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My guest today is none other than Alfonso (Poncho) De los Rios, CEO/Co-Founder of Nowports, the biggest digital freight forwarder in LatAm, that combines logistics with financial and technological tools to ship cargo around the world.
Founded in 2018, Nowports is not only a Latin American company but is quickly becoming a global powerhouse. Nowports has also raised almost $250 million in equity from SoftBank, Tiger Global, Foundation Capital, Monashees, Soma Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, Mouro Capital, Tencent, YC, and more.
In this episode, we discuss:
Poncho’s background, why he’s an entrepreneur at heart, and how his family played a big role in shaping and encouraging his adventurous nature
“If I think about when I was younger, I started coding at the age of 11. Right? So I consider myself a builder. I tried to just be building all the time. Programming computer apps, mobile apps, etc. And the first memory I have about building something, it was just a modification of a video game that was Minecraft at that time.”
How the decision to drop out of university during his first semester led him to Silicon Valley and to eventually cross paths with Max Casal, now his Nowports Co-Founder
"In Latin America, sometimes we don't want to face failure. But I, I'm a strong believer that the only way you can succeed, it's actually by failing a lot of times before."
Building company culture and the importance of surrounding yourself with people who are smarter and more experienced than you are to actually execute your vision
“You need to have a really good vision and build a great leadership team that can actually execute that vision. And that became our specialty… drawing the vision, knowing what defines us as a company and how we can bring more value to our customers, and just having experts around us.”
Why bold, unpopular, and fast decisions are what drives startup growth and some examples that have been consequential at Nowports…
“When you make unpopular decisions, you face the risk of just hearing from someone ‘I told you so’, and that's 100% true and it’s part of the Nowports way. We make some mistakes, but if we try to move as fast as possible and learn faster, we can execute better tomorrow, right?”
Poncho’s vision to build a global company, instead of a local or regional firm… and a lot more!
“If your goal is to build a global company, you need to start by having a global team. And a composition of people that it's not only from different countries or regions, but from different industries, contexts, genders, etc. So basically, you need to have a diversified team in every kind of way.”
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Alfonso De los Rios, CEO of Nowports - The College Dropout That Built a Global Unicorn by Age 23