Unlocking Latin America’s Tech Potential

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: In this episode, we sit down with Erin Winslow, a dynamic partner at nasca, to explore her fascinating journey from Austin, Texas, to the bustling tech hubs of San Francisco and beyond. Erin shares her passion for Latin America, a region she has been deeply connected with since her early career days. We delve into her competitive spirit honed through sports and academics, and how it shaped her path in the tech industry. Erin's story is one of resilience and adaptability, from her early days at Google to her current role in venture capital, where she leverages her expertise to fuel innovation in emerging markets. Join us as we uncover the insights and experiences that have defined Aaron's career and her vision for the future of technology in Latin America. Hi, Aaron. Thanks for making the time to, uh, join us today.

Speaker A: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker B: No, I appreciate it. When I saw your profile, I thought it would be great to have you join, share your story, your interest in latam, which goes back a while, and then, of course, your career prior to nasca. Before we jump into maybe NASCA and what you guys do from the venture side, it'd be great to learn a little bit about you, where you grew up, some hobbies, and then we'll go from there.

Speaker A: So I'm originally from Austin, Texas, so I grew up there. I even went to UT undergrad. So I stayed there basically until I was 22, and then made the move out to San Francisco, which was my first foray into working with Latin America and in tech.

Speaker B: Before you got into your university days, growing up in Aust. And were there any hobbies early on that you knew? Like, I'd want to be in tech or I was an entrepreneur or I chose sports or arts. Or were you just. Nothing in particular, no.

Speaker A: So I was extremely, uh, competitive. So I played soccer and basketball and was very, very competitive. Academic or, uh, athletically as well as academically. So I was kind of your typical type A, straight A student and then extremely competitive and extremely talkative. So kind of the only reason I would ever get into trouble was because I talked too much. I was late to class because I was talking too much in between. And I always kind of knew that those two things were going to be common threads throughout my life. So, uh, that's proven true over the years.

Speaker B: You know, being competitive in Type A was that challenging with family dynamics? Did you have siblings? Did you have, like, early mentors or family that had a big impact on this competitive nature?

Speaker A: Yeah, so I think that was just part of my nature. I was the three Girls. And so, um, I just came out that way. My parents didn't really instill it in me or obviously they loved coming to me and stuff like that. But it was just really always in my blood to be, be incredibly competitive. I also love speaking Spanish, so that was something I remember when I was little, I started taking Spanish classes in middle school. I would always ask my parents on the way to soccer games, like, ask me how to say something in Spanish, ask me how to say something Spanish. And I was like very, very obsessed with getting good at Spanish and being able to like unlock that world, which obviously in Texas you see you're really exposed to Spanish world. And so I always loved that. Loved like the challenge of learning a new language from like an academic perspective and also from a cultural perspective. Kind of like unlocking the world around me in Texas. Yeah. And then, and for mentors did like my dad, I think had. You know, he started out as a, as a marine helicopter pilot in his earliest career days and then went into corporate world cpg. Then he was VP of marketing at retail food chains, which is what brought us to Texas. VP of marketing at Wendy's in San Antonio. Um, then he kind of did a full career shift mid career and decided to be an executive headhunter. So I think that seeing that uh, really helped me to understand that you could make career changes at any point that didn't have to be a straight path. And then so my dad actually passed away when I was 15. Um, the therapist, her name is Lucy Griffith, who got me through that phase in life, you know, helped me come out of that trauma as a well adjusted young adult. I still feel her in my corner, but she's an absolute angel. So I think that kind of took a little bit of the edge on my type A and pressure I put on myself and helped me to have more perspective. And then I had a couple of mentors that were really formative in my Spanish speaking side of interest in Latin America and speaking Spanish. So at my high school, the Spanish teacher, her name was Dr. Agarza, Gloria Garza. She's very demanding, but an amazing teacher. The amount of kids that got out of high school, Westlake High School in Austin, speaking fluent Spanish is kind of unheard of for your typical Spanish. Your typical like us, you know, Spanish class, high school program. And so she was really formative, um, and kind of like helping open up that world to me and cultivating my interest in life outside of the US and then at ut, I had a professor called Henry Dietz. He's a scholar in Latin American politics. And he really, I was really, really interested with his career and that uh, he's been able to have this amazing career in academia beyond being an incredible teacher focused around Latin America. So I think that those are kind of the people who shaped and opened doors and opened that world for me.

Speaker B: So fascinating and inspiring in a lot of ways. Knowing that your passion was in this Spanish culture, did you always know UT was the path or did you look elsewhere, uh, at uh, universities? But you, you thought UT was, was the right decision.

Speaker A: So to be honest, I really did not want to stay in Texas. I saw myself and in like a small liberal arts school and in the Northeast. And then pragmatism hit, obviously. My dad passed away when I was in high school. Like it's different to have a single income household than a dual income household. And so, um, I ended up applying to a program called Plan 2 at UT, which is an honors liberal arts program that accepts around 200, uh, students a year. And it gives you the small liberal arts experience. So you're in these seminar classes, you know, 12 to 14 student classes with the top, top professors at UT. And so once I got into that program, I decided to go with UT and I had an amazing time, but it gave me like more close exposure to the quality of professors like Professor Dietz. So I think that, that, that ended up being a really good decision.

Speaker B: I notice as I was doing research, while you did get into tech and you've had a long career in tech, there was this brief stint in politics and you mentioned it was an internship. I'd love to hear about this because I've actually met several people that are now in venture that have also been in public service. Maybe not all interns, but I think there's some interest behind that. Um, do you want to just hit on that a little bit and say maybe what you enjoyed, why you maybe didn't follow that path long term?

Speaker A: Yeah. So I think it started with an interest general, generally legal, the legal field. And everyone had told me as a kid I was so like, argumentative and I love debating stuff, that I should be a lawyer. And so, um, I mean that's a skill that's very useful in many, ah, many areas. But in part of my process of elimination, uh, of my like, career path, I did do, uh, an internship at the U.S. senate. I was from Texas, so you have to be in one of your state senators offices. So in 2007 I was in Senator Cornyn's office. That opened my eyes to See, kind of like all the logistics of what happens behind the legislation. From one side, there was like a really substantial piece of legislation going through. It didn't pass. Uh, it gave me, it gave me a peek behind the curtain on, on how complicated and nuanced the legislative system is in the US it kind of steered me away from working in public service after. I just didn't. You know, I left that summer being like, okay, this was a great process of elimination. I learned a lot. I gave a lot of tours of the U.S. capitol to constituents for me. But yeah, I think it's really important to have that context and that kind of like, say, you know, I was 19 when I did the internship. So it gave me perspective on that. Ah, at an early age we decide

Speaker B: politics or public service isn't maybe the path at that point. So you decide to move out west to, uh, San Francisco. And this is where you join Google and some of their latam expansion. How did this role come about? And I assume that your profile excelled at this role because you understand the language so well, the culture so well. And how was this experience?

Speaker A: Yeah, so what happened really is I had kind of fibbed on my resume, uh, graduating and said I lived in San Francisco and I didn't because I knew I was very drunk because it was 2010. Amazing things were happening in the big tech world. Uh, you know, kind of like peak big tech. Yeah. And um, I had a contact who had worked at Salesforce and said, you know, like, if you really want to get into San Francisco, Salesforce right now is the place to be. And so, um, I ended up getting an internship at Salesforce and it was just a summer internship kind of. Um, I ended up flying to San Francisco in two days because I had said I lived in San Francisco and I didn't. So I stayed on a friend's couch for a month while I figured out where I was going to live and stuff. But during that internship, it was on a sales team at Salesforce. I heard a team just across the floor speaking Spanish and I was like, that is very interesting. And it was kind of in these days where a lot of big tech they had, they didn't have satellite offices in the region yet and they're trying, they were starting to experiment with expanding into the region. What was their strategy? And they had like the reps and people who were selling into the um, Latin American market all in hq. And so basically during the internship I made it my mission to get a full time job. I was like, if I can do this great. If I can do this speaking Spanish, that's half the fun for me. And that was my first role which was basically you know like smiling and dialing sale in inside sales, entry level role at Salesforce. And then Google was also doing a pilot to or like um, a a launch team to expand their Google for work. What they've rebranded it but Google offering into Latin America and they had hired out like an initial team in Google HQ to really launch that in Latin America. So that was really, really fun. It's still some of my closest friends to this day. It was an amazing group of people. Um, and so I ended up moving over to Google and that got me really traveling into the region a lot and getting to different countries, sales nuances in different countries, cultural n in different Spanish speaking uh, countries in Latin America. And um, I think that was like an amazing exposure because imagine I'm like 24, 25 and they're putting you to like go, you know, speak at a, you know, speaker at a Google event region, not really knowing what you're doing and not like still not being perfect at the language. But it kind of gave, built a lot of confidence and saying okay, yeah, you don't have to be the expert, you can learn this as you go. And um, that was a really, really special time and still like incredibly close to the majority of people who worked with me on that.

Speaker B: Um, and for someone that maybe understands a little bit about Latam or the culture or maybe nothing at all, what would you say is the biggest difference when you're coming down selling a product versus the US traditionally in B2B sales just maybe hit on a point or two for someone that doesn't understand the nuances.

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean I think the most important thing is that ah, it's much less transactional. So just like business relationships work very differently in different cultures and that's extremely important to understand in order to build rapport in a sales cycle. So the example I always give, if you imagine a business meeting in the US Usually you get right into business, the meeting starts, everyone's on time, you get right into business. Say it's an hour long meeting. You spend the first 50, 55 minutes pure business. You wrap up the meeting, everyone wraps up the meeting. At the end of the meeting you cover, oh, hey, uh, how are you? Where are you from? You know, any personal topics, anything you need to cover. So that's how things work in the U.S. okay, we'll do the transactional part and then we'll do the personal part. And that's kind of the cordial way to run a business meeting. It' in Spanish within Latin America. So Latin America, you spend the first, you say it's an hour meeting, you spend the first 15 minutes making sure there's rapport, building, relationship learning. Like, you know, I know what summer camps your kids go to, getting into. Yeah. And, and I think that that's really, really important to understand that relationship is always first before you get into like transactional conversation. So I think that from a cultural perspective is like the most important thing. And I think the second most important thing is understanding. Like there's, there's like a. Which is like no is the second best answer. Right. Like having someone tell you no is also very important so that you know to stop pursuing that sale. And people don't tell you no in Latin America. So that's, it obviously varies country by country, but kind of understanding how to read into what's a no, it's like a skill and a muscle to develop over time. With um, sales into Latin America, make sure you're actually no, you're forecasting and you're not being um, too optimistic based on people being polite by not telling you no.

Speaker B: And I, and I wanted to add, and I wanted to hear your thoughts or agree or disagree.

Speaker A: Disagree.

Speaker B: If it's at 1 it might start 115 and that's completely fine. Or 120 right when someone shows up for a meeting and oh, it's okay, it's 1:10 and you're like, oh, um, I'm not late, it's fine, they're okay. Where here? It's like one o' clock is one o'. Clock.

Speaker A: Exactly. Completely. It's funny because I, I think, I don't know if it's like a French cultural thing, but there's always like this set. I think in, in the US at least my perspective is like there's, you have a seven minute grace period. If you're more than seven minutes late, that's like considered rude late. Um, and that's completely true in Latin America and it's very country dependent as well. So like I would say in Colombia people are way more punctual. Way more. When I was doing work living in Colombia, I had clients that wanted to meet at 7am and when they said 7am everyone is sitting there ready to go at 7am Um, I think Mexico tends to be like more lax in terms of like starting exactly on time and um, all that stuff that's obviously generalization. That's not in every case but that's also like a cultural nuance, country to country that start figuring out over time

Speaker B: and also different relationships with people. Some people are more punctual than others, like everything. I wanted to ask you before we moved on from the Google expansion and Salesforce experience, when you first came down here maybe almost a decade ago, selling Google software in the platform, did you feel like the larger enterprises, the SMEs, were receptive? Um, did they understand the value of these services? And in your perspective, have you seen a kind of evolution from maybe 2010 to 2025 now?

Speaker A: Yeah, absolute. So back in the day, I mean there's a saying of like nobody got fired for buying IBM, nobody got fired for buying Microsoft. And so we were the disruptors. I mean obviously Google's such a large name, but large name in the advertising world and we're kind of relatively new in the enterprise space. And so everyone was very excited by the brand. So obviously that helps a lot. You can't like deny the fact that, okay, if you go on selling Google versus go and selling a startup product, it's very different sales experience, uh, in terms of getting the door open. But um, I do think especially with like mid market and above, the incumbents had extremely strong relationships. They had much more time on the ground building relationships, um, they had on the ground teams already. So in that sense they had a leg up in terms of relationship building. And what we did especially in like the SMB to mid market and I think even the enterprise space was we really relied on local partners. And it's obviously, you know, the value added reseller kind of like landscape was pretty nascent in Latin America back then. So a lot of what we were doing was signing those partners, um, building relationship with them and those individuals and those companies who, you know, their whole business is implementing that software and being the technical, you know, the phone call, the first phone call that customers make on a local, local basis that really, really helped us understand local nuances and build lasting partnerships where you're, you are scaling your sales team through local resellers. Even to this day I remain like one of the resellers that I had in Colombia came to my wed, um, still close with one of the resellers that we signed in Mexico 13 years ago. Um, here in Mexico, now that I live here. And so that also was building out relationships, um, and um, understanding like the value of having people on the ground who really understand cultural nuances and who are there to take those phone calls and offer that like implementation support. So that was A lot of what we did in the region and I think it's evolved hugely. Obviously the adoption of like Google's enterprise products is now more standard, uh, especially for SMB, than almost any other product. So I think, you know, now, now that product would be incumbent.

Speaker B: You were there with Google for almost, I think almost six years, over five years or so. And then you joined Saturday Robotics and then we're going to get into, uh, nascar. In some ways it seems in tech, but in some ways it's a big switch, right? Software to robotics, and then you go back to the U.S. how did this opportunity come about and how did this experience unfold for you?

Speaker A: My time at Google ended up being a couple years doing more enterprise software. And then I was really excited to take advantage of the, that Google is such a global company and live abroad under the, um, Google umbrella. So I ended up transferring with Google down to Bogota, Colombia for three years. And when I transferred down there, I moved to work on the advertising side of the business. It also, you know, you say, okay, you Google on your resume, you can't know nothing about digital advertising. Like, you probably need to know something. But it's funny because I moved down there knowing nothing. And it's another thing where you just kind of, uh, put in the deep end and see if you float. And so I did learn a lot about, um, about digital advertising, selling that into Latin America. And I always kind of knew that, you know, my time at Columbia was almost like a study abroad for my professional career. And so ended up being there for three years. I met my husband there, which was fantastic. And then I started to feel myself kind of champing at the bit for the next project, wanting to get into more operating roles and kind of leverage my expertise in sales for more. And so I sought out a, um, I sought out an MBA program and I said, okay, what is my priority in terms of doing an mba? It's being as close as possible to the best technologist that I can be close to. And I think that's something that I, that really inspired me with Google is like Google is an engineering first organization. Salesforce is very much like a Salesforce organization. And the stars at Google, at least like when I was there, was definitely the engineers. And so, um, I decided to do my MBA at mit. I said, okay, I'm going to dive headfirst into entrepreneurial ecosystem and I want to be as close as possible to the most amazing engineers that I can be. And so I did exactly that. I left Google early. I did a pre MBA internship in the MIT accelerator, which is this amazing program, it's called Delta V. Huge fan. They, they basically fund run startups, they have a really, really robust sex selection criteria and they give you equity fee funding, they give you mentors, you have mock boards. And I joined a technical team there called Clarity which was, was doing review for legal documents. They've evolved into AI revenue operations, um, technology and they're doing amazing today. But I almost left my MBA to join them full time and I just really like caught the bug of I really want to be in tech led early stage startup world and I really feel like my skill set can complement, and my ability to empathize with more technical profiles can like complement um, a lot of technical founders very well. And so that's what I ended up, that kind of ended up being my angle. And then when I was graduating from the mba, I was, I had, you know, made some connections with the VC ecosystem in Boston, which is actually an amazing ecosystem, very, very supportive, very, very open. And I feel like Boston, because of the community environment in Boston, everyone's mentality is very, very like supportive of each other. So everyone's willing to grab a coffee, everyone's willing to um, give advice. Specifically, um, general Catalyst had been really helpful um, to me, um, during my time we had done like some dinner events where we were bringing MIT and Harvard students um, to just kind of like learn about vc, learn about start and create community. And they were amazing when I was looking for my role because I said I want something early stage but I would love to be with an experienced founding team where you know, it's almost like an apprenticeship for me because they've run a startup before and they um, you know, I'm learning, you know, as much as I possibly can. And so I ended up meeting the Saturday Robotics team um, through them and um, they were, and I was just hooked immediately because I thought it was this beautiful combination of like an extremely interesting huge technical challenge, extremely big societal problem, all of that kind of like really hard tech backend wrapped in this amazing like direct to consumer brand where you kind of get the best of both worlds. You're doing hard tech and direct to consumer at the same time. And so that's what really um, reeled me in and I joined as the first kind of non, uh, founder executive hire, ah, as head of operations. And for a long time I was like the kind of sole non roboticists at Saturday Robotics.

Speaker B: Yeah, um, and you know, you mentioned that you wanted to join an experienced team and we're Going to get into like founders traits later. But I just have to ask so I don't forget, what was the founding team? What did they do so well that you now reflect back on that. Maybe you give advice or you say, hey, inexperience to first time founders. What did you see in their leadership qualities that was so good when you worked there with the team so much?

Speaker A: I think I learned so much just being there, like on the sidelines. So the interesting thing was the founding team had been executive product, uh, leadership at uh, Nest before which had been acquired by Google. So engineering and product. And I think that having some. I had never worked like really closely with someone who came from a product background, but that was amazing. Like I learned so much around how to think through like R and D, how to think thoughtfully around, you know, when it's hands off, when you're able to ship something, when kind of all of that side of the house that was very foreign. So I think all of that was extremely, extremely eye opening. And then on the other side like extreme frugality. So that was a value that wasn't very common at that specific point in time because we're right at the beginning, uh, it was like 2019. So things were especially in hard tech and this kind of manifest building again in the US and all of that. There's a lot of hard tech startups that were really like flying through extremely impressive teams, great offices. I was like, we were extremely frugal. So like spend as little as possible, make the robots as utilitarian, as positive as possible. So that frugality I think was like really, really interesting to see. And I think it's like very good to be disciplined on that side. And then the third thing was that they both had small kids and so like being able to see, okay, you know, I know that the founders are going to go home, they're going to have dinner with their children most nights they'll put them to bed yet, they'll probably connect after that. But like seeing that, having that exposure to like, okay, you don't have to sacrifice your whole life. Like you can prioritize, you can make your schedule in a way that allows you to be a successful parent and be a successful family member and still uh, work on your startup. So I think that that's in general something that you see with more tenured and more experienced founders that I really enjoyed seeing like having into that. And um, so I think for me there are those three things.

Speaker B: So, so I think those qualities now probably help you in some Ways as a venture investor at nasca. Be great to hear about how the opportunity came about and then we'll get into nasca's thesis and some portfolio questions. But first, how did you find NASCA and how did this come about?

Speaker A: Yeah, so I was interested in venture basically because I think, because at Saturday, Saturday, just to give an overview of what Saturday was doing, we were doing like fully automated robotic warehouses for a direct to consumer laundry service. So, so um, imagine you know, the idea of post World War II, all this industrial capacity, manufacturing capacity in the US freed up and we started making washing machines. Washing clothes before had either been something that you sent out or you did at home. But it became a chore for everyone in the United States and became incredibly inefficient from like an energy water utilization capacity and from like a gender perspective, you know, 3x women doing laundry. So from that perspective I was very, very excited about the opportunity, um, on the ESG side, on the gender lens side, like the technical challenge side. And what I saw from being on that team was how helpful our investors were in our board meetings and how choosing the right investors were key to the success to kind of like the learnings, iteration and getting useful feedback to then go into the next phase of the company. And I think having that kind of like peek behind the scenes of how invest, interact, how they connect you with really amazing leaders and guidance in areas where you have blind spots and kind of seeing how that works on a positive, in a positive way really piqued my curiosity about the venture world. And honestly the move um, to Mexico was sparked because my husband got a job here in Mexico. He's always worked in the fertility space and he, he accepted a role um, leading a group of fertility clinics called Fertile Integral here in Mexico. And we decided as a family, we have a two and a half year old daughter, um, to move to Mexico. And I said okay, like what? I've kind of created this generalist operator skill set at a startup and I have deep go to market expertise in Latam, I have the mba and like there's a few ways that, that you can apply that. But I thought VC would be the most exciting way because I uh, saw firsthand like what adoption of technology and what innovation does for or when selling technology into emerging markets, what it does for the overall growth. And I think the venture in private capital world, fueling innovation in the region is just a scaled way of doing that. So the idea is planting the seeds for innovation to happen and grow is like planting the seeds for the next generation of the most important corporations in the region, the most important job creators in the region and really creating more efficiency. And so that kind of combination of having a positive experience with, with our investors kind of have having the operators lens and then having the go to market experience. I thought that was a great culmination of all my skills that I could use. And so I started to reach out uh, and kind of understand what the, what was happening in the venture world. And one of Portugal Integral's investors, Christine Kenna, she's an American woman who's been extremely helpful for me in kind of guiding me in the. She, she's the one who connected me to Nesca and it just kind of the stars aligned and ended up being the the of rest right place, the right time to join the team. And so I joined about a year ago.

Speaker B: Very uh, serendipitous in some ways like when you look at the venture ecosystem here, you know this like it ended up being probably one of the most prominent and longest history funds that invest in latam. So I think it worked out well. So you joined about a year ago. Let's now dive into nasca's thesis excise and maybe the stage and then we can get into some of the other news that uh. I was more familiar with earlier this year with Bridge latam. So first it'd be great to hear about the thes check size. How do you guys think about portfolio construction?

Speaker A: Yeah absolutely. So the thesis is generally early stage uh investing in Spanish speaking Latin America. So majority have to be focused and based in Spanish speaking Latin America. You know a lot of NASCAR's value as well as helping startups from succeed in Mexico. As you know Mexico is the largest market um in Spanish speaking Latin America. But there's amazing founders from all countries and so NASCA is also really really great at ah helping those founders successfully launch and expand into Mexico and then check sizes anywhere from you know 500 to 3 or 5 million depending on the stage and then we, we reserve a good amount of, of our um fund for follow on investments earlier this

Speaker B: year and I know Luis from Bridge, there was this massive news and I thought this would be worth asking you because you've joined and now there's probably some changes going on but basically you guys merged or Bridge merged into NASCA and now became one of the largest VC funds in Mexico or really Latam with over 300 million AUM. Um how has this affected your guys position in the market and also as you transition in how has their team helped you um, review the thesis and evolve as well.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So I think there's kind of three main points there. So NASCA had invested in Bridge. So NASCA had in Fund three, um, a micro VC strategy to invest, invest in the best emerging managers. Part of it was kind of knowing people that invested a little bit earlier than us to make sure that we were, you know, finding the best deal flow in and the best opportunities and then also the best managers. And so NASCA had invested into Bridges Fund 1. And I think, you know, obviously I'm, I'm relatively, I wasn't there when that happened. I know from the, you know, the storyline is that the relationship has always been extremely positive since then and we and Patricio have just like really, really always blended well with the NASCA team and represented kind of like the direction that NASCA wanted to go. And so from a uh, partnership perspective it made complete sense to bring them in to Nazca. And it's been an amazing experience, kind of like merging that partnership. The kind of two main strengths that nest that um, Bridge brings first of all is kind of like the really differentiated venture partner network and founder friendliness. So because Bridge emerged from a syndicate of founders that then started to fund together and started to invest, the way that Bridge interacts with their venture partners and actually involves them very deeply in investment decisions is quite unique. And I think it's really important that we continue that line. And so like idea of bringing venture partners not just as deal sourcing, but really like bringing them into the fold and all investment decisions and relying very heavily on them and is something that we want to continue going forward. And it's a huge kind of like value add, uh, that Bridge is bringing. And then the second part is all Bridge was the first VC firm in Latin America to be part of an organization called Data Driven vc. And this is the global trend that we've seen where you know, all the VC industry overall is beginning to use data driven data and their decisions. Everything from like, you know, supercharging and, and building conviction earlier on to removing bias from decision making. And so, you know, Luis's background is in mathematics and algorithms because the founder of Cultura Collectivo that had to do a lot with algorithms and um, and bringing that into the actual like DNA of nasca and how we're building a data driven firm, data empowered firm. So the data empowered firm has kind of like three components. One is making sure that, that we're being as efficient as we can in making sure we're talking to everyone we need to be talking to the uh, you know, scraping algorithms and all of that stuff. And then the second part, which is really exciting, is using historical data to make sure that we're removing bias and being able to tell based on the historical information. We have proprietary information from NASCAR Bridge and combining that with kind of um, a scoring algorithm and those type of tools help us to just ensure, it helps us to have a more objective conversation when we're evaluating deals skills where we um, it's not just a feeling, right? Like we're looking at the numbers, we're looking how something and there's, there's a really, really positive way that that changes and involves the discussion as a team, uh, to make better decisions together. And you know, it's not just relying on the data to make the decisions, it's using the data to say, okay, we're, we're talking about this objectively, we're talking about this in specifics and it's not just a feeling. And then the third part is becoming efficient ourselves. Obviously, you know, as startups emerge, as everyone's adopting new technology, we can't be laggards if we, you know, we want to keep up. And so it's starting to figure out like how we can actually use um, AI and kind of more advanced technology internally to make ourselves more efficient, whether it comes to automated reporting, getting a single source of truth internally, building context around that and using that to add value to us as a team and to our LP and investor base. And so that is a really, really important, important and key part that Bridge is bringing into our next chapter in nafca.

Speaker B: Got it. So I assume that's going to help as you guys move into fund, I think four for nasca. But focusing on you guys or really focusing on you, I know you've been at NASCA for almost two years now, putting you on the spot. Maybe some companies or portfolio companies that you're most excited about or you've worked closely with or maybe you've led the investment committee, um, on would be great for you to talk about and share and then we can get into others that maybe uh, are flying under the radar.

Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. So two of the companies I'm most excited by one is called Bombay. Bombay is what's so exciting to me about Bombay is they're really delivering on the promise of AI being a, uh, leapfrog technology for Latin America. So I kind of, in emerging markets being the same, you know, the metaphor of like mobile Internet and how most people had their first experience with the Internet on a mobile phone in emerging markets. The same thing that AI will do to SaaS and laggard is like kind of laggard adoption of more cumbersome costly products. And I think Vomba is delivering on that promise. And so that, that makes me very excited because you're seeing like leapfrog mamas happening in real time and um, on like a pretty large scale. And so I'm happy to go more into that because I, I'm just incredibly impressed by the team and what they're doing. But that for me is like the most exciting piece of like delivering on this. Okay. A.I. is going to be the sweet product for Latin America and especially like companies were able to adopt kind of like the more, the more costly SaaS products. And then the other one that I'm amazed by is called Somos Internet. They're in Colombia and they are doing a completely differentiated ISP, so Internet offering B2C and B2B. And really the amazing thing that they're doing is like through AI and vertical integration they're able to make their operations incredibly efficient from an operational perspective in terms of emergence, in terms of like making customers uh, think about all the backend systems. All these like legacy ISP providers have none of that, of that burden. So through removing that burden they're able to deliver a really differentiated uh, product like an amazing margin profile. And so I'm really, really excited, I think founder, uh, genius. And it's just been really, really amazing to work with them and really really excited for them to kind of like disrupt this industry.

Speaker B: Focusing on your background at uh, selling B2B sales in Latam, do you think both these founders have found a way and what do they do so well or potentially are doing well that have found this path to product market fit or on the way because as you know sales cycles are longer here and you've alluded to that earlier. Is it just their product market fit is better? Do they have a deeper understanding? Are they second time founders maybe share a little bit about them and their profile?

Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. So happy to go into Vanbe second time founders. It's a pretty like a younger team but um, amazing team and what I've been so impressed with them is they first launched kind of like a no code AI agent for conversational sales, conversational transactions. And obviously if you're tied to the transaction, you're tied to the bottom line. So like very much see the uptick stick through making this more efficient. And so that is, that's Like a really sticky product stick, a uh, product, amazing product to get the foot in the door. And what I've seen with a team is that in very little time they've been able to react to market demand and not just build out kind of conversational sales agents, but build out a full suite for companies and even more market companies, mid market and enterprise companies to completely automate sales, measure marketing roi, automate customer success and kind of like really closing the loop in a way that a lot of companies have tried and not been able to. And so I think that that quick evolution and nimbleness in terms of uh, being able to go from like this is an amazing sticky product foot in the door to okay, this is like the suite that size companies need has been amazing to see uh, in the past few months. So, so I've been incredibly impressed with them and I think from the differentiator there, I think speed in terms of reacting to androsing and then being able to capture that value quickly. And so I've been really, really impressed with them on the, on the like adopting a B2B sales and would you,

Speaker B: would it be safe to say that they've done a very good job upselling as well? They get in early with this no code product and now they've been building out the suite pretty quickly. Do you find that not all founders able to do this quickly and efficiently in this group? Group basically has because they have somewhat product market fit, correct?

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So I think really the insight there was like, okay, this is a product that anyone could use. Um, and it's, it's a, it's something that was not even. You couldn't even think of implementing that in a small, small business and now it's very accessible. And then you think of like, okay, if you're providing this to a mid market business, what are the other things that you could connect into to create a whole ecosystem around this? And that's I think what they've been able to do really well over the past few months. And then the other thing is they recently launched in Mexico. Um, founder moved to Mexico and it's been amazing to see them kind of like make a big splash as they've been expanding into the Mexican market.

Speaker B: Great. I think I connected with Nico through Luisia so we're due to have uh, an episode in the coming weeks.

Speaker A: Fantastic.

Speaker B: So I'm very excited. She was very complimentary of him.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Okay. So I know you've been in the venture ecosystem but really the startup ecosystem for longer when you think Back to when you first started with NASCA almost two years ago. What have you seen as your personal growth as you evaluate companies, as you see what potentially is worth an investment and meets your criteria? What has been the biggest learning for you in the last two years?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean there's been a lot of learnings because obviously I didn't come from venture so like technically a lot, a lot already learned and a lot more to learn. So I don't want to pretend like I've already learned everything, but I think the things that I've kind of honed in on are uh, kind of understanding, having been on the other side, kind of understanding discipline. So I think like getting a sense for discipline of founders getting a sense for that kind of like organization ability to respond quickly. The discipline that you can sense like in their interactions is really, really key. I think the other kind of like two things that I've been more tuned into from my past experience, I think you know, might be differentiated from other venture investors is you know, when a founder presents to obviously early, early stage founders, they don't always know exactly what the go to market is going to be or is normal and totally fine. But I think that there, there, there needs to be like a couple things which is you, there has to be an understanding of the magnitude of complexity of, of getting this to market. So I think that like someone who's never had any commercial experience like assuming, making certain assumptions or you know, try trying to think that they're going to like outsource sales too, too early, for example, you know, it's higher SDRs, junior SDRs and it will work. Things like that where you start to see okay, like what, what do you kind of see as the pieces that need to start being put together for you to, to get there and having some sense for that level of complexity I think is really. And then the other thing which I think is more ongoing, um, and I think it's something that obviously I'm very sensitive to as a ex salesperson but a lot of, of early stage founders, especially ones that come from like a technical background or not commercial background, it's very tempting to blame lack of growth on sales failure when a lot of times it's like a product failure or a product. And so I think that like having, having that understanding of saying like okay, it could be a combination of both, but understanding that you're owning the sales process like founder led sales until you figure out what the recipe is, um, and, and having that kind of like level of responsibility from the founding team, from my perspective are things that my past kind of like lends me to be more sensitive on that side and rest is very typical VC stuff. So nothing huge. Based on your other conversation, I wanted

Speaker B: to double tap on this before I get to the final two or three questions. Was just when you talk to these founders that maybe the go to market's not always clear, but that's normal. The sales strategy is not always clear, but maybe would you say they're not as clear or they're naive? Like how do I get my first hundred customers? What is this going to be like, how do I get my next thousand or something like that? Are they just not as clear with that or they just think, okay, I'm going to build the product, I'm going to hire people and it'll sell itself.

Speaker A: Yeah. So I think that it's understanding what they're thinking behind that, uh, and being able to read into that a little bit. Right. Because it's very different going from 0 to 10 customers than going from 10 to 100 then going oh, kind of understanding the lift of those earliest customers is probably the, the. And. And that, that uh, often takes a lot longer than you're expecting.

Speaker B: Okay, last final thoughts here. What's one piece of advice you give to yourself before you started in venture?

Speaker A: I honestly think it's just make sure. I think it's like maintain relationships as much as you can. So like one of the things I've really been doing since I came into venture is going back into all of my old contacts and sales, going to back into all these really interesting people that I met along the way that could be amazing mentors to uh, companies and just keeping that fresh all and trying to be kind of as curious and learning as much as possible.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's great advice. Okay, last question. What do you wish you spent more time doing outside of work?

Speaker A: I think hanging out with my daughter. I have a two and a half year old so you know, being a uh, mom and I don't know at this stage is like very chaotic. So I think things have seasons and there's times that I could spend more time with her and her. But m. No time is enough time so that's an easy answer.

Speaker B: Awesome. Aaron, thank you so much for making the time. It was a pleasure to meet you and look to connect soon. But that's it on um, my end. I appreciate it.

Speaker A: Thank you so much. So nice to meet you as well.

Speaker B: That's a wrap on this episode of Cut the Check presented by vcmx if you enjoyed this conversation, I would really appreciate it if you subscribed and leave a review. It really helps more founders and investors discover the show. You can find me on LinkedIn at MacMIRE or check out my website at MacMIRE.com for more insights on startups, venture capital and the Latin America ecosystem. Thanks for tuning in and I'll catch you next week.