293. Viva Latam Startups, Losing Talent to the U.S., and Building the Zillow of Brazil (Brian Requarth)

Brian Requarth of Latitud joins Nick to discuss Viva Latam Startups, Losing Talent to the U.S., and Building the Zillow of Brazil. In this episode we cover:

• What’s the thesis at Latitud?
• Could you tell us a little about the company you started, Viva Real?
• What was your goal in writing the book... Viva the Entrepreneur?
• You get quite vulnerable w/ regard to your experience building Viva Real. What was the hardest part of your founder journey?
• You have a large focus on helping entrepreneurs navigate building and scaling venture backable businesses in LatAm. Both Latitud and the book are in service of that mission. What are some of the unique headwinds that LatAm startups face?
• You recently had Henrique Dubugras, co founder of Brex, on the podcast. Notably, he is a founder that left south america, after some modest starutp success, to launch his large and fast growing company here in the states.   How do you keep from losing the most ambitious and creative tech talent to the U.S.?
• Rappi coming up in Colombia while you were there?  What are the leading countries within Latam?
• El Salvador very recently announced that Bitcoin will be an official currency, marking it the first country to make the coin legal currency.  Is this the first country of many to set their reserve currency to Bitcoin?
• You recently tweeted about a common problem you see with early-stage startups in LatAm -- messed up cap tables with aggressive angels taking 40%+ of the company at formation. This, of course, is a major deterrent for future VC investors. Is this a fixable problem and, if so, how do you help w/ cap table issues?
• Advice for founders launching a startup focused on Latam market?
• Me too tech strategies in Latam that have worked in the US?