The J Curve

The newest issue of The J Curve Insider just dropped. Here’s what you need to know: ♢ DTC isn’t just struggling—it’s dying. The best brands are pivoting to B2B2C, wholesale, and hybrid models. ♡ Loyalty programs are the new CAC strategy. Smart founders turn retention into recurring revenue. ♤ Shein is outpacing Zara. AI-driven manufacturing, real-time inventory, and ruthless cost-cutting. ☆ Longevity & metabolic health are exploding. The next Nike or Patagonia won’t be a fitness brand—it’ll be a longevity brand. ♠︎ Consumer tech is shifting from software to survival. AI, automation, and hyper-personalized commerce are the new table stakes. Michele Valadão Levy—the operator-investor who built Melissa Shoes USA into a cult brand—joined us to break it all down. 📢 Want a J Curve T-shirt? First 5 to share their biggest learning from this interview and tag us get one! cc Olga Maslikhova 🚨 Get the full insights in The J Curve Insider. 📩 Sign up 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/dg2uT4-x

Podcasting is a business of patience, compounding, and outliers 🦄 This chart tells a story every podcaster knows: growth is never linear. It’s a long game, where consistency pays off in sudden, unpredictable surges. This season, the outlier episode was with Paulo Passoni—a conversation that took off and reinforced what I’ve seen before: certain episodes break through in ways that reshape the entire trajectory of a podcast. The Andre Penha episode is following the same viewership dynamic. These spikes aren’t accidents; they’re the result of years of consistency, trust, and distribution power built over time. I’m incredibly bullish on long-form podcasting as a medium. It’s one of the most lucrative distribution opportunities for founders, investors, and operators who want to shape narratives and drive impact. The ability to go deep, tell real stories, and capture attention in an increasingly fragmented digital world is an unmatched asset. And this impact extends beyond just numbers. We’re building something much bigger for Latin America and Brazil—a space where ambitious founders, investors, and operators can connect, learn, and push the ecosystem forward. The future of The J Curve isn’t just about growing listenership. It’s about compounding influence, knowledge, and opportunity—for LATAM and beyond. Let’s keep building.

Last time I was in Mexico was eight years ago. A lot has changed since. Back then, the fintech scene was just emerging—today, Mexico is one of the hottest fintech markets in the world. This coming week, I’m heading to Mexico for the second time to record a number of episodes on fintech and crypto and meet some of the most high-impact founders in the space. Excited to dive deep into how Mexico’s fintech revolution is unfolding and what’s next for the ecosystem. I’ll have a couple of hours to be a tourist—what places should I visit? Who’s a must-meet entrepreneur / investors in the city? Let me know. Antonia Rojas Eing Federico Antoni (📷: Throwback to my last time in Mexico—looking forward to this trip!)

🚀 From $5B Real Estate Giant to Betting on the Future of Power Some founders build one billion-dollar company. Andre Penha is working on his second. After scaling QuintoAndar into a $5B+ proptech giant, fixing Brazil’s broken rental market, and raising $750M from top investors, he’s back—with a radical new bet. Wireless electricity. No chargers. No cables. No batteries. Just power flowing through the air. On this episode of The J Curve, we go deep on how to build industry-changing companies in complex, bureaucratic markets and what it really takes to win. 🔥 Here’s what we cover: 🔹 The hidden drivers of QuintoAndar’s breakout success – How transparency, speed, and reliability created a flywheel effect that crushed competitors. 🔹 Fundraising is NOT about storytelling—it’s about traction. How Andre turned early investor skepticism into $750M+ in funding. 🔹 High-stakes decisions at scale – How to pick Option A vs. Option B when both could change your company’s future. 🔹 Culture as a competitive advantage – Why firing high performers was the best move for QuintoAndar’s long-term success. 🔹 Why wireless power is inevitable – And how IBBX is betting that in 10 years, plugging in your phone will sound as ridiculous as dial-up internet. “If your idea sounds crazy, you’re probably onto something.” This episode is for founders who make the hard calls, investors who back bold bets, and operators who know that breaking an industry starts with seeing what everyone else ignores. 🎧 Listen / watch on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eKrk3n8j 📩 Subscribe to The J Curve Insider: https://lnkd.in/eaB93vzH 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/edTYdmJH Let’s get into it. 🚀 Olga Maslikhova #startups #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #fundraising #scaling #deeptech #wirelesspower #TheJCurve

How do you scale a startup in a fragmented, bureaucratic market where everyone tells you it’s impossible? You rewrite the rules. Andre Penha did just that with QuintoAndar, turning Brazil’s broken rental market into a $5B+ real estate behemoth and raising $750M from top investors along the way. Now, he’s back at it—this time, trying to make power cords, chargers, and batteries obsolete with IBBX, a company betting on wireless electricity as the next trillion-dollar industry. This episode of The J Curve is packed with raw, founder-first insights on what it really takes to build, scale, and raise in complex markets. Here’s what we cover: ♢ The real reason QuintoAndar took off—why transparency, speed, and reliability turned a struggling marketplace into Latin America’s biggest proptech company. ♢ Fundraising is NOT about storytelling—it’s about product—how Andre turned investor skepticism into $750M+ in funding. ♢ How to make high-stakes decisions—choosing between Option A vs. Option B when both could change the company’s trajectory. ♢ The boardroom advantage—why lean, no-BS boards separate companies that scale from those that stall. ♢ Why wireless power is inevitable—and how IBBX is betting that in 10 years, no one will ever plug in a device again. Andre doesn’t just build startups—he rewrites the playbook for entire industries. 🎧 Listen now: [link in comment] 📩 Subscribe to The J Curve Insider: blog.thejcurve.com 📺 Follow us on YouTube: @thejcurvepodcast If you’re scaling, fundraising, or betting on the next big tech shift, this episode is a must-listen. Let’s get into it. 🚀 Thank you to my dear friend Marcelo Sampaio for introducing me to Andre. cc Paulo Passoni Bianca Martinelli

LATAM’s biggest untapped VC opportunity: Operator-led funds Some of the best investors in Latin America won’t be ex-bankers or consultants. They’ll be operators—founders and executives who’ve built, scaled, and survived in the region. And here’s why: ⚡ LATAM is a battlefield, not a playbook – No plug-and-play strategies here. Operators who’ve fought through regulatory chaos, built distribution from scratch, and hacked growth in fragmented economies have the edge to guide founders through the fire. 💰 Too much spreadsheet VC, not enough founder-first capital – Many LATAM investors still act like private equity shops, focused on financial gymnastics over real operational support. Operators know what it actually takes to win—because they’ve done it. 🔥 Cash isn’t King, capital efficiency is – In a region where fundraising is hard, burn rates can kill you, and capital is scarce, only those who’ve bootstrapped, scaled, and exited know how to spot resilient, capital-efficient businesses before they break out. 🤝 Operators earn instant credibility with founders – Raising money isn’t just about valuation; it’s about trust. Operators have lived the pain, scaled the chaos, and fought the hiring wars—so when they invest, founders know they’re backing real partners, not just check-writers. 🧠 Winning in LATAM is about talent, not just capital – The hardest problem isn’t just money—it’s building A+ teams in a talent-constrained market. Operator-VCs bring battle-tested hiring playbooks and deep networks, helping founders scale faster. 📊 The data says it all: 💥 In the US, 60%+ of top-performing early-stage funds have at least one former operator as a GP. 💥 In LATAM, 80%+ of unicorns were built by repeat entrepreneurs, yet few transition into venture. 💥 Globally, operator-led funds are outperforming traditional VC by delivering real operational leverage. My bet: The next generation of VCs in LATAM won’t come from Faria Lima or PE firms. They’ll be the founders who built this ecosystem from the ground up.

How many profitable $5B proptech companies do you know? My guess—not many. Real estate is one of the toughest sectors to disrupt, and the graveyard of startups that tried and failed is long. But the ones that succeed, do so by going against conventional wisdom. If you’re building something truly innovative, don’t expect consensus. In fact, if everyone agrees with you from day one, you’re probably not innovating at all. The greatest breakthroughs—the ones that change industries, habits, and behaviors—are almost always met with skepticism. When the iPhone launched, critics dismissed it because it wasn’t a BlackBerry. No keyboard, no way it could work. Fast forward, and no one carries a phone with a keyboard anymore. Real innovation is stubborn. It forces the market to catch up, not the other way around. This is exactly what we discuss with Andre Penha, co-founder at QuintoAndar and CEO of IBBX in the upcoming episode of The J Curve. We dive into what it takes to build at the intersection of real estate and tech, why consensus is overrated, and how to spot opportunities others ignore. Drops Tuesday. 🎙️

Olga Maslikhova invited me to participate in The J Curve podcast, where we talked about QuintoAndar, IBBX Wireless Energy and innovation. it was a very pleasant conversation. It airs this Tuesday, February 25th. Stay tuned! Thanks for hosting, Olga!

As I continue to entertain the idea of building a venture capital firm in Latin America (at some point), I’ve become obsessed with questioning my assumptions. What works, what doesn’t, and what are the structural realities of LatAm that fundamentally reshape how a VC firm should be built. One belief I held—until my recent conversation with Paulo Passoni—was that M&A could be a viable exit strategy for venture capital in LatAm. Paulo’s argument made me think deeper on the subject. His take is that M&A is a trap for venture investors. It works in private equity, where entry multiples are low, but it fundamentally breaks down in a power-law-driven asset class like venture capital. Here’s why: 1. Power Laws Don’t Work on $200M Exits – Venture capital is an outlier business. It’s the 10x+ returns that make the model work, and M&A simply doesn’t deliver those outcomes in LatAm. Paulo pointed out that while 70% of portfolio companies may ultimately exit via M&A, at least 30% need to go public for the fund math to hold. Without IPO-scale outcomes, venture firms cannot generate the kind of returns their LPs expect. 2. The ~$200M Exit Ceiling vs. $500M Entry Valuations – In LatAm, acquisitions tend to land between $100M and $300M. That is a fundamental problem when venture firms are entering deals at $500M+ valuations. Underwriting for M&A means banking on 3-4x revenue exits, but that does not work in an industry where returns are concentrated in a handful of massive wins. 3. M&A is a Game of Adverse Selection - If you want to build a portfolio that relies on M&A exits, you need to be extraordinarily disciplined on entry valuations. You need to invest at 3x revenue or lower because you will likely exit at the same multiple. But here’s the problem: The best companies in LatAm are never going to let you in at that price. The moment you try to execute this strategy, you end up backing second-tier businesses rather than companies with a real shot at compounding into billion-dollar enterprises. The Only Exit That Works in Venture: IPOs M&A alone does not produce venture-scale returns. The only viable strategy is underwriting for companies that can go public. That does not mean every investment needs to IPO, but if at least 30% of a portfolio isn’t IPO-track, the model breaks. This changes the entire way we should think about venture in LatAm: • If a company is not potentially IPO-able, it shouldn’t be a venture investment. • The IPO threshold is rising, with U.S. markets demanding $300M+ in revenue at strong margins. • The right way to think about exits is not just finding acquirers, but pre-selecting the founders and businesses that could become the next MercadoLibre or Nubank. Everything else is just private equity with bad economics.

The newest issuer of The J Curve Insider just dropped. Here’s what you need to know: ♢ DTC isn’t just struggling—it’s dying. The best brands are pivoting to B2B2C, wholesale, and hybrid models. ♡ Loyalty programs are the new CAC strategy. Smart founders turn retention into recurring revenue. ♤ Shein is outpacing Zara. AI-driven manufacturing, real-time inventory, and ruthless cost-cutting. ☆ Longevity & metabolic health are exploding. The next Nike or Patagonia won’t be a fitness brand—it’ll be a longevity brand. ♠︎ Consumer tech is shifting from software to survival. AI, automation, and hyper-personalized commerce are the new table stakes. Michele Valadão Levy—the operator-investor who built Melissa Shoes USA into a cult brand—joined us to break it all down. 📢 Want a J Curve T-shirt? First 5 to share their biggest learning from this interview and tag us get one! 🚨 Get the full insights in The J Curve Insider. 📩 Sign up link in comment ✨