Nathan Schorr

Insights on how to hire amazing people from Pedro Arnt, CEO of dLocal (1,000 employees) and ex-CFO of Mercado Libre (58,000 employees). Pedro has hired a lot of people over the last three decades. What has he learned? Structured Interviews Aren’t Enough. Work Samples & Reference Checks Are Key. Relying solely on structured interviews is a poor way to evaluate talent. While structured interviews are a step up from unstructured ones, they still feel like a crapshoot and leave too much uncertainty about a candidate’s potential. Pedro’s research showed that work samples are more predictive of future performance than interviews. However, the single best thing you can do before hiring someone is getting insights from people who’ve worked closely with the candidate. What colleagues and former managers say about a person over a long working relationship is the most reliable predictor of success. Redefining Reference Checks. Reference checks can often be regarded as a formality, with referees being hesitant to provide critical feedback. To change that, one has to create an environment where referees feel comfortable giving honest, candid evaluations. This involves setting the right tone early in the reference call, ensuring confidentiality, and asking structured questions about both strengths and weaknesses of the candidate. Full Fintech Leaders episode ⤵⤵⤵ Substack: https://bit.ly/3YnBopc Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Yr711r Apple: https://apple.co/4f4VoTb Youtube: https://bit.ly/3U8V8dH

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How to split equity in a start-up is essentially about founder alignment. It is not an easy task. One of the difficult aspects is to (1) incentivize the right people to join in the early stage and yet (2) to keep enough equity to get to the finish line (in the current climate this takes about 10-12 years) Founder alignment shall be considered: - Short term - Medium term - Long term

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For every startup, profitability is important—especially if you are fully bootstrapped. Building MRR with great traction from zero is one of the most rewarding feelings a founder can experience. We track and analyze our MRR and revenue graphs daily and monthly, witnessing how this “baby” grows bit by bit. I have always dreamed of creating something big. Alhamdulillah, that dream is becoming a reality. Once, a million-dollar revenue was just a dream. Now, Alhamdulillah, multi-million-dollar revenue feels achievable, in sha Allah.

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I had a conversation at #StartupSounds (by Draper House Americas & Draper Startup House) with Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui, co-founder and managing partner of IGNIA Partners. A VC investor for more than 15 years, he's seen quite a lot.. Sharing a couple of highlights below, and the links to listen and know more! 🎧 📺 Youtube https://lnkd.in/dn8u6bDT 🎵 Spotify https://lnkd.in/dFkgaedg HIS EXPERIENCE IN THE CLASSROOM 🏫 Alvaro has become a much better professional thanks to giving classes at Harvard Business School: "you need to listen well" is a cliché but it is true anyways. Being an active listener requires you to be curious, and avoiding to be judgmental. EVERY SINGLE PITCH IS A CLASS 📚 Every time you listen to an entrepreneur, you're being taught something. Sometimes you listen to an entrepreneur it feels like something doesn't make sense...but if you go 1 or 2 steps further you can fully grasp what they mean. STUMBLING INTO VENTURE CAPITAL 💼 As most important things in life, he started in VC as a coincidental accident. Being involved in microcredits at Compartamos, he saw early on that extraordinary returns could be paired up with enormous social impact, an eye-opener that led him the way to launching his career as an investor. WALKING IN THE DESERT 🏜️ Back when Ignia started, dealflow was not there yet, so it took a while to find enough companies to invest in. At the same time, there was a lack of co-investors, something critical for developing a portfolio and specific companies. As he said: "it's almost impossible not to do better than our first fund". REFLECTIONS ON TRANSPARENCY 🔍 So many investors get scared very easily, so founders are dubious of being transparent with them. A lot of things go wrong in this business, it is the business of risk. If you want a communication with founders, you need to be understanding and focused on learnings, rather than on mistakes. Once transparency is achieved, magic starts happening. ✨ A LOT OF THINGS ARE GOING TO CHANGE 🌟 The business plans in which you invest have usually nothing to do with the ones that make it in the end. The only constant is the founding team, and that's why he bets on the entrepreneurs. If you get the entrepreneur right, it may work out. If you don't, it won't. WINE TASTING AND INVESTING 🍷 You can read a lot of books about wine tasting, but you won't become a good taster. You need to taste a lot of wines: a lot of good ones, and some that aren't. That way you'll be able to see value in wines! Santiago Caniggia Bengolea Ignacio Campo irene pasolini Julian De Muria Matheus Rodrigues Vikram Bharati Joaquin Stein

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One other thing on Nubank. Something you don’t hear enough about is their SME banking product. Micro and small enterprises are an essential (and massive!) part of the Brazilian economy, accounting for 93.7% of all legally constituted companies (20.3 million). Right now, Nubank has 2.6 million SME customers, growing 44% year over year. That leaves a lot of the market untapped and a huge upside potential for them. Watch this segment in quarters to come. If they can replicate their success here as they did with consumers, there's a ton of upside potential.

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The best way to understand if your company has PMF…

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It would be amazing if someone could create a post detailing the unit economics of a fintech business. Gross profit margins, payback periods, LTV, and so on. Maybe even compare different types of Fintech startups, BNPL, payment processors, lenders, etc.

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Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and testing the foundational hypotheses is crucial, and 90% of the time you will iterate. Do you think a business plan is necessary for a startup? #startup #fintech

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𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐉𝐫. + Adeo Ressi 𝐚𝐭 VC Lab🚀 💥 "Great founders are PATTERN breakers and PATTERN creators." -Mike Maples, Jr 👉 Do you know what MAKES or BREAKS a Startup? -𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: your insight about the future could be wrong. Ensuring that your prediction and understanding of future trends align with reality is crucial. -𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭:  Not in the top priorities of the startup could lead to failure. Even with the right vision, failure can occur if the execution is not prioritized correctly. -𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐭: Talking to the wrong people and not a fit with customer character. Engaging with the wrong audience can lead to failure. 👉 👉 In the early stages, 𝐍𝐎 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭-𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐅𝐢𝐭. It's the foundation upon which all successful ventures are built. I totally agree, and that’s one of the reasons why at LAN Accelerator, we take the PMF issue so seriously. Startups can't get to PMF in Latam without the right focus and guidance. #VCLab #ProductMarketFit #Leadership

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Would a Nubank copy-paste work in Africa? Probably not (at least right now). "LATAM is similar to the US: credit-cards are understood, widespread. Credit cards as a product are supremely powerful. Users can seamlessly borrow and spend. It’s a gold mine for the issuer, and it’s (in part) what made Nubank so successful. A small survey estimated that 58% of Latin Americans have credit cards. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the figure stands at around 1.6%. Any African neobank play has to start with contextually-relevant products, like someone’s first proper bank account." Read the full Realistic Optimist piece by Hassan Bourgi, co-founder of Djamo here: https://lnkd.in/gSb4TNfB

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Startup fundraising requirements have gone up... Here are 3 key takeaways and actionable steps you can take: Takeaways from Carta's report: 1️⃣ Lower Valuation Multiples – Series A startup valuation multiples have dropped from 4.9x in 2022 to 2.8x, indicating more cautious investor sentiment. 2️⃣ Extended Fundraising Cycles – Startups are now waiting over 100 days longer between rounds, reflecting slower deal flow. 3️⃣ New Opportunities – Larger seed rounds and technological advancements, such as AI, provide startups with ways to grow without relying as heavily on traditional VC funding. So, what can you do about it? If you’ve already raised pre-seed or seed funding, your primary focus should now be on generating revenue. There’s no way around that. If you haven't raised yet but plan to start a company, here are some strategies to consider: 1️⃣ Write Openly on LinkedIn - Share your thesis and gather feedback before you build. - Pay attention to what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t. 2️⃣ Talk to as Many People as Possible - Use tools like Dripify Lead Conversations to automate LinkedIn connections. - Cold email your ideal customer profile (ICP). - This will help refine your thesis and shape your vision. 3️⃣ Build a Network of VCs and Founders - Many VCs and founders are open to talking with aspiring entrepreneurs. - Use ChatGPT to refine your thesis and identify the best VC matches. - Reach out via concise emails or LinkedIn DMs. Bonus Tip – Be Patient - Once you raise capital, the clock starts ticking and pressure builds. - Consider developing a strong thesis and influence through writing before raising funds. This will give you conviction as you move forward. After all, you’re likely in this for the next 10+ years. #startup #fundraising #vc #entrepreneurship 

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Want to move to Spain? Here's a list of well-funded startups from June 2024: - TravelPerk (business travel) raised up to $135M. - Tinybird (real-time APIs) raised $30M. - Bespoke Pixel Studio (gaming) raised €25M. - Cabify (transport) raised €20M. - Bcas (student finance) raised €17M. - Job&Talent (marketplace) raised €18M. - NeuronUP (cognitive rehabilitation) raised €10M. - Samara (solar energy) raised €9M. - Mitiga Solutions (data analytics) raised €8M. - Badi (room rental app) raised €7M. - FOSSA Systems (IoT satellite) raised €6.3M. - Ray studios (tattoo removal) raised €4.62M. - Danelfin (AI stock analytics) raised €2M. - Alinia AI (alignment platform) raised $2.4M. - Sincrolab (digital therapies) raised €1.7M. - Leemons LXP (edtech) raised €1.62M. - Bit2Me (crypto) received investment from Unicaja. - Azitek (IOT) raised €750K. - inBiot Monitoring SL (biotech) raised €500K. Get dealflow in your inbox monthly, subscribe with link below 👇 #startups #emprendimiento #spain #tech 📸: credit to contxto

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Growing in the US is a dream for a lot of startups! Cake is doing it and we are keen to continue to learn, share our learnings with other founders and help out where we can. Thanks for a great US GTM panel with SVB, Deel., Andreessen Horowitz Awesome learnings about bringing your startup to the US: - get your legals in place - a lot of compliance requirements in SF - be careful with costs - SF is super expensive, go around if you can - set up a c-corp from start - set up for the long term - health insurance will be your second highest cost, next to salary and is necessary to attract top talent - look 12-18 months ahead to be ready to scale up your startup Great chats with Sunil Joshi, Sara Rona, Daniel Nickel, Jordynn Johnson-Knoops, Kenan Kitchen, Andy Tsao, Dawn Nott, ★Phillip Alvarado★, Nuné Zadoyan, MBA, Shun Katayose, Ryu Ishihara, Martin Walian

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Brex is one of my favorite fintechs. Ever wonder what their journey from $0 to over $300M in revenue within 7 years looked like? 2017-2018: The Birth of Brex • Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, both 22-year-old Stanford dropouts, decided to flip the fintech world on its head by launching Brex, a corporate credit card tailored for startups. • With their co-CEO model (which has become popular), they doubled their management bandwidth. Internal & external duties? No problem when you have twice the number of CEOs to lead folks 2019-2020: Rapid growth • Brex quickly partnered with big names like DoorDash, Flexport, and Roblox. • In 2019, they secured $300 million in funding, catapulting their valuation to $2.6 billion. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you’re swimming in a pool of investor cash. 2021-2022: Diversification and challenges • Brex expanded its product suite to include expense management, bill pay, & travel booking services. If you’re going to burn through cash, you might as well make it convenient. • Despite their success, they faced some “minor” hiccups. Layoffs in 2022 were a delightful reminder that even fintech unicorns aren’t immune to cutting costs by cutting people. 2023: Strategic shifts • Transitioning to a single CEO model, Pedro took the helm while Henrique became chairman. Having two brains was slowing things down? • They continued to innovate, integrating AI into their platform. By the end of 2023, Brex hit over $300 million in revenue, proving that even with all the chaos, they were still making bank​. 2024: Path to profitability • With a goal of being cash-flow positive by 2025, Brex halved its cash burn by chopping 20% of its staff and focused on sustainable growth. Making money instead of burning it is always a sound strategy. • Serving 30K+ customers globally, Brex’s commitment to transparency & customer-centric solutions has kept them in the game. They’re not just participating – they’re rewriting the rules. Want to copy their homework? 1. Identify a significant pain point in an industry and create a solution that addresses it. Please don't start a business without doing this. 2. Utilize a strong co-founder dynamic to maximize efficiency & divide responsibilities effectively. Two heads are better than one, until they aren’t. 3. Secure early partnerships with influential companies to build credibility and a customer base. It’s always about who you know. 4. Listen to your customers. & Expand your product offerings to meet their evolving needs. 5. Maintain a strong focus on transparency & trust to build a loyal customer base. People surprisingly prefer not being lied to. 6. Strategically manage growth, and make tough decisions like layoffs when necessary to ensure long-term sustainability. 7. If you want to go public, be profitable. Did I miss anything?

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Most startups fail because they build products nobody needs. 💔 But there are those rare startups that grow to be worth over $1 billion! 💹 Guillermo Flor analyzed some of these companies, and here are 10 takeaways on how to reach product-market fit (PMF) 👇: 1. What is Product-Market Fit (PMF)? Step-by-step guide with success stories from companies like Notion, Canva, and Stripe.    2. Find your first 10 customers and keep them beyond the first month—learn how others succeeded. 3. The $1M ARR Playbook—how HeyGen, Lemlist, and Canny reached this milestone. 4. Customer-Centric Go-To-Market Strategy—the most effective way to sell, plus a growth flywheel strategy. 5. Ship fast! Create a customer feedback loop that scales your startup. 6. Sales for first-time founders—insights from Notion, HubSpot, and PandaDoc. 7. Product-Market Fit Framework from Sequoia—what's the magic formula? 8. The four levers of Product-Market Fit from First Round Capital—pull them right! 9. Learn from Linktree’s story—how they went from 0 to $37M ARR and 12M users with a simple product. 10. Understand timing—it took years for some of the biggest players like GitHub, Figma, and Slack to hit PMF. Startups that succeed do one thing right—they build what people need. What’s your biggest PMF lesson? P.S. You can access Guillermo Flor's original post from the link below: https://lnkd.in/efsxp4nj #startup #productmarketfit #growth #entrepreneurship #PMF #GoToMarket #yatırım #yatırımcı #girişimci #girişim #kitleselfonlama #alestagroupe #girişimsermayesi #risksermayesi #kitlefonlaması #startup #danışmanlık

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Square, Mercado Libre, Rappi, Zillow, and Stripe alumni have founded 1,511 startups over the last decade. That's a lot! And about 12% of these founders are building a fintech company. What is it about the DNA of these firms that they attract a lot of would-be founders? Some of the great fintech companies founded by ex-employees of this group include Pomelo, Ontop, Persona, Mundi, AgentSync, Divvy Homes, and Pacaso Square - 355 total startups, 32 in fintech Mercado Libre - 282 total startups, 37 in fintech Zillow - 294 total startups, 22 in fintech Rappi - 290 total startups, 28 in fintech Stripe - 290 total startups, 25 in fintech Read our full report ➡ https://bit.ly/GGMVFF Andrew Endicott Paula You David Erickson Kirstie Irmana Kristofer Jenk Josh Jagota Gilgamesh Ventures The Wharton School

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Would you rather play for your local club or in the Champions League? Mbappé's move to Real Madrid wasn't just a transfer; it was a statement. To be the best, you need to play with the best. The same principle applies to startup investing. While there's nobility in supporting local, global success requires stepping onto the world's biggest stage. In football, it's Real Madrid... For startup investing, it's Silicon Valley and Y Combinator. France has made strides in its startup scene, but the Valley remains decades ahead. It's where the best ideas, the deepest capital, and the most experienced mentors unite. Y Combinator is the Real Madrid of startups. It's where the world's top talent goes to transform potential into success. The numbers don't lie: 6% of YC companies become unicorns 🦄 39% raise Series A funding YC has produced over 100 unicorns These stats prove YC breeds success. Just as Mbappé will face tougher competition and higher stakes at Madrid, investing in YC companies comes with its challenges. But these challenges forge world-class investments. You won't become a global star playing for your local club. To be the best, you need to compete with the best. Investing in YC offers that opportunity @Lobster Capital. France's risk-averse investment culture (only 7% invest in stocks vs. 30-35% in the US) is holding back potential. To excel, we need to embrace global opportunities… We can always re-invest locally.

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*Key Learnings from Building Cedalio: Insights from a Second-Time Founder* Starting and growing Cedalio (YC S23) has been an incredible journey so far, full of lessons and insights. As a second-time founder, I know how hard it is to build a company from the ground up. Here are some new learnings and reminders from my journey with Cedalio: Listen to Your Users: Even if you start with a clear idea, your users will guide you on what to build, and it will change. A lot. We began as a blockchain decentralized database, but our users’ needs led us to pivot. Now, we help companies automate data gathering for sustainability teams with AI. Patience and Discipline: In this unpredictable environment, patience and discipline are essential. I’ve chosen to take it easy, hire only what we truly need, and automate as much as possible with AI. This approach not only conserves resources but also positions us for long-term success. Value-Added AI Wrappers: AI wrappers present immense opportunities if you add value on top of the model. In our case, we focus on a specific process: validating data so you can trust the results. This added value differentiates us and makes our solution indispensable. Enterprise AI is Different: AI for enterprise is a different game. It's not just about adding ChatGPT to your old website. It requires robust integration, security, and scalability to meet the complex needs of large organizations. Distribution is Key to Success: Distribution is critical, and we’re still working on it. We are currently focusing on partnerships with carbon accounting software companies to expand our reach and deliver greater value to our clients.

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