Julio Vasconcellos: Scaling to $100M and 1,200 Employees and then Cratering | 20VC #928

Julio Vasconcellos is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Atlantico, one of the leading early-stage funds in Latin America. Prior to the world of venture, Julio got his break in the world of startups as Facebook’s first country lead for Brazil. Julio then went on to co-found Peixe Urbano, a company he scaled to over 1,200 employees and $100M+ in revenue. Post the sale of Peixe Urbano, Julio became an EiR @ Benchmark Capital where he met Scott Belsky. Scott and Julio went on to co-found Prefer, a Benchmark backed company transforming the future of work. If that was not enough, Julio has a stellar angel track record with prior investments in the likes of Ipsy and Quinto Andar. --------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Julio’s Background 2:04 Julio’s Experience Running Facebook LATAM 4:27 Markets vs. Founders 5:50 When to persist and when to give up 7:25 Scaling Peixe Urbano 9:25 First things to break when you’re growing fast 10:54 When is the right time to expand product lines? 12:16 What does “winning a market” mean? 13:10 Mistakes made at Peixe Urbano 14:49 What would you do differently if you started another company in Brazil? 16:05 How did your VCs help out when times were bad? 17:24 How did your experience with Benchmark impact you as an investor? 19:28 Staying Focused vs. Moving with Markets 20:56 Biggest Lessons from Prefer 23:00 Best Strategy for Shipping Product Today 24:08 The shift from Angel Investing to Institutional Investing 26:12 Most common ways you have to be cutthroat as a VC 27:34 What to do when you lose confidence in a founder 29:12 Do boards add value? 31:44 Atlantico’s First Fund Raise 34:16 Julio’s First LP Letter 37:26 How do you think about reserves management? 38:41 Contrarian Thinking 40:47 Julio’s Biggest Hit 41:55 Julio’s Biggest Miss 43:19 Comparing LATAM to USA 47:26 Will investors flee LATAM during a downturn? 50:10 When to take cash off the table 51:51 Advice for LATAM Founders During the Downturn 54:03 Julio’s Favourite Book 54:17 Most Underrated Angel Investor 55:00 What have you changed your mind on recently? 55:46 What do you know now that you wish you’d known when you started Atlantico? 56:25 Who is the LP that you wish you had? 56:58 What one thing would you most like to change about startups? 57:31 Julio’s Most Recent Publicly Announced Investment --------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Julio Vasconcellos We Discuss: 1.) Entry into Startups: What are 1-2 of Julio’s biggest takeaways from being Facebook’s first hire in Brazil? What does Julio know now that he wishes he had known at the start of his career in startups? 2.) Lessons from Scaling Peixe Urbano to $100M in Revenue: How does Julio advise founders on when is the right time to launch a second product or market? How does Julio advise founders on the right balance between growth and unit economics? When times are tougher, should founders cut fast or cut slower? What is irreversible? What are the single biggest and worst things to break in hyper-scaling? 3.) Investing: Why Not Enough Play To Win: What is more important, a great market or a great founder? Why do not enough VCs today play to win? If they do not play to win, what do they play to do? Why is greed the number one enemy of venture returns? What are the single biggest investing lessons Julio has learned from Benchmark Founder, Andy Rachleff? How have they impacted his investing mindset? Why does Julio believe you can have a close relationship with founders as an angel and not a VC? How did Julio’s approach to investing change with the transition from angel to VC? Does Julio believe that boards really add any value? If so, how? What is Julio’s biggest investing hit? How did it change his approach? What is his biggest miss? How did that impact his mindset? 4.) The Future for LATAM: Is Julio as concerned as I am by the removal of growth stage capital from the LATAM ecosystem? Does this mean a higher mortality rate for LATAM companies? How does Julio advise founders? How did COVID adoption of technology in LATAM fundamentally differ to the US? --------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/julio-vasconcellos/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Guest on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JulioV --------------------------------- #JulioVasconcellos #20VC #HarryStebbings #venturecapital #productmanagement #PeixeUrbano