1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Laurel Touby, Managing Director at Supernode Ventures 2021 (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: One of the big successes of Latin America is Mercado Libre. They were my clients when I was consulting many years ago. I have known them for a long time. That company was a team from Stanford, so they knew how to raise venture capital.

In the early stages, Mercado Libre was rather difficult because the market was not developing. It took much longer to develop. They managed to survive that early-stage period without going under because of their expertise in navigating the venture capital universe.

Your point is well taken. If the founders don’t know how to navigate and bootstrap, then they are not going to make it. 

Laurel Touby: Another company that I am super excited about is in Mexico. It is called Credijusto. They do small business lending. It was a logical thing to invest in. I couldn’t believe that other investors weren’t as excited about it as I was.

I led the deal and that was my first time leading a round into a company. I had high confidence in these founders. They were schooled at Brown University and another university here in the US. They were from Latin America or Mexico. They had tremendous connections down there.

They also had a vision. Their vision was that they wanted to bring the type of banking we have here to Mexico. It seems logical because it is an enormous market. There are lots of founders and small businesses who need banking services, and big banks weren’t providing it for them.

They were providing it but at a high cost that was slow and cumbersome. They said, “Hey, we are lightweight, online and we are going to our customers online first. We are going to have unique underwriting.” All of this stuff had been done in the US, so I thought that this can happen.

I said, “Let’s do it, Let’s back these guys.” Their most recent round was a Series B led by Point72 and Goldman. They are way off to the races. They are a fantastic company. I really like Latin America when you meet the right mix of founders and investors. 

Sramana Mitra: In your deal flow right now, what are you seeing trend-wise? What is standing out in the post-COVID world? 

Laurel Touby: You probably noticed this as well. There are a lot of technologies that are being launched to create meeting spaces for people that aren’t Zoom. There are all kinds of virtual rooms, parties, events management software. We are seeing a lot of that.

We didn’t place a bet there, because we just saw it as way oversaturated in a short amount of time. We also wondered what was going to happen when people want to meet in real life again. Of course, there are some interesting social communities.

I have been playing around a lot in Clubhouse. I did not see that one as a deal. I have played around with it as an early adopter though. It is a unique experience. If you haven’t tried Clubhouse, I would definitely try that out for some events. 

Sramana Mitra: Why do you like Clubhouse? 

Laurel Touby: I like it because it’s like a radio. You and I grew up with radio. Nobody has replaced talk radio yet with any technology. This the first time that I see a path towards replacing talk radio with something unique and cutting edge. It is all audio.

You log on to the platform and then you can hear total strangers talk about different topics. They have rooms and each room has a topic. It could also be an open topic room. Some of the rooms are silent rooms where you go and sit silently with other people to do your work.

It is crazy. It is out there. Whatever you think of, you can create on Clubhouse. It is very early, and it is very exciting as a result because anything can happen there. 

Sramana Mitra: Good to hear what you are seeing and doing. Let’s stay in touch. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 3 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Laurel Touby, Managing Director at Supernode Ventures 2021
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