Jeffery: Welcome to the supporters fund ask an investor i’m your host Jeffery potvin let’s please welcome william nehe from arable capital as our investor today welcome william it’s a real pleasure having you join us.

William: Thank you jp it’s a it’s an honor to be part of this forum and for us it’s it’s great to have a platform to amplify our message and to be part of this community which is obviously a very important part of the vc ecosystem

Jeffery: I love it well shared we might have to use that as our new introduction but i i enjoy that it’s great and i agree this is it’s a growing world and being part of this startup community is it’s not just in your own country it’s literally global today and i think it’s exciting to be part of all of these different global communities and being able to share uh what we do and how we all do it so it’s pretty exciting to have you here today so the way we love to kick off the show is that we want to dive in and learn a little bit more about yourself and and how you got started and where this all came about and you know we’re going to go all the way back to your goldman sachs days and even probably when you were working for general motors and i what i love about your background is that you’ve worked for some heavy hitters and being in the finance side i think it’s really exciting to dive into this because i do find and i’ll probably say this on every podcast that i get to interview someone that is in the financial space they tend to really understand startups i find that when you’re in the banking sector you get faced with a lot of businesses and having that background really does help you distinguish between the i will say the successful or the
ones that are family style businesses versus versus scaling businesses so i’m excited to dive into that and then one thing about you that nobody would know so i’ll turn it over to you william and uh please share away.

William: Excellent excellent well thank you very much yeah i know definitely i i’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to um you know move quite a bit around the world and to have obviously work for for some great companies so um look i am i am from colombia so i grew up in in bogota i went to uh university in bogota and uh yeah you mentioned i worked for goldman sachs and for general motors general motors was my my first job out of university uh where you know i worked closely with the with the cfo and and it was my first uh approach you know basically to the financial world um but uh soon enough i i moved uh to the us so um as many colombians do and many other people around the world they go to the u.s in in search of better opportunities and and and and you know you know looking to have the opportunity to also study in some of these great universities that are in the us and i had that chance i moved to boston uh did my masters in finance and right after that i i engaged goldman in new york uh where they gave me a fantastic opportunity to cover latin american banks as a equity analyst and so i covered banks in brazil mexico argentina chile at that time and i did that for a few years which i enjoy thoroughly but then i fell in love with with a french lady and we got married and we uh we moved to london i guess you know for her was easier to be closer to home and so i moved to london where i also you know had a huge opportunity to launch uh coverage of many emerging markets out of london uh particularly turkey russia south africa um always covering the financial sector always covering financials and so you know my my perspective was complemented by not only covering different companies by obviously companies in different countries and then as i as i continued basically that uh that journey um goldman uh offered me the opportunity to move to uh to dubai to uh open the equity uh research uh division there uh and and so i i had the opportunity to again extend a little bit more my regional coverage to uh look at uh northern africa to look at the gulf um we we had also the opportunity to participate in a couple of ipos and so it was it was a great great experience but uh towards the end of my tenure there i guess as it happens with many sales analysts i started to play with the idea of moving to the buy side um and and i saw this or i was uh lucky enough to uh to get in contact with this uh large asset manager here in switzerland where i lived uh 10 years ago uh which is gammy investments uh and they uh ran a global emerging market uh um platform at lugano here in switzerland and it was a great sort of a transition for me into the into the buy side because it was covering emerging markets which obviously is something that i love and and you know investing uh a big portion of the portfolio in in financial companies and so i moved here to switzerland i started covering global emerging markets and he gave me the opportunity for the first time to start looking at southeast asia and you know i think that was my first approach to private markets not because i was investing in private markets but because out of all the emerging markets that i had covered in my life this was the first one where the private market was was so active and so strong that it basically uh was quite difficult to miss it right so even though i was investing in in enlisted equities you know every now and then i would run into a company that was doing something exciting in fintech or logistic or whatever and so i i was i and i was completely new to me even working at goldman i had never really encountered this world beforeum and so um i was asking myself you know why this is incredible look at all this action happening in indonesia thailand you know why is this not happening in latin america and so and this was about 10 years ago and then soon enough i started looking at a few companies particularly coming out of brazil that were starting to to list in new york and i participated in a couple of ipos of fintechs like you know pax seguro and stone great great transactions and it really opened my mind to a completely different environment um and so i started to you know again going back home and getting closer basically to uh to colombia uh and right now obviously the the venture ecosystem is is is mainly center in latin america around this axis formed by mexico colombia and brazil right and so i i that that’s that’s how i got here a little bit you know the journey that i followed uh one thing about me that not many people know perhaps is that um you know when when i was in colombia uh very little i i lived uh a few years in the jungle uh my father was a uh an officer in colombian air force and he was posted in a base in in the middle of the jungle and um and i was lucky enough to or unlucky enough to actually uh get malaria so i i i have really experienced emerging markets in in every single possible way.

Jeffery: Ah that’s awesome and well i’m going to say your story is awesome but i’m sure getting malaria was not one of the highlights but it does sound uh pretty interesting just out of curiosity when you had it what was the what was the outcome of it what is what is malaria uh cause was it.

William: Um you you feel very weak you are uh you know you have fever of course uh i was i think i was like 10 years old so i was little right and so it was not a great experience i guess the best part of it was that i got to stay home so i missed a school day for a few weeks recovered and so yeah but other than that it was no it’s not a pleasant experience but i think you know this is the first time that i’m sharing this is actually something very personal i don’t think you ask me you know something that probably people don’t know about me that’s one of those things.

Jeffery: No that’s uh that’s a great share and and yeah it’s an experience right and i i guess like every 10 year old kid would be pretty excited to get to stay home regardless of the outcome i’m sure battle through anything just so you don’t have to go to school so it’s awesome um i want to kind of go back to a couple of things that you said and one of them is and and obviously when the financial world your experience going in different markets is awesome it’s very rare that you get to talk with someone that’s been able to be an analyst in so many different markets and learning what they’re what’s going on in those markets and seeing where these companies are going ipo and then being able to jump into them across the globe so when you talk about emerging markets maybe you can share a little bit more about what that definition means to a banker on what emerging markets are because i’m sure there’s a little bit of a difference from a startup to an ipeo when you’re looking at what an emerging market is can you kind of share where that is and maybe even share a little bit more about where you see these emerging markets today.

William: Excellent no absolutely uh so yeah emerging markets um that is obviously the technical definition uh and and it is you know a market that by certain financial standards and and macroeconomic metrics um is in the process of of uh achieving that kind of development that you see in in you know uh in the west right and and in the developed markets per se right obviously um so so that’s that’s like the boring definition right but i think you know if an emerging market is is is that place right where um you can see the very early days in some cases not so early in others but you know in the way of actually um becoming uh a more uh sophisticated and and obviously um i guess a resilient you know society and economy right um we take for granted in the west you know the kind of benefits that we have because we have achieved those kind of landmarks right but in emerging markets obviously everything is being built everything is in the process of of getting to those kind of standards and and that’s and that’s what it is right um obviously where do you find emerging markets emery markets are obviously center in three kind of pockets right you have latin america um most of latin america is there even chile that is a little bit more advanced still is an emerging market right then you have obviously southeast asia where south east asia is is is uh the quintessential emerging market right even even even even china is still you know obviously an emerging market right and then you know there is emea that uh incorporates uh that part in europe that uh obviously is still emerging uh particularly the the east uh and and and encompasses obviously all africa and the middle east right um so it’s almost all the world apart from obviously north america europe and japan you know and australia i guess you know every single other market is an emerging market so it’s it’s quite exciting you know that that we have quite a lot of choice right to to to look at when investing in emerging markets that there are many places that are very different the dynamics are very different but the common denominator of course it is that every single one of these markets is striving to actually improve their standards and obviously looking at the west as the template.

Jeffery: So it’s almost becoming that when you have an emerging market now today it’s kind of like decentralizing the way we look at the globe so i think maybe pre 20 years ago everything was very self-grown so you had to be in the market in order to learn that this market was now going to be emerging they’re putting a lot of money in they’re putting a lot of time in to build up startups build up companies build up an ecosystem so those were efforts that were being made into these different regions so you start to see this happening as you said a lot more in central america and other areas where they’re starting to put the effort into it so you can kind of start to vision those that in the next five years are going to start to get a lot of talent and a lot of skills so you know google just put in some 700 million into kenya so now they’re going to start looking at that in the next few years as an emerging market because you’re going to have financial whereabouts that are going to help drive the economy they’re going to start driving more people making money to start creating their own companies so now you’re going to start making that that next tier of a company that’s coming out so when you start to decentralize this entire environment which is globally putting everybody up to the same speed you know tick tock is decentralizing music now everybody can be a music um artist because they’ve got platforms that allow them to do that so is that the same kind of thing that’s happening in these markets where you’re starting to see uh startups and companies being built in all of these different sectors that you never imagined would have happened this quickly and all together at the same
time so it’s almost too much at the same time and has this become a problem that financially it becomes unstable because you have so many emerging markets as you mentioned earlier that you can’t keep up with the amount of companies and the amount of uh businesses that are thriving because of the environment they’re in.

William: Yeah i know of course i mean um i think what what is important very important to to recognize is that investors around the world are always in the search for growth right um and and growth obviously uh is is happening uh in emerging markets that’s where the growth is going to come from and and has been the case for for quite a while right and what is interesting now particularly with what we have seen in in the last few decades right with technology is that technology has made access to that growth more democratic right so you know it was in the at the in in previous decades access to capital was the the primary driver of of this growth now obviously you know that is complemented with talent because the many people from emerging markets are obviously having access to to the same kind of education and the same kind of professional development that you’ve seen you know in in developed markets but then everything has been amplified with technology now obviously companies in in colombia uh can create apps you know that can compete uh in certain industries with with companies in the us right i mean that has never been done before right uh and so what i think is becoming internal
increasingly interesting in emerging markets from that perspective right is that um we have uh we have the ability now to um to create companies that can compete at a global um at a global uh basically uh base when without having to spend you know decades right and and and huge amounts of capital you know to get there right and that is revolutionary right so you know that that was one of the the reasons why you know we we i find i found quite interesting you know to move to to private markets right because uh if you if you will you know listed markets even in emerging markets become a little bit boring they are identical to what you see basically and and then there are a lot of limitations right and the dynamics are are different right um so you know moving to to private markets you you see this new environment which is quite uh you know revitalizing right you you see all these entrepreneurs that are doing amazing things um and uh and that is so gratifying right and and so it is it is something unique that is happening in emerging markets and i think is new since like uh 10 15 years ago it’s it’s a new development.

Jeffery: So with these emerging markets and taking the background that you have and the things you did with goldman sachs and being able to move around and go into these different sectors different countries and start to piece together what’s going on in this environment do you find that you’re able to kind of see where that next upcoming emerging market is because of your experiences or do you go back to that you can grab all this information online now it’s pretty easy to figure out.

William: No look i mean it’s interesting that you asked that because um again as i as i mentioned before what really opened my eyes at least you know to this uh world of of prior markets was my experience investing in southeast asia right and and and again i think southeast asia is like probably 10 10 years ahead of of latin america in terms of development of venture capital right and so you know by looking at southeast asia you you pretty much have a crystal ball uh into that you can use to actually see what could work what may not work or how things are going to evolve right in latin america um and so and so that’s fantastic so you know we have that experience and and i think you know i’m completely sure that you know in a few uh years africa perhaps is gonna move into into that into that uh situation right hopefully hopefully it’s gonna it’s gonna be there right um there are different aspects uh and and you know africa is a little bit more complex in a sense you know that latin america you know the culture of all these latin american countries is so homogeneous right that makes it a a block that is um quite easy to to um to use to leverage all these applications to launch you know um startups that can reach a scale quite fast right maybe maybe africa you know given those those differences is going to take a little bit longer you know to get there right but but maybe it’s the next frontier right and so yeah ali i look i think uh through the development of of emerging markets um uh again and you know is is you can talk about this you know for for for hours right because i i you know he goes he goes in cycles right and the development of these emerging markets is not really linear at the beginning of the 80s i think the the the real emerging markets were actually in latin america but these latin american countries went through a massive debt uh you know uh issue right and so they took you know decades to recover and in the meantime southeast asia uh took a lot of uh um speed right and and then and and and they developed quite fast right and they replaced pretty much in the map of emerging markets latin america uh throughout the the last few decades right now is sort of like you know latino america is coming back uh and uh is trying to find again a place within that that uh you know economic uh sphere let’s put it that way um but uh if you ask me yes i mean of course i think you know especially in private markets latin america is where the action is because i think obviously you know there is there is less competition uh there is uh more um opportunities to invest in an ecosystem that really is growing very very fast so the universe you know has grown exponentially in the last 10 years and so now we are at that tipping point where where things are really getting exciting right exciting right so so i think you know look again yeah southeast asia a little bit more developed latin america catching up and i guess you know the last frontier would be africa.

Jeffery: Awesome so taking that that concept of merging market and what you’re seeing in latin america do you feel and is there a driver that with media getting behind this as creating this merging market do you think that what comes out of the end result of this is that in order for these merging markets to really take off that they require a lot of outside investment so you’ve got a lot of people that are also seeing this and they’re saying wait i got to get capital into this country let’s take chile or mexico any of these business countries right now and they’re saying look we’ve got lots going on here it’s affordable people love living here and now they’re getting flooded with a lot of people from covet and everybody else driving in to want to live there so you’re bringing in dollars but now there’s also this whole environmental investment environment that wants to jump into this because there are getting the educations getting up there infrastructure is starting to change governments are putting money in there so do you think that that is what really is going to set this apart from an emerging market is that other merging managers are going to start dumping money in because they see this and that’s the only way this will really kick into high gear.

William: Yeah look i think there are there are several aspects there i think it is often the case that unfortunately uh local investors look outside you know for diversification because they think about diversification mostly uh in a geographic uh you know sort of way um and so and so unfortunately you know in these early stages we often see that most of the uh the players right in in these private markets are external funds right uh and it takes some time for for this industry to develop because uh of course for these funds that are based in the us in europe and in other parts of the world right latin america it only adds a little bit of spice to their portfolio but it’s never really the core of their portfolio right uh and so the role that naturally uh domestic investors should play right is replaced by by these the external funds right that that again you know are not looking primarily at latin america as they’re they’re with with the the objective to build the core strategy right but i think you know also it is true that that private markets and vc in particular are asset classes that are relatively new right particularly vc and so this is something that is taking some time to be understood to be digested and i think you know with time even domestic investors will realize right that you know vc even when when when deployed domestically could play a very important role from the point of view of diversification right uh not only because you know the correlation with other asset classes is so low but because you know what really plays a very important part uh in in unlocking value in this in this in the industry is the application of technology right and technology of course is is just creating new markets and that obviously is the ultimate uh diversification play and so yeah i mean look i i think the important thing that every single investor is realizing uh you know domestically or otherwise is that we are living through a a change in party every single industry is being uh digitized right and digitalization really is the driving force behind all this new economy uh and especially in emerging markets right the what what you see in very different verticals is that um
you know these these companies are going from from the donkey to the rocket basically you know skipping every single step in in the middle uh because technology is enabled they are enabling them to do that right and so the growth that that you can generate through that transition is monumental right and so the opportunity to actually participate now uh in that in that transformation economic transformation is is enormous and and and so you know so i i we have had so many discussions with many family offices and uh many high net worth individuals in latin america that perhaps we’re not very aware of this and now they’re starting to think that that is even you know obviously a little bit uh shameful not to have exposure to that right and so um and so that’s great and and i think it’s happening and i think you know we are at a point in latin america where uh you know wealth standards are are really uh you know improving to a point that it could enable the deployment of many very successful applications and which are at the end you know even uh as a visual circle reinforcing you know that that same trend right and so uh yeah i know it’s is it’s something that is going to take some time but i think initially just to answer your question in a few words is mostly about external capital you know supporting this development um hopefully you know motivating more domestic involvement uh from the uh from from the you know family offices communities in in latin america.

Jeffery: No that’s a that’s a great answer and does that also mean that with the foreign dollar coming in and supporting and making investments even if it isn’t their bread and butter coming into latin america is that also opening up the domestic dollars the family offices to start taking more risk because they’re seeing that others are coming in and risking in their in their environment so it’s opening them up quicker to make more i wouldn’t say leaps of faith but just looking at this environment and saying okay you know we never would have invested in startups or we never would have gone into this asset class maybe we should because uh this group just came in and invested um 10 million in this company in colombia so do you think that that’s driving a change in the environment as well.

William: No definitely definitely i mean of course you know when you see the likes of uh sequoia you know uh participating in some of these uh larger rounds uh typically in later stages not not really at the precede or seed level but later stages but when you see those big names uh participating obviously that creates a a lot of attention right and that and that there definitely drives interest and and then and then at the very minimum it makes uh wealthy you know institutions and investors in latin america question why you know uh they they should not be more involved you know in this kind of um asset class right so that’s that’s definitely true and and and we have seen uh in certain locations um uh you know wealthy individuals asking us ah look have you what do you think about this transaction what do you think about that you know so that generates a lot of uh bus um but um but i think you know uh also what is uh interesting is that um all the uh all the other um fonts i’m very sorry i i something happened here there is some music coming in the background i’m gonna try to switch this off for the beauty of soon so but uh yeah i’m sorry about that but um but yeah look i mean i think the the other interesting thing also you know it also happens the other way around right because you know we’ve seen a few very successful uh vc managers in latin america unfortunately there are just a few examples uh that have uh unlocked massive amount of value uh in a few transactions like you know recently on new bank right where you know the company was ipo for more than 40 billion dollars in in new york so this is obviously uh makes makes uh craze a huge amount of interest in in the industry and so it’s also attracting more and more external managers to actually also reconsider whether or not their involvement is enough if they need to increase their presence in the region right and then you have obviously a likes of softbank that for better or worse you know also have uh participated quite um in a quite important way in in in the in the busy market in latin america and that also is well known and perceived you know around the world right so this is happening and of course yeah i mean the more the more we have like mainstream uh players coming and and and participating here and and unlocking value in the region and and showing to the world you know what the potential is really to transform and to generate value then the better right that’s for sure.

Jeffery: Agreed no i love that now taking back and we talk about this quite often and taking back to your your past again as running through goldman and all of these different groups all the way up to where you are today you talk a lot about asset classes so maybe you can define a little bit about what this diversification of asset classes really means to you because i think a lot of investors or a lot of startups you know they’re always told to focus do one thing be the best at it and then everybody else in the financial world saying hey you need to diversify because if something goes wrong you need to be able to have assets here and assets there so what does this really mean to a founder or to anybody that is working in these emerging markets what am i looking for what do i need to be cautious of or what do i need to be really driven towards and start moving towards and obviously comes back to asset base and i think today in the last i’d say last three years asset based anything has become crazed like everybody an nft is an asset so maybe you can define what these asset bases are and then what people should be looking out for when they are diversifying and if they should be doing this as a startup or not.

William: yeah look i mean i think fro from the from the investors perspective uh the the the classic asset classes right i mean are the kind of obvious ones right so you have you know fixed income and equities and commodities and and maybe a little bit of fx right uh but that’s pretty much it and and as we have seen recently they all are uh correlated to a certain extent uh and so you know there is not really one that’s a class that you say okay look this asset class really is providing me with a with a hedge right that nothing is completely uncorrelated right but that at least would not be as affected as other as the classic you know asset classes and vc is is one of them right and so and so i think you know and it’s one of the only ones that i know i guess private markets in general but bc in particular is is is a great it’s a great uh uh diversification um strategy right um so that is from the and that’s something that is not well understood and that is not well known and uh that you know i think people don’t really um appreciate enough the the role that technology plays in this in this um in this dynamic right because technology really is the one that is making sure you know that the the founders and the companies that are tackling these opportunities uh can grow at different rates right uh disconnected pretty much with what is happening in the broader economy why why because they are creating new markets they are innovating they are uh in in in many ways um uh providing solutions that are optimized to to problems that that we have in in the in the broader economy right and so and so that is that is something that is not very well uh recognized right um from the from the founder perspective of course i mean you you also need to to understand that um you you play you know a small part within a larger ecosystem right and that uh even though you know it is true that you are a little bit disconnected from the broader dynamics uh there are certain aspects that are critical right and i think you know one of them is really access to funding as we are seeing right now right and when financial conditions uh tighten then then it affects everyone and it is true you know that obviously there there is a a a a a bigger implication you know uh for for the for the startup ecosystem right so it is not that is completely disconnected you know from from from from the economy or that is operating in a vacuum of course not right but you know having that in mind the advice that we always give founders is you know you have to be very careful you know about you know what what what is your wrong way right uh when the cycle is is is right then you obviously have to take the opportunity to to extend that wrong way and to have enough money right so you can run from the the cycles right um and so yeah i mean look i mean those are the two perspectives that i would that i would bring you know from from the investor point of view really venture capital is it provides an unparalleled you know opportunity to diversify uh you cannot put you know a significant part of your portfolio there but even if you put only five ten percent of your portfolio then you are adding great diversification and that’s something that is not well appreciated and from the founder point of view really be mindful you know that that obviously you are part of a larger economy and that funding is critical.

Jeffery: And i i love that because you are explaining no matter what however you skin the cat diversification is something that’s needed and looking at these uh alternative asset classes that are going into emerging markets and doing things that you could not imagine yourself getting into can be beneficial especially if you’re getting into the right fund or the right area and this brings up arable capital and what you guys are doing can you share a little bit more about the you’re raising 30 million uh you’re going after latin america is that all latin american countries you have a specific group and now what what is the expertise that you guys are going to bring to this uh to this new market that you guys are driving out.

William: Absolutely now look i mean i we we saw this opportunity like i said because we we really think that latin america is is uh learning uh a lot from what has happened in other emerging markets in bc in particular southeast asia is really the crystal ball here and there are really three countries that are driving development obviously in latin america those are brazil colombia and mexico if you aggregate those those three uh countries they provide probably about eighty percent of the deal flow that you see uh there are there are other right uh very interesting uh startups that come also from from argentina uh from from chile from from from peru but really you know most of the action is center around mexico colombia and brazil and also if you look at all the uh the the ecosystem the the universe is probably 50 fintech so there is a lot of uh a a lot of um action you know in that space and that has a reason and it is just because you know banks in latin america have not really done properly their job and and service is poor and and and half of the people have no that do not really have access to financial services right so the opportunity there to to play a role is huge right and so about 50 is fintech then you have uh everything that has to do basically with with uh e-commerce and logistics and and so all these applications that are trying to optimize the supply chain probably taking take about another quarter of the market so you see a lot of startups uh you know in in last mile in in warehousing in fulfillment all these kind of different applications in the in the in the supply chain and then you have you know basically varicose that are in the main um playing in the in the trying to tackle the main problems in latin america so healthcare so you have e-health education education the real estate market which is you know uh terrible right so proptech is is is has a lot of potential right um and those are the vehicles that we that we that we target we we tend to and this was more by um by looking than by design we tend to focus a lot on on fintech logistics we have which happen to be the two largest verticals just because i have a lot of experience in fintech and my brother who is my partner uh in the fund is is an expert in in it and we can talk a little about later about his experience right but what what we’re trying to do is is is look operate where where there is very little competition which is at the seed stage uh like i said there is a lot of uh larger funds international funds operating in later stages but not many really venturing to the seed stage and so and seed stage in latin america is not really homogeneous right i mean you have one extreme those companies that you know barely have an mvp right that are trying to actually prove or test their business model on one extreme on the other extreme you have companies that are scaling that have you know revenues that go from 100k to a million dollars right and that are primed to to to start thinking about launching a series a in like 12 to 18 months right after they’ve closed their series uh the seed series and that is where we operate right and
so what we think is look there is a huge opportunity to back these entrepreneurs uh to help them right in the development of their of their projects at this stage by either a sort of a yeah taking them by the hand in the in the uh design of all their digital architecture which is something you know that that all of them are are in uh are embarked in in that process right uh and and we have that kind of expertise my my brother has that background right he he is an entrepreneur himself uh he you know i spent uh 30 years working in different organizations in the u.s helping other companies uh with optimization uh issues in the supply chain right he worked for for nasa uh doing some deep research uh and participated in a few of the of the missions uh that took progress to mars right so he he really understands technology and he really understands entrepreneurship and so we think look we can offer all that expertise at that stage when it what is really you know when it’s really needed right and on my on my end obviously i come from a from a traditional asset management investment banking background right and i can provide all that financial support you know that that many of these entrepreneurs need and especially you know when they need to connect with external capital markets which obviously they don’t have that kind of expertise and connection and so we can facilitate that in many cases we’re happy to so the idea with arable is is tapping to an opportunity there are thousands of startups at the seed stage that need this kind of uh expertise um not only money right they need they need that kind of help right and we’re happy to do that uh we’re happy to basically help and and get involved as much as the entrepreneurs allow us to right we don’t want to really be an imposition right um and uh and we’re investing mainly on those three countries uh and and in in rounds that are the typical sid runs in latin america which are between 500k to a million dollars it’s been a little bit of inflation that has been deflated in the last six months so we’re coming back to the natural rounds which are really around one million dollars these companies do not really need more than that to to scale their their their their their project to to successfully launch a series a series a so so yeah that’s that’s that’s what we do.

Jeffery: I love it and uh i did see that your brother has a very vast background not only from nasa sequoia cto he does a lot of amazing things so i think you guys have really put together a strong a strong team so very exciting on that side we’re going to kind of transition now and into maybe we’ll do a quick case study if you could share what it takes to be an entrepreneur maybe share a story of working with an entrepreneur and what it went through it could even be your brother but what they just went through and how they really show and exemplify what it takes in you know entrepreneurship’s not easy so i’m sure you’ve got a great case study of a company that just went from almost failing to crushing it but uh anything you can share we’d love to hear.

William: Yeah i know we we have examples for sure and we have a lot of scares that’s what that weekend we can show but uh and and all those all those learnings are are precious uh but i think just in general i think you know what what really uh what really makes a great entrepreneur are a few common factors right that we that we tend to find in this in this in this amazing you know uh people and i said you know one of one of those is that they they tend to have a unique a unique insight right and so you have this this person you know i mean most of the ideas are that way this person that that went to latin america and tried to from the u.s right and and tried to basically rent an apartment and rented an apartment in latin america it’s a nightmare right uh you have to have someone that that science collateral for you you have to uh you know fulfill all these requirements that are completely insane and and if you’re not wealthy enough or if you are not a part of a certain circle or if you’re a foreigner right it is just really hard to actually do this kind of thing so then obviously this person came there and say look this is a huge problem right he started thinking about it thinking about the solution thinking about the problem right and so he he acquired a unique insight into this this this issue right and most of the entrepreneurs that we that we find that are very very successful is because they have seen uh due to their particular circumstances due to their particular experiences they have seen something uh that is that is quite important they have really spent a lot of time thinking about it and they saw they have acquired this unique insight right that’s one thing the other thing is that they’re really and this might sound like a cliche but it is really two they’re really team builders right so you know i i i have not seen yet i mean maybe some there are some examples out there but i have not really seen yet an entrepreneur that has been successful that hasn’t been really good at building a team right and that is assembling you know a team that that works well and very importantly you know that that you do it with very scary resources right so it’s not only building a team but you have to do it really with very very few resources right so team builders are are definitely something that we look for we really spend a lot of time trying to determine whether this person really is a good team builder or not right um another thing i think is data focus right i mean the the entrepreneurs that are that we’ve seen that are very successful are very data focused right they are constantly looking at the organization inside and outside trying to build uh tools you know that allow them to actually make better decisions right we spend a lot of time through our uh you know interaction with with with these companies trying to make sure that they that they built uh uh systems that allow them really to to uh to you know evaluate you know the the development of their of their projects right so all those that are really data data focus are or being data focused is a key component right a key feature that makes someone successful we think right um and i think finally i would say one one thing that that is a given and i don’t know how to translate this in english maybe is an entrepreneur that has grit right you have to have someone that really in spanish there is a world that is called berakera you have to have better you have to have you know this this motivation this drive that really makes you bulletproof uh through adversity because you’re gonna have the world you know going against you uh and you’re gonna basically most likely be against the ropes many times right so you have to be able to to bounce back and and and by sheer you know motivation and and force you get out of this and and continue right and so we we try to really find out if this person have this kind of characteristics and and and when you find this person is quite obvious that you know they they have it right either you have it you have it or you don’t right i mean you can see it this is quite visible right so um so yeah those i think you know are for four common characteristics is like the common denominator you see that in every single one of these entrepreneurs that that are successful.

Jeffery: Those are great i love is it’s batakata is that what you said berra you know what it’s uh i i call the fifth gear like the michael jordan fifth gear so in this case it’s grip it’s all of that and i love it focus team builders and unique insights those are four great common factors for startups and for entrepreneurs to look forward to and be if they want to have this successful business going forward i love it we’re going to transition now into our rapid fire questions.

William: Excellent

Jeffery: All right so this is how it works i’m gonna you pick one or the other so the question is you coming from an investor standpoint and then you choose which one fits best for you.

William: okay

Jeffery: All right so here we go uh founder or co-founder

William: Founder

Jeffery: Unicorn or a four-year 10x exit

William: Unicorn

Jeffery: Tech or cpg

William: Tech

Jeffery: Nfts or web 3.0

William: Web 3.0

Jeffery: Ai or blockchain

William: Ai

Jeffery: First time founder or second third time founder

William: Second third time founder

Jeffery: First money in or series a

William: First money in

Jeffery: Angel or vc

William: Vc

Jeffery: Board Seat or observer

William: Observer

Jeffery: Safe or convertible load

William: Safe

Jeffery: Lead or follow

William: For time being follow

Jeffery: Okay equity or interest payments

William: Equity

Jeffery: Favorite part of investing

William: Meeting incredible people

Jeffery: Number of companies invested per year

William: Around 15.

Jeffery: Okay preferred terms by any preferred terms

William: Not really but we always tend to ask for uh most variable nations

Jeffery: Okay and then just to reiterate two qualities of startup needs in order to stand out to you

William: They need to have scalability and they need to be near the inflection point

Jeffery: Perfect okay we’re going to do some personal questions

William: Okay

Jeffery: Book or movie

William: uh movie

Jeffery: Uh superman or batman

William: Superman

Jeffery: Restaurant or picnic

William: Restaurant

Jeffery: Five minutes with basil’s or oprah

William: Oh perfectly

Jeffery: Mountain or beach

William: Mountain

Jeffery: Bike or run

William: Bike

Jeffery: Big mac or chicken mcnuggets

William: Big mac

Jeffery: Trophy or money

William: That’s a hard one uh money

Jeffery: Coming from finance guy i’m i’m guessing that uh the trophy one would be good for um maybe uh soccer gamers

William: is it’s personal right you professional that would be different

Jeffery: Yeah that’s true beer wine

William: Wine

Jeffery: Camera or mobile phone

William: Mobile phone

Jeffery: King or rich

William: King

Jeffery: Concert or amusement park

William: Amusement park

Jeffery: Fortune cookie birthday cake

William: Birthday cake

Jeffery: Ted talk or book reading

William: Book reading

Jeffery: Tik tok or instagram

William: Hmm instagram i’m the on the older generation

Jeffery: Facebook or linkedin

William: Linkedin

Jeffery: Most famous person that pops in your mind

William: Margaret

Jeffery: Oh nice that’s a different

William: That one of my heroes what are my heroes

Jeffery: Okay i like that uh favorite movie and what character would you play in the movie

William: Favorite movie uh yeah you look one of my favorite movies is forrest gump and i would play for his game perfect

Jeffery: Favorite book

William: uh it has to be a colombian one sienna a hundred years of solitude from marcus

Jeffery: 100 years of solitude

William: Yep

Jeffery: I’m gonna have to check that out

William: From gabriel garcia marcus is our it’s our own uh noelarit

Jeffery: All right i like it there was a uh when i was in colombia there was a um a famous artist who built the um i guess those round shapes the big large round shapes

William: okay

Jeffery: Um oh what are they called they were like people with they were like uh big big uh like a soccer ball on top of uh a big massive spear and they were placed all over the city i’m not sure if you

William: what they see

Jeffery: Yes in medellin

William: Yeah no look it’s a very active uh arsene and i’m afraid you know i i have missed quite a few of these latest ones right so i don’t know this one i don’t know this one but you know it’s uh it’s interesting that that yeah that you that you picked that up

Jeffery: Oh I love the art scene so everywhere i go i take street art photos uh um big massive fan of that and i do go to a lot of the art exhibits so yeah big fan big fan.

William: Medellin is a great place for that no it was meditating was awesome um

Jeffery: Okay uh first brand that pops into your mind

William: Oka

Jeffery: Which one

William: Cola coke okay

Jeffery: Okay um favorite sports team

William: Has to be a local one so no people would know that uh america de cali soccer team

Jeffery: Yep

William: that’s from my from my from my teenage years i i disconnected after that you know so i have not become a real madrid fan yet

Jeffery: Uh okay i do know that i do know the of the name of the team i’m not i’m pretty sure i haven’t seen them but i do watch when i travel i do watch local football matches too so um another

William: yeah it’s one of the was one of the main of the main teams in colombia and they were very successful at the time that i was going through uh you know high school and university so yeah that that is closer to my to my heart because of that

Jeffery: That’s cool awesome we’re almost there what is the meaning of success to

William: You you’ve been accomplished to feel that you have accomplished whatever you set out to do uh so whatever that is i mean it doesn’t have to be uh monetarily speaking you know or in terms of i mean it can be whatever you want to do i mean if you want to um if you can only feel accomplished because you wrote a book or you played an instrument or whatever that is right i mean yeah that’s the when you set out a goal and you are you you accomplish that that is the best feeling in the world.

Jeffery: I love it okay last question what is your superpower

William: My superpower uh endurance i can i can do something for a very long time until until i get it right so that i think is an important characteristic to have.

Jeffery: That sounds like it ties in well with uh vercara you’re uh

William: Exactly exactly andre and it’s something that definitely you have to have if you really want a bc operator because you you’re gonna have to you’re gonna have to uh you know be patient and and persistent otherwise uh you’re probably not gonna achieve what you set out to do

Jeffery: I completely agree with that um that’s amazing well william i want to thank you very much for joining us today we learned a lot i took lots of notes and i think the audience got a lot out today and certainly um capital is going to be doing some great things in the future and we’re excited to see how that unfolds but thank you again for joining us today and for sharing and on that note um we like to give you the last word so anything that you want to share to the founders to investors i turn it over to you but again thank you very much for all your time today.

William: Thank you jp now it was uh it’s a privilege to be part of this uh conversation i really enjoyed it fantastic forum um and i think you know look uh to all uh investors and and founders are out there i think uh uh this time is a it’s a great time you know i don’t despair because financial conditions have tightened and we have economic times that are a little bit more challenging i think you know it’s a great time to actually be making investments in vc of course um to really uh sort of uh move aside this value conversation that was so annoying in the last few years and you can focus really on value creations instead and and and transformation um and growth and so and so i think you know it’s a great time to be in this in this industry and we encourage anyone that wants to share ideas to contact us and to um you know even if it’s only to discuss the industry.

Jeffery: William how can they get a hold of you that’s a great last point how can someone get a hold of you where where’s

William: Excellent arrowallcap.com probably the best the best place to find out about us how to contact us how to uh you know learn a little bit more about what we do or you can write to me [email protected]

Jeffery: I love it william you’re a good man thank you very much for sharing today uh we will have you again on soon i’m sure but thank you again for your time and having a wicked awesome week.

William: Excellent jp same to you i appreciate it a lot the window that you gave us to to share our our thoughts and our experience thank you very much.

Jeffery: You bet that was great great discussion with william and i love that you know just to kind of go back to the things that he talked about from what makes a great entrepreneur you’ve got unique insights team builders focus grit barracada hopefully i said that correct this time uh scalability and the near inflection point i think those were all valuable points and i do like the last dialogue that he shared about creating value creation instead of it fighting back against the value of a company now today hopefully the way the markets have reset we can certainly focus on uh building new companies and building out uh great new tech and supporting it and creating value for the markets uh great background amazing how he’s been able to to certainly move his way around all the different markets and and build into these emerging markets and i think there’s going to be a lot of success as he mentioned in the colombian mexico and brazilian markets so they’re the next merging markets for sure again thank you very much uh for joining us today if you enjoyed this conversation please feel free to share with your friends or subscribe to our youtube channel follow us on spotify apple podcast and or stitcher feel free to share an audio or video clip around our show we may include it into one of our future podcasts you can find us at marketing at opn openpeoplenetwork.com your support and comments are truly appreciated you can also check us out at supportersfun.com or for startup events visit openpeoplenetwork.com thank you and have a fantastic day.