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Today we have a special episode, as we bring you the recording from Latitud’s Vamos Latam Summit in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where I sat down in front of a packed audience of 1,000+ for a conversation with Sergio Fogel, Co-Founder of dLocal and Sergio Furio, Founder/CEO of Creditas – two of Latin America’s largest fintechs.
We discussed:
Providing innovative products and services to consumers vs corporate clients
“Most of the time people think that UX is all about what the customer wants, and obviously that's very important, but it's also just as important to really understand how the mechanics of your product work, what you can do, and what are your levers.” – Sergio Furio
“If you're a founder of a b2b product, chances are your customer knows what they need perfectly well. They probably know about your industry more than you do. But they have issues executing and building their product.” – Sergio Fogel
Wartime or peacetime CEO – is there such a thing as a peacetime CEO in Latin America?
“The first thing is, Ben Horowitz was not born in Sao Paulo, because otherwise he would realize that there's no such a thing as being a peacetime CEO in Latin America - what the hell is that?” – Sergio Furio
“I completely agree with the with Sergio. I don't know what a peacetime CEO is. I don't like it.” – Sergio Fogel
How to deal with challenges like international expansion, currency fluctuations, and even IPOs
“[international expansion] is very hard… But the formula we found is to have something of a hybrid… the hybrid formula of finding locals together with a few people that already have the company culture, works.” Sergio Fogel
What makes fintech in Latin America unique compared to the rest of the world… a lot more!
“If there's something that's very special about Latin America - it's friction. We have friction everywhere… and that's very painful, but friction is where entrepreneurs thrive. At the end of the day, what we are all doing is eliminating friction. So that's why the opportunity is so great.” – Sergio Fogel
“Everyone needs to be focused [in Latin America] in lending as a way of monetizing, and that's where entrepreneurship really makes a difference. It's finding innovative ways of providing affordability to the population. And those opportunities are not as big in Europe or in the US. And that's a big differentiator.” – Sergio Furio
Special thanks to Brian and the entire Latitud team for the invitation!
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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.
Sergio Fogel, dLocal Co-Founder & Sergio Furio, Creditas Founder/CEO - The Fintech Revolution in Brazil, LatAm, and Beyond