Jackie Hyland has spent the better part of a decade living, working and studying in Latin America across multiple different industries, which has given her a unique perspective into ways that technology and finance can help serve the region.

After spending time with non-profits, impact investment, real estate, traditional venture capital and the the head of Latin America for Silicon Valley bank, Jackie is now looking at ways that non traditional financing options can help Latin American entrepreneurs.

We sat down to go over her experience and take a deep dive into debt, venture debt and something as seemingly as simple as opening a bank account in order to deposit your US venture capital check.

Check out this episode to hear Jackie’s story and her wealth of knowledge on finance, venture capital and startups in Latin America.

Diversity is good for business and for building economies

Jackie spent time working with a non-profit in Latin America to help women get more involved in business in politics, especially in rural areas. She believes diversity is very important not only for business, but also for helping build economies, especially in underserved markets. We talk about her experience working with an impact investment fund to help both underrepresented founders, but also to solve problems for the bottom of the pyramid. Listen to this episode of Crossing Borders to learn more about why it’s important and how Jackie thinks about getting more women involved in business, politics and startups.

Entrepreneurs understand venture capital, but what about debt financing?

Most entrepreneurs understand venture capital: selling a portion of your business in exchange for an investment. But most entrepreneurs haven’t explored other options like venture debt, invoice backed lending, working capital loans and other structures that are more common in the US than in Latin America. Listen to this episode to learn more about some of the tools that Latin American entrepreneurs can use to grow their businesses, while not taking the dilution that traditional venture capital requires.

Show notes:

1:58 – What are you working on?
2:24 – What are some of the sets of tools related to debt that maybe entrepreneur aren’t as familiar with?
3:47 – Jackie’s background
4:11 – Did you always know that you wanted to be involved in LatAm and in tech?
5:28 – Biggest thing you learn working at a non profit?
6:11 – What was the mentoring program and why was it important?
6:59 – The importance of getting more women into business and politics
8:04 – Speaking of investments, when did you jump into the investment side?
8:56 – What was it like being in the ground in 2012 Mexico?
9:44 – What are the biggest things that have changed in the Mexican ecosystem from 2012 to today?
10:36 – What did you do after Angel Ventures?
11:05 – What was it like transitioning from real estate back into tech?
12:24 – Tell me about Acción, what is and why is it important?
13:16 – What were some of the most interesting companies that you saw or worked with while you were there?
14:19 – Do you have a couple of examples of things that you saw that you can share with people that aren’t as familiar with LatAm?
17:04 – After Acción, you went to Silicon Valley Bank. What did you do there?
19:15 – About opening bank accounts for LatAm companies and how frustrating it is.
21:02 – What were some of the other services that you saw were important for LatAm companies at Silicon Valley bank?
22:57 – Debt deep dive
27:02 – Venture Debt: how it works
28:50 – How can debt products help fintech entrepreneurs?
32:14 – Going back to when you were a analyst; what advice would you give yourself?

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