Nathan Lustig

Maribel Dominguez, Círculo de Belleza: Bringing scalable technology to the professional beauty market, Ep 150

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast
Posted on by

You can now find the full show notes of the Crossing Borders podcast on LatamList.com’s new podcast section. I’ll still post the audio of the podcast on my blog and I’m planning to start writing more again on my blog, like I used to.

Subscribe to the LatamList Weekly newsletter to get updated on the week’s top tech news and stories from the region.

Thanks for listening to Crossing Borders all these years! If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to reach out here, or contact me on social media.

Outline of this episode:

  • [1:39] – About Círculo de Belleza
  • [6:45] – Maribel’s path to entrepreneurship
  • [20:00] – Lessons learned from a nonscalable business
  • [23:00] – The fundraising process
  • [27:09] – Books, blogs, and podcast recommendation
  • [30:52] – What’s next for Círculo de Belleza?

Show notes on Latamlist.com.

How to Ask (Me) for Help

Category : Personal Thoughts
Posted on by

Note: If I sent you this post in response to you reaching out, don’t feel bad. Read the post and use the template and I’ll be very likely to respond. I didn’t learn this method until someone taught me. I wrote an original post in 2012, this is the update.

I get ~100 inbound requests for help or advice each week. As Magma Partners grows, the volume keeps going up. Most of them are cold. The template I lay out below is how to get me to respond.

I have used this template to get advice from extremely, busy, successful people who I never thought would respond. I can’t remember a single person who has reached out using this method who I didn’t respond to. 

While I can’t guarantee that I’ll respond, if you want to improve the odds 10x that I’ll respond, use this template. I highly suggest trying it with other people too.

If you’re a founder, the absolute best way to get my attention cold is via a Magma Memo. Our investment team responds to 100% of these cold inbounds, and many of our best investments came in cold, including Albo, Yana, and many more. If you want to send an email or DM to say you’ve filled out the form, feel free, but the Magma Memo guarantees a response.

(more…)

Pete Flint, NFX: Tapping into world-class startups in Latin America, Ep 142

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast
Posted on by

You can now find the full show notes of the Crossing Borders podcast on LatamList.com’s new podcast section. I’ll still post the audio of the podcast on my blog and I’m planning to start writing more again on my blog, like I used to.

Subscribe to the LatamList Weekly newsletter to get updated on the week’s top tech news and stories from the region.

Thanks for listening to Crossing Borders all these years! If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to reach out here, or contact me on social media.

Outline of this episode:

  • [2:16] – About NFX
  • [3:12] – From London to Silicon valley
  • [6:15] – Founding companies in different internet eras
  • [12:20] – Criteria for picking travel and real estate industries
  • [16:17] – Checking off boxes
  • [18:43] – Dealing with a crisis 
  • [23:22] – Making the jump into Latin America
  • [28:20] – Recruiting in other geographies
  • [30:28] – Excitement for Latin America
  • [33:02] – Understanding what is exceptional
  • [36:30] – Advice to Pete’s younger self
  • [38:56] – Books, blogs, & podcast recommendations

Show notes on Latamlist.com.

Bismarck Lepe, Wizeline: Building innovative end-to-end products worldwide, Ep 141

Category : Crossing Borders Podcast
Posted on by

You can now find the full show notes of the Crossing Borders podcast on LatamList.com’s new podcast section. I’ll still post the audio of the podcast on my blog and I’m planning to start writing more again on my blog, like I used to.

Subscribe to the LatamList Weekly newsletter to get updated on the week’s top tech news and stories from the region.

Thanks for listening to Crossing Borders all these years! If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to reach out here, or contact me on social media.

Outline of this episode:

  • [1:46] – About Wizeline
  • [3:30] – The vision behind the expansion plan
  • [5:10] – Bismarck’s nomadic upbringing
  • [6:38] – On building wealth
  • [8:29] – Entrepreneurship in the media
  • [10:40] – From medicine to startups
  • [13:04] – Leaving Google
  • [14:02] – Lessons learned from starting, building, scaling, and selling a business
  • [16:33] – Advice on dealing with boards
  • [17:54] – The Telstra deal
  • [20:00] – Starting the next company
  • [22:34] – What it takes to be successful
  • [26:25] – Guadalajara’s tech ecosystem 
  • [32:55] – Advice to Bismarck’s younger self
  • [34:25] – Books, blogs, & podcast recommendations
  • [35:20] – What’s next for the companies?

Show notes on Latamlist.com.