Julio Vasconcellos

“The end of friction” is the theme of @AtlanticoPart's 6th annual Latin America Digital Transformation Report. My top 10 highlights on LatAm tech and VC this year include AI in LatAm, tariff impact, founder archetypes, and venture returns. Link to report at the end of thread👇

Operating in stealth mode is almost always a mistake. Talk publicly about what you're building. You’ll build momentum, get real feedback, and someone will reach out with the other half of your idea you didn’t realize you were missing.

@sama @adamnash Congratulations on this huge milestone!

We have raised a $110 billion round of funding from Amazon, NVIDIA, and SoftBank. We are grateful for the support from our partners, and have a lot of work to do to bring you the tools you deserve.

3/ Play the long game. Be long term greedy. I've had the opportunity to co-invest with Thrive a handful of times over the years. Here in Brazil most notably in Pipo Saude (health) and unicorn Loft (proptech). I recall one competitive round many years ago when a founder picked us to invest alongside Thrive after receiving half-a-dozen term sheets. Allocation was super tight and both us and Thrive were at our lower limits in terms of ownership. Existing investors dug in their heels insisting on their full pro-ratas. We were torn between bowing out of the round or accepting less than our minimum check. @kareemszaki called me up and said Thrive would give up some of their allocation in order to make more room for us. They knew we'd be good partners and wanted the best for the company, even if it implied giving up some of their ownership in the short-term. That simple act was the most powerful message to the founder of the type of long-term partner they could expect in Thrive. With us, it earned our eternal gratitude and lasting partnership.

2/ Be the culture you want to create. A couple of years ago, we teamed up with Thrive to host a small group of Limited Partners interested in LatAm tech for a breakfast at Thrive's NY headquarters. Looking to save money, I decided to handle the "catering" myself, hitting up a local bagel shop early in the morning and lay out a nice spread for our guests. I had arranged to get into the Thrive offices at 7am, before the receptionist (and staff) typically arrive. As I got out of the elevator I was surprised to run into Josh, sitting on the couch, laptop open, plugging away. Things clicked for me. I've worked with several members of Thrive's team over the years and their hard work and 24/7 availability to founders and partners has always impressed me. That culture of dedication comes straight from the top. Not formed by inspirational phrases written on conference room walls, but by the example the founder gives. Every employee would arrive that morning, after Josh, and would see that same image I encountered: The CEO, working hard, setting the pace.

I've had the pleasure of knowing @JoshuaKushner for more than 15 years. Last week he announced Thrive X, a $10Bn fund to continue building the remarkable firm and partnership he started. I want to share 3 things I learned from Josh that you will not hear about in the press. These are great lessons for investors and founders alike. To hear Josh's master class on investing and firm building, @patrick_oshag's latest interview is a new classic on ILTB: open.spotify.com/episode/7nRM1E…

@patrick_oshag @JoshuaKushner You've done it again! An awesome follow-up to that first memorable podcast with Josh

This is my second conversation with @JoshuaKushner. Josh started Thrive in 2011 and the firm now manages ~$50 billion. We cover the iconic investments that defined it: Instagram, Stripe, GitHub, and spend a lot of time on OpenAI. He explains how Thrive thinks about investing today and the three categories they're currently focused on. Josh also talks about how he built the firm – why they keep the team so small, why concentration is core to what they do, and what he's learned from A24 about enabling artists to create their best work. Throughout the conversation, Josh shares the personal stories that shaped him, from his grandmother surviving the Holocaust to lessons from Stan Druckenmiller and Jon Winkelried at formative moments in Thrive's history. Enjoy! open.spotify.com/episode/7nRM1E…

@JoshuaKushner Congratulations Josh and the whole team

We are pleased to announce the close of Thrive X. Exceeding $10 billion, Thrive X comprises $1 billion designated for early-stage investments and $9 billion designated for growth-stage investments. We do not view this as a milestone, but as a commitment to the long work ahead. We view Thrive as a company. Our product is partnership - the willingness to commit deeply to a small number of founders, and to stand with them through momentum and adversity. This is the discipline we bring to our work, and the responsibility we accept when founders partner with Thrive. We do not hedge. Concentration demands loyalty to the founders and missions we back. In this moment, exposure alone is not a strategy. Judgment without commitment is not enough. Advantage will accrue to those who choose deliberately, commit deeply, and endure through difficult moments. Thrive was founded to be an enabling technology for the world we want to see. We are deeply aware that we are not the main character. The founders that we are fortunate enough to partner with are the artists. Our role is to help create the conditions where great work can come to life. We take a long view grounded in the belief that category-defining companies tend to create structural compounding advantages over long arcs. This fund reflects the continuity of our approach and the ways our work has deepened alongside the founders we support. We are grateful for the trust our Limited Partners place in us, and for the opportunity to work alongside those who are building with purpose, integrity, and courage. thrivecap.com/thrive-x

Congratulations @dps and @hbarra on the public launch of Dreamer

Transcript: jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jf…

The full version is worth the 20min (both for the narrative but also delivery): youtube.com/watch?v=QXqlzi…

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." I listen to Kennedy's speech at least once a year and share it with everyone I work with. It might very well be my favorite speech of all time and it seems to always find its way back to me when I most need it. (full version and transcript in thread) youtube.com/watch?v=th5A6Z…

@arampell Very well said. I have always referred to this as the “Dear Sir/Madam”s as that is how the first email often starts. But the MBA captures a much more nuanced type!

"The Comma MBA Problem" and Local Maxima The best entrepreneurs constantly “read the room” (or the market) and adjust their presentation style, their mannerisms, their product description, their team, their focus, their advisors — everything. They have the smallest number of axioms (things they accept without questioning). Everything else is subject to questioning, upgrading, and re-synthesis. Particularly since almost invariably they started off at a “local maximum” in terms of talent and advice. I call this the “comma MBA” problem. One time we had a nice fellow from Canada come pitch us, and on his business card he had his name, followed by “MBA” in the same way a doctor would put “MD.” His slide deck referenced his MBA, his pitch mentioned how everyone is “good at business” because they have business degrees, etc. There’s nothing wrong with an MBA (well, maybe 😂). But what he thought was a positive was not resonating, and he just…didn’t get that hint. And to show I’m not trying to cast shade at MBAs, one time we had a CEO talk about how amazing his tech team was because of their “.NET” prowess — the technical version of the “comma MBA” problem above. But let’s take a step back. Imagine that in our MBA friend’s small town, he went to the local business celebrity who seemed very wise, saying “make sure to emphasize the fact that you have an MBA! Otherwise the VCs will not take you seriously!” Both the good entrepreneur and the bad entrepreneur would seek advice from the same village elder. But the good entrepreneur would quickly learn and adjust from experience — “wow, that guy is wrong — I didn’t get the reaction/feedback I thought I would.” The bad entrepreneur sticks to the village elder’s advice. The good entrepreneur upgrades his/her advisor when it’s clear that it’s a constraint. We consequently give people the benefit of the doubt when they show up with a metaphorical “comma MBA” mistake; the important thing is ensuring they are always trying to learn and upgrade from their metaphorical village elder and resulting priors. And sometimes the village elder is exceptional, too — but it’s statistically rare. It’s part of why the founding team is so important. I like to say that there are only two jobs at a startup: selling the thing, and making the thing. That’s it. A very good technical person who knows nothing about sales can be bamboozled by a bad sales guy, and a very good sales guy can be bamboozled by a bad tech person. Your co-founder ideally serves an “axiomatic” role. If you can’t implicitly trust your co-founder, you’re in trouble. That’s not to say that the co-founder must be the most talented person in the domain! Rather, because the co-founder isn’t angling for a promotion and has no political aspirations, she just wants what’s best for the company and understands how to make the right decisions. (One useful cultural value at a scaling company: “You should always be willing to hire your own boss.”) You will constantly get bad advice. Your job is to know when to discard the advice, but also when the discard the *people* who are clearly meting out bad advice and not doing what’s best for the company. And ideally you surround yourself with talent where you don’t have to second-guess everything and can instead rely on your team — it’s the best way to scale yourself.

@EmmanuelMacron This is amazing.

In France, we believe in science. That is why, on May 5, I issued a clear and open call to the world: for science, choose France. I am very proud to see that this call has resonated so strongly. Around forty leading researchers have chosen France. Through “France 2030”, we have invested more than €30 million to advance health, climate action, artificial intelligence, and fundamental sciences. Science has found its home.

I sat with Mamoon last week in Kleiner’s South Park office and picked his brain on my most-recent burning questions about the venture job and the AI world. Let me share a few things I learned... The full story here: linkedin.com/posts/juliovas…

“You are only 1 deal away from the top of the venture pyramid” is what @mamoonha told me almost 10 years ago when he first joined @kleinerperkins This Fortune profile details his unlikely journey getting the storied venture firm back to the top of the pyramid

@patrick_oshag As always a superb job on the profile

This profile was long in the making 3G is so different, in fascinating ways Dan and Alex are extremely talented and intense The section on Jorge Paulo Lemann is a profile within the profile So much to learn from their invesments in burgers, ketchup, shoes, and shades!

3G's formula was to find the most intense PSD kids (poor, smart, deep desire to get rich) and give them the opportunity to dream big I'm forever grateful they showed what a group of Brazilian outsiders can accomplish on the global stage. I wouldn't be here without their example

With Revolut officially launching full banking operations in Mexico, the “Fintech opportunity” just entered a new phase. The narrative around Mexico's fintech potential has been around for years, but we're now moving from theoretical promise (usually found in VC fundraising decks) to real-world competition between some of the best fintech players in the world. Nubank had the first-mover advantage and proved that the opportunity was real. In no time, Mexico became its fastest-growing market outside Brazil, with massive adoption. That success caught the attention of serious contenders globally. Last year, Plata’s meteoric rise came as a surprise and should be taken seriously. It’s backed by a world-class fintech team and has access to significant capital to support its ambition. Today, after a faux départ caused by a very slow regulatory processes (welcome to Mexico), Europe’s most aggressive fintech is jumping into the arena. And Revolut is entering in the strongest possible position: with a full banking license and serious capital behind it. Nu gained market share by being the first credible neobank in the country, offering a product 10x better than incumbents (which, no shade to their merit, wasn’t that difficult). But when I compare my European Revolut account to my friends’ Mexican Nu accounts, Revolut's product is notably superior. I haven’t tested Plata yet, so can’t comment there. What I do know for sure is that all three have cracked product and engineering teams, and very competitive, ambitious founders. None of them will want to be left behind, and that's promise a fierce competition to be the winner. Who knows, maybe in a few years, Mexico could go from having one of the worst banking systems in the world to one of the most advanced, thanks to these very same fintech players. For a startup nerd like me, this is going to be fascinating to watch 🍿