📢 Special announcement, humans of Latitud:

We have a juicy surprise coming next week for all of you! 👀

• Is it a discount for one of our programs? – Nah.
• Free tickets for the next VLS? – Ha! Maybe soon.
• A limited edition Patagonia shirt, LatAm VC style, to look fab, glam, and expensive? – What? No…

We'll just say that whether you're a sassy SaaS, building the next Nubank, or worried about transforming the health industry in your country, this still-top-secret thing will be really handy.

So, don't ignore us next week, Lucia! Or you'll miss it!

Bottles and ladders

By now, you already had enough time to read the Atlantico Report that came out last September – 200 pages of pure LatAm greatness imo.

We won't share with you detailed insights about the Report because we ain't LinkedIn influencers – we're leaving that to Gina. Instead, we'll paraphrase what Ana Martins and Julio Vasconcellos shared with us, to sum up their report:

The genie is out of the bottle in LatAm, and it'll be hard to put it back.

We all know this story. Throughout the pandemic, people were forced to increase the usage of digital channels to buy food, groceries, medicines, and more. For the first time, many of us experienced the pleasure of having packages of EVERYTHING delivered straight to our doors – with 1L of disinfectant alcohol, of course.

The good news is that, even if the growth curve has slowed down in 2022, this boom won't go anywhere, and VCs know it. 🚀

However, while investors are thinking about what'll happen in 20 years, we get that you, an overly energized and optimistic early-stage founder, can't afford to wait that long.

So what can you do now to catch VCs’ attention?

Start analyzing your ladder of proof.

"My what?"

Investors are always looking for signals that explain why your startup is the right investment now. It's in your hands to help them build a connection between "this is a crazy idea" and "this might just work."

Here's where the ladder of proof enters.

According to NFX, big promoters of this concept, each step of the ladder is a predictor of risk or success for an investor.

✍️ Rapid growth, a great team, or paying customers are, for example, powerful steps. Hitting them can lift your startup up to a place where investors are willing to overlook some of the lower and less important steps (for now).

👉 The more aware you are of your place on the ladder, the more successful you’ll be at identifying the VCs best suited for you. That's because each VC values one or another step more.

So find the best match for your own good steps. Bring all these data points and help the investor climb the ladder of your startup. At the end of it, there must be a sizable opportunity and a worthwhile investment that screams "I sure as hell can be around another 20 years!".

This explanation was too short for you?

Then go to

or

Our Fellows Ask

‍📌 How do you see the investors' interest in the next years? Should I focus on a specific industry?

If you see the Atlantico Report you'd see that more than 50% of deals done in LatAm have been to fintech companies. So, there is interest. That being said, it’s natural to expect that things that were incredibly hot the last couple of years be more out of favor than other trends once the market shifts.

Considering that, it can be a bad idea to build your company based on investment perception.

As long as you're building towards a really valuable business and can make the case for it, investors should follow. Good VCs have always stepped away from founders that are building businesses because of what they think investors want.

You, as a founder, can look at the market data and say "oh, that's where all the money is going", but it's not always a good idea to follow the herd.

Build a great business you are passionate and investors will follow.

Do you have a question?

⛵ Hot News Ahoy!

Insider asked top investors to nominate the most promising B2B marketplace startups they'd come across, both within and outside their portfolios. Some of our PortCos and community fellows made the cut!

📌 Clubbi:

João Macedo, Marcos Adler, and Alexandre Farber first joined the Latitud Community in 2020, and Clubbi soon became one of our first investments back when the Latitud Fund was just starting. Their mission to optimize the supply chain across Brazil to empower small merchants is one that deeply resonates with our collective desire to drive economic mobility.

📌 Floki:
Fellows Marcelo Espiga and Luigi Rodrigues joined our first-ever cohort of the Explore Fellowship, and have been core members of the community ever since. Floki helps restaurants to find groceries and suppliers to reach customers. In addition to its marketplace, Floki manages payments and delivery logistics for restaurants.

📌 Worc:

Alex Apter joined the 4th cohort of our Explore Fellowship, and alongside his co-founder, João Pedro de Simone, founded Worc, an employment, management, and people development startup for the foodservice industry. They also help their clients to hire, manage, and pay their employees in an easier and more assertive way.

📌 Nuvocargo:

Deepak Chhugani, the founder of Nuvocargo, was part of the first cohort of our Angel Fellowship. Nuvocargo is a platform for cross-border US-Mexico trade that serves a massive industry that's still relatively offline and inefficient, which provides the startup with an opportunity to gain market share.

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-> Every time one of your friends subscribes to our Newsletter, an early-stage founder gets 3 wishes from a genie 🧞✨ So ask them to subscribe!

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