What’s a Latam ‘VCable’ startup and why are Mexico and Brazil key to creating one? (podcast episode)

With a population of over 331 million, the US is a great market to create a startup, giving founders the opportunity to build a booming company without ever having to leave the country. 

However, for founders in smaller countries, particularly in the Latam region, where all but two countries have a population of 50 million or lower, building a wildly successful startup and staying put, isn’t always an option.

In today’s episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, we speak with Sacha Spitz, General Partner & Co-Founder of Newtopia VC, a hands-on venture capital firm focusing on startups in the Latam region, to find out what it takes to build a thriving startup in this corner of the globe. 

Listen to this podcast on Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Listen Notes, PodBean, and Radio Public.

During the interview, Spitz describes how he believes the Latam startup ecosystem is still in its early stages. He also shares how this belief inspired him and his fellow co-founders to create Newtopia VC, to support the new generation of Latam founders that aim to build a better reality for the region and the world. 

Spitz also talks about the influence of unicorns from different countries, such as Mercardo Libre in Argentina or Rappi in Colombia, and their impact on the new generation of entrepreneurs in the region today.

Additionally, Spitz shares why Mexico and Brazil’s founders have a head start, as he advocates that these entrepreneurs have the possibility to build an incredibly successful startup, without ever branching into another country, due to the size of their markets. 

However, he goes on to explain that, for Latam entrepreneurs from outside these two countries, it is essential to break into at least one of these markets, in order to build a big “VCable” company. 

And finally, before wrapping up the show, Spitz shares advice for young startups looking to get the attention of VCs.

Disclosure: This episode includes a client of an Espacio portfolio company