Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
00:20:40 · Rohit Malhotra, Marcus Dantus
[00:20:40] S1: Yeah. [00:20:41] S2: The information they provide has to be something that an investor understands. Yeah. Something that an investor knows to be true. And something that surprises the investor, but they understand it and understand it to be true. An entrepreneur doesn't know an answer, sometimes what they do is that they give you a bullshit answer. And that answer affects them more than it really helps them. I'd much rather have an entrepreneur telling me, you know, I don't know the answer to this, but I'll find out. It sounds very sincere and honest and, you know, somebody that you can work with. That somebody telling me an absolute liar and exaggeration that I know it's not true. You know, that also tells me a lot about their personality. [00:21:35] S1: Got it. Makes sense. And Marcus, back more than 30 plus startups as an angel investor. So you know, tell us about the ones that you had passed and the one that you have backed that taught you the most because those startups have failed. [00:21:55] S2: Well, first of all, I think by now I backed over 80 startups as an angel investor. Nice. So it's it's grown a lot. [00:22:04] S1: Yeah.
00:22:04 · Rohit Malhotra, Marcus Dantus
[00:22:04] S1: Yeah. [00:22:04] S2: I mean, look, there are some amazing amazing companies that are backed, that are grown. And and and, of course, all of them have different problems and different obstacles that they confront throughout their history and throughout their path. And there are some awful startups. I mean, I'll give you a couple of examples. There there was this startup that I invested in, and the guy took the money and left Mexico, he didn't even create the startup. So, you know, that's that's probably one of the extremes. There are also companies where I put very little money, and these guys have done deals with huge corporations like, you know, Unilever or Nestle and and have started selling their products through them. So there's stories in every single aspect. But if... I've learned something throughout the years. Perhaps the most important lesson here is that every company that does well, it's because of the entrepreneurs. And every company that does badly is because of the entrepreneurs. So without a doubt, I can tell you after investing in, you know, over 80 companies as an angel or close to 80 companies and over probably 30 companies through funds that the entrepreneurs are the most important part of the team. Those are the, you know, the the real success comes from the team, not from the idea. At the end of the day, we all know this. It's about execution, not about not about planning or ideas or anything. It's necessary, of course, but execution is truly what makes it happen.
00:23:54 · Rohit Malhotra
[00:23:54] S1: Yeah, I agree on that. And Marcus, you've led LAC's Business Angel Network and now run Fondo Angels. So what does Latin American angel investing needs more to you? Do you need more capital, better deal flow or better educated investors? What is it that would move the engine investing forward?
00:24:18 · Marcus Dantus, Rohit Malhotra
[00:24:18] S2: I think it's a lot of things. I think culturally, for example, we need to change. We need to be less adverse to risk. We need to tolerate failure. You know, there's some cultural things there. I also think that systemically there's something that needs to change. For example, we need more exits. You know, the stock market in Mexico is not that, you know, it's not that active, so it's very difficult to really do an IPO. There's not a lot of mergers and acquisitions between large corporations and small companies in our countries, in Latin America in general. I think that can be mitigated by actually, you know, opening companies outside of Mexico and accessing other markets for exits. I also think that, you know, there's there's even fiscal rules that affect investing. For example, in Mexico, let's say I invest in 10 companies and nine of them lose money and one of them makes me money. I cannot consolidate that in my accounting. The ones that lose money, I just lost it. And the one that makes money, I have to pay full taxes on that. Whereas even as a fund, not just as an angel investor. So I think that there are many things that need to change culturally and systemically in order to truly create more angel investors and create more investment into companies. Companies. [00:26:00] S1: Very interesting. And Marcus, you spend a lot of time in London a bit and across Europe judging and speaking. So what should a founder in Mexico City learn from those founders in Europe and US and what should European founders learn from Latin America?
00:26:17 · Marcus Dantus
[00:26:17] S2: I think that the most important thing that founders need to learn anywhere in the world is that we're all humans, we're all similar, we all have the same opportunity. We just have different ecosystems. Yeah. There are ecosystems that allow companies to thrive much faster and much bigger, and there are ecosystems that don't. And and if you live in an ecosystem that doesn't, then then you either need to adapt to it and and and, you know, get external helps for for for the things that the ecosystem is not bringing to you, or you need to change the ecosystem. But perhaps the most important thing is that we are as capable as anyone else. And we can create amazing companies such as anyone else. I mean, you know, I've I've seen entrepreneurs in places like Silicon Valley or New York or London or Spain or, you know, many many of these or or or, you know, Tel Aviv, you know, many of these amazingly, you know, advanced ecosystems. And when I talk to the entrepreneurs, at the end of the day, it's the same. We we we have that capability. There are some things that I think need to be a little bit more, you know, that need to expand in knowledge in the Mexican entrepreneurs or Latin American entrepreneurs, things like finance or innovation or thinking globally and acting locally, those kinds of things. But I think that the talent exists, the creativity exists, the ideas exist, and the need exists. So there shouldn't be a reason why we are not successful.
00:28:13 · Rohit Malhotra
[00:28:13] S1: Right. And, you know, Marcus, you talked about AI, but what jobs or businesses in Latin America do you think AI will reshape first and how should an SMB owner prepare for that AI revolution?