The Massive Growth of Startup Communities in LATAM

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Nearshore Cafe podcast. I'm Brian Samson, your host. And if you're interested in the way VCs are scouting Latin America, founder journeys, the bridge between Latin America and the States, this is going to be a really interesting podcast for you. Before we jump into it, I want to thank our sponsor, Plug Technologies, plugg.tech. Great way to connect talent from Latin America to growing U.S. companies. Without further ado, our guest who's an ambassador, a bridge, and everything else in between, Maddie Barbero. Great to have you on the show.

Thank you. Thank you, Brian, for inviting me. And thanks again, Jaime Sotomayor, for the introduction. It's my pleasure to be here.

Noemí, maybe we'll first just start with location. So you're from Argentina and you're living in Miami now?

I mean, it's hard to say. I've been moving back and forth between Latin America and Miami. You know, the first thing that you say, it's correct. I'm originally from Argentina, from a city called Rosario. And for the last couple of years, I've been moving around everywhere. It started as, you know, learning from the different tech ecosystems, uh, Chile, you know, Dubai, obviously Argentina, Colombia, Central America, and then obviously Miami. Um, but now it turns like, um, I also, I'm learning from other startup ecosystems like in Asia too, and you know, it, it keeps expanding. But I adopted that lifestyle of moving around different places, obviously taking advantage of the different events and activities happening in the different ecosystems as well. So it's like a mix of like work and travel and meeting people, everything combined. It's a way of living at this point. It's been like that for the last year. Amazing. Amazing.

Yeah, I think it's inspiring for a lot of people. That's really cool. That was me a long time ago before kids, so I'm living vicariously now.

Everyone actually says the same. It's like, it's like, you know, Mati, you can do it because you don't have any kids, or, you know, I know. So I'm, I guess I'm taking, you know, advantage of that moment. Uh, but yeah, I'm really, really enjoying, um, I, I love meeting new people, so, you know, it's Traveling is, I guess, the right vehicle to learn from new people and obviously their cultures and how they do businesses and stuff.

So as we mentioned at the outset, you know, you've talked a lot about and done investing in Latin America. We'll get into your founder journey a little bit later, but I think let's just start with investing. You're part of Impacta and then also 500 Startups. Can you talk about each of those funds?

Recently I joined Bigma, which is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage fintech companies too.

So, oh, awesome, awesome. So we've got 3 different funds. Can you talk about each of these funds and what each of them are looking for?

500 is looking for early-stage, uh, pre-seed Latin American founders, Latin American companies. They want to invest in 60 different companies all across Latin America. They're agnostic in terms of industry and they want the founders to be Latin American. Impacta, it's similar, but the only thing is like they are investing in companies doing impact or changing the world like for good. And then in PIGMAS, I recently said they are looking to invest in fintech companies. Same thing, 60 companies for the next couple of years, pre-seed stage and Latin America. So 3 things in common there, right? Latin American founders, Latin American companies. That's my passion. That's what, you know, I've been working with a lot of Latinos for the last couple of years and I know there's a lot of potential in our region and I feel like this is a way of me you know, not only giving back by supporting not only again with connections, but financially this journey. And the other thing that these funds have in common, and I pay attention like a lot about this, is the people. The people that work behind all of these venture capital firms are awesome, are great. They've been in the business for the last 8 to 10 years. They found the companies, they fail, They build ecosystems from scratch. So, but they're good people. And when I was, you know, starting my journey in the startup ecosystem, they were very supportive and they were very open to doing things with me. So, you know, that's also a thing that I pay attention. So Latin American and this concept of people, correct?

What does it mean to be a founder in Latin America in 2024, 2025 versus even 5 years ago, pre-COVID, you know, talk about like how, how the world has changed, what it— what does it mean, access to opportunities, investments, talent, you know, what does that look like today?

Well, I mean, I guess things changed a lot. I wasn't the founder by that time, um, I can't speak how it was before COVID because I, I actually started working in, uh, in the startup ecosystem first in a consulting firm that later turned into an accelerator, and I run that too. So my transition was like, you know, I started from my, from my home, like very, very virtually, and then obviously I started moving. I'm in Miami and Latin America. But I guess one of the things that changed a lot is like people, people now are way more used to work remotely, as I was saying, or adopting this kind of working from anywhere and going to the exact place that needs, let's say, needs me to be there, but not me to be there like the full year, you know, 12 months, 100% focused there. And then thanks to this, a lot of Latin American people started to be more and more attracted to, let's say, big companies from the US, right? So the access to talent remotely increased a lot. And I saw a bunch of friends, a bunch of different people like starting to work for companies from abroad thanks to this. So I guess things changed a lot. I can't speak how it was before, but, but while I was transitioning and starting this, I noticed these, these two particular things, if that makes sense.

Yeah. What is it? What does it look like today? Is there, is there more optimism? And, and maybe even, you know, because I, I want to think about the big picture, you know, macro across the continent and the region, but then also take into account, you know, every country is different, every city is different with ecosystem. And maybe you could talk about just general optimism right now and if there are any particular like micro regions or cities that you're especially interested in right now.

I agree with you. We as Latin American, I feel we are fragmented economies, right? Sometimes countries operate by themselves and economies are not very big, which in venture capital firms turns to VCs saying like, hey, that's the total addressable market or the addressable market back there is not big enough. So that's why then companies, these and other things they consider, and then they go to the US market in order, or to bigger economies in order to to get invested or to find better opportunities. But I'm very bullish about our region. I've been seeing not only the money coming from— now that I'm working closely with venture capital firms, I see LPs coming from everywhere, you know, across the globe, even from Europe coming here to invest through these VCs that I was mentioning, or Saudi Arabia that they joined Pigma too. So If those guys, those folks are very, very bullish about what's going on in our region, well, maybe I am too, right? And I met a lot of founders from different countries across Latin America. I feel at this point from all of the countries, but I particularly connected very well and that And I worked a lot with Colombian and Chilean and, and also Argentinians. And as I was saying, I, I feel specifically in these three countries, I, I feel very, very bullish, not only because of the talent, but then also there's, there's an important thing working at the back, the public sector in Argentina. Not right now, not right now, but I expect this to start moving, uh, with the new administration. But in Colombia, in Chile, the public sector and nonprofit organizations, you know, they've been working for the last 10 years in order to have like the good present that I am explaining right now. And that is very important when you have, uh, the public sector working, um, very well connected with the private sector. It's, uh, that's, that's where the magic happens, right? And they do events together, they do organize, they do activities together, demo days. They send entrepreneurs to Miami, to different cities across the US. Again, private and public sector both combined. And that is something that is being demonstrated that is successful. And that's why I'm very bullish about the region.

Are there any patterns that maybe you want to share you're seeing companies focused on markets in Latin America, or are they trying to solve global problems? Is there any particular sector that is, whether it's fintech or something, that's really bringing minds together?

I mean, I guess fintech and the boom of fintech, it was like couple of years ago when the digital banks started, the wallet for crypto started and all of that. Fintech is, I guess it's a very still, it's a very important industry. That's why I invested too in fintech. But, and especially for fragmented economies like us, like cross-border transactions and things like that, it's going to be very important in our region. But when I joined Impacta and I started talking and working a little bit closer with David, the general partner, David Alvo, I started to notice that healthtech, biotech, climate tech, all of these impact industries are starting to, you know, become something that I expect to be very, very important in the next 5 to 10 years, right? Maybe the next— same as fintech was a couple of years ago, I expect biotech, healthtech, climate tech things related with energy and so on, things like that that generate impact are the next, well, main topics or founders are looking to develop ideas around this. I literally saw it when I was— I went to my— this year I went to my alma mater, like my university in my hometown, and the last— when they are taking their last course, um, you know, they, they need to develop like an idea. It's like a pre-incubation process, uh, let's put it that way. Uh, and the kids, uh, the 20-year-old, 21-year-old kids, where they were like very smart and, and they were thinking about these things that I was saying. They were not thinking about fintech or things like that. And 5 years ago when I was doing that, 6, 7 years ago when I was in their position, I was thinking about fintech and things like that, right? And now they were more like, okay, how we can change the world, how we can impact. And I keep reading about that, I keep listening about that, I keep reading news about new VCs popping up, new nonprofit organizations, the investment development bank investing around that. So it's definitely something around that. And I'm talking about Latin America, of course. I, you know, I don't know other regions in the rest of the world, but mainly in Latin America, I'm listening a lot about that.

Yeah. Namenti, you're, as you said at the beginning, you're a guy who loves to travel. You're going around a lot of conferences, meetups, all sorts of stuff. Can you talk about maybe a recent conference that you went to? That was focused on Latin America tech ecosystem, things like that. Can you talk about that? Yeah.

So this year there was a, there was a thing that started in Latin America. It was like different countries started making their tech weeks. So the Argentina Tech Week, the Colombia Tech Week, the Chile Tech Week, the Peru Tech Week, and so on. And then in Uruguay in a couple of months, I mean, in one month actually, Starting from now in one month, we're going to have this, they call it Punta Tech, but it's a city called Punta del Este in Uruguay, which a lot of VCs and the startup ecosystem goes there. So I've been in, I guess, the two that I like, and then obviously Mexico Tech Week, sorry about that. The two I like the most was Colombia Tech Week and Chile Tech Week. Again, it's not a coincidence. Um, I came 3 weeks ago from, from Chile Tech Week. There was a huge, huge event, uh, called ETM. 40,000 people assisted, uh, for 3 days. Yeah, it was, it was amazing. Uh, so these guys, they've been doing this for the last 10 years, and they started with some small gatherings at someone's place, and, and, and then Daniel turned this into like a big, big event. They're They have like a huge park in Santiago, Chile, and they use that space for 3 consecutive days from Thursday to, you know, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And it was amazing. I spoke there about internationalization, but the most important, the most impactful thing for me was like, there's a lot of things going on. There's a lot of corporates trying to play into trying to play and connect with startups. A lot of PCs coming from, from different countries, from different continents. And, and for me, it was simply, simply amazing, right, how this topic in common, uh, startups, can, can get together people from all over the world. And I saw the same in Colombia. Colombia, in August, they did the Colombia Tech Week. There were like 160 events or something like that. I hosted like 20 events during that week, and it was amazing. And I know the guys executing all of this at the back, and it's so cool that everything starts, you know, with small things. And they were thinking doing some small events, some small activities, and thanks to the support of, again, both private sector and public sector, these things are changing people's lives. Because they get invested, they get new connections, they get new clients, new partners, they meet new people, and it's simply amazing. You know, these, these type of events and activities is like, they're mind-blowing.

That's awesome, uh, hearing the size, um, the energy that was there must have just been absolutely incredible. And I think there's, there's even maybe some bias, right, uh, from the States of how big is the Latin America tech scene and you know, uh, but yeah, you hear numbers like 40,000 people in one city. It's, it's exciting.

And, and there were more side events. They did like 40 or 50 side events, and I was not even able to do like the whole— to see like the whole, the full event. It was like, how you say this, it's like when you go to a music festival, like, uh, so, so big, so much, a lot of things that going on, and, and it was huge. Like, I never seen something like that. Now I'm like a big promoter of ETM and did a great job. But yeah, same Colombia, same Argentina, everyone, like, you know, they've been creating these— well, Mexico, as I was saying. And yeah, it was simply amazing.

Amati, in addition to being a connector and an investor, You're also a founder. Please tell us more about what you're working on today and, you know, what the idea and the vision is.

All right. So I became a founder. Let's put it this way, by accident. I was not looking to become a founder, but last year, so as I was saying, I was running an accelerator and then, okay, we stopped working together. And one of the, while I was running that accelerator, there were like between 250, 270 companies that went through that. And one of the companies was this Chilean company called Apoderado. It has a different naming and way of operating and marketing back there. And they called me once and it was like the company was about to do an exit. And my comment was, hey, why don't you literally operate in the US, which was the thing that I was supporting you right? And we agreed on doing that together. So that's why I say like, hey, I became, you know, by accident, but I love the team. I love the product. And I love what we are now executing. But back in the days, like one year ago, we were planning to do in the US. So that's correct. Now I am the co-founder of Schooling One. We are an all-in-one app for schools. Basically, we are an edtech company software as a service for, uh, schools in, in the US. So long story short, they're like, the problem we identified is schools have on average 5 to 6 different platforms to do grading, attendance, communicating with parents. All of the information that the students generate, somehow it's everywhere in 6 different platforms. And sometimes still schools use emails and, you know, information is everywhere. They're spending a lot of money in these 6 different software, 5 to 6 different softwares. And we said, hey, why don't we bring something that gets together all of these, not integrating these, having like an all-in-one product, but then also bring a user-friendly experience to teachers who are the people using this the most, and also for parents. So we have both things. We have an app for parents and teachers, and then also, and, you know, they can log in through the web. And again, ideally all the information flow all in one, in a single place, all in one through Schooling One. So that's what we are doing. We launched this year. We are already operating with a few schools, which I love to call them my partners. And it's a slow industry, but it's, it's, it's, it's been well. I mean, people love our product. It's just a matter of adoption. So it takes some time, but we are, we are doing, we are doing a great job. So, so yeah, that's, that's my story as a founder so far.

Very cool. Very cool. Well, we'll have to check back with you in a few years and see the, see, see all the milestones. Mati, I want to be respectful of your time. If Anyone is interested in your startup, what's the best way to reach you?

So it's my LinkedIn. I always reply back. You can get me on LinkedIn, Mati Barbero. I love to reply back. If there's a school out there that wants to, you know, learn more about how we can add value, I'm happy to talk, happy to listen, you know, what they're facing and to see if we add value. And let me also share something else, Brian. If there's any other Latin American founder or investor or someone from Latin America looking to expand abroad and do some businesses in Miami, I'm also through my LinkedIn, I'm very happy to support there. I also founded, I like to call it a nonprofit organization that I use it. It's called Project 97. I use it to support Latin American entrepreneurs every time I can, of course, right? It's like a It's not easy with the startup and all of the things moving around, but every time I can, if I can run an introduction, if I can have a few meetings with this, with any founder and add some value for the internationalization or, you know, helping them accelerate that learning curve, I'm always happy to do it. Like, for me, it's so hard to say no, so I'm always open to connect.

Well, here at the Nearshore Cafe, we're very supportive of people that are ambassadors for the region, bringing spotlight, and Matti is definitely one of the key people there. You've been listening to the Nearshore Cafe podcast with our guest Matti Barbero. You can find us at nearshorecafepodcast.com, and this podcast was sponsored by Plug Technologies, plugg.tech. Great way, great way to connect talent from Latin America to growing US companies. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll see you next time.