Greatest Hits Episode: Christian Van der Henst, Helping Latin America Learn with Platzi, Ep 155

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:

  • [1:54] – Splitting time between Platzi offices in Bogota, San Francisco, and Mexico City
  • [2:31] – What does Platzi do?
  • [3:46] – Were you always an entrepreneur?
  • [4:57] – How did you get started with Maestros del Web?
  • [5:56] – Growing up in Guatemala
  • [8:40] –  How Christian fell in love with the internet at a young age
  • [11:26] – Going from Guatemala to Barcelona
  • [12:37] – What were some of the biggest challenges you had to overcome going from 0 to 10M page views?
  • [15:42] – What was like going from being a solo founder to teaming up with somebody?
  • [16:55] – Why Mejorando.la went from live classes to streaming and YouTube
  • [18:24] – Why mistakes are good for learning
  • [19:39] – Why Latino founders should learn to put themselves out there and stop fearing failure
  • [22:53] – Rebranding: Your users care more about product than name
  • [24:15] – Why they targeted the Spanish-speaking market
  • [25:23] – What was it like to enter YCombinator as the first fully Latin American company?
  • [27:30] – Biggest surprises participating in YCombinator
  • [29:19] – Why Colombia is leading the way for international investment in LatAm
  • [31:17] – When did you know Platzi would grow to be something big?
  • [34:25] – Why keep an office in San Francisco?
  • [36:24] – What advice would you give to other Latin American founders when they are trying to raise money?
  • [38:02] – Why should more US VCs be looking at companies from LatAm?
  • [40:26] – Why fintech is so important in LatAm
  • [42:53] – What’s your advice for people that want to start learning to code?
  • [44:05] – If you could go back to when you were first starting Mejorando.la, what advice would you give yourself?

Show notes on Latamlist.com.

Ximena Aleman, Prometeo: Building the future of financial services in LatAm, Ep 154

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:

  • [1:35] – About Prometeo
  • [1:50] – Differences between LatAm and US markets
  • [4:58] – Being an entrepreneur from Uruguay
  • [6:58] – From journalism to creating a product that scales
  • [12:25] – Choosing to specialize in fintech
  • [15:45] – Understanding the ‘elite’ labels
  • [27:15] – The female founder in fintech experience
  • [30:54] – Advice to Ximena’s younger self
  • [35:23] – What’s next for Prometeo?

Show notes on Latamlist.com.

Caterine Castillo, Neivor: The Startup that streamlines building administration in Latin America, Ep 153

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:

  • [2:34] – About Neivor
  • [5:20] – Dealing with fraud
  • [6:35] – Where Neivor operates
  • [7:02] – Becoming an entrepreneur
  • [8:20] – From fintech to founder
  • [9:14] – Biggest lessons learned in fintech
  • [10:24] – Growing Neivor’s team 
  • [13:40] – Fundraising process
  • [15:30] – Jumping to Mexico
  • [18:00] – How to sell in Mexico
  • [20:27] – Books, blogs, and podcast recommendations
  • [21:20] – Caterine’s advice to her younger self
  • [22:09] – What’s next for Neivor? 

Show notes on Latamlist.com.


This episode of Crossing Borders is brought to you by AWS Startups.

AWS Startups supports entrepreneurs in Latin America across multiple programs, including Cloud Credits to help startups test features and extend runway, technical support to help optimize AWS solutions and integrations with your product, and – on the business side – help you build strategic contacts with investment funds, accelerators, and corporations to accelerate your growth.

For more information, check out aws.amazon.com/es/campaigns/founders, where you can access $1,350 in AWS credits for your startup.

Gonzalo Blanco, Quansa: Promoting employee financial health in Latin America, Ep 152

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 Quansa
  • [4:55] – The entrepreneurial ‘itch’
  • [6:15] – Transition from the corporate world
  • [10:26] – On meeting his co-founder
  • [12:47] – Misaligned incentives in financial solutions
  • [24:30] – Quansa’s fundraising process
  • [28:00] – Advice to Gonzalo’s younger self 
  • [29:49] – Books, blogs, and podcast recommendations
  • [31:20] – What’s next for Quansa?
  • [33:00] – Magma Partners and Quansa

Show notes on Latamlist.com.