AI in SME Lending for Bank Leaders to Solve the $5 Trillion Financing Gap with Rodrigo Malachias

Rodrigo Malakias: To have over 100 million people using things that were.

Donna: 100 million.

Rodrigo Malakias: 100 million. Yeah. That's.

Donna: Wow.

Rodrigo Malakias: We started as a consultancy firm. We work with big corporations like Visa, uh, MasterCard, Telefonica and we help out, ah, all these companies to create their strategy, new products, new services.

Donna: What advice would you give to people either just starting out or on the journey?

Rodrigo Malakias: I would say that the most important thing on entrepreneurship, on my experience and that's one of the reasons that we have created MediaBlue Go it is to too.

Donna: Rodrigo Malakayas is the CEO of Medible and co founder of Medible go. With over 20 years of experience building products, scaling ecosystems and leading global innovation. Today he's empowering SMEs with AI driven tools that boost growth, reduce risk and level the playing field.

Rodrigo Malakias: They have 60% of the global workforce and yet it's still the most unserved profile of business within the market shares today. $5 trillion of financing gap on SME financing. It is bigger than the GDP of Germany.

Donna: Hi everybody. Welcome to a super exciting episode of Founders Stories. Rodrigo Malakias.

Rodrigo Malakias: Perfect.

Donna: Yeah, nail it.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah.

Donna: On the show today. So I'm really having to brush up on my Brazilian today and his company and again, I've got to get the Spanish right on. This is Mediblo Go.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah, nearly, yeah, Mediblego.

Donna: But yeah, okay, we can work on that. Rodrigo is the co founder, uh, of this business and he also has many extracurricular things that I'm sure we're going to be really interested to dig into today. So without further ado, Rodrigo, welcome to Founder Stories.

Rodrigo Malakias: Lovely.

Donna: How are you doing today?

Rodrigo Malakias: Thank you so much for having me. Um, I'm doing fine. It's a lovely day in London. Sunny, A bit chill, but sunny. So yeah, it's.

Donna: And you live in Brighton, right? I live in Brighton, yeah. Lovely of the country, to be fair.

Rodrigo Malakias: It is. I think that's uh, a very nice, lovely people. It's close to London so it's good for business, but people there are more chill, more relaxed. It's like a, uh.

Donna: Love it.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah, Lovely city.

Donna: Big shout out to the brighteners.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah, absolutely.

Donna: Yeah, yeah. Okay, Rodrigo, let's get into it. So tell us about the company that you co founded. It's a really interesting AI driven business which I know is always very much of interest to people. So tell us about the company and, and why you started it and um, what are the problems that you're solving today?

Rodrigo Malakias: If you allow me, the whole history. Why have started it's all about the story with my co founder. We started actually 14 years ago now in Chile. That's why it's Medible. It's in Spanish, although I'm m Brazilian. We started as a consultancy firm. We work with usually like, I don't know, big corporations like Visa, um, MasterCard, Telefonica, utility companies, most of tier one banks in Latin America they have worked with us or they are still working with us and we have helped out all these companies to create their strategy, new products, new services and just to give you a bit of scale, what we have been doing if we put together all the platforms that we have created to our clients we have over 100 million uh people using things that were.

Donna: 100 million.

Rodrigo Malakias: 100 million. Yeah. When you put Brazil there's a lot of people so yeah, yes very quickly you get to that number. So yeah business has been good, we are still running. It's called Medible, the Constance firm. But then we, when the AI emerged we start to see that we could challenge ourselves to do something different. And that was the moment that born medieval ago which in essence it is very much like consultancy firm but 100% done with AI and for SMEs. So our goal here it is to democratize the access of a services that up to now was just accessible for big corporations. Not that we are expensive, we are much, very much cheaper than all the fancy consultants firm that's out there but it's still human based services, very costly. That's not fair. I mean most of the backbone of our economy here in the UK, Latin America, Europe, overall US it is SME based. No, the SMEs they have um, 60% of GDP, 60% of the global. It's very, very important and yet it's the most unserved area. Unserved like profile of business within the market. So like motivated us uh, so to bring all this knowledge, all this capability that we have to be accessible to sms.

Donna: So medibling is the company and I feel like I'm butchering it less now as I'm listening to you saying it. I probably should have got you to say it to me like 10 times before the show. So that's the original company and what you've done is you've spotted the opportunity to serve a wider market by creating almost company within a company, a new product you're running still both size of

Rodrigo Malakias: the business in essence. Although we have been very creative with branding Mediblia go we have been absurdly creative but yeah it's two separate Business we are still running both of them Medieval Go. It's uh, a UK based one founded here in the UK. We have received a couple of grants from Innovate2K to support us to develop our AI model which has been very complex, very like sophisticated. We have a lot of support from the government again, but from other parties as well. And what we have done here because of our background on working also with financial institutions, is created this piece of AI that in one side we are helping the SMEs to better understand the need of their clients and finding quicker market fee. They can use us to launch new products, to tap into market all the growth challenge that they have, they can use us. And then on the same side we are partnering up with financial institutions and feeding them with all these SME data to them so they can understand better the SMEs understand what they are doing, which sort of investment that they need. So and then banks, they can start like giving financing the growth challenge these SMEs have.

Donna: Okay, so you're essentially helping the banks to increase their product portfolio as well and tap into the new markets by feeding them with maybe they hadn't invested in before because the deals, the companies were smaller. Right.

Rodrigo Malakias: That's precisely the problem when we look at SME financing. There's a huge gap in the market today, $5 trillion of financing gap on SME financing. It is bigger than the GDP of Germany to give a scale. It's, it's huge the amount of money. And in parallel to that, for example here in the UK, 60% of the SME lending that are done now are done by fintechs, by new competitors, not by the traditional banks. And it's not that the banks, they are evil or something like that, but uh, they were never comfortable enough with SMEs because they don't have enough data, they don't really understand them, they don't know what's going on. They um, for example, like tier one banks here, they have more or less, I don't know, 1 million SMEs. It is just impossible for them to really know what's going on there and to understand their challenge, understand what is going on, um, and finance them with confidence. And that's why we have created Medbligo also. So to support SMEs but in the same time supporting uh, banks to have access to better data of SME and finance them with more confidence.

Donna: So smart. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when you thought of that idea. Was that a Long process of. Okay, let's see how this AI thing pans out and see whether we can do anything with this to increase our product portfolio. Or was it that light bulb moment?

Rodrigo Malakias: It was very long, long process.

Donna: The light bulb moment. It makes for so much better podcasting.

Rodrigo Malakias: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. No, no.

Donna: What a shame. Yeah.

Rodrigo Malakias: Sorry to let you down. Well, thanks for having me. No, it has been a lot of hard work. Um, so, yeah, we had like, um, this motivation that triggered us to start to investigate this problem. Um, but to arrive where we are now, we had to listen a lot of people, we had to change it a lot. We have to adapt, we have to adjust. So in essence, um, I think that's very, very important for business. So if, uh, I look at when we started out two years ago developing this AI model up to what we are now, um, we are much more resilient. We have a better product, a better market fit. Just because we have been able to listen to our customers and listen to our users understand what they are needing and create, um, uh, entrepreneurship based on market needs. Not based on my gut or things that I like or do not like, but on real demand.

Donna: If it would have been a light bulb. If you said it was a light bulb moment, I might not have believed you because there's a lot going on there. Right. It's something that has probably been a real labor of love for the last couple of years. And did you kind of use the Modiblo business to fund the.

Rodrigo Malakias: Absolutely. Yeah.

Donna: Yeah.

Rodrigo Malakias: Okay.

Donna: So that's a smart thing as well. And you kind of carried all of the risk with the business that you'd built.

Rodrigo Malakias: I don't know if it's smart. It's just the way that we did it. Um, so we have been bootstrapping everything ourselves other than two grants that we have received from Innovate uk. So that help us a bit. Um, not huge amount of money, but. But also to assure us that we are in the same in, um, that there's more people looking the problem that we're looking at. And they're like. And they have the credibility of Innovate UK backing us up. So that's good. Um, yeah. And other than that, we have been bootstrapping. Um, we have now received, um, a term sheet from investor. I don't know if I should share, but yeah, I will share. Not sure that the investor. We are looking at it. I'm not sure if we are moving forward with them. Uh, but yeah, we have some options and you're happy with this?

Donna: Cool. Well let's get off the subject then before you say something that you should have.

Rodrigo Malakias: Thank you.

Donna: Yeah, I'm going to save you next. This is founder Stories and I'd love to know more about you. Um, you're a very interesting person with a lot of energy. You've obviously got a technical mind as well like you know technology, you know how to. You've obviously got ahead of the game when it comes to AI. So talk to me about your background and kind of where you came from and you know what, what how you kind of fell into, into work.

Rodrigo Malakias: So uh. Yeah, well it has been a long journey at this point.

Donna: Uh.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah, getting old. Um, I started so well. I was born in Brazil, lived uh there now most of my life I have lived abroad but uh, I've um. Very in a very early stage I did a technical course of uh electrician. I think that was like my first step within the like technical space when uh, I was young um teenager, tried to do a few business like building computers and sort of stuff. Nothing really paid out but also it was interesting to keep moving um then very interesting. On university I haven't studied anything technical. I have studied uh social communication um with uh emphasis uh on public relations. So it's a bit off from, from the technical background but, but throughout my professional journey I have always been more involved in um, just not just in communication but in um, uh with technology overall and very had the opportunity to work in a good companies being uh, uh able to learn and to work with AI from a very early stage when it was like coming up and, and I don't know, just working end up doing what I'm doing now.

Donna: And what did early employment look like for you? Did you have a uh, bunch of kind of mundane jobs or have you. Have you kind of followed quite a structured career path to get to where you are today.

Rodrigo Malakias: My first uh job I was 14 years old.

Donna: Right. Early.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah, yeah. Maybe illegal.

Donna: Well we won't tell anyone.

Rodrigo Malakias: I was working uh for, for the company now was, was later acquired by Nokia. I was working at the uh manufacturer, quality assurance manufacturer area. So it's like a telecommunication company. They were producing like some. Yeah the infrastructure for the telecommunications not like the phones and stuff like that. And I was like in this part of like the quality assurance of the

Donna: manufacturer that is a serious role at 14 like that's uh, ah a very responsible job. That's a real job.

Rodrigo Malakias: So yeah I was like uh, below everybody, a lot of people overseeing what I'M doing. Um. But yeah, it was a proper job. Like day you arrive you have to go and eating in the factory.

Donna: Do you do that with school then? Do you kind of. Do you have that?

Rodrigo Malakias: So that was like that point I was doing like this electrician, uh, like formation, uh, like it was like, it was like in college. It's, it's a bit different. But uh. So yeah, during summer breaks instead of going on holiday, I had to go to the factory. It was nice.

Donna: Is this why you've got such a thirst for travel now? Because you had to stay in the factory in the. Every summer? So now you just can't wait to go on holiday all of the time?

Rodrigo Malakias: No, no, I, I don't know. I have children now. I wouldn't want them to, to have the same experience. Experience. But I don't, Yeah, I don't look that with. I don't know. I, I like my, my background. I like this journey. I, I had fun. I had, I met a lot of people. I had fun. Uh, like it was, it was, it was cool.

Donna: And you mentioned you went to university.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yes.

Donna: Okay. Uh, so you, you what did you study at uni?

Rodrigo Malakias: So I studied social communication. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With uh, emphasis, uh, on public relations.

Donna: Did you have an end goal in mind then? Is that something on her list?

Rodrigo Malakias: It was like uh, I, I saw like the list of the university. I don't want this. I don't want this. I don't want this. And then by exclusion I end up with um, um, public relations or geology, uh, kind of flipping a coin.

Donna: Yeah. Who knows what would have happened if you'd have gone with geology? Yeah. And do you feel as though any of that now feeds into what you do now? Because it's quite um, a kind of public facing element to what you do. You actually quite a prolific speaker and you, you've, you've written a book. Right.

Rodrigo Malakias: So I'm trying to. Yeah, I'm on a process. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Donna: Tell us about your book.

Rodrigo Malakias: So, yeah, uh, well, I started being a professor in a, uh, university. I'm teaching, uh, innovation for postgraduate students, uh, in um, in an university back in Chile. And, and, and to that matter I start to generate a lot of content and I don't know, hundreds and hundreds of pages of content that I have to share with my students in my classes about innovation. And uh. Yeah, and I just enjoyed so much doing it that yeah, I'm gonna do a bit more. So I. Building up over like the classes very slowly, very on my pace. I'M not, uh, rushing, but if there's an editor listening, give me a ring.

Donna: I'm sure we can put the episode in the actual inbox of some editors. We can make that stuff happen. You know, we have clay. We can do that. Yeah.

Rodrigo Malakias: And what I'm doing, so it's a work in progress. I don't know how it will end, this book, but one thing that I'm provoking is more the clash of the technology innovation with our culture mindset. Um, uh, uh, uh, because I find very interesting and allow me just to, um. Every time that there's a new disruption of technology, we humans, we hate it. And this has been since. Ever since we start like, uh, on Medieval times, uh, there were like the clock and the towers and the bells and start to control, uh, ourselves. Uh, uh, everybody hated. No, the bakers on that time, they were like, furious. No, now I have to wake up because a bell is telling me I have to open the shop. When the bell is there, I have to eat because of a bell. And so we are always very resistant with new ideas. Very fast forward now. Today we have everything on our watch. And then we have like this watch nudging us to walk more, to stand or whatever. Um, so, yeah, we are so, uh, resistant on adapting new technologies. And I love to see like, that the history keep on repeating itself over and over again until nowadays with AI, there's like this big, like, I don't know, a lot of people in the creative AI space, like music and, uh, artists I don't blame. And I don't know, uh, it's fair to be questioning this new technology, but again, it's just a new technology and all this resistance we have lived in the past. So, yeah, it's like kind of this, like the thing that I'm trying to write about.

Donna: Sold. I will buy. I'm going to buy the first copy. Can I buy on audio though? Because I'm busy.

Rodrigo Malakias: Happy? Yeah, happy to do. Yeah, let's do a longer podcast than we, definitely.

Donna: But it's actually really interesting. I've never really thought of that before, you know, that it is that different problem, but it's actually the same process that we go through every time we're asked to adapt to something new. Um, you know, I was in software sales for many years, and our biggest problem was not selling the software. It was getting the customers to adopt the software when we implemented it. And, um, you know, I had this. I used to say to my reps, don't spend your commission because, you know, they might churn within the first three months because they. That's where most technology projects fail and it's adoption that is the issue. It's not that the tech's been miss Sold in any way. It's that they are uh, struggling to actually force it on the. On the people. So that's a really interesting thing. I am with you. I can understand why some people are naturally resistant to AI because they're having it forced upon them in a way that isn't right. And Creative People is a very good example of that. Where of course you're going to be absolutely mortified to think that somebody somewhere thinks that ah, this language model can do what you do. And it's. Of course it can't. And. But uh, I think that's what is causing them to be resistant. I don't think they're resistant to the technology itself. It's their resistance to the way that as humans some people are ah, uh, expecting us to use it.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah. So, um, to give you an example, uh, and actually this is a panel that I'm presenting to. To do at uh, south by Southwest here in London in a few months time. Um, there's uh, this, this music, uh, or more than a music. There's this whole album that was generated. Was created in Brazil. Um, ah, with AI. Uh, it is. And the most famous music that they have, it's called uh, Predador de Perereca.

Donna: Don't ask me to say that one. No.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah. And I won't translate because it's very nasty. So if you are here, you Google it. It's like very, very. Yeah, it's like relate. Sexual kind of prisma. This guy in Brazil, that student from a university. He who was, he was in university. He dropped out now. Uh, he was studying advertisement, uh, or something like that. He created or used AI to create music um, that blend the. The tr. The. The funk of Brazil, the Brazilian funk lyrics with a style of uh, disco music like Marvin Gaye and I don't know Ting Mai, it's a Brazilian. And create like this whole thing. Um, I'm not judging if it's a good quality of music or not. Good quality. I'm not a musician, that's not my expertise. But this has been gone viral all across the globe. Millions of people listen to it dancing and doing stuff on TikTok. Um, so that's interesting. And I'm not sure that we are having like this new form of music and art. Uh, it's compromising the other tradition. I don't know, I mean, we can have both.

Donna: I'm not sure that it is. Have you familiar with K Pop Demon Hunters?

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah, well, yeah, my kids, they love it.

Donna: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've got kids?

Rodrigo Malakias: Of course.

Donna: I have my own Baby Saga Saga at home. You know, my son dresses up as Baby Saga all the time and uh, he absolutely loves him and uh, there's a lot of AI going on there and I think he's fantastic. It's so good. But it doesn't mean that my son doesn't also love, you know, some of the other kind of human music that he listens to. So I, I think that's. Right. There's, there's, there's room for both. And I suppose that's something that maybe has always been the case. If you look back, it's like actually we're not asking you to choose between one or the other. Uh, we're asking you to, to grow.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah. And um. And they can, yeah, they can have the same space. I don't know. Or different space. I don't know. Personally, I don't know. I don't, I don't listen to Predator. It's not my kind of music, but does not bother me. It's kind of fun to look like, uh, influencers. They are doing the dances and what's the problem? I don't know.

Donna: Now that is such an. I could talk about that for ages. That's such a, such an interesting topic. Um, and uh, something else you have on your LinkedIn, uh, strap line. So I know you don't mind talking about it is you're running. Yeah. I think that when aspiring founders and people, other people that listen to this show hear you, they are going to want to emulate a little bit of like the way that you are. Because let's break this down now from what we've learned about you today, and there may be even more, you are a book writer, you are lecturing, you have one large business which is very successful. And then you have the. Not to undersell it, the spin off business as well, which is an A.I. uh, it's taken you two years to build this, this, this A.I. tool. And yet a, you're sitting here with seemling all the time in the world talking to me today, which is lovely. Um, and you're very chilled and relaxed. Um, so what's your secret? Like, how do you manage to create this kind of mental capacity to fit all of this stuff in and still just seem so happy?

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah, I'm not that chilling. Relaxed. Uh, maybe I Can bet. No, I don't know. I don't know. Should talk with my wife. She'll have a different view about my being relaxed. Look, um. Um. Before being, uh, entrepreneur, I was working in a multinational company. Um, I was leading like this implementation area of multinational in Latin America with different countries, 200 people under management. So like big thing. We were using AI and a lot of other technologies. Uh, um. At that time, um, I was depressed. I was, uh, taking pills. Uh, um. I was in, um, automatic mode. I uh, was just doing what I had to do until I pushed myself too much and I had a convulsion while, uh, I was working, uh, in the middle of the office, uh, in Brazil. And. And then I don't remember it because I was convulsion and I felt I broke my shoulder and that it. Yeah. From the fault. Um. Ah, there were uh, people that. They put a circle behind me. They gave people in Brazil, they have really religions and they give hands. They start to pray for me not to die. And then, um. Yeah, and then definitely something was wrong and was. Yeah, that, um. I mean, that's not the life. Um, very interestingly, it wasn't quick for me to make the change. I think that, uh, it was a process to change, to adapt and to find a new. A new way of living. And um. And very recently I started running, or I had been running like, not like consistently throughout my life, but it has been a sport that has always been there with me. And now I'm doing just more serious and. And it's helping me, uh. I mean, I mean m. It really helps to clear my mind, to be more creative, to have more energy, um, to be outside to. So very often when the weather allows, I'm running by. By the front sea and there in Brighton. It's lovely. I really enjoy. So. So, yeah, that's uh, the running. It's a. It's an important element that I bring with me now. And every time that I'm traveling, I try to go with, um. I'm having like these running shoes that allow me to be like running shoes and also working shoes. So posh.

Donna: Very nice. Yeah, very, very nice one.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah. But yeah, that's not allow me to. To run easily and yet to be traveling and run.

Donna: So yeah, it's something that I'm a big advocate for is, um, using exercise as a. As a way to. To help our mental health without. Um. I understand that, you know, often medication is the only answer. Um, but I do think that there's a middle ground and I think that middle ground lies with movement and taking care of ourselves and that can. Some people hate running and they would get very stressed if you went to find your thing.

Rodrigo Malakias: But. Yeah, but moving somehow.

Donna: Movement is so good for the mind and the soul and definitely. I mean, I'm like a coil spring most of the time, but I dread to think what I would be like if I didn't exercise twice a day. I think, um, I would lose my mind. So I'm totally, totally with you on that one. And I would advise anybody that's just feeling like the walls are closing in every now and again, um, just to get outside and move.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah. If you're overwhelmed, just go for a walk, start there and find your thing. It's, uh, yeah, it's. For me, it's a very important advice.

Donna: And you've got family as well, you've got kids. They're quite good at getting you out and about, aren't they? And, um, I mean, walking around Legoland is not the nicest thing, but at least you're moving. Yeah, yeah.

Rodrigo Malakias: No, everything that makes you move, that's, it's important. It's like, uh, nowadays a lot of people, not that often, but yeah, there's working from home, doing everything from home. Don't go outside, don't see people. I don't know if that's, that's healthy. Yeah.

Donna: I'd be interested to know what people think about this because maybe it is because my body is so used to moving all of the time, but if I ever do have one of those days where I'm stupid enough to have a call with maybe someone in APAC first thing in the morning and then I don't move and I'm still on with someone from like us in the evening. It happens every now and again and. Wow. I feel like. I feel like I'm getting the flu.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah.

Donna: I feel physically ill afterwards and I know that I'm not getting that, but literally like my throat will, will be sore, I'll feel sick. And um. And it's my body just saying you, you, um, you're. You're dying.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah. Yeah.

Donna: You actually need to get outside. I'll be interested to see what other people think of it. That, and maybe not as obsessive with it as I am because I think that my body is actually dying if I'm not moving. But yeah, I think it's something that I see a lot of, uh, successful founders being absolutely kind of non negotiable. I have to, you know, do that. Chris was really um, interesting. Who was sat there the other week? He does 100 burpees a day. He, like, just gets off his. Because he works from home, he's like, um, doing copy and doing, um, like, conversion materials. And, um, I imagine you could get right into that for, like, eight hours and not move. So he makes himself get up and do all of these burpees, and if he puts it on, it puts it on Instagram and everything else. So, again, you know, burpees, not for

Rodrigo Malakias: everybody, but you have to find there's. There might be some whatever sort of sport that everybody should enjoy. So you have to allow yourself to try, I think, and then, yeah, be out there and. Yeah. And not be shy to. To quit and try something new. I don't know. You can start doing, I don't know. I don't know, whatever. Climbing, walking, running, horse. Uh, riding. I don't know. You just.

Donna: Change is brilliant, isn't it, for the creativity. It can kind of unlock parts of your brain that you didn't know you had because you're pushing yourself. Um, and often can unlock things that, uh, eventually convert to, you know, growing the business in some way as well. So I want to make sure I've not missed anything, because we now know about your background. We know that it's not all been, you know, sunglasses and roses and however you say it, um, we know about the business and the business that you're running now. The AI business. You are a runner. Have you done the marathon yet?

Rodrigo Malakias: No.

Donna: You're working towards a marathon. When can we expect to see the marathon? Come on, have some accountability here.

Rodrigo Malakias: I just have to book a one.

Donna: Uh, just get it.

Rodrigo Malakias: But I think that maybe, I don't know.

Donna: Brian's good.

Rodrigo Malakias: The Brian tone.

Donna: Yeah, Brian's really renowned, isn't it? I think you should definitely do Brighton. Do your home. Home ground first and then. Then venture out, maybe. Or New York. New York is.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah. No, my. My first marathon. I want to be closer to home if I. If I don't feel well.

Donna: Yeah.

Rodrigo Malakias: But, yeah, after that I can start, like, uh, venturing out a little bit. Should be a good first one. Should be in April. Let's see. I'll let her know.

Donna: I will. I will definitely look out for that. And then we've got the book, we've got the lecturing. Have I missed anything? Is there anything about you that we don't know?

Rodrigo Malakias: Oh, no, there's a lot of things. No, but we shouldn't be discussing.

Donna: Yes, it's a family show.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah. Yeah. No, I Think. No, I think that um, overall it's very well covered.

Donna: Yeah. And so I suppose the burning question is what's next to answer what's next.

Rodrigo Malakias: Allow me to talk a bit on what we have been doing. So um, we were invited, my co founder and myself, uh, here to the UK by the government. Um, uh, there's this uh, program that's called Global Entrepreneur program. Uh, they scout. Actually yesterday I was in a dinner of the 20 year of this program and they actively scout uh, international founders who are doing something interesting that they found that could contribute to the economy. Invite us over here to the uk um, throughout this program. I don't know, it has passed like 400 founders or something like that in this uh, 20 years. Um, and uh, uh, and for us, uh, so I'm Brazilian. We started in Chile. We have grown in 13 different countries. The consultancy firm. But uh, uh, but being here and in, in the UK had helped us a lot. Not just to do business here in the UK and we are already having like good conversations with good tier one banks here and some pilots. Agreed. So yeah, business picking up here, but being here, it is also allowing us to export uh, quite fast. Um, we have been just accepting to our acceleration program in New York now to another one in Miami. Uh, we are also doing business now also in Nigeria, in Mexico. So uh, having like this UK brand is allowing us to, not just to develop our business here, but to go abroad very quickly. And then a very long answer to your very specific question. So great, so our feature is like that. No. So, um, we are building a global business. We have this ambition. We are building a multi billion global business. Uh, and uh, so yeah, we are going to keep on traveling a lot, meeting a lot of people, going to different places and be global as soon as possible and have clients uh, all across the globe. So that's uh. And then eventually one day one big firm will buy us and I'll buy a boat.

Donna: I think that might be my favorite ever. What's next dancer? Oh, really? Yeah. That's mega. Like you are literally just, you've got like half a toe in the water right now, right? You have not even gone fully into the pool yet. Um, I'm really glad that we got to meet at such an early stage before you get so big and important and rich that you would never frequent my, my, my little yellow chair.

Rodrigo Malakias: I'm coming here. Every time that they invite me, I will be here.

Donna: Amazing. Well, uh, I'll definitely take you up on that for sure. I can't Let you go without asking you for some advice. You have so much wisdom and so much experience. And I'm sure that there are founders, aspiring founders, or just people listening to this, um, that would love to tap into your brain for just a couple of seconds. So what advice would you give to people are either just starting out or on the journey. What have you, where have you seen the pitfalls?

Rodrigo Malakias: I would say that the most important thing on entrepreneurship, on my experience, and that's one of the reasons that we have created Medieval Go it is to listen to your clients. Don't um, waste that much energy like seeking investors. And this is investor part of business just drains so much energy and you meet these people that very often they are. I'm gonna read some investors, but very often they are not very nice.

Donna: You didn't mean them though. They're lovely.

Rodrigo Malakias: Yeah, yeah, no, no, I'm gonna be transparent. They are not very often. Like you waste so much energy and preparing your deck and repairing everything and then you have to have a 30 second kind of conversation to present. So drain so much energy. And I would say if, if you can, um, put m most of your energy to listen to your client to understand what they're needing to understand what's going on and build your business from there. And then investors comes along, and then the business come along. And more important to have investor it is to have revenue and then to have real money that comes from real paying customers. That's the thing. So like all this hype thing. Oh, uh, I'm, uh, pretty seed, seed series A, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to. It's, it is just, uh, bullshit. I'm sorry, I don't know if I'm allowed to say that. It is not a thing. Um, you should just focus, uh, on your client. Make sure that they are happy. Listen to them properly, really listen to them. Avoid listening to them with your bias. Be open to their feedback. Be open to change, to evolve, to pivot. So Medieval ego is proof of that. We haven't started like this. We have started with a very different thing that we had in mind. And we keep on listening, adapting, evolving. And I think that very good way to go. And for everybody that want to do that and want to help reach out, you can use mediebligo. We can work around. And then for sure it's a good tool that put you guys in the right way.

Donna: I love how you brought it back. Class brilliant advice. I think there is an obsession. A lot of the clients that I work with Actually pay me to help with their investment deck. So you've just completely.

Rodrigo Malakias: No, I don't want to.

Donna: No, you write most of them shouldn't be spending all of that time and resource and using board meetings and all of that, uh, valuable time to create something as, you know, a show to investors when losing customers. But I do think that as a country we've become a little bit obsessed with like, so where are we in which series are we? And has definitely become a little bit crazy. It's important for a lot of businesses to go through these funding rounds so they can then grow their businesses and invest in sales and marketing and to get them to the next milestone and all of that. But I think there's not enough thought goes into it. It just seems to be an obsession. Just finally on that. Do you think that's a UK thing? I'm asking you, because you see a lot of companies globally, see it so much in Africa.

Rodrigo Malakias: That's not a UK thing precisely, but it definitely is a wealthy country thing. There's more money, definitely. That's a US thing. And, uh, I'll say that when I meet entrepreneurs from Latin America or from Africa, they are more concerned on, let's put it, surviving in the first years and making a business that allow them to pay the bills and the capital is not that easy to. I'm not saying that's easy to get capital here, but definitely it's easier to get here than in Latin America, for example. So if you are starting a business Latin America, you know very quickly that you just have to start selling is generating some revenue. Otherwise no one. So it's not a UK thing, I think definitely it's a uk, US kind of thing. Europe as well.

Donna: So, yeah, it's where the money is, basically.

Rodrigo Malakias: Basically, yeah, yeah.

Donna: Because it's available. It's like when you go to the buffet, because they're available, you eat the croissants. But if all there was was fruit, you just have the fruit. That's the thing is like maybe readily

Rodrigo Malakias: available and everybody kind of had a crash. It's changing a bit, this environment. Post pandemic, the interest rate increased so much. So a lot of top investing and just invested in traditional financial instruments because there it was giving a lot of return. Now it's changing back a bit as the interest rates are dropping, but I'm not seeing that much cash now in the market. It's a bit more constrained than it was like, I know, three years ago. That's good, that's harder. Let's focus on the custom focus on, um, solve real problems for real people instead some fake problem on a beautiful deck.

Donna: To an investor, I think that's a really good set of wise words. We should leave it there because I have already taken up lots of your time because they are so interesting. But I've really enjoyed our chat and would love to have you back because I think we've pretty much just scratched the surface. I want to know when you book the marathon, please tell me. Be accountable so I can. All of our listeners know as well that it's booked. And then we can all look out for you on marathon day. And also let us know when the book is finished is ready for us all to download because I'm sure everyone will want to do that as well. We wish you the best of luck with the business. I'm sure it's going to be fantastic. Yeah. Stay in touch with us. Thank you so much.

Rodrigo Malakias: Lovely. Thank you so much, Donna. I really enjoyed the conversation. Thank you.

Donna: No, so do I. Thank you.