Rico he’s been part of the launch of over 1000 startups. Can you imagine the insights, connections, and lessons-learned a guy like that has? That’s what I wanted to tap into in this conversation, so be sure you take the time to listen. Why a startup accelerator in Puerto Rico? The Parallel18 team welcomes innovators from around the globe and helps them scale from Puerto Rico into global communities beyond the Island. Not only is Puerto Rico a beautiful place to base a company, it’s also positioned uniquely with tax structures that favor startups, infrastructure and travel connections that make it a world-class place to do business, and the ability to connect with entrepreneurs and investors from across the globe. The Parallel18 experience is one you should seriously consider if you are starting a co

The mindset of many entrepreneurs has transitioned from profit-first to responsibility first, and it’s a good thing. In a competitive space like the world of fashion, it may not seem that building a successful sustainable clothing brand is the best move - but Jason Grullón and the team at Virtu have made it happen. In this conversation, I talk with Jason about how he transitioned from Law School into the world of fashion and has created a company that is not only profitable but is producing quality clothing in a socially responsible way. Socially responsible companies can be amazingly profitable. The key to Virtu as a socially responsible clothing brand is their Latin American producers. Hand crafting all of the Virtu clothing is a workforce based in Bolivia and the Dominican Republic, with plans to expand to Haiti soon. But before you judge them for chasing a cheap source of labor, look again. The company is paying a higher wage than is typically paid in these poor countries and is doing so intentionally to

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. And when it comes to Latin America, things get even more complicated. In Brazil, for example, 40% the trucks that are on the road delivering packages are not full. That's a terrible use of the transport logistics resources that are available. When my guest today, Federico Vega realized that he saw an incredible opportunity to solve a problem and create a dynamic company. Through patience, perseverance, and iterations, Federico has built CargoX from the ground up - it’s the Uber for trucking in Brazil. When you solve a problem you have the potential for a business. Every entrepreneur has his/her own journey to discover exactly what kind of company they want to build. But as with every company that lasts, the needs of the consumer come to the forefront eventually. It’s the

Many people who do business in the United States don’t realize that there are burgeoning and viable markets in Latin America. After being educated outside the country, my guest, Alejandro Freund saw that his homeland of Ecuador was ripe to become the hub for a leading ecommerce company in Latin America. This conversation with Alejandro is a look into the start of a Latin American ecommerce company from zero, including how Alejandro and his partner raised capital, what they did to find products to sell through their ecommerce platform, the tech challenges, the governmental regulations, and more. Anyone who’s interested in ecommerce will learn a lot from his ground-up journey. Opening up an E-commerce market in Latin America from a base of zero. With the start of any company, there are many foundational pieces that need to be put in place. But for Alejandro Freund, it was truly a journey from square one. Ecuador had no ecommerce presence other than large retailers who were selling their own products online, so

It sometimes feels like investing in Latin America is a secret that U.S. Investors don’t know about. There are so many great companies and talented entrepreneurs in the Southern Hemisphere who are doing great things - not only in business but also for the economies and peoples of Latin American countries. Patricio Williams Becú is a great example and is my guest on this episode of Crossing Borders. His company, DTA provides funding for farmers in Latin America - and the ways Patricio has grown his company and gotten outside the box to do it provides many lessons for us all. I hope you’ll take the time to listen and learn from his amazing story. There is never a perfect time to become an entrepreneur. That means it’s never too late. Patricio Williams was performing well in his corporate career in Argentina when an economic downturn hit. His job was secure and he had nothing to worry about. But something inside him felt that if he didn’t take the opportunity to do something of his own, he’d never get the chance

Have you heard of smart luggage? It may not sound like something you need but wait until you hear what it can do to make your travel more enjoyable and effortless. Connecting luggage to an app and building out the hardware to integrate the two has enabled Diego Saez-Gil’s company, Bluesmart to jump into a very competitive marketplace and gain a foothold with amazing speed. On this episode of Crossing Borders, Diego shares the story of his entrepreneurial journey, how he’s founded and funded his new smart luggage startup, and how he manages an international team with offices all over the world. It’s a fascinating example of the kind of innovation and forward thinking that’s coming out of Latin America these days. Startup success in a very crowded market. When Diego and his team were building WeHostels, his first startup, they realized it would be an uphill battle. The space they were entering already had big players like Airbnb and VRBO. But they believed that their unique focus and the unique experience of st

Welcome to Crossing Borders with Nathan Lustig, where I interview entrepreneurs doing startups across borders and the people who support them, with a focus on companies that have some relationship to Latin America. Last week, I talked with Nora Leary Co-Founder and Head of Marketing and Business Development at Launchway Media, about how to get press in the US and what it's like starting up with three female cofounders in Latin America. My guest today is Nathan Klarer, founder of Bridgecrest Medical, a wearable that helps mining and oil companies around the world track employee performance to avoid accidents and keep employees safe. Nathan was working on some technology while at university and saw the coming wearable wave and realized that he could use the technology he was working for good. After raising more than $1.3m from venture capitalists in the Bay Area, Nathan continued to build his business, selling to some of the largest multinational mining companies in the world. This journey took him to Latin Ame

Hello and welcome to Crossing Borders with Nathan Lustig, where I interview entrepreneurs doing startups across borders and the people who support them, with a focus on companies that have some relationship to Latin America. If you're new to the podcast be sure to check out Episode 2 with Adrian Fisher who went from selling hotdogs to raising three million dollars and Episode 5, with Devin Baptiste, cofounder of one of the most diverse startups in the world. My guest today is Nora Leary Co-Founder and Head of Marketing and Business Development at Launchway Media, a marketing agency that works with global startups launching in the US. Nora and I talk about her journey from the US to Africa to Latin America to leaving a job in Latam to start her own business. Nora lived in Buenos Aires and starter her business there with two other female cofounders, and then moved to Medellin to continue to expand the business. We cover cultural difference between doing business in the US and Latin America, what it's like be

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.   My guest today is Jose "Caya" Cayasso, a Costa Rican entrepreneur who is cofounder and CEO of Slidebean, a software company that helps people stop wasting time wresting with presentation design. Slidebean's product, presentations that design themselves, is used by thousands of people around the world, from students to business executives.   We'll cover Caya's journey from Costa Rica to New York to launch his first business, what he learned in his first startup and how he used his experience to create Slidebean, which now has 20 employees in Costa Rica and 2 in New York City. We'll talk about the fundraising process and Caya's journey to raising money from Start-Up Chile, 500 startups, Carao Ventures, Firstrock Capital and of course Magma Partners.   Be sure to listen for Caya's tips on how to

Hello 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.   My guest today is Devin Baptiste, cofounder and CEO of GroupRaise, a company with more than 50 employees in 3 offices in Houston, Texas, Santiago, Chile and the Philippines. GroupRaise is a platform that allows groups of 15-50+ to book events in more than 6000 restaurants across the united states. These restaurants then donate 10-20% of their bill to the organization or charity of the group's choice. As Devin puts it, it's the tastiest way to change the world. Not to mention the most cost effective customer acquisition strategy a restaurant can have.   Devin and I talk about his journey that took him from Houston to Taiwan, Korea, Hawaii, Chile, Germany and back to Houston again, how he thinks about scaling businesses from Latin America to the US, how he raised his recent fundraising

Hello 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 American.   My guests today are chilean entrepreneurs David Basulto and David Assael, the cofounders of Archdaily, the largest architecture website in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese in the world.    Based out of Santiago, Chile and 100% bootstrapped, the two Davids have built a truly world class business on their own terms the way they wanted to from their base in Santiago.   We talk about their story of how they started Plataforma Arquitectura, their original website, while they were still architecture students in Santiago and how they've grown the business to four languages, millions of monthly unique visitors , three million Facebook fans and over 80 employees based in six countries.    More importantly, ArchDaily has changed thousands of architects lives from around the world by s

Hello 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 American. Today's guest is Nicolas Shea, a chilean entrepreneur, philanthropist and now a presidential candidate running for Chile's presidency.   Nicolas has been a teacher, started nonprofits, worked in government and built businesses that have expanded across Latin America. He cofounded Eclass, one of Latin America's largest education companies, and was the cofounder of Start-Up Chile, an innovative program that gave foreign entrepreneurs visas and equity free grants to move to chile, kickstarting the chilean entrepreneurial ecosystem. IT's also where I met Nicolas almost seven years ago.   After startup Chile, he cofounded Cumplo, a peer to peer lending platform that helps businesses access credit more quickly and at better rates than the traditional banking system does. Cumplo has now help

Hello 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 American.   My guest today is my friend Adrian Fisher, ceo and founder of PropertySimple, a real estate technology company with offices in Santiago, Chile and the United States. I've known Adrian for about five years now and PropertySimple was our first investment at Magma Partners back in 2014.   Adrian and I cover his journey from Scottsdale, Arizona to Argentina, Chile and then back to the United States, during which he learned to program, built technolgoy for some of the biggest companies in the world with a 30 person outsourcing team based in Mendoza, Argentina and transitioned from a services company into a product company.    In 2011, Adrian was part of Startup Chile's first round, where he and his team built multiple real estate technology businesses including a rental payments system,

Hello 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.   My guest today is David Lloyd, cofounder and CEO of The Intern Group, an education company that has helped more than 5000 students from more than 125 countries around the world find top internships abroad.   We'll talk about how David left his job at a City of London investment bank to start The Intern Group, how he came up with the idea, started the ball rolling and his journey to build the intern group into a global powerhouse with more than 30,000 applications for the intern group program and more than 2,000 participants in 2016.   We'll also cover the strategies his team uses to work globally from offices in 12 different countries around the world and some of the advantages of running a global business with operations in Latin America.   David and I first met back in 2011 on the