Hello emperenadores, welcome to one more edition of Startupscoffit Tolks. Today we have
in this great episode a great entrepreneur, a great investor and, above all,
there is in that it has promoted the high impact entrepreneurship in all Latin
America, starting from Argentina and reaching many more sides like Mexico. She'
s very well known. She is Marta Cruz, but before welcoming you,
I would also like to thank all of you that we are already reaching out
to a larger number of subscribers, this Coffit Torch startup channel, that along
with Karina Rassik and together with Augusto Nekini, we have done fantastic things like
interviews with the one we have today with Marta Cruz, welcome to Startups Copy
Tolks. The first podcast designed by the incubator and accelerator Stark Cuups and conducted
by Alejandro Lómez. Our main objective is to connect more entrepreneurs with the ecosystem
of innovation and capital penture in Mexico, Latin America and Silicon Vale. As
we enjoy a delicious cup of coffee together, we begin Hello, Marta Cruz
Welcome to Instagram podcast called Koffittolch, where for me it is a huge taste
to have people of your caliber where we will talk about investments, finance,
entrepreneurship, high impact, innovation from Argentina to the world. Welcome, how
are you, hello, how are you Alejandro the carina Good. Thank you
for giving me the space to talk to you, but more than that,
thank you for taking this issue and continuing to build the investment entrepreneurship ecosystem for
our region, which continues to need it so much. Thank you, Marta,
well look. First I also introduce Carina razz and who joins us today
as co host Qurina how you are Hello. Very funny, I' ll
play for being this podcast and a pleasure of parco. Marta and I'
m just going to give a little review, because the review that Marta has
is huge. She is a co- founder and managing partner of Next p
Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in technology startup that produces a large
- scale positive impact across Latin America. With a portfolio of over a hundred
active startups Netflip and Ventures, it has become the technology startup- focused investment
fund that has only served and led Latin America. He was also President of
ARCAP, Argentina' s opening of capital is, founder of LAC, the
community of high impact entrepreneurs focused on Latin America and co- founder of WIMBIEST,
the community of impressionist women focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. So,
we just have to introduce Marta Brit Hey, Marta, I wouldn'
t like to do a deal outside the podcast. We don' t talk
about first where Marta Cruz comes from how then, this fantastic world of entrepreneurship,
innovation and investments that I am sincere to you, it' s not
very common to see women as active as you. No. This ecosystem tell
me where you come from, what planet, why is it fantastic is it
doing it today in this world, well, from what planet? I don
' t know what plans either. But the reality is that when you have
a clear goal, a high- level goal, let' s say those
that are, as they seem, unattainable. Then they begin to present the
opportunities so that they can fulfill it. No. And the reality that I
never imagined when I was young to be in this world, first I didn
' t know it, but less about finance. I was always a much
more person of strategy, of generation, of business, much more to see
how one could go to impact society in different ways. Nothing very clear.
No. My father told me to do what you like to do the most,
but whenever you do, make sure you impact positively, even if it
' s a person who will later be a multiplier effect. With a very
enterprising mother, when the word" entrepreneur" did not exist the reality that
in life led me to choose a business career, i e, I am
a graduate in administration, a career that I left very quickly for a period.
Let' s just say, I made an impaz because I got married
and had three children very quickly at the age of twenty- four. I
already had three kids that take a year each, so when they were a
little bit older, I resumed my career and got very quickly, and that
started all my professional development, so I went from working at py Mes,
like the case of an economics and business magazine, which for me was basically
a master' s degree the best- known and leading magazines at the time,
in the 1990s than in Mercado magazine. There I understood very well what
the business world was, the pH B basically and the truth that MiguelÁngel
Díaz, who was my mentor, let me do everything so that I can
deploy myself. And there, well, I understood the wonderful conjunction between technology
and communication. How one could do a lot of things from that. So,
well, that was a great experience, because I had a ct that
I was asking for certain things about the subscribers database to make personalized communications and
Marta told me, everything you think with your head can be done with a
system. So, it' s all about silver and time, so to
me he opened my head in that world. So I said ah this has
no limits. Communication and technology together can generate a lot of projects and lots
of advantages in the business world. Then I moved in my forties, moved
to an international company, to Macaneerrickson, to the interparliamentary group. It makes
all the digital and technological transformation of the group for Latin America. I was
the regional director for ten years. I worked there. I continued with the
bhubí world with great brands, transforming their communication into truly digital and technologically based.
And well, like every ten years, I do something new Fifty-
year- old grabbed me, just as the attack said a new thing.
I realized that in the corporation it added less and less value and less impact
both on the internal team level and on the outside. He had a company
there in Argentina, he had 250 people and then he was responsible for the
rest of Mexico, Brazil, and so on, all the Latin American countries.
I said I am far from seeing the impact that I can generate with
my intervention. So that' s where I decided to get together. I
was invited by one of my current partners to make our own Performance- oriented
Digital Marketing Agency. So we started with a really crazy project, which was
that we wanted to charge for results for fixed fees and the brands didn'
t say look at me. If it' s okay with you, I
' ll hire you again. If it goes wrong, we fire them,
but I pay more because it goes well, no, which we realized that
that market did not understand very well this thing about being a business partner of
the other, but the startups understood it. Then we began to make a
sort of angel investment and incubation within the same company. Today it would be
called CORP for the BC or something, but at that time it wasn'
t called that. The entrepreneurs came looking for us, because well, we
were making some investments angels with bisocio, Ariella Rieta. And the reality is,
they also needed to test the business model on the online channel to see
who wanted it. Let' s say download an application, use a software
and we were experts in the coacho markets in digital form. So we started
doing a sort of shift of services by equity and after investing in five or
six and seven startup of that modeling where we realized we were doing everything wrong.
So in the year two thousand and ten we decided to spin off.
The agency continued to work with one of the partners at the time, the
creative director, who was also a partner and Ariel and I moved to make
NXTP, which at that time was called in x Tippy Labs, which is,
as you knew us, that was a kind of laboratory where it aimed
to become the cominator or Textal of Latin America from Buenos Aires for the rest
of the region. We were born thinking about what we could, from Buenos
Aires, with so much successful entrepreneur, both role model, inspire and manage
to encompass the whole region through this combination of investment plus accompaniment, through these
acceleration programs. So up there it was like it was all new Firstle Manager
to me. I can tell you how we put it together, but the
reality is that I didn' t realize that I had really gotten to the
place I wanted in meeting my goals, when I had a portfolio like the
one we have, which is a great portfolio where there are concrete metrics and
we really saw that we basically have. With investments in Arly Sage, we
managed to generate more than eight million jobs directly within the region, more than
millions of jobs directly across the region as well. Inclusion of women in the
workforce, financial inclusion, labour inclusion in education, health, so I said
WOW. This was what I was looking for through venture capital investments, little
capital and much accompaniment. I can be fortunate enough to fulfill my purpose,
which was to positively impact society. So, good of that story we started
with Ariel from the agency. Then we incorporated Gonzalo Costa, who basically joined
our fund go We have recently incorporated two new partners into this third fund WOW.
That' s interesting. I knew, well, I had told him
about you, but I didn' t know that you came from the marketing
area that worked for unbalanced agencies and then enjoyed the transfer changes, from digital
transforcing companies around the world of deventuring copo, when you were dexi liap start
investing with service and technology for early stage startups and you end up, like
many companies of that kind, saying we' re going to invest in larger
amounts of capital and what you do the Venture Capital Wow Fund. The truth
is, I' m very happy to have someone from your calibration here,
because I know what you' ve been through. We' ve been through
something similar, not to level logically, but I love to hear that as
from something very, very very born, very from the beginning you leave.
Realizing the importance of a Mars Cross in which he was a fantastic entrepreneur.
I' d like to keep asking you, because I have a lot of
questions today. Yes it is on my list of wische list Above all,
what we wanted to ask as much dear was as John, but since it
says the whole introduction where you came from. I would like to understand now,
as nettypy Ventures, what is the full goal of this fund, as
I saw that you like entrepreneurship where it goes to what is the total goal
of this investment fund. Yeah, we look like a lie to me,
' cause the years run so fast. We became First Side Managers in the
year two thousand eleven. Well two thousand thirteen is the first wave acceleration fund
two thousand thirteen, in which we were agnostic. I mean, the ecosystem
was very mature. Then you couldn' t make me say I' m
going to invest only in the vertical of b B as we do now,
or in saw Tech or N Dute, etcetera, etcetera, but you had
to see the whole panorama that was in Latin America, because I repeat again
it was extremely immature. Nobody understood very well what we were doing, so
that led us to invest in one hundred and ninety- seven startups, of
which today we have five unicorns, a fund that has given a very good
return in the second fund. I' m already answering your question. Not
because, I mean, we started being agnostic, little amount in many companies.
We passed a second fund in which the two thousand eighteen the ecosystem much
more mature, more entrepreneurial, c contan founders, which in the first fund
we did not have to counterfense practically more people accustomed to working in startups that
had been successful or not in the previous years, more sophisticated funds that had
come to the region, those that we call explorers like a softban that faith
made so much noise, let' s say and came to this ecosystem to
think differently. Some think it was positive, another was negative. For me
it was a fact and somehow transformed the ecosystem at that time, as well
as many local and regional funds. That' s where we decided to change
our investment thesis. We went on to call ourselves Next Piventure, where we
said good. Looking at the portfolio of our first fund, we saw that
the companies that had the most success, that is to say, the ones
that disappeared the least number of ray tov were, vtobs were more sustainable and
viable businesses over time. VITUS required too much capital in the beginning and well,
it burns a lot of capital and if I don' t get next
rounds, it' s hard to sustain. On the other hand, we
looked at the market of all companies, of all sizes that the technological transformation
did not arrive, it was very complex for them to do it internally and
that, well, in short, they would have to do it from the
new entrepreneurs that developed technology thinking about the consumer, not what they did,
but what the consumer needs. Then the big corporations were going to be the
big suppliers in cool video a business. They were also going to be consumers,
customers of these companies or the short preventiore capital that were going to appear
could be their next investments. So we decided to focus specifically on making a
venture capital play Danilla fund invest between$ 500, 000 and$ 2 million
in the first ticket, twenty- two companies in the portfolio and I repeat
you well focused in that segment, in that sector of vto B softwares of
being VIS we like very much, but among the subdomains is logistic Fintheck,
Marketplacis, Vutube, Intelligence, Artificial cyberscqui. But I' d tell you
we' re already an investment firm today. We graduated, as we say,
from the third fund we closed in last year, in the two thousand
twenty- three, which is a much bigger fund. Three times let'
s say, almost three times the size of the last fund where we are
already in a market that, as many of my colleagues say, go to
The Basic, I mean, we went back to the base those companies that
have evaluations of a hundred million dollars or five hundred million dollars or onebillion dollars
is because the billing is backing it, because let' s say the KP
and that are the ones that we measure to evaluate a certain type of companies.
Really verify that that company has that value and not like before, that
there were evaluations a little out of hand, without much sustenance. So where
this firm is going is basically that' s to increasingly specialized funds and I
think this is a bit of a trend in the sector in general. I
think in the future there are two things that are going to happen and I
would tell you that I could sign it today. The first is that the
funds will increasingly have a greater degree of specialization within each of the sectors,
as well as us. Today we have b B and we have the subdomains
that I told you very likely the next fund the subdomains will be even more
detailed, that is, one two in the United States. In New York
I' ve been seeing some funds that only invest in vto B for Retai.
Obviously you have a range of companies behind that can be human resources,
they can be the CHARTEC may be I don' t know marketplaces and eat
whatever it is, but for retail not that it' s Feasibly, so
I think the future is going towards the specialization of the funds. Or we
already have CLAYMENTEC, bio check Deep Tech. So that' s the future
and the other is basically that the funds that have a diversity in the founding
teams really true, both with gender diversity and other kinds of diversities, cultures,
nationalities, religions, let' s say, sexual issues. There are
so many different types of sexes. I don' t think it goes towards
that space, towards diversity within the founding teams of the funds and towards a
greater degree of specialization in the funds. And, on the other hand,
I want them to have a clear purpose. It will also be easier for
them to raise capital from the funds of wau funds. Interesting, because ten
years ago it was not seen that the funds were so strategic of a single
vertical line of business, they were totally agnostic, that is, they became
all that was high impact. Then they were only split between software technologies,
for example, and then technology and then others. But within those vertical technology
is sub- vertical, whether it' s Heattec, FINTECK, arhtect Tech
and within those other sub- domains, as you also call them in your
portfolio that we' re going to invest in artificial intelligence, that they'
re red, almost in the future, so the trend is going to be
like the medical part. There are specialists even in the little toe of the
left foot. And that speaks well to us, because what the world occupies
is specialization in things, both in startups, in markets and, therefore,
in funds to be able to activate, because an immersion fund, as well
as you do, not only support with capital. It is also networking,
relationships, work, operation, good practices, etcetera. Interesting. Karina,
you, how you see I have some questions that I would like you to
support me, for example, because I have doubts about what strategies they do
to get those investment parts. How do you see if you also help me
by financial rhythm. You know that you can measure companies with respect to finance
and in this case, Marta is only investing in companies that has to measure
with profitable chapels. How do you think we can do that part? Querina,
well, Marta, I shared some project. I have consulted him the
sixths where I am myself invested or projector that I want to know your opinion,
because it is not only the financial point that one asks, but also
the team is very important. So the reality is that, from a financial
point of view, what I see is that Marta doesn' t know if
she' s going to value this opinion. I see that in general there
is a weakness in the financial part of companies when they are setting up a
company that then they have to solve it in some way by setting up equipment
or learning that or plas learning themselves the two choirs at the same time,
because it is a big problem that I see to create a business that many
people almost always forget the number. When they see the number, they realize
that there are a lot of things they could modify. It totally changes them
for all the time I mentor inventor. In that sense, I see it,
I guess they should do the same thing at heart, that is,
they see that problem and they help the entrepreneur get into the number that is
really going to help make decisions and what they are going to lead the project.
And another thing that' s interesting that you' re just listening to
and I' m scoring everything, because every time you region it, not
everything I want to know, everything you see, everything that I was thinking
you' re obviously specializing in and that' s a trend. Let us
take into account from the origin that the BPs were created. This was a
walf street detachment. Then they realized that there were some sectors that were not
funded. So that' s where everybody in DC started lending. That was
evolving and it' s going to evolve more and more. I wanted to
ask Marta if, despite this specialization they have where they also have to help
entrepreneurs achieve their goals, because if they cross the river, you benefit.
As I always say, all the invaders want our inverted ones to cross the
river and we' re going to help them in all this. If within
this specialization you find some team or some project that does not meet those specifications
of the background, but you love and love the pip that they make you.
And say well, I can date Topster, because this project threw him
into my background. This can happen. Marta, what a question, Cariña,
what a question you' re looking at. The reality is that the
more judicious the BICs are if we respect the investment theses. I think it
gives us a potential as major professional managers, that is, we, when
we go out to be fan racing to raise our own funds, we reliably
justify, obviously, with a lot of data, with a lot of research
that we do, and so on. Why we chose that thesis. Basically,
then, beyond what I told them we chose it, because the companies
in our first portfolio were the most sustainable, VTUBs, because SMEs and big
companies needed technological and digital transformation. Also because we specialize more in bh BI,
that is, both the partners and the network, that we put together
behind mentors of investors, that we have of the same enterprises that today are
successful and that collaborate with us much in the part of vieu diligenzo approaching us
entrepreneurships are of the world vtob That was also the reason why we decided to
make strathesis. So, if we, if it comes to us, I
don' t know a company that' s spectacular and that' s doing,
for example, I don' t know a reagent to be able to
detect whether the oncological medication they' re giving to a patient with breast cancer
is making her affect or not. For example, there are many of these
initiatives today. The truth is that for me it is spectacular, that is,
I would like to support it more so that it exists, because we
really need that kind of innovation, but it is not the thesis of my
fund. Then it may be the spectacular team, that what they are doing
has a degree of innovation that takes off from the rest of everyone else who
is taking it forward. I do not know that you have a comparable in
Europe that raised and amount of money and that it could be your success that
you have all the conditions, but it is bio check and of that kind
and unfortunately, we have to pass. In that case you have the chance
to say good. I, as an investor Angel, can make my bet
on this empreno one. Obviously you can ask for authorization within your committee.
In general, when it is outside the thesis, it is not necessary to
say good if it does not invest the fund I invest because it is not
within the thesis. But that' s basically the long short answer. I
don' t know if how, but that answer the truth you have to
make very judicious, but I wanted to make an observation about something Alexander said
when he asked you. We don' t look at companies that are already
profitable. We got into chair at arly stage from presidents. I would like
to say that there are companies that have just the first tests of the model.
I mean, today you don' t have a cape there that can
grab a carina and make a projected background flow, so you can make a
model, because the model is made and functioned to the size of the market.
And that' s how we define if that company is solving a very
big market problem that, if it takes a portion of that market, can
become a dollar bileon company. I mean, we do a model to see
if we' re going to invest or not, but we invest, let
' s say pre redene what I mentioned to you about companies that have to
have an evaluation according to the billing and the capi that are measured. That
' s when we say they' re already in the crowd stage when they
' re in the bsd rounds so in this Epiventures they can reverse the startup
that generates it a sales. Yes, exactly we have invested in a Brazilian
company, of a Brazilian team, of which one of the founders is finishing
the NV And now that it is spectacular, the team is spectacular and the
company also, called TECHI, which is basically an artificial intelligence company for education,
is to save time for teachers and teachers, to put together the exams
and correct them and so that, from the automatic correction with the amount of
artificial intelligence r, the learning routes are prepared by each of the students,
according to the weaker part. No. No, all the students, after
an exam, are going to continue with the same chapter of the book,
so to speak. No, I mean, in the future they' re
going to have the possibility of having twenty people in a classroom and each one
have their own learning path and saves an impressive amount of time for teachers,
which allows them to be trained in new technologies, in other things that are
of added value to continue being good teachers. Not that they had the vision
of the company, the mission, the fact, the MVP p and test
in two schools basically marta. When an investment fund, an investment union,
an angel and a messionist wants or a venture capital copo wants to invest a
startup, it is usually evaluated fifty percent. The decision to invest is on
the emperor or founder. Then thirty percent is on the work team. Eighty
percent. I mean we invest in the humans who are behind that idea of
business project star your what it is that most evaluates in this piventures in the
human part, say how you tell that entrepreneur once you say in traverti that
business. Yeah, there' s negociation. There are ventures that are fantastic.
What they are looking for are fantastic, but the entrepreneurial team see that
it is not robust enough to be able to achieve the goals it seeks and
we also have to let it go. I' m going to tell you
a very small story. I once met Winet that having that was a very
sophisticated investor. He worked in very large Tolar billion funds, partner in companies
of Grod, previous celery and came to give a workshop to the entrepreneurs of
our network and at a certain moment, asked him what investors were looking at
in the stages let' s say very advanced, not stages of Grob.
Just foresee in some way and she asks me to look up and tells me
Marta, you think you looked at me at that moment I had two or
three years of being in this world and I said good for Grod and you
already look at it finan already the returns of the crazy projected cash flow.
What do you look at, I mean people, people the team, I
mean, the team still has. It is not the same proportion, but
throughout the life of the company a very great relevance in terms of the definition
of investing. What we look at on the team. Well, it was
changing over time somehow. As I told you before, we never had to
tell me managers. Then there was much more to be looked at than to
say what the story of life was, where they came from, what universities
they had come from, whether they had had experiences, whether they had lived
abroad or not. I don' t even know if they had participated as
leaders in a football team or in a church or was Boy Scouts. Not
this thing of thinking about team building, how to attract people, how to
motivate them. Not all that kind of stuff. Since the years have passed,
you start to have other kinds of things that well, there you contain
of teati ame founders, people who really come with shared experiences and the team
is very complementary. In other words, they are not all technological or all
commercial, but there is an important complementarity. I have a saying that is
if in a team two do the same and one that is left over and
there is also one that is missing. So this thing of complementarity. There
are teams that, i e startup, are technologically based and have no technology
in the equipment. I' m not saying that we have a super programmer
and that that' s someone who' s already past the stage of sitting
down programming, but at the very beginning he has to know how to evaluate
programmer, that is, assemble the team, look for resources, etcetera.
What leadership skills each has and if those abilities are respected, not because many,
that is, in all teams, there is always one that emerges,
there is not always one that ends up being the o. How much respect
there is for that partner who' s going to take this ugliness function.
How clear they have in their vision what they are pursuing, how much they
know about the market. And one very important thing is what ability they have
to transmit that vision to all audiences, to which they have to reach and
when I say this is to investors, what ability they will have to go
out to be fan racing after we intersect them, what ability they will have
to attract people to their teams at times where there is no money, where
I have to attract them with the dream, I have to inspire them and
motivate them with the dream that we will build something along with the press,
with the suppliers. I mean, this question of sometimes the word communication or
marketing. It is as good as it comes from that area and the reality
that the ability to transmit through language is fundamental for everything, for everything,
for racing, is fundamental for again, I repeat, to bring people to
your team, to give directives, to become a leader, etcetera, etcetera.
Not then, well, all that stuff is the things that we look
at a lot and again that' s done from when you see Linkedin what
his experiences are. But then a lot of work is done on the stage
of viaudiligence, seeing a little bit of the whole environment of these people who
make up this team. If you want tedo and some example to make it
better understood. If we don' t go to the next question, well,
we saw an entrepreneur who was developing, a very spectacular venture. It
was kind of a sort of consultation to define the scorrong of an individual or
a company. I checked in form, let' s say, parallel to
different databases and in terms of less than five minutes I could give you the
scoring. That is, if the person or the company was buying on the
Internet, in a marketplays to be or in a parkeplay or yours or in
uni Commerce in less than five minutes, it would link to that platform and
give you the scoring to see if you could give him credit. Already an
instant thing, almost not spectacular, a lot of experience, excellent, the
found of the original, because then joined other partners at technological level, that
is, there was no doubt that I would be able to carry it forward.
We did all the checks, all, all, all perfect, perfect,
until I said well you know what I' m going to talk to
the startup that worked before as a place to tell me how it went with
this world that we have with Kary, that we have contact with as far
as the entrepreneur comes to you and entrepreneur, I talked to the entrepreneur and
basically nothing. We made a cabbage to see what this person looked like and
it was spectacular. It was really all the checks were perfect until I asked
him the last question that was and in terms of leadership ability, but he
tells me yes spectacular. It attracted people perfectly, i e, it set
up teams without incredibles, all barbarians and worked very well at its core of
the technology area. The truth was true of the times. Everything is different
from the one thing, but it was related to the leader Ship Team.
Oh, no, he' s not being brought into the world by finance,
human resources or strategy. Leave it to him with that which makes it
perfect and I said good, or this gentleman has to build a company,
not an area of technology. So good is like very subtle everything. No,
we can' t be wrong, too, eye. We can also
miss leaving, passing and saying wow, looking at how it developed and looking
how well it did and so on, but let' s say I did
it very summarized. We' ll check other things later. But the reality
that was like this wasn' t. It has to have a very high
ability to see the whole field, not just the area, that of marking
the return on investment path that we all use invested and has to talk to
the personality. It' s very important. I have lived it personally and
I live it with other entrepreneurs how they speak and how they express themselves.
It seems very basic not to look at how they move their hands and how
many words they put per minute, because it is not the same to listen
to an entrepreneur who speaks to everything like that not yes and one who gives
passion. But besides, in any area where you find it, you'
re going to find that this person is active is going forward. So it
looks like a pavada tares a matter of personality and arrival a lot of other
details that have to do with that. But of course, in this case,
that entrepreneur was very good at what he was doing. He had a
super good idea, but he was very structured to lead a company and this
is noticed in the way you say marta, in communication he super realizes the
strength that he has to carry forward more all the references that, obviously one
can search in the market, because there is and I hurt directly to the
profit, to the performance of the company, to the rer review, as
I say to him, and everything else, because from there, that person,
with that activity that has mental that is reflected in the body will be
able to analyze obviously that it can be wrong and obviously, as I said
before, there are a lot of entrepreneurs that they lack background of finances and
if they would need to incorporate someone in the team or to learn or to
be on the numbers. But whatever you see clearly and Martha, who gave
her millions of returns, must have seen when you see a personality that is,
that has capacity, leadership is clear if it is not in the body,
in the face the eyes in everything, yes. I say it'
s a feature. The entrepreneur of all those we saw and those who are
more successful than you are taking out patterns is not basically have a degree of
determination that they will do it, that is to say they determine that they
will do it and that they will do it right? And what' s
more, many times it' s not necessarily going to be the same as
what they' re going to end up doing, but you already realize that
whatever they do they' re going to do right. That I wanted to
ask you also makes Rato Marta, because, as a background and when you
comment that you can invest in stages that one generates sales startups, there is
a lot of risk because a city startups that is a company that are created,
that one counts as a business, that is to say, it is
looking forward, it is pivoting and learning where then, during your investment,
the startup in which to enter with you can pivot twenty thousand times can come
selling cardboard boxes and ay that goes selling coffee, coffee and four. I
don' t know then how you adapt to these issues. I mean,
the risk is too great. How you make it possible for this to happen
in your background and to really be profitable for you. To see in general,
the type of enterprises and equipment in which we undertake, has a clear
idea of what they want to do, what is the market in which they
are acting, that is, they are including through the platform the solution they
are developing. They have an initial idea. I' d tell you what
the boat hon market is, that is, how to reach those customers.
Even if they' ve done the first tests, I' ll repeat you
again. We do our own analysis behind that market size. How much you
can take from that market and if you take a portion, how much will
be the billing in x amount of years you are developing in the middle.
Obviously, different things can happen. One may be that the market drastically changes
conditions and for some reason I do not see it as complex today. That
as it was in our bottom one. We, in our background one,
had companies that used Google to make beaving, let' s say for ads
and so on, and one day Google said this doesn' t do it
anymore. You do it we' re done and well, in many cases
the business is over. Other issues let' s say more political. How
was the case with blues Mark. We invest in Bluesmark with Dieguito, which
is a locomotive that has its third company. We invested in his first company
and sold himself as and when he re- started, we decided to invest
in the smart bag And well, there was a political issue there of the
airlines and the ballistics, of a brand that I don' t want to
name, that didn' t suit him and so on, not good and
ended up being a Ratov. But all of a sudden you have others who
don' t actually start out one way they still supply or solve the same
problem. But a new technology appears that makes them need to redefine the base
product, the base platform. With the new technology. So, well,
there we investors are to help you, either by the network of experts,
or by helping them incorporate human resources that have skills to use that new technology.
Or helping them pick up a round with the storytelling of how well they
did so far, but that they have to do a re- alignment of
the platform. Then you need to pick up a round to work on the
product and continue transforming those customers the initial version with the new perfect one.
But then you have others who have such a long- term vision that she
already knows what they' re going to do. But when they tell you,
they tell you their first part of the project, a first part that
is interesting, that is attractive, that has a lot of impact. Blah,
blah, blah, but he' s already very clear on what steps
they' re going to take. And you see that when you analyze the
founding team and in this case I' m talking specifically about Betterfly, when
I raised the magiora came to see NXTP who introduced me Davidlvo who today is
you know him very well. Kari' s impact BC was an entrepreneur who
invested in his first company. It' s good, it didn' t
go super well, but the reality, which was very good entrepreneur became manager
of the country of nexhibí in Chile and from there it went that I very
much regretted that it left from on display. But he told me I'
m going to bring you an impact project that you won' t hesitate and
you' re going to invest. And I brought it to Eduardo the magiora
with at that time burn h Gip. So, Eduardo la Magiara started building
a community, started putting together the market, the community of a number of
thousands and hundreds of thousands of people that through lowering the goal of bubbling the
brina of the world donating the calories that he burned doing a sport, donating
them to a cause and those calories I buy them a brand, well,
what a boring business, a lot of impact, but here boring Every time
you have to go to the sponsor and ask him to buy you but the
reality that was just looking at it and saying I already know where I want
to get you are going to end up being or a company of web ables,
not that is everything related to the sport. Or you' re gonna
sell your own brand of sport- related stuff. Or you' re gonna
do this about Blockchaine' s chain and you' re gonna have the point
bartubes that are going to market. Or you' re going to turn into
a finteck because you already have the community and you' re going to fund
that sports community. Or tomorrow at an ashur Teck. There wasn' t
like a lot of possibilities, but at the time neither of us talked about
it that way, I mean, we mentioned the issue of what the derivatives
were. You can have me a community and well, today it' s
the first social unicorn, a high impact company and it' s a safe
insur teck, life insurance, plus all the rest that didn' t abandon
it, not the whole part of Wellnest, the whole community let' s
say and everything about the calorie part and more that it' s still,
so it was cross- crossed to get to today. And today it is
a brand bea to Be Softwares Starmys company of profit platform for companies, because
what it wants to achieve is to turn companies that use Metanfly into the best
place to work best play to work is very interesting, because what you comment
on I also lived it directly with startups. First, we didn' t
focus on creating incubation programs for startups and looking for sponsors, whether from government
or companies, who would share the events, because the entrepreneur, logically,
can' t pay you a program. However, it is very very complicated
and government change in Mexico was very complicated. So we migrate the theme of
copor eventuring. We realized the importance of wanting to work with companies that wanted
to tech or become digital and we created interapenership programs, which was also more
complicated, because the internal employee was very complicated, that brought an idea,
a concept. So we went back to iterating again and it was that we
made community with Stark for many years to projects that we bring from a certain
vertical, for example, from cement plants, because we look for this sponsor,
which is a company that wants to be venture capital or, but in
corporat and venturing or internal innovation, but pussy an external emperor. Then give
and moustache It is very interesting and the truth is that we have also lived,
like you in your case, with both the background and with your entrepreneurs.
This business and innovation, because our Mecca business, I think it'
s innovating in some way cul is the job and the one that won'
t pay the duck That' s the complicated part of this project. It
' s in innovation. However, no one takes away the fun. Hey,
Marta huck and here' s something interesting, because let' s just
say I wouldn' t want to premiere so much on the projects you'
re running. However, I am very excited to know that there are projects
that you are supporting as your main area in the business part and it is
many years old, both in marketing and in the business stage. This fund
is now being carried out by startup projects that in some way help traditional prectis
of more than thirty fifty years in the market to digitize, to signify,
to evolve to the innovation part, if not even back, there is a
latent market. There I have a doubt, for example, how you do
to really convince companies that they have to innovate. I document you, because
I am in the industry and there is so much ego in the business part
that many of them say it' s not that I have done it for
fifty years. I' ve done well and you explain to him that there
' s something called singularity, that this is going to change. Look what
' s going on. Right now, they say it' s not gonna
happen. You pruned this on the road, too, well. We made
as several transitions between bottom two, bottom one and two we had an area
that worked very closely with the companies evangelizing. We were one of the first
to start putting together this kind of corbort venture capital project, that is,
taking the examples from Israel, from Spain. There were many things they were
doing in other latitudes. The reality is that, to see, several things
happen on one side. Today the entire ecosystem collaborates to evangelize these companies.
Before we were very little, then they counted much more. On the other
hand, let' s say the issue that SMEs are more permeable to incorporating
innovation taking on those service softwares. Not for that reason the fren wallets keys,
the CFO does service through platforms like from or the treasury, through an
application that they have to develop with a pristine usability, because they are not
sophisticated. It' s the little companies. You don' t have a
sophistication to understand or pay for an acturisticated software. They are things of lower
level, of lower value, rather in monetary terms, but they have been
very sweaty. SMEs begin to accelerate the adoption of new platforms and technologies.
So much more than corporations and it turns out that they are beginning to find
themselves, let' s say WOW, in this bid. They won because
I don' t even know they could use a procurement platform that we don
' t have. Not then I say it' s like the whole ecosystem
is more solistic, on the one hand, it' s the startups that
put pressure on innovation, on the other hand, the SMEs, which are
more sponges to adapt innovation and, on the other hand, the same human
resources. I don' t like to say human resources the same professionals or
people who work in companies. Already the new generations come with this thing that
we don' t have to develop all zero. If we already have a
lot of things that we can integrate, then I think that' s all
a set. It is giving this where startups and companies of all sizes start
to work together and to create many times together the realities that I have many
years ago I have a presentation that said I have two alternatives. One saying
they don' t exist. Nothing' s gonna happen. They' re
not gonna do anything to me or fight me say what they do is useless.
Well, it' s best to collaborate, and that' s what
we' ve been working on all this time. Because we have little time
left. I don' t want to stop going that we left this marta
podcast that tells how you helped women in all this ecosystem, that it was
a little good to have to remove them from women, to have created the
group of entrepreneurs in which I also participate, tell us a little bit.
How you' re gonna help all the women in this world that' s
so hard for us. Well, and I' m gonna line it up
with your financial side, Kary, because we can' t leave this podcast
without talking about finance. One of the first reactions that I had when I
entered the world of Banture Capital was a lot of people asking me and looking
at me, but you where you came from, because you have a master
' s degree in finance or something like that. Not in this world of
venture capital and in the world of entrepreneurs. Not even in the world of
venture capital do I need us all to be financial and know how to put
together an exel. Even in the world of technology- based enterprises we don
' t need to know the OK program I mean, I' ve been
an entrepreneur there in my time, in the year ninety- three and six,
universal medical histories and there' s still no such thing as how early
I did it. I got the Leading Story. Then I didn' t
get any more money. That' s why you can' t take him
forward. And the reality is that one has to understand what technology can do
for the project that we want to carry and has to know, to understand
the financial capi and to know to ask whoever the expert is. I thought
external internal, whatever, what things I need, or that if you give
them information, understand each of the lines that you are presenting to you in
a pedestrian, in a projected case, in a company evaluation or whatever.
I can' t do this. I don' t look at him,
I don' t have to be a finance specialist, and I don'
t have to say no. This is a matter of cary. I don
' t look at it, I don' t have to, and above
all, women have to know how to handle numbers, I mean, it
' s not the more or less. And here you come because it says
entrepreneur from Latin America and the Caribbean in the Community, because an entrepreneur still
asks her, tell me how much money you have in cash, what is
your rankway and more or less I confirm it, because now I don'
t remember. Not then, good. For ten years we created participated with
Beatlab. Susana Garcia Roles. At this time I was like in the investment
part and had as obsessions, like me, to strengthen the role of high
- impact women entrepreneurs, who are women entrepreneurs with a technological base, because
they are the ones that can be transformed into global enterprises. The reality is
that a platform called WII Exchange was organized, which was the first Latin American
forum where women were the only ones who could go pitching. They had mentoring
coaching mentoring sessions, spree dating we created at that time on a huge platform.
But the reality that after that first WII Shai we said well, this
has to be transformed into a community, has to go beyond the forum of
each year, and there appears entrepreneurs lats. The goal was basically to show
roll models of women who had been able to create their families the way they
wanted to create them. That it is not or I create the family or
I do an undertaking, but that you can do the two things that can
make big, regional or global learnings through, as we said, technological platforms
and basically we start being not a group of twenty, thirty entrepreneurs and today
are, I don' t know three hundred and four hundred that interact all
the time in the Whatsapp group. But the reality that what we give them
is a support. Let' s just say it helps them ask things that
don' t encourage them to ask when the boys are in front. But
that is a problem of ours, not of men, or of women,
not of men. Where we tell you this is not a girls' club
against the boys, but quite the opposite. We need to make teams with
gender diversity where we give them workshop, legal issues, development of personal branding,
companies, evaluations, financial issues. From this goa to mark countless things
that are happening and in turn we bring opportunities to them, whether it be
calls for acceleration programs, calls for financing and so on. And despite ten
years of doing all that and today having a much more robust entrepreneurial community than
in the past, even women still receive less capital than their men on the
same estates, not just two percent of the total capital poured out. Envencho,
the capital is destined to enterprises led by women. So at that time
it was when with Susana García Roles we decided that the big issue is that
we needed to have more women investors evaluating projects at the time a startup came,
not only that they were male investors, we had learned through a teacher
named Danacanma, who did an investigation. She is a professor at Columbia University
who did the analysis of about two hundred and fifty or hundreds twenty pitch men
and women and found that male investors ask male entrepreneurs promotional questions and women ask
prevention questions. How that translates into men being asked when you lift the round
how long it will take you to regionalize the company in more than two countries.
And there the boy says in three months. I' ve got it
figured out. It' s all perfect and, besides, it can possibly
open four, because I' m actually gonna be billing here. I have
a partner there. Here I put divine and the woman is asked if you
don' t raise the round, how you' re going to keep going.
If you have two months of Rangway, then let' s say it
' s quite different. The question conditions a lot where, on the one
hand, we strengthen the woman to face that question, but on the other
hand, otherwise it is to have women on the other side of the table
where we ask the questions in the same way that they are asked to men,
or many times asking directly to the woman entrepreneur, because when the team
is a man and a woman, men and a woman in general, it
is rare that there are three women and a man in general majority men and
a woman. Perhaps the woman won' t open her mouth during the whole
meeting that entrepreneurs always talk about, the men, then on the other side,
if there' s the sensitivity of a woman that we know that happens
to us there we go to the direct question to the woman so that she
can expose and that when we ask her the question, we see the passion
and the thrust that puts her and how she knows what she' s talking
about. And the vision is totally different. So good. Today WINBSS has
three hundred women working in the world of investment, two hundred and seventy funds
represented from more than 26 countries between Latin America, the United States and Europe.
Equality, total equity. They asked me that question today, Marta.
Today I was asked in another podcast, in an English podcast of The Foros
Grosse. It was actually that they' re all Steef Ows from the UK
and asked me the hof asked me how I helped an entrepreneur, a woman
to chop in front of men and I told him talking like a man and
asking for money just like a man, because generally we are all amateur,
we continue little, we are ashamed to go to ask for money. We
must not ask for what is needed, we must stop, we must not
fight with men, we must consolidate everything and also use them in our favor,
as I say, to present ourselves forcefully, energetically, with some speeches
more similar to them so that they understand us better. Sometimes you have to
do that, you have to mix it up that way, because many times
women opt for each other, we are afraid of the questions they ask us.
It is true that they lead us on a different path. The disos
we want to present in that picheo and the reality is that most of the
time ends in that women cost us a lot more time to pool the money.
It is necessary for our project to advance, and there are many who
are falling down the road because they are singing. It' s like exhausting,
but the reality is that that one today asked me that and says look
at the women that I' ve tried to help so that they can go
up capital and make them a little bit of the good speech and how you
' re going to present yourself to Livros, because if he introduces you as
we usually introduce ourselves, it' s very difficult to get you down to
imbartir. You have to have today for tomorrow that you' re evolving.
This and we don' t have to kind of disguise ourselves in that sense.
But today this happens and the reality that I see good results when they
go that way, when they go a little bit like good and I am
a woman and the questions that they ask me and I find it difficult to
answer it or they are taking me to a place where I don' t
want to go how I return here. That is, all these strategies have
to be practiced, tell the total dream, because the issue is that investors
invest to have returns, as you say, generate impact, but have returns,
because so we can have another fund to be able to continue investing.
It' s a question. Let' s say long- term sustainability.
Long- term viability and sustainability. Not then do women have we just see
to say that we' re going to do what, that we' re
ninety- eight point, nine percent sure that we' re going to be
able to meet it. So the reality is that that' s very true,
because you have an idea, you' re looking at a market,
you' re developing a project, and a lot of good things can happen
and a lot of things that can slow down the project a little bit.
But if I have in my head that I want to do something very big
that really means impacting hundreds of thousands of people and that' s going to
bring me a bill that, deep down, will allow you to have an
acceptable return, then, that' s where I say wow. This woman
is, she' s thinking big and has the ability to take it forward
for her and the team she formed. That is also the difference between empowerment
and providing security for women. I like this second one better, which is
how to generate security by giving also equity, the way of being that they
learn to ask to do so and because we are summus equal circumstances. But
yes, we must always give ourselves the equity to be in that same balance
of both people, both men and women. Of course, Marta, I
' m sure that in this podcast you' re listening to us watching emperors
they' re going to want contacts in one way or another to invest your
pich dec to greet you, to contact you in a way they can look
for you, contact you at social torses or a contact point. Okay.
The truth is that I' m one of the ones who try to answer
absolutely everything is costing me more and more. I' m telling you honestly,
and I don' t want to put artificial intelligence tools into answering messages.
This is the reality and I always do it completely personalized. This so
well, yes in general by Linkedin is like the easiest thing, because well
I get the message live and consult it, because if I enter the box
of mails out there I take much longer, because really among all the companies
of the portfolio, plus the internal issues of the company and so on,
it is like they are getting very down. From there it is really where
if the project is within our investment thesis. That' s where I'
m asking you to send it to me by e- mail and I'
m sending you the e- mail to send it to me and get into
the CRRM so we can follow up with the rest of the analysts. But
what I do ask and this space suits me very well. Thank you for
the question. It' s two things. The first is a lot of
writing and I' m told I' d like to have a meeting with
you. They don' t tell me too much for what or how,
but the reality that it' s impossible to take all the meetings maximum when
I don' t know very well for what. Many times I want you
to give me the opinion about my fith deck and the truth that, unfortunately,
I would love to be able to do it with everything that comes to
me, but it is impossible for me. I can' t do it
unless they realize they' re deep inside my investment thesis. So, those
who want to send the pitch deck and start analyzing them first visit our site
at XCP BICI, which is very clear. What is our investment thesis,
at what time to present at XCTP, what are the places where they can
enter so that they can be cared for, because, obviously, there are
offices in Mexico, there are responsibilities in Mexico, in Brazil, because those
routes are also super and they see it on the webside. In which country
are each of the members who appear with the photo. Then it' s
easier. So let' s say that would be the way and for those
who are very enchanted entrepreneurs to apply entrepreneurs to LAC if they go on the
web, to undertake to apr there is an application form and they are part
of the community and they can start interacting with the entrepreneurs and with all the
investors that we are part of that we are behind the platform and, in
the event that there are investors who are listening to them and when I say
investors they can be from junior analysts to fund GPS who want to apply to
our community of women investors, where we also strengthen the role of women investors
and we have mentoring programs and others that can apply to wim BSS, the
TAMTOR and also form part of the community. And so we complete the ching
and shan of the ecosystem in return and investment with fantastic gender diversity. So,
Mars, thank you so much for your participation, thank you for adding
value to this episode today. I' m sure a lot of people who
listen to us are watching us are going to be delighted with your talk today
and they' re going to want to contact you. You know, don
' t send a cold e- mail. Better send directly by linking more
information about who you are your project or before you see the page, from
the Next p BC website to give you an idea of how you can connect
it. It' s actually that today, the digital part is so much
information that suddenly you have to stop seeing or not seeing all the emails or
not seeing all the messages and just seeing those that you think will contact you.
Marta, thank you very much, Marta Cruz from Next p Venture here.
I thank you for your time, your focus and, above all,
I thank you for your good coffee talk that you just gave us today and
we hope to see you in a next episode. Thank you very much,
Marta, thank you, until the next carina. Thank you, thank you,
thank you, and in programs that listen to us entrepreneurs, starters and
mesonists, thank you for being here. She was Marta Cruz, as we
always promise to pray courageously with our great guests. I hope you liked it
and we will see the next episode of startups that offi Tolks to the eye
and see you soon. Thank you. Thank you for joining us in one
more episode of Starkkups, g P and Tolks TE. We hope in our
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