42Geeks LatAm Tour 2023 Recap - Mark Birch

Global Startup Advocate at AWS, software entrepreneur, startup advisor, community builder, and author of the book Community-in-a-Box

My top five takeaways from the past two weeks touring with the 42Geeks crew in LatAm:

1) Brazil is a massive market and has enough momentum to be a top startup ecosystem by building unique solutions for the Brazilian market 🇧🇷

2) Uruguay punches above its weight as an attractor of startups by being the most stable democracy and economically open nation in LATAM 🇺🇾

3) Argentina has a long history as a country of tech talent from it's schools & IT services industry that has created huge exits & unicorns 🇦🇷

4) LatAm has lagged in startup creation & VC investment globally, but its over 650 million population is a market eager for innovation 🚀

5) There is no better way to get a deep dive on startup ecosystems than to be with 42Geeks to be on the ground with founders & investors ✈️

Most of all, the most important takeaway is all of the new friends I made along the way! So many incredibly talented people I met during this tour of LatAm, from the speakers, to our gracious hosts, to all my fellow geeks that trekked across LatAm through the talks, meetups, dinners, and adventures 🙌❤️

Report on LatAm Startup Ecosystem

Do you know the opportunity for startups in LatAm? I certainly didn't understand the size of the opportunity until recently! This excellent report by Atlantico helped me to digest the magnitude of the potential in Latin America for tech innovation 🚀🚀🚀

Why is LatAm such an exciting high-growth startup ecosystem right now?

After reading their 200 page report, I pulled out nine interesting insights that point to why LatAm is a startup ecosystem on the rise.

1) Huge market of 665 million people that is relatively young with median age of 30.

2) Third largest GDP in the globe at $5 trillion when taken as a region, just under US and China.

3) Massive opportunity to digital the economy through Fintech, ecommerce & marketplaces.

4) Large number of successful scaleups like Mercado Libre, Nubank, Rappi, Kavak, etc.

5) Unicorns that continue to thrive, with top 10 raising $9 billion and valued at $42 billion.

6) Successful digital payments adoption with Pix in Brazil, higher than even India's UPI.

7) Accelerating growth of digital marketplaces bringing more efficiency to B2B markets.

8) Steady growth of 5G access driving more Internet usage, reaching 35% of population by 2027.

9) High interest by startups to solve LatAm specific challenges with loc

Argentina

When you think of Argentina, the first thing that often comes to mind is wine, steak & football ⚽ But Argentina is also a huge tech community! Argentina has a long legacy of tech outsourcing led by Globant founded in Buenos Aires in 2003 and now a $7.44 billion global firm. The nation is also a leader in e-commerce with Mercado Libre, worth $60 billion listed on NASDAQ, and 6th globally for retail e-commerce sales growth 📈

The overwhelming success of Mercado Libre led to more startups and VC's launching like Kaszek Ventures, that has raised $2 billion across their funds for investing across LatAm startups. That early success has helped Argentina to mint twelve unicorns, startups such as Mural, Tiendanube, and Ualá, as well as startups that had huge exits like Auth0, bought by Okta for $6.5 billion. The most inspiring lessons though I take from my time in Buenos Aires are listening to what founders are building from no-code tools to SaaS solutions to wellness apps to games.

Thank you Maia Cordero of Kubey Machine | KUAD System, María Candelaria Sosa De Amézaga of Tributo Simple, Angelina Vigliocco of WorknMates, and Connie Ansaldi of CUX for presenting their startups to the 42Geeks group during the AWS sponsored Female Founders Pitch session at BLOCK HOUSE 🚀Also appreciation to Sebastián Ezequiel Spena and Florencia B. of Galicia Bank, Rebeca Eun Young Hwang of Kalei Ventures, Jini Hwang of @Jinichannel, Marcelo Cavazzoli of Lemon Cash, Sebastián Campanario of La Naccion, Enrique Avogadro of the Ministry of Culture of Buenos Aires, and Maximo Cavazzani & Ignacio Ortiz Freuler of etermax for sharing their stories and their insights into the Argentine startup ecosystem.

Lastly, I have to tip my hat to my stellar colleauge Alfonso Amat for helping to support this leg of the 42Geeks LatAm tour 👏👏👏

uruguay

What an eye opening experience learning about the Uruguay startup ecosystem yesterday on the 42Geeks LATAM tour 🇺🇾

Can a country of 3.5 million have a vibrant startup community? Yes it can! How can a small nation create the conditions to foster startup creation?

Uruguay has the most stable democracy in the region, ranked 19th globally out of 194 countries, and 21st on the Transparency International list. The economy is 27th out of 176 countries in the 2023 Economic Freedom Index due to its openness to foreign investment, regulatory efficiency, and free trade.

The country attracts top talent with the founders of LatAm's most successful companies like MercadoLibre, Globant, Local & Kaszek setting up here because of its location, stability, and livability. They has a unicorn dLocal, a cross-border payment platform, that went public on Nasdaq in 2021 valued at $6B, and many others high profile startups like Pedidos Ya that sold to Delivery Hero and is LatAm's leading food delivery service. And the government works closely with the private sector in building the startup community with organizations such as ANNI, Ceibal, Ingenio, LATU & Uruguay XXI that are creating programs to support entrepreneurs.

Thanks to all of the awesome speakers Ines Bonicelli, Leandro Folgar Ruétalo, Eduardo Mangarelli, Rosana Fernández Fernández, Ing. Nicolás Jodal, Andrés Cerisola, and Flavio Caiafa for sharing their insights and experiences of the Uruguayan startup community 🙌

Brazil

Brazil is an amazing and vibrant startup ecosystem that has been making waves for the past decade! And this first leg of the 42Geeks LATAM tour has been a compression algorithm for learning about the Brazil startup community 🤯

So what have I learned so far about Brazil?

1. Huge Market - Brazil is a nation of 214 million people, 5th most in the world, and an Internet user base of over 149 million.

2. Supportive Government - The Brazilian government has launched initiatives like Startup Brasil for mentorship & funding.

3. Existing Community - The Global Startup Ecosystem Report lists Sao Paulo as the 11th best city in the world for startups.

4. Skilled Talent - Brazil has a strong tradition in engineering and technology education, with several world-class universities.

5. Ease of Business - Cost of living and doing business is relatively low, with Sao Paulo 60% lower than in New York City in terms of cost.

6. Supportive Resources - Brazil has plenty of co-working spaces, accelerators & networking events like Cubo and ACE Startups.

7. Active Investments - While investments have cooled this year, Brazil startups raised over $3.5 billion in 2020 and $9.4 billion in 2021.

8. Fintech Revolution - Huge market driven by digital banking and payment solutions from startups like Nubank, Neon, etc.

9. Local Innovations - Founders are building for specific Brazilian needs, like Mottu that’s solving local logistics & delivery challenges.

10. Favorable Demographics - Brazil is a young population, with a median age of 32 years and significantly growing middle-class.

While our trip was a short one in Sao Paulo, I look forward to coming back soon to speak with more startup founders 🇧🇷🙌

Is there anything else that am I missing from above that you feel has helped to contribute to Brazil's startup successes?