The interview took place within the context of the event organized by the Decanate of Legal Sciences at the Universidad Siglo 21, titled «Artificial Intelligence: Crisis or Revolution?»

The Transformative Power of Artificial Intelligence

Democratizing Access to AI Tools

During the conversation, Mayer shed light on the rapid advancements and potential concerns surrounding AI and its impact on the labor market.

Recognizing the fears associated with the displacement of workers, Mayer explained that recent AI developments have not only facilitated access to these tools but have also democratized their usage.

He emphasized how AI, particularly in natural language processing, allows for seamless interactions and the retrieval of comprehensive and refined information, saving significant time and effort.

«The introduction of tools like GPT-3 and GPT-4 by OpenAI, as well as similar offerings by Google and Microsoft, has popularized and democratized the access to these powerful AI tools,» Mayer stated.

Enhancing Productivity with AI

Highlighting the need to retrain workers and provide them with access to training, Mayer underscored the importance of optimizing productivity and focusing on value-added activities.

«One often spends inefficient and unproductive time searching for information. In one’s work, the process of searching, processing, and delivering tasks can be significantly enhanced with the help of Artificial Intelligence. It can minimize time wasted on unproductive tasks» Mariano Mayer.

Collaborative Efforts for AI Regulation

The debate on AI regulation has been a topic of discussion in various countries, some of which have opted to ban it.

«These tasks often require a collaborative effort between the public and private sectors. However, it requires careful consideration and allocation of resources,» Mayer emphasized.

Importance of Training and Education

However, Mayer emphasized that beyond regulation, access to training and education is crucial. He stressed the importance of facilitating access to training not only for those entering the education system but also for those already in the workforce who need to retrain to adapt to technological changes.

«I believe it is essential to disseminate, explain, and familiarize oneself with AI. We need to understand that it is here to stay, already present in schools and workplaces. We must pay close attention to individuals who need to retrain,» Mariano Mayer.

Addressing Apprehensions and Bridging the Digital Divide

Addressing the apprehensions surrounding AI, Mayer acknowledged that technological advancements throughout history have often sparked concerns. He acknowledged the fear of massive job displacement due to rapid automation and the potential implications for privacy, ethical considerations, and discrimination.

However, he urged for increased awareness and understanding, emphasizing the importance of disseminating information and providing training opportunities to bridge the digital divide.

Newtopia VC: Investing in Early Stage Tech Startups

Furthermore, Mayer shared insights into Newtopia VC, which he co-founded with a group of successful entrepreneurs, including Juan Pablo Lafosse and Pato Jutard. Newtopia VC serves as a platform for investing in early-stage technological projects, offering not only financial support but also mentorship, workshops, and inspiring talks.

«Our fund operates as a thriving community of successful entrepreneurs such as Marcos Galperin and Martín Migoya. They want to give back and assist those starting their journeys by sharing their experiences to help them progress with their projects,»

Creating a Thriving Community of Founders

With investments in approximately 60 ventures, spanning Argentina and other Latin American countries, Mayer highlighted the formation of a valuable community of founders.

«We have created a vibrant community of founders. Our fund invests in ventures throughout Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, and Uruguay,» Mayer mentioned.

During Day 1 of the conference, he shared the stage with Gina Gotthilf (Co-founder & COO, Latitud), Izabel Gallera (Partner, Canary), Michael Nicklas (Managing Partner, Valor Capital Group) and Gustavo Brigatto (Founder & Editor-in-chief, Startups) on the Venture Stage to talk about the characteristics of world-class founders.

In this article, we will go over the main takeaways from the top-tier panel and explore what investors look for in founders and the recipe for success.

Founding a successful startup is a daunting task, but it’s not limited to having a specific background. Anyone can do it as long as they identify a problem and gather the necessary resources to solve it.

Innovation often stems from encountering a problem, and this exposure can come from anywhere. While money is most of the times required to build a scalable business, raising capital is not always necessary to start a business.

The key is to understand why capital is needed and how it will be used, as well as having a clear vision for the business. 

Observe Opportunities From Problems

A good founder is one who identifies a (big) problem and iterates value propositions to find a solution for it. It’s not mandatory to have a specific background or education; just the willingness and drive to solve a problem.

Solving a problem with an unfair advantage, exhibiting resilience, and having ambition are characteristics that attract investors.

Founders who have a clear vision of where they want to take their business are the ones who capture the attention of investors.

Founding a successful startup is a daunting task, but it’s not limited to having a specific background. Anyone can do it as long as they identify a problem and gather the necessary resources to solve it. Innovation often stems from encountering a problem, and this exposure can come from anywhere.

While money is most of the times required to build a scalable business, raising capital is not always necessary to start a business. The key is to understand why capital is needed and how it will be used, as well as having a clear vision for the business. 

Personality Check: The Need for Passion and Obsession

When considering investment opportunities, investors will conduct a thorough background check on founders to ensure they are a good fit for investment. Passion and obsession are qualities that make a great founder.

Obsession with the problem, obsession with the customer, with metrics, and the storytelling ability are the 4 of the main things that make an amazing founder:

• Conversely
• Not being interdisciplinary
• Having an unbalanced cap table
• Not being passionate about the problem at hand are red flags for investors.

Later Stages Offer More Data

Curiosity, focus on the product, attracting top talent, storytelling, and leadership are important characteristics for founders to have at all stages.

But in the later stages the founders will have to offer more data regarding customer acquisition costs and lifetime value for example, to show evidence of the potential size and beauty of the business ahead. 

Cold Emails ¿Yes or No?

Warm introductions are also recommended when reaching out to investors for their attention. Overall, while there is no set recipe for a successful founder, investors are looking for individuals who can persuade and excite others about their vision, and who have a track record of success.

Sending a cold email or LinkedIn message will not take the startup to the next level in most of the cases, therefore the general recommendation is always trying to get “someone” to make the intro with the VC Latam, it can be other VC, or an angel investor, or a former colleague of yours that is close to someone at the VC, or another entrepreneur from inside or outside of the portfolio; but we often see this as the proper path to capture attention in a faster and deeper way. 

VC firms in the region are still looking for amazing founders to support them in building great companies. So, keep being an entrepreneur, keep being wonderful, keep creating things that are incredibly great, and we are confident that you will secure funds to grow your company.  

GLASS secures $3 million in funding from leading e-commerce and government procurement investors including New Age Capital, Newtopia VC and Alcove Capital, among others. GLASS is a Silicon Valley startup that’s pioneering government e-commerce, revolutionizing a global $3.7 trillion industry. 

Together, investors will fuel the growth and innovation of GLASS’ breakthrough products and services including the company’s flagship product, Glass Commerce, an e-commerce marketplace enabling compliant transactions between government buyers and verified vendors, including small businesses, without bids or paperwork. Glass Commerce is designed to power local Business to Government (B2G) relationships resulting in the purchase of goods, services, software and rentals under $25,000 dollars. 

«GLASS has enabled U.S. government agencies to procure over 5.8 million items in record time. Through our products, GLASS aims to transform governments with category-defining e-commerce solutions,” said Paola Santana, founder and CEO of GLASS. “We are thrilled to have the support of our investment partners as we build a company that streamlines small government purchases, and empowers vendors, both big and small, to sell to the largest purchasers in the world, while also simplifying the decision-making process for public employees.” 

The $3 million investment will play a crucial role in propelling GLASS to expand its impact throughout U.S. government agencies. With a market opportunity of $800 billion in the U.S. and $3.7 trillion globally, there is significant potential for growth and innovation in the government procurement space. Surpassing $4 million in sales, Glass Commerce has rapidly impacted the industry becoming a major player: powering local government marketplaces for small purchases, streamlining operations, and leveraging procurement data for over 31 Federal, State and Local government agencies including State of Florida, State of Illinois, City of Seattle and Mexico City. 

GLASS’ team, encompassing of tech and innovation leaders in their respective fields and company founder, Paola Santana, Fulbright scholar, lawyer, 2x tech entrepreneur and expert in government procurement, developed a platform which earned the recognition as a Top 10 e-Governance Solutions by GovCIO and SXSW’s Top 5 Startup of the Year. GLASS is a testament to the value of its product, team and the impact the company can have transforming government procurement operations on a global scale. 

What investors are saying about GLASS: 

“GLASS is positioned to capture a unique opportunity at the intersection of digital innovation and government procurement,” shared Ivan Alo, co-founder, New Age Capital. “We love to invest in companies in which software can solve an immediate need within legacy industries and where early adoption is driven by the founders domain expertise and unique insights. Most investors tend to

avoid startups that sell to the government due to the perception that the sales cycle is too long and bureaucratic. In the case of GLASS, Paola’s expertise in government procurement coupled with the team’s clear ability to attract government clients with their product offering leads us to believe GLASS will unquestionably be the dominant player in the market over the long term.” 

“Look for founders who are aiming to solve massive problems and transform the industries where they operate. GLASS’ goal is to build the next generation of public procurement platforms in a multibillion-dollar and legacy industry that can not remain immune to the technological and digital revolution,” shared Sara Gandini Gubenilli, Investment Analyst at Newtopia VC. “Moreover, the founding team deeply understands the industry, which is necessary for strategically achieving its vision. We are happy to have partnered with GLASS to continue working towards a more efficient process that impacts the allocation of public funds, making GLASS the number one platform for government procurement.” 

“One Planet VC is thrilled to have invested in GLASS, a revolutionary company that perfectly aligns with our investment philosophy and focus areas,” shared Samantha Brachat, Associate at One Planet VC. “GLASS is leading the way in creating sustainable practices and making a positive impact on society through innovative, tech-enabled solutions. Our investment in GLASS represents our commitment to promoting innovative, sustainable solutions and we are excited to support GLASS in achieving its goals.” 

The funding, along with investor and advisor support, will enable GLASS to accelerate its growth both nationally and internationally. The $3 million in funding has been made possible with investors including New Age Capital, as the lead investor, followed by Newtopia VC, Alcove Capital, SV Links, Kittyhawk Ventures, One Planet VC, Worldgate Group, Alchemist Accelerator and Tubbs Ventures. In addition to the funds, GLASS has secured a powerful group of advisors including Jim Williams, Steve Yankovich, Will Clarke, Marc Shillum, and Dr. Yvonne Cagle. 

More About GLASS 

GLASS is a Silicon Valley e-Commerce startup revolutionizing how governments buy. Through Glass Commerce, the startup is on a mission to simplify every single government transaction – starting with small purchases. Since 2020, GLASS has supported government agencies to procure over 5.8 million items from verified businesses, leveraging procurement data and streamlining operations across 31 Federal, State and Local agencies including the State of Illinois and the City of Seattle. GLASS has been ranked in GovCIO’s Top 10 e-Governance Solutions and shortlisted in SXSW’s Top 5 Startup of the Year. For more information visit www.discover.glass. Learn more about GLASS’ government marketplaces at www.commerce.glass. 

After an initial drill and a fun back and forth between them, the interview spun around Newtopia VC’s mission in Latin America, his current vision of the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem, the current web3 industry landscape after the FTX collapse, and the commitment to narrow the gender gap. 

In addition, Mariano took a brief tour around his professional career, from his experience as a lawyer in the private sector, to his subsequent passage through the public service, and his first steps in Newtopia. Next, the full interview. 

– I am struck by the number of entrepreneurs that are part of the Newtopia family. They have had an important development in the short time they have been active. Do you want to tell me about that process?

Honestly, yes, we invested in a little over 50 projects in just over a year. So it was a very intense first year for Newtopia and we enjoyed it quite a bit, because it was a unique year for Latin America. Those of us who have been in this for a long time believe that this is a very particular moment, beyond this winter that we are enduring. For the first time, talent from Latin America was completely unleashed.

One of the positive effects of the pandemic was that prejudices about whether or not it was possible to transform, improve, and digitize the different economic sectors that were previously in question, were broken. The forced pilot tests that took place due to the pandemic showed that it could be done, and that triggered the entrepreneurs who have come out to seek transformation in the region with talent and technology. 

It is fascinating to see that beyond the proper maturation of the ecosystem that had been ongoing, there was an acceleration sought, in addition, to solve very real, very tangible, very serious and very urgent problems that our beloved Latin America has. The deep transformation movement is here to stay.

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– How long did it take you to come up with Newtopia? Considering your participation in the ecosystem since you started working as a lawyer and going through public duty.

The idea of ​​setting up a fund had been around since I finished my civil service. I wanted to do something regional that had impact and scalability. It was what I saw as a natural step after working as a lawyer and in public policy. It seemed to me that I wanted to continue doing the same thing that I had done all my life, which is to accompany entrepreneurs, but from a different place.

The pandemic started and we began to meet with people who came from different stages of our lives, but all with the desire to do and above all, noticing that there was a match between what we liked to do and what we had done all our lives, which is to help entrepreneurs who are just getting started. What we noticed was that perhaps Venture Capital investing was mostly concentrated on later stages and we were looking to do something earlier.

The most powerful thing was seeing that there were a lot of established entrepreneurs, athletes and leaders of tech companies. They were seeing the same thing and wanted to participate in some way in the transformation of the region. Several months of that process ended in partners and investors, until we finally decided to start Newtopia.

– How do you see the gender issue at Newtopia and all the actions to promote equality in the participation of women in the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem?

We are working on encouraging women’s participation in two dimensions, both in ventures and investment funds. Starting at home, our team of analysts is made up of two women, Karin Tenenboim and Sarah Gandini, who are very good, and we are actively working on getting more and more projects led by women. 

At the moment, more or less 25% of our portfolio is female founders, but we want them to be many more. It is not easy, since this percentage is a reflection of what we get and we want to get many more.

In the most technological digital sectors, there is still a large gap, so it is a challenge for the entire region. There aren’t many female investors either. So we’re starting to out together a couple of initiatives to engage more women investors and we want our portfolio to grow in this regard.

– Although Newtopia does not invest exclusively in Web3 technologies, but also in other verticals, regarding the FTX embezzlement that occurred a few months ago, did you take any action?

In this case, it seems to me that we must separate what individual people are from technology. We find the blockchain theme fascinating. Beyond trends, which are absolutely unavoidable, I think it’s quite difficult to avoid the fact that in the entrepreneurial world there are relevant cases of individuals who stand out and we make them gods, and well, sometimes these things happen. But I think that it does not have to affect the entire ecosystem and all the rest of the people who are working seriously, educating, seeking to change, improve and transform. 

Of course, these are cases that attract a lot of attention, and there are also a lot of people who lost money, it is painful, and there are many people who are having a hard time, but we believe that this should not affect the ongoing profound transformation movement.

Also, I think it was a big wake-up call. There are frauds and other issues that are beyond any control that a Venture Capital fund may have, but hey, I think you also have to adapt to the new realities of entrepreneurs.

– Considering your experience in the public sector, what is your intuition about how the relationship between Web3 and the regulatory body will be? Do you think there is something fundamental that is going to be insurmountable or is there a desire for dialogue?

I see it as unstoppable and it will be a matter of discussing some regulation. In many cases, the regulator’s concern is legitimate and regulations will have to be adjusted to try to respect the general principles of law, but there is no way that a government can stop the development of these technologies, especially in our region where there is a great need for financial inclusion.

The State has its role, but regulation itself is not enough. Ultimately, what we need is financial education, which is an overdue matter in Argentina, there should be financial education in schools, not in the university.

– Imagine yourself in the future, a few years from now, when your time with Newtopia is over because you have achieved everything you wanted and you find yourself in a place with a lot of time and resources available, what would you like to undertake?

Social issues have always been part of my life, always appealed to me and that’s where I started. When I was studying at the university, I participated a lot in a social action group working on different solidarity initiatives, later some more related to law, working in prisons with people who were looking to get out and reintegrate. But hey, basically, I was fascinated by the entrepreneurial topic and I wanted to dedicate myself to helping entrepreneurs because I saw them as agents of transformation that could help others. Also from the public sector I was able to collaborate even more with those who are seeking to transform, and now I continue to do so with a fund.

I have spend all my life at it and tomorrow, from where I have to, I will continue doing so, and the matter that gets me the most is employment, it seems to me that work dignifies everything that one can do so that a person can achieve things on their own and not get giveaways, to me this is radical change. Helping someone to get dignity, seems to me it’s worth the effort.

At present, and after the momentum marked by the pandemic, the opportunities of the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem are endless, and it is more ready than ever to continue growing and innovating with technological solutions for the problems of today’s world.

So.. are you an entrepreneur and you want to get in touch with us to analyze what you are building? That’s great! We really appreciate that interest.
If after reading our Manifest, you consider that you check all of the boxes, do not hesitate applying to Newtopia VC Latam!

Matías Woloski is a pacesetter in the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem. He was Co-Founder and Enterprise Architect at Southworks, one of Microsoft’s most trusted suppliers, and then founded Auth0, a platform with a modern approach to identity that allows organizations to provide secure access for any user to any application. 

In 2021, Auth0 became the fifth of the eleven Argentine unicorns and was sold for USD 6.5 billion to the US firm Okta, one of its main competitors. Below, we share the full interview with Matías Woloski. 

– What led you to invest in newtopia?

Well, when we sold Auth0 it was a big transaction, and I started thinking about… Well, it was a little bit before I started thinking about Angel Investing and making some investments. 

I also started thinking about:

Which people are putting together new, Latam-focused funds that I could trust to make good investments.

And you had the VCs, Kaszek, etc. where I had also invested as LP, but there wasn’t much of an early stage that I liked, so Pato just showed up at that moment, who I obviously knew from when we started with Mural and Auth0 at the same time, and I liked it, and with the rest of the team that I already knew from other places and who all seemed to be people that highly valued community work, which in the end has a lot to do with what value a Venture Capital can provide to entrepreneurs and in that sense I kind of saw them going that way and it seemed to me that it matched my way of thinking about those things.

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– How do you see the software industry going forward?, the SaaS models, the world in terms of talent, opportunities?

I think that SaaS is a category that will continue growing, obviously with the market crash everything slowed down, but there are still a lot of opportunities to create infrastructure and package subscription-based business models. I think an example of Newtopia’s portfolio that I like is Tapi, which packs an API that resolves payment or utility payments and well, there are many other opportunities there, but that is a clear example of “well, I take a problem that has a whole complexity behind, I put an API and I give you access to that API, I charge you a fee for usage”. 

For me there will continue to be a lot of opportunities to set up these types of companies and I think they are the most valuable in that sense, because you will always need infrastructure, B2B is something that is easier, even than B2C, so I think that there is much to do in all areas.

– We know you’re excited about Web3’s endorsement. Why do you think you have to invest in talent creating and building Web3 in Latam?

The Web3 matter is interesting because unlike SaaS, it is an industry or a technological change, or a paradigm shift that is starting. So it’s in another stage. 

But on the other hand, I think the big opportunity in Web3 today is around infrastructure to enable building up from it. It’s sort of the first wave ok there were some before but this last one is all about:

«Hey, let’s do NFTs and let’s go»

It was more about the customer the consumer. Trying to get the consumer is how we hit a wall, which is the option we were talking about. And so, well, that will be resolved over time. It will be resolved, I think, with this idea of ​​transition from web2 to web3, how to lay the bridge between the two things.

That is why infrastructure is what’s needed, and as an example I like, thinking of an example that is implementing that idea or that concept well,  is what TravelX is doing, they are selling the infrastructure to tokenize the tickets for airlines.

So it’s not about being the marketplace, that now everyone has to use and you have to download your wallet and I don’t know what else, but not… «You keep using Flybondi and the app is used to buy a ticket» and you can also have it in NFT to be able to exchange it. 

So it’s like there is this web2 on the front and this web3 on the back. For me it is very valid to think of it that way and in the way in which we are going to capture the mainstream of users. 

There is a metric that seems very clear to me that says there are 70 million active Meta users, or something like that, which is quite a lot, but there are 5 billion users on the Internet. Then suddenly you put it in perspective and 70 million users is enough to do a big deal and to have a hyper impact on society, with new technology.

This interview focused on three key topics:

– The origin and mission of Newtopia VC

– The current landscape in the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem

– The elements that a startup must have to be scalable and achieve Venture Capital Investments. 

Sacha reminisced about Newtopia’s first steps in the midst of the pandemic, spoke about the differences that are evident when starting a business in the different countries of Latin America, and highlighted everything a startup must have to achieve success. Below the full interview.

– How did Newtopia come about and what is the origin of its name?

The pandemic was a very difficult time because many investors across Latin America stopped investing. For my part, I was in the last period of my previous fund and was one of the most active investors in Argentina and part of Latin America. In this context, and some time before the pandemic, Newtopia started to come together.

We had the ambition to create a fund to support early stage tech startups, and we were looking to offer a value proposition to help entrepreneurs execute better, get their startups off the ground, and build amazing companies for the future.

We believe in a more decentralized world and we were sure that there was a new global landscape that was shaping up and was going to be established after the pandemic. And that was what we took into account when thinking about how to name the fund.

We came up with Newtopia as a way to create this new era and the new world that we were picturing, with the purpose of being the engine that is transforming Latin America socially and economically.

– How do you see the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem?

During the last five years in Latin America we have been getting the attention of the rest of the world. Also, 2021 was an epic year breaking all investment records. So there were many combinations of factors that led us to where we are today.

The success of many entrepreneurs who started working very hard several years ago, some of them unicorns, has shown that the region has great potential and has paved the way for new entrepreneurs who are arriving. We are really excited about what is happening in Latin America.

However, the ecosystem is still in its early stages and that is why we created Newtopia, because we want to fill the gap. Supporting this new generation of founders who seek to build a better reality for the region and the world.

– What differences do you find between the culture, purpose and operations of startups from different countries in the region?

Each of the countries in the region has had their own experience in terms of the maturity of their startups. The new generations of unicorns from Argentina were all those companies that were thinking globally from the start, probably because of the conditions of our market, which is not so big and not stable either.

In Mexico or Brazil, it’s a little different, since they have a really big market where you don’t have to leave the country. But entrepreneurs from other countries need to think regionally and find a way to scale to Mexico or Brazil.

In the case of Chile five or eight years ago, most entrepreneurs were not thinking globally, but rather, how to build an incredible company for the Chilean market, which was perhaps small, but really stable and with great conditions. Now we are also seeing entrepreneurs who are thinking globally from the ground up.

– What does a young startup that seeks to attract the attention of VCs and become a scalable model need to have?

At Newtopia, when we analyze a startup we focus and analyze some items in particular that we consider the most important and essential:

• The right team has to be composed of interdisciplinary founders, and with the ability to attract the best talent. In addition, the founders need to be humble, intelligent and open to listening to other people, in order to decide what is best for the company.
• The entrepreneurs’ ability to execute. That’s why we analyze if they have experience with other startups in the past, or if they have been part of the teams of other scalable startups in a country or region.
• The opportunity of the real problem that the startup is solving. It has to be big enough to be attractive to VCs. It is necessary to have the ambition to create a great company by reinventing industries in the future with a long-term vision.
• The competitive landscape. We try to invest in companies that may be the best in the future, so if the competitive landscape is already flooded with companies, we might not invest because the solution is not innovative enough for us.

Currently, and after the momentum set forth by the pandemic, the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem is full of opportunities and ready to continue growing and innovating with tech solutions for the problems of today’s world.

So.. are you an entrepreneur and you want to get in touch with us to analyze what you are building? That’s great! We really appreciate that interest.
If after reading our Manifest, you consider that you check all of the boxes, do not hesitate applying to Newtopia VC Latam!

• What it means to be part of the Newtopia Community. 
• Entrepreneurship as a female founder. 
• The experience at the Newtopia Summit.    

Denise has a solid background in business and a long career in the corporate world, but it was in 2018, when she decided to found For Me, along with Consuelo Chasseing and Romina Mahboub, the first beauty care social commerce in Latin America, with presence in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Peru. 

For Me aims to transform genuine recommendations into increased digital conversion, and facilitates and manages the creation of relevant content along with the content creators of its Latin American community of Beauty Lovers. For Me now has more than 500,000 members, and works with brands such as L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline, Vichy and Nivea.

Below, the full interview with Denise Henry Maffeis. 

– Tell me a little about the community you live in as an entrepreneur. Well, tell me in your own words.

Well, I think the best definition for Newtopia is community. Community of entrepreneurs, where values ​​are shared above all, the value of work, of generating value, of creating an asset that transforms reality from the places that each of us imagines it.

So, in Newtopia I find that there are people like me, who think, live life as I live it and who take perhaps the responsibility of taking charge of the place and the world they want to see.

And for me that is being part of the Newtopia Community.

– To be a woman. And well, in a context where the majority are men. How are you doing? How do you carry that flag? And also if you feel that this is being promoted in the community.

Yes, look, I think that being a woman and venturing in a world that is very much intended for women, because we are in beauty, the gender perspective for the world of entrepreneurship does not exist. Today women have the opportunity to venture, to find partners, like Newtopia, that the truth is what they look at is the project, the executive capacity to carry out that project.

And we as human beings see that we somehow have all the skills that are needed to carry it out. So when I think of my entrepreneurial version, I feel that the universe has become a flatter sector where we can all have opportunities, possibilities and that it also has to do with this individual capacity that is human and that is not gendered, to seek , to search, not getting tired, and continuing to knock on doors.

So it happened to me many times, also in corporate life, to feel that when you get to a place you do have a responsibility to raise awareness that it is not an impossible path, right? then to become aware that being consistent, helping other women is natural to us. But also helping men, to understand that there is complementarity, that there is a place for everyone, that it has to do with in some way, that nothing limits the dream that you have with yourself to fulfill, regardless of the gender you have, the role in the company you occupy or any life situation you are going through.

So I like to think that this social evolution that we human beings have allows us to talk about women and men. We understand that we are different, that we have different experiences and that we can find a common place to complement each other and learn. That’s how I live it too. 

And I also see it in everything that has to do with the federal issue. I’m not only a woman, I’m from the interior, I’m from Córdoba. So, when we come from a conglomerate that is perhaps a little more closed, understanding that you can, regardless of whether you are not in the capital of your country and whether you are at the spot of where things happen, it seems to me that making it known is going to generate that many more women are encouraged, because if the woman is something, she is a great facilitator, a great creator.

Then say come, join and be a part because it’s worth it.

– And speaking of that complementarity, what can you tell me about the Summit, how you have experienced it, how you have seen this union of entrepreneurs, athletes, LPs and advisors from all over the world. How have you lived it

I think that what we experienced today at the Summit, which was incredible, was the word “ecosystem”. Today all the participants that are part of Newtopia, in the creation of its value, the LPs, the entrepreneurs, the entire support team that helps us every day in Newtopia to try to make our projects come true. The truth is that these meetings allow us to share experiences that unite us even more as a Community.

You take with you the anecdote, “ah, who can help me with this”, you take with you like a toolbox, but also people who are very willing to help you.

So above all I stay with that, that the value of being part, of coming, of spending this wonderful day has to do with continuing to grow, continuing to improve as a person and as a professional, and that allows the FOR ME project to continue growing as well.

At Newtopia we highlight our community as a value in itself and a fundamental basis for a fund created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. In addition, we are committed to correcting the gender gap and we want to support more female founded startups in the early stages with tech DNA that seek to transform Latin America. 

So.. are you an entrepreneur and you want to get in touch with us to analyze what you are building? That’s great! We really appreciate that interest.
If after reading our Manifest, you consider that you check all of the boxes, do not hesitate applying to Newtopia Latam VC!

However, at the pre-seed stage there is only limited data available to assess whether a startup could hit the jackpot. There are many things we look for during the initial engagement process that help us predict a startup’s trajectory. A couple of factors in particular help us to strengthen our portfolio, and ensure that our energy and capital are used wisely. 

Based on our own experience, we’ve collected a checklist to guide early-stage startups through the initial engagement process with Newtopia. 

Identifying a Winning Pitch Deck

The pitch deck is one of the most important decision-making criteria for Newtopia. It’s not for nothing that people often talk about how the best unicorns were the ones who delivered the most convincing ‘elevator pitches.’ But what is it that’s supposed to convince us here? How do we differentiate between great ideas and those with real potential? 

Checklist:

• 5 minute pitch. The short timeframe forces the founder to focus on the most convincing arguments.
• Leave enough time for questions and answers – this is often the most insightful part of the call, where we get to learn more about you. And you get to learn more about us too!
• Stories are crucial to convincing investors, customers, stakeholders, and the media. Pay special attention to how you develop an exciting narrative and present surprising facts.
• The raison d’être of any product or solution is the problem. A problem (and its solution) must be backed up with facts and/or relevant statistics.
• Don’t present unrealistic funding round targets. This can indicate that a founder may have overvalued their startup or conducted poor market research.
• Every good pitch acknowledges the competitive landscape. The pitch deck must answer how the solution differentiates itself from the competition and how it can gain a market foothold. Be sure  to include the most relevant variables (these should not be pricing or user experience). 

Using 1:1 Meetings to Check a Founder’s Personality

During the initial interview, we often ask questions about the business model, budgeting, funding and economics of the company. We believe that this is also the best opportunity to assess the founder’s personality. To uncover their soft skills, we pay attention to: 

• What pushed a founder to create their startup? Startup stories often shed light on the founders’ ambitions, ability to reflect, and risk-benefit attitude.
• We test founders’ ambition but also their understanding of limitations. We ask them to outline their vision for the next 6-12 months and  2-5 years. The more fact-based arguments they bring in, the better.
• We look to determine why we should invest now rather than at a later stage. We know the value we can provide them, but do they? 
• The meeting should feel like a balanced conversation. We ask that our founders describe each other in the call so we can understand the team dynamic. We are wary of founders who only focus on themselves as it may prove difficult for them to build a team, lead, and employ more experienced specialists. 
• We often ask a difficult question. Founders must be able to have uncomfortable conversations about finance, ownership, and legal affairs early on. It shows you can withstand the pressures of growing a startup and working with partners. 
• An openness to receiving feedback about the pitch finally demonstrates that a founder is willing to learn and take our advice.

Remember, we are looking for exceptional founders with in-depth insight into a market poised for growth. A driven, passionate and tenacious personality demonstrates that the founder will execute on their promises. 

Important Post-Call Decisions

We’ve read the pitch deck and unpacked the founder’s personality in our first meeting. What’s next?

We don’t commit to an investment decision right away.We take our time to talk with the rest of the team or follow-up with requests for information if needed. A couple of things to remember:

• We don’t keep startups guessing. We are respectful of their time, understanding how difficult the fundraising process can be for founders. We are also very aware that fundraising can be a distraction from their innovation and product development.
• We usually keep the decision-making process to one month, and a maximum of four meetings at the pre-seed stage.

As you can see, testing a startup does require proper due diligence. By taking these steps, we hope to find the most trustworthy, ambitious and driven founders. We’re here to help drive smart funding decisions in markets with massive potential.

Learn more about how VC funds work and Newtopia’s investment process here. 

Guido Kuznicki has had a long journey within the Argentine entrepreneurial ecosystem leading some projects, but it was in 2021, when he decided to found LARA AI alongside Alan Szpigiel. 

LARA AI is a startup that helps companies transform the experience of their employees through a conversational AI interface that maintains frequent conversations with employees, collects information to improve their experiences in real time and builds a unique organizational culture. 

Below, the full interview with Guido Kuznicki. 

What do you feel being part of the Newtopia Community gives you?

What does it give me? First, a lot of value when it comes to expanding our network of contacts from a mainly customer side, for example. Without going any further, we recently had an event where we met more than 20 CEOs from the largest companies in the region. So of course, to generate customers.

And on the other hand, an entrepreneurial community, a community that is as diverse as possible, where there are entrepreneurs from different backgrounds, of different nationalities, where one can learn, meet entrepreneurs with different experiences, as diverse as possible, who contribute a lot of value when one wants to understand how to enter different markets, industries.

So I would tell you that those are the two most important points. But if I could finish with one it would be the fact of understanding how to generate community.

I think Newtopia is excellent at that and has taught us a lot, at least us in the company, to understand how to generate the concept of community in our company, from Lara AI to the rest of the people who listen to us.

What learnings, opportunities or thoughts did you have about the software industry in Latam and specifically about the SaaS model?

Well, the SaaS or Software-as-a-Service model, we saw that in recent years, more than anything, it began to have a boom in the Latin American region. There is not much Software-as-a-Service in the region.

In fact, if we think about it, companies, people, most of the SaaS that are used are global and there are many local needs that are not covered because the Software-as-a-Service or SaaS companies were created globally, cover global needs or perhaps of more developed markets and we, let’s say, the whole litter of SaaS companies in the last two or five years are companies covering local needs for local Latin American markets, so I think there are a lot of opportunities that are going to emerge more and more for Software-as-a-Service companies in the next 2 to 5 years in the region.

What feelings, thoughts, convictions do you take away from the summit

There are a lot. Every time I come to a Newtopia event I take something new with me, always exceeding expectations, because I know a lot of entrepreneurs, let’s say, super important personalities who leave you with a little lesson.

So if I could take something from today, it’s always good to stop the ball from day to day operations a little and come to this type of event where you can enrich yourself with a little bit of knowledge and other people’s experiences that add to your day to day.

At Newtopia we highlight our community as a value in itself and a fundamental base that echoes the origin of a fund created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. 

We are convinced that in Latin America there is still much to be done in SaaS and many other industries, and we are excited to continue supporting entrepreneurs who seek to seize these opportunities to transform the region with the implementation of technological solutions.

So.. are you an entrepreneur and you want to get in touch with us to analyze what you are building? That’s great! We really appreciate that interest.
If after reading our Manifest, you consider that you check all of the boxes, do not hesitate applying to Newtopia Latam VC!

It’s also incredible that we’ve held over 70 workshops, organized 2 Academy Week events and hosted the very first Newtopia Summit, with more than 400 attendees at our community events. Our Newtopia partners themselves attended more than 40 events, while we’ve been featured over 100 times in the press. 

Let’s take a closer look at some of these milestones together.

A 2022 Packed Full of Highlights 

Academy Week in Punta del Este (March)

• Uruguay hosted the Academy Week from the 7th until the 11th of March. In this event, founders from 13 of the most promising startups in Latin America, partners of our fund, unicorns and figures from the ecosystem met in person to live a week with an intense agenda.
• Workshops, talks, mentoring sessions, pitch practice, networking where entrepreneurs (new, not so new, and others very experienced) collaborated side by side. 
• Some of the participating figures were Marcos Galperin, co-founder and CEO of Mercado Libre; Matias Woloski, founder of Auth0; Agustina Fainguersch, new Regional Director of Meta; Sean Summers CMO of Mercado Libre; Facundo Garreton, founder and CEO of Terraflos; Elad Levy, co-founder of Dive and House of Fun; Maximiliano Casal, co-founder of Nowports; Guido Vilariño, Director of DevOps at Mural, among others.

Academy Week in Miami (June)

• Our LatAm community got together in June at the Newtopia Academy Week in Miami. 
• The mega five day on-site event included learning and enjoyment for the batch 3 entrepreneurs.
• 15 fireside chats, 4 workshops, 2  community events. 3 unicorns, 1 NBA Hall of Famer. 
• We connected entrepreneurs with knowledge, by inviting speakers, founders of the leading companies of Latin and North America, that have had success and failures, many of them have already become unicorns. 
• We held events with other funds, investors and advisors, who were able to meet and interact with them and put a face to every project. 
• It was an ideal occasion to learn and network. The methodology of the event was suitable for the participants to have a dialogue, ask, clear out doubts, and request advice firsthand.

1st ever Newtopia Summit (November)

• Newtopia VC held the first edition of Newtopia Summit on November 2nd, 2022. Held in Buenos Aires, the event included a range of presentations from startups in the portfolio, the latest investor report and panels on a range of topics including web3, an analysis of the current political, technical and economic conditions in markets in addition to sharing the Q3 investors report with the limited partners present. 
• The 400 attendees who joined us over the 4-day period included entrepreneurs, investors, LPs, CEOs and managers, partner VCs, mentors, advisors, teams and partners from different parts of the world, all with a shared passion for LATAM’s thriving ecosystem.

Newtopia and our Portfolio Startups in the Media

We’re so pleased to have been featured in media outlets from around the world, including:

• TechCrunch (Pato Jutard interview)
• Bloomberg Línea
• Bloomberg News
• The OrgCom
• Latin America Reports
• The Sociable (Brain Bytes Back)
• The Bogotá Post 
• Choose Your Own Adventure 

Our Managing & General Partners at Incredible Global Events

• Diego Noriega – Stanford Mentor Series
• Sacha Spitz & Karin Tenenboim – Mentors at FGV, the #1 business school in Brazil 
• Diego Noriega – The new challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship in Latin America 
• Mariano Mayer – Commitment and action to reduce the gender gap in the entrepreneurial ecosystem
• Diego Noriega – Building for the world from Latam | Nerdearla
• Patricio Jutard – Entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs | Endeavor
• Ethereum Foundation LatAm
• Mariano Mayer – In Conversation with Gastón Remy from Nuqlea at Endeavor NOA 2022
• Diego Noriega – NAVES Seminar | Newtopia’s purpose is to change Latin America
• Diego Noriega – “Great Talk” Series | Tech Startups: What are the challenges of organizational culture?
• Mariano Mayer – Foro Argentino de Capital Emprendedor

An Even Brighter 2023 

We are very excited because this year 2023 the Newtopia Community will have many meetings and activities to share Knowledge and enhance relationships.

We’re looking forward to another year full of investment, portfolio support and Newtopia love. Our plan is to keep building bridges and trust between Global VCs with high impact Latam founders.

Special thanks to the #NewtopiaCommunity with +300 LPs, Advisors and Entrepreneurs. Beside of the Events, they are generating a lot of value through their participation with Mentoring Sessions, Workshops, LP DemoDays and Q&As.

Let’s work together on the purpose of generating a social & economical impact in Latin America.
Cheers to an Even Brighter 2023…