Mike Packer (QED) on the Post-2021 Reset—and Why AI-Driven Platforms Win
Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova.Last week I got to spend a few days in cidade maravilhosa—Rio de Janeiro—for Web Summit, which this year attracted over 37,000 people. The event was action-packed—both inside the venue and across the city, with an incredible lineup of side events.It was a milestone week for The J Curve. We recorded our very first live episode on stage—a conversation I’ve been wanting to have for a long time, and the one we’re releasing today: a live interview with Mike Packer, partner at QED Investors.QED is the legendary firm founded by Frank Rotman and Nigel Morris—the creators of Capital One and pioneers of data-driven credit long before it became mainstream. They’ve been betting on Latin America for over a decade. Their first investment in the region was Nubank, now the most valuable digital bank in the world.Here’s what we cover:— Why growth capital is the new frontier in LatAm— What makes a founder truly fundable in 2025+— AI’s real impact across QED’s portfolio— What it really takes to IPO from LatAm— The vertical SaaS trap—and the case for vertical AIMore 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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32:38
Marcelo Lutz & Roberto Biselli (Capim) on the $14B Dental Market—and the Credit Wedge That Cracked It
Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve 🎙️This week, I sit down with Marcelo Lutz and Roberto Biselli, the co-founders and co-CEOs of Capim—a vertical SaaS + fintech company that started as an MBA class project and is now doing $10M+ in ARR, serving thousands of dental clinics across Brazil.Their story breaks every rule—and proves that in Latin America’s most fragmented industries, the right wedge isn’t software. It’s credit.Instead of trying to “disrupt” dentistry with a standard SaaS tool, Marcelo and Roberto built a credit product tailor-made for the quirks of Brazilian clinics—and used it to build their way into a much bigger platform play.Here’s what we cover:• How Capim reached $10M+ ARR in 3 years without a traditional SaaS GTM• Supply-side fragmentation as a feature—not a bug—for B2B marketplaces• Understanding distribution in offline markets—without relying on paid ads• What 70,000+ dental procedures taught Capim about underwriting and risk• How to think about product sequencing in complex industriesMore 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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55:42
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
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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