Crossing Borders With Nathan Lustig

Alba Rodriguez is on a mission to solve hunger and malnutrition in Mexico. Alba is the founder and CEO of Gricha, a company that sources crickets as the main ingredient in a high-quality, sustainable protein powder. On this episode, I sat down with Alba to talk about how she came up with the idea to feed people crickets, how she got started as an entrepreneur and what it's like building a business from the ground up. Her story will inspire you, whether you are launching your own startup or looking for a creative way to solve a problem. Thanks for listening! Alba’s quest for the perfect cricket cookie Alba had no idea that she would be the founder of a successful startup in Guadalajara, or that she would be promoting eating crickets for a living. While she was studying nutrition at university, Alba’s eyes were opened to the fact that animal-based protein was not a long-term viable option. With this in mind, she set out to find an alternative food source. As it turns out, crickets were the solution. When proces

Nestor de Haro grew up in Guadalajara, where he learned about the auto parts industry from his father. After obtaining a B.S. Degree in Industrial Engineering, Nestor co-founded Rigs Inc, an online marketplace for selling auto parts in Latin America. We talk about his inflection point from an underperforming business model to a new marketplace model and his advice for other entrepreneurs who are just getting started. If you speak Spanish, be sure to stay tuned after the normal outro, as I am testing a new segment where I put new content in Spanish after we finish the English section of the podcast. I hope you enjoy this conversation I have with Nestor de Haro. Learning to Code: Necessity is the mother of innovation When Nestor had the idea to start RIGS, Inc, he had a partner who knew how to program in HTML and Java. Before the project got off the ground, that developer abandoned the project. Many entrepreneurs would have given up or hired another developer to create the program, but Nestor did not have that

I asked Cristobal Perdomo to join me on this episode of crossing borders to talk about venture capital in Latin America. Cristobal is one of the founders of Jaguar Ventures, a Latin American based VC firm. After getting an MBA and consulting for a couple of large companies in Brazil, he realized that the VC world was largely ignoring the rest of LatAm, so he set about to expand funding opportunities for startups in Argentina and Mexico. He shares advice for managing a business in multiple countries, investing in startups across the region and tips for managing teams across borders.    The need for VCs in Latin America “It’s easy to see the impact that venture capital can have on a region or community,” Cristobal said when I asked him why he preferred VC work over other traditional jobs. He made the point that many startups in Argentina, Mexico, and Chile are overlooked by venture capitalists, but at the same time, these areas have tremendous potential for growth. “There has to be something here that no one is

When I first got to Chile in 2010, it took me five years to understand all the nuances of how business was conducted. There are several important cultural differences between LatAm and the US that foreign entrepreneurs should pay attention to if they want to be successful. There are also very important differences across Latin American countries that should also be accounted for. Here is a distilled list of what I’ve learned about doing business across borders. Adapting to a local culture If you're planning to do business in Latin America, start by learning Spanish. If you plan to do business in Brazil, learn Portuguese. Knowing the local language eliminates one excuse a client or business partner might have to not do business with you. When launching a startup in Latin America, it is also critical to adapt the business to the local market. Even if the idea is successful in the United States, an exact clone in LatAm will often fail. The companies that have learned to be successful at this figured out how to a

Amir Salihefendic joins me on this episode of Crossing Borders to talk about why working remotely is the way of the future. Listen to hear how he helped bootstrap a fully remote company, his perspective on funding a startup and how to create products that help solve real problems. Amir also shares how companies can gain a competitive edge, find outstanding talent and increase workplace productivity by being fully remote. Fully bootstrapped and fully remote Amir is the founder and CEO of Doist, a productivity software that helps simplify and organize daily tasks. Doist was fully bootstrapped and is fully remote, with employees in 23+ countries. When I asked Amir why his team chose to bootstrap the startup instead of seeking venture capital, he said that he wanted to focus on building a product with a great business plan that was not solely dependent on VC funding. Amir was adamant in saying that having a solid business plan from the beginning is crucial to the long-term success of any company. We talked about

Sometimes the best ideas happen while sharing a meal. In the case of GroupRaise, it’s not just ideas that get shared, but a percentage of the profits as well. GroupRaise is a fundraising organization that partners with restaurants across 50 states to offer time slots where local organizations and international charities can book fundraisers in a few clicks. But most people don’t realize that GroupRaise is one of the most cost effective ways of getting new clients into the restaurant and getting them to come back again. Of 100 people who go to a GroupRaise, 40 are new clients, 82 spend more than average and 96 come back in the future! On this episode of Crossing Borders, Sean Park, one of the GroupRaise co-founders, joined me at the Magma Partners office in Chile to talk about how he helped start the tastiest way to change the world. This is a great conversation I think you will enjoy!            Position yourself to lead, regardless of where you are Every entrepreneur could tell a different story of how they

Being able to open a bank account, exchange currency, open a credit card or have access to business credit in something that we take for granted in the United States. I know I did before moving to Latin America. In the US, most people can easily open bank accounts, apply for loans, and transfer money digitally. But that’s not the case for the bottom 80% of income earners in much of Latin America. It took me 3 years to get a bank in Chile to allow me to open a business account when all I wanted to  Village Capital is a global VC firm with offices in Mexico City that finds, trains, and invests in entrepreneurs solving real-world problems, like the Fintech problems I just mentioned. VilCap works to build communities around entrepreneurs and their ventures to improve opportunities for growth and success. In this conversation, I’m speaking with Amanda Jacobson, Regional Manager for Latin America for the Village Capital team. She explains how VC is changing the way people live and work in Latin America and how Fint

In this episode, I reconnected with my friend Brenna Loury, one of the original founders of Startup Chile, and the current head of marketing and PR at Doist to talk about her experience of learning a new job in a new country, the challenges and rewards of working across borders, and how she helped bootstrap a tech startup that now has more than 13,000,000 users worldwide.    Brenna shares how her company now manages more than 50 employees in 20 countries, all of them working 100% remotely. She offers tips on how to best position your company to start working remotely, mistakes startups should avoid when pitching ideas or raising funds and a formula for hiring top-notch employees. The conversation is packed with useful information and inspiring stories you don’t want to miss! How to have a startup mindset Most people are timid when it comes to learning a new language, moving to a new country or starting a new job. Entrepreneur Brenna Loury is not most people though. These were just a few of the challenges she

Juan Vera joins me in this episode of Crossing Borders to talk about entrepreneurial business in Latin America. Juan’s experience as an engineer and CEO has helped him start several businesses, then scale those businesses to Mexico and the United States. Listen to hear Juan share how he bootstrapped his early startups to eventually raising several million in venture capital, and everything he learned along the way. The early adopter Juan shared that his love of building new things and automating systems started as an engineer in college. Even though he is now known for his expertise in the tech space, his entrepreneurial mindset started when he was 17, working in construction and later real estate. Juan said that the term “entrepreneur” did not exist in Columbia around the time he finished college. All he knew was that he wanted to start his own business, so he left his stable job to build a new company. He shares what he learned about innovating and what he would tell his younger self just starting out.     

What would it look like to manage sales teams and business units in multiple countries simultaneously? On this episode of Crossing Borders, my guest Neil Coleman shares exactly what that looks like, and offers advice for companies looking to scale sales teams and business internationally. Neil Coleman is an Irish entrepreneur and technology professional. His interest in tech started while he was attending Dublin City University and he has since gone on to manage international teams for companies like IBM, Google, AdRoll, and Snapchat. This is one conversation you don’t want to miss! You adapt to your team, don’t make them adapt to you That was a key point Neil mentioned when I asked him about his time in India working for Google. It requires understanding that new culture, different communication styles and different ways to motivate people, he said. Neil’s experience as an entrepreneur and tech professional has taken him all over the world and given him a unique perspective on companies with international bu

Most people in Silicon Valley would not intuitively think of building startups in Guadalajara, Mexico. But Mak Gutierrez is part of a team working through Hackers and Founders to support and fund startups in one of the most historic cities in Latin America. In this conversation, Mak and I talk about his background, how Science Fiction has influenced his thinking about the future and the role of tech in the world, and why Guadalajara is one of the best places in Latin America to start a company. The first time playing multiplayer games over dial-up was an eye-opening moment for Mak Gutierrez. It’s always fascinating to hear the turning points that start an entrepreneur or tech startup founder in the direction they go. Mak Gutierrez says that he was always interested in the possibilities that could come from computers and technology, but when he played his first game of “Doom” in a multi-player environment via dial-up, his eyes were opened to what technology might be able to do in the future. We’ve come a very

As I’ve featured Latin American entrepreneurs over the last 24 episodes I’ve learned more than anyone. The insights these guys and gals have are extremely helpful to anyone who’s looking to start their own company or grow an existing one. I decided to share my key takeaways with you on this 25th episode, so what you’re going to hear is a shorter “best of” session featuring a handful of the great entrepreneurs I’ve spoken with over the last few episodes. I also take a few moments after each clip to share why I thought the advice shared is so valuable. And just in case you want to hear each of the interviews in their entirety, I’ve linked these great Latin American Entrepreneur’s names to their original episodes in the bullet point outline below. You can’t learn when you’re talking, so learn how to listen more than you speak. Patricio Williams Becú believes that one of the most important things for any entrepreneur to make sure is happening in their experience is that they are learning. And he’s learned the har

There are many roads to Silicon Valley, but you’ll likely not hear one as unusual as the one my guest today took. Jonathan Nelson started out as the son of missionaries in Honduras and Costa Rica and learned the role of a serving leader by watching his Dad lead a mission organization. But he left Central America for nursing school, a computer science education, and finally headed to Silicon Valley. Today, Jonathan runs Hackers and Founders, the largest network of entrepreneurs in the world. In this conversation we walk through the steps that led him from nursing school to startup founder, how he created an entrepreneurial meetup in a bar that led to an acceleration co-op, and the ways he’s iterating to bring more funding and more improvement to the cultures of Latin America through his company, Hackers and Founders. Why Jonathan decided to sell something other than his time. One of the lessons Jonathan learned as he worked as a nurse is that everybody is selling something, and for most people in the world the

Digital security is a problem globally, not just in the more highly developed countries of the world. My guest today is Marco de Mello, a startup founder from Brazil who has built one of the most successful mobile app security companies in the world. His story is incredible, from his experience at Microsoft to startup founder, and you can hear his entire Journey on this episode. Marco's company, Psafe has produced one of the top 5 apps in Brazil and continues to pave the way when it comes to digital security. In this conversation, the two of us chat about digital security in general, Marco gives his advice for Latin American founders launching in the U.S., tells why U.S. based VCs should take a closer look at Latin America, and shares what he learned reporting to Bill Gates during his time at Microsoft. The advantage of testing an app in Brazil VS the U.S. As Marco and his team were building their business in Brazil they discovered that the growth of technology and its availability in Brazil coincided to crea

Most American investors don’t immediately think of putting their money to work in a place like Peru. But business in Peru is growing exponentially and the startup ecosystem is one of the places some of the greatest gains are being made. Greg Mitchell works with Angel Ventures, a VC company that focuses on Peru and the rest of Latin America. In this conversation, Greg and I chat about what’s going on in Peru, specifically in the world of the Peruvian tech ecosystem, what opportunities exist for both local investors and investors from outside the country, and the exciting things happening in the business community within Peru. The benefits that come from investing alongside other investors who are on the ground locally. One of the most exciting things about the way Angel Ventures operates in Peru is that it works directly with investors who live in the country as well as those outside. This enables investors from the outside of the country to have a greater sense of confidence regarding the direction startups a

No matter where you live in the world, it can be difficult for female entrepreneurs to succeed, but in Latin America it's especially true. In this episode of Crossing Borders, I speak with Rocio Fonseca, Executive Director of Start-Up Chile. We talk extensively about her first startup, what it was like starting a tech business in Chile in the early 2000s, why she moved to the US to study at MIT and work in Silicon Valley, why she came back to Chile to join Start-Up Chile, and the variety of programs within Start-Up Chile, including S-Factory, which focused exclusively on helping female entrepreneurs. We wrap up the conversation talking about where she sees Start-Up Chile heading in the next 5 to 10 years. The hardest part of a startup is effectively communicating your idea. Rocio Fonseca has been involved in one way or another in over 1500 startups. Her perspective on the mistakes and successes founders and teams experience is a unique one. In this conversation, I asked her about the hardest part of running a

Every startup has a growth curve. It looks different for each company depending on many factors, but my guest on this episode says founders need to push their company through its growth curve as fast as possible. Thomas Allier left his home in Paris France to found a startup in Columbia. It's not the normal path of a Latin American company but his decision paid off. His company - Viajala - is now the largest discount flights search engine in Latin America. You’ll enjoy this conversation. Family doesn’t always understand when a founder quits everything to launch a startup. When I asked Thomas Allier what his family’s reaction was when he told them he was going to leave his secure job in Paris and move to Columbia to start a Latin American company, he laughed. That’s often the reaction people have to those who are willing to take the risk required to build a company that adds value to the marketplace. And Thomas is one of those people who has made good on his ambitious decision. In this episode of Crossing Bord

The term International Business Strategy is typically used to describe U.S. or Western companies looking to maximize profits through offshoring or outsourcing, or extending their sales into foreign markets. But Andres Barreto is doing things in the opposite direction. He’s working to encourage Latin American startups to focus on the U.S. Market and scale there, as well as encourage American companies to look to Latin America for the talented engineers and developers they need. Talent is everywhere but opportunity is not. What does it mean for US companies? One of my favorite sound bytes from this conversation with Andres Barrito is the moment when he said, “Talent is everywhere but opportunity is not.” He was speaking to the fact that many Latin American software engineers are immensely talented, equal to their U.S. based counterparts but simply don’t have the opportunity to put their skills to use. Andres believes that U.S. companies that are able to get over the cultural difference and search out team memb

With the success of companies like Amazon, it’s easy to think that new online marketplaces are not going to work out very well, but my guest on this episode has demonstrated over and over that it’s simply not the case. Guimar Vaca Sittic is an Argentinian entrepreneur who has built successful online marketplaces himself and who now leads a startup incubator and funding company that focuses primarily on international marketplaces. You’ll find his story and perspective very inspiring and helpful. A good startup accelerator / incubator needs to be lead by successful entrepreneurs. As Guimar has become familiar with the world of startups and startup incubators he’s become very aware of how many so-called accelerators are making recommendations to new companies based on their best guesses. In his mind, that’s inconceivable. In this conversation, he tells why a good startup incubator needs to have leaders with entrepreneurial experience and success under their belts and what it takes to build a good accelerator th

Codie Sanchez is not your ordinary financial expert. She started out as a journalist, writing about human trafficking and abuses going on just over the southern border of the U.S. That is, until she wrote her last story about the abandoned women of Mexico. That’s when she realized that she needed to be doing more than just writing about the issues in the world - she needed to do something about them. You need to hear this chat with Codie. You'll hear how she’s used the opportunities afforded her as a U.S. citizen to learn all she can about the power structures of the world so that she can leverage them to make a difference. Where does power come from? Codie Sanchez discovered it’s the world of finance, so she got busy. When Codie realized that she lacked the power to make changes in the real human situations she’d witnessed, it pushed her to explore what she COULD do. Her journalistic reporting skills served her well as she dug into the problems and discovered that money fuels most things in the world. That m