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% ...
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. 🚀
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1:34:42
Paulo Passoni (Valor Capital) on IPOs, M&A, and AI’s Impact on Startups in Latam
Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve 🎙️Kicking off this season with a must-listen episode featuring Paulo Passoni, one of the sharpest investors in Latin America. Paulo played a key role in SoftBank’s multi-billion-dollar investment in Latin America’s tech sector, serving on the boards of Quinto Andar, VTEX, and Creditas. Now at Valor Capital, he’s focused on backing and scaling the region’s next generation of high-growth startups.This conversation is a direct, tactical breakdown of what really matters when building and scaling in LatAm. Here’s what we cover:♢ Why M&A is a broken exit strategy for VCs in LatAm – and why startups need to think bigger.♢ The hard truth about IPOs – If you don’t hit $300M+ in revenue, forget about a public listing.♢ Why the “$200M acquisition trap” kills LatAm’s unicorn potential – and what founders should optimize for instead.♢ How SoftBank’s cash wave reshaped the market – and the pricing mistakes that investors (including Paulo) made.♢ The scarcity of growth capital in LatAm – what it means for startups at Series B and beyond.♢ How to spot truly “crazy” founders – and why they are the only ones who build billion-dollar businesses.♢ The game-changing role of AI in scaling startups faster with fewer people.If you’re building or investing in LatAm, this is the playbook you need to hear.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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1:43:39
Olga Maslikhova, host of The J Curve: LATAM’s tech explosion—blockbuster M&As, IPOs, and a pipeline of unicorns
🎙️ No Guests, Just You & Me 🌍
Season 3 of The J Curve is officially wrapped, and I’m here to unpack the journey so far. From doubling our Spotify streams to hitting the top 5% of videocasts globally (what?!), this year has been a wild ride.
In this solo ep, I’m breaking down:
🔥 Why podcasting is THE medium of the future.
🌎 LATAM’s tech explosion—blockbuster M&As, IPOs, and a pipeline of unicorns.
💡 The 10 life-changing lessons I’ve learned from 40+ brilliant founders.
It’s bold. It’s personal. It’s everything you didn’t know you needed. 🎧 Tune in now and let’s close this season on a high note!
If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple.
Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).
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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