Olga Maslikhova, host of The J Curve on What Latam Founders Get Wrong About Exits
Welcome to this special solo episode of Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova.Every few months, I take a step back from the interviews to zoom out, connect the dots, and reflect on the themes that emerged from our conversations with Latin America’s most driven founders and sharpest investors.This quarter, the learnings hit hard.From Paulo Passoni’s breakdown of growth-stage capital and the M&A trap, to Roberto Oliveira’s slow-and-steady playbook at Blip, to Guilherme Horn’s vision for conversational commerce and fintech infrastructure on WhatsApp, to André Penha’s disciplined expansion strategy at QuintoAndar—one truth kept resurfacing:In Latin America, the founders who win don’t just ride momentum. They build leverage.Here’s what I cover:• Why M&A caps in LatAm create a hidden trap for venture-backed startups• The SoftBank boom, and what it got right—and wrong—about the region• How control, not capital, gave Blip the upper hand in choosing investors• Why the next wave of winners will scale productivity—not headcount• The difference between surviving a downturn and compounding through it• How conversational commerce + AI is reshaping the frontend and backend of business• What Andre Penha’s expansion philosophy can teach us about product sequencing• Why the real fintech opportunity isn’t credit—it’s infrastructure and insight• And why sometimes the boldest thing a founder can do… is walk away and start againThis is your quarterly operator’s memo—full of tactical insight, strategic frameworks, and hard-won lessons from the frontlines of building in Latin America.If you enjoy today’s episode, please rate us on Spotify, subscribe to our newsletter at blog.thejcurve.com, and follow us on YouTube (@thejcurvepodcast) and Instagram (@olgamaslikhova).Let’s get into it.
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32:04
Gustavo Mapeli (Kanastra) on the $300B Market Built on Excel—And the Startup Replacing It
Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve 🎙️This week, I sit down with Gustavo Mapeli, co-founder and CEO of Kanastra — one of the fastest-growing fintech infrastructure companies in Latin America. Gustavo started out building a traditional asset manager focused on private credit and wealth outside of Brazil’s core markets. But after feeling the pain of operating in a fragmented, manual, and outdated system, he made the bold decision to build the infrastructure he wished existed — and Kanastra was born.Today, Kanastra powers over R$13B in assets across 150+ credit and securitization facilities — and has raised capital from top investors like Kaszek and QED.Here’s what we cover:♢ How Brazil became fertile ground for fintech infra – Why regulation, wealth decentralization, and embedded finance created the perfect storm.♢ The contrarian decision to go multi-product from day one – And why Gustavo believes they had no other choice.♢ How Kanastra is winning in a concentrated, low-tech market – Tactics for building trust, reputation, and distribution in a system built on inertia.♢ Hiring and culture in high-performance teams – Why Gustavo believes the best cultures are the most exclusive.♢ Founding with conviction – The story of Gustavo and his co-founder’s 15-year friendship, and how they’ve built what he calls an “unbreakable” partnership.More from us: Subscribe to our weekly newsletter The J Curve Insider, where we go beyond the podcast to break down the most exciting investment & tech trends in LATAM. Sharp. Concise. Real business strategies and market insights you won’t find anywhere else. Delivered straight to your inbox.Follow us on LinkedIn or Instagram
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59:43
Roberto Oliveira (Blip) on Why WhatsApp, Not ChatGPT, Will Own AI Commerce
Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve 🎙️It’s rare to meet a founder who bootstrapped for two decades—then brought Warburg Pincus, SoftBank, and Microsoft onto his cap table. This week, I sat down with Roberto Oliveira, founder of Blip, the company powering billions of conversations across WhatsApp in Latin America. We covered a 25-year founder journey that began with mobile phone booths and evolved into one of Brazil’s most powerful AI platforms.Here’s what we cover:♢ Why websites and apps are being replaced by messaging—and how brands need to adapt now♢ How AI is transforming sales, marketing, and customer service♢ Why Brazil is the perfect lab for the future of business♢ The playbook for taking Blip global, where the biggest opportunities lie, and why the U.S. is lagging behind This one’s about product timing, strategic architecture, and building a truly global company—starting from Belo Horizonte.More from us: Subscribe to our weekly newsletter The J Curve Insider, where we go beyond the podcast to break down the most exciting investment & tech trends in LATAM. Sharp. Concise. Real business strategies and market insights you won’t find anywhere else. Delivered straight to your inbox.Follow us on LinkedIn or Instagram
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1:20:30
Guilherme Horn (Agora, Orama, WhatsApp) on How WhatsApp Took Over Brazil’s Economy—And What’s Next
Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve 🎙️This week, I sit down with Guilherme Horn, one of the most influential figures in LatAm’s fintech and tech landscape. Guilherme has built and exited multiple companies, including Agora (acquired for $500M by Bradesco), which helped transform Brazil’s stock market, and Órama, the country’s first fully cloud-based bank. Now, as WhatsApp’s Head of Strategic Markets, he’s driving a major shift in how businesses, banks, and governments leverage messaging as their primary digital infrastructure.Here’s what we cover:♢ Why WhatsApp is replacing websites and apps – The rise of C-commerce and what it means for businesses.♢ Why Brazil leapfrogged the U.S. in digital adoption – The cultural and structural reasons behind WhatsApp’s dominance.♢ AI in fintech – How automation will redefine credit, payments, and personal finance.♢ How WhatsApp is becoming a financial services hub – and all the surprising ways banks are integrating into chat.♢ What founders must unlearn when they scale – Why the skills that get you to $10M won’t get you to $100M.This episode is for founders navigating tough markets, investors looking for the next breakout tech, and operators rethinking how businesses connect with customers. It is packed with unfiltered insights you won’t hear anywhere else. Let’s get into it. 🚀More from us: Subscribe to our weekly newsletter The J Curve Insider, where we go beyond the podcast to break down the most exciting investment & tech trends in LATAM. Sharp. Concise. Real business strategies and market insights you won’t find anywhere else. Delivered straight to your inbox.Follow us on LinkedIn or Instagram
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1:02:28
Andre Penha (QuintoAndar, IBBX): $5B QuintoAndar Was Just the Start—This Is Bigger.
This week, I sit down with Andre Penha, co-founder of QuintoAndar and CEO of IBBX, for a brutally honest, founder-first conversation on building and scaling in Latin America.Andre built QuintoAndar into a $5B+ real estate giant, raised $750M from top investors, and is now betting on wireless electricity, aiming to make chargers, cables, and batteries obsolete with IBBX.Here’s what we cover:♢ Why product—not storytelling—wins in fundraising and how investors went from doubting QuintoAndar to fighting to get in.♢ How QuintoAndar cracked real estate’s biggest inefficiencies – and why transparency, speed, and reliability were non-negotiable for scale.♢ Scaling culture the hard way – Why Andre enforced a “No Assholes Allowed” rule and fired high performers who didn’t align.♢ How to make high-stakes decisions – The Option A vs. Option B framework Andre used to allocate resources and bet on the right things.♢ Board governance done right – How to turn your board into a growth accelerator, not a time drain.♢ Why wireless power is the next trillion-dollar industry – And how IBBX is betting on the future of energy.If you’re a founder, investor, or just obsessed with how to build game-changing companies, this episode is packed with unfiltered insights you won’t hear anywhere else. Let’s get into it. 🚀
The J Curve, hosted by seasoned investor and Stanford GSB alum Olga Maslikhova, is your front-row seat to Latin America’s tech revolution. Ranked in the top 5% of global videocasts, we bring you unfiltered conversations with the visionaries—entrepreneurs and investors—who are redefining the tech landscape in Brazil and beyond. Tune in bi-weekly for insider stories, hard-earned lessons, and strategies behind some of LATAM’s most groundbreaking tech successes.
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