Juan Salcedo

I’ve spoken to over 2 dozen MDs at PE firms I can confidently say that the arb of figuring out how to implement Vertical AI at portfolio companies is very real right now It will fundamentally change underwriting for those who can do it predictably and unlock generational returns. Most are aware they need to act. Very few have.

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I DON’T SEND my company deck to investors before the first meeting. 60% go unopened. Opened decks get about 1:56 of attention (DocSend). Fewer than 2% of cold sent decks earn a meeting. A file without me lets VCs pattern match me into a “pass” in under two minutes. They won’t grasp what I’m building, hear my conviction, or why I’m the one to build it. Instead, I send five lines: What we do (one line). One traction signal. One stat on the opportunity. One “why now.” One team credential. Ask for a 15-minute call. If they won’t invest 15 minutes, they won’t invest 15 thousand.

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Is fintech the most successful vertical for venture capital in Latin America? The data is undeniable: fintech dominates with 100% of the region's top IPOs and 40% of major M&A deals. Nubank's 2021 IPO exemplifies this trend: -Sequoia Capital: $90M → $7.5B (83x) -Tiger Global Management: $33M → $2.4B (73x) -Founders Fund: $48M → $0.8B (17x) -DST Global: $160M → $3.9B (24x) -Tencent: $242M → $2.7B (11x) With a $41.5B valuation at IPO – triple XP Inc.'s $14.9B – Nubank proved Latin American fintech can compete globally. The top IPOs by valuation confirm this pattern: -Nubank (BR): $41.5B (2021) - Fintech -XP Inc. Inc (BR): $14.9B (2019) - Fintech -Stone (BR): $8.9B (2018) - Fintech -PagBank (BR): $8.7B (2018) - Fintech -Inter (BR): $5B (2018) - Fintech The story extends to M&A, where fintech represents a significant portion of landmark exits: -Cornershop (CL): Acquired by Uber for $1.4B (2021) - Retail -Technisys (AR): Acquired by SoFi for $1.1B (2022) - Fintech -Pismo (BR): Acquired by Visa for $1B (2023) - Fintech -99 (BR): Acquired by DiDi for $1B (2018) - Mobility -Neoway (BR): Acquired by B3 for $330M (2021) - Big Data Innovation now extends across Capital Markets, InsurTech, CFO Tech, Embedded Finance, and Crypto/DeFi – all accelerated by AI. This convergence of talent, capital, and technology suggests we're just beginning Latin America's fintech revolution. Which Latin American fintech will be the next Nubank-scale success? Stay tuned for my upcoming article on the companies driving the next wave of major liquidity events. #Fintech #LatinAmerica #VentureCapital #IPOs #M&A

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Y Combinator Summer 2025: Key takeaways Batch facts: • ~160 companies in the program • We spoke with 60+ teams in our focus areas (AI, B2B, productivity) before Demo Day • Average valuations hit new highs for YC Sample deals (revenue → round → valuation) 1. $0–2k MRR → $2M at $20M 2. $10–30k MRR → $3–4M at $30–40M 3. $20k MRR → $8M at $80M 4. $15M ARR, founder is 16 → $10M at $80M; round closed instantly What stood out: • Many teams building similar products (e.g., several in AI Q\&A) • First sales often happen inside the batch (companies selling to each other) • New norm: gather interest and soft commits first, then announce who made the round at the end — it used to be “first to commit gets in” • Teams feel very similar; it’s harder to spot a clear “top of the batch” Bottom line: valuations are even higher, traction even weaker than in prior years. Investor FOMO is extreme, and a record number of companies were oversubscribed before Demo Day. Still, we made an offer to only one company.

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16,000 calls processed in 10 days. Since launching on Y Combinator and HN 10 days ago, we’ve gone from zero to almost 16,000 processed calls and 80,000 minutes of audio analyzed - generating over 400,000 metrics across emotions, vocal cues, sentiment, and 50,000+ evaluation entries in our database(s). From Day 1, we built Roark (YC W25) to handle real-world production loads, and it’s holding up beautifully. We’ll share a deep dive into our architecture in March once we have even more usage, but for now, here’s a snapshot: 🛠 Temporal as the backbone workflow orchestrator ☁️ Fully AWS serverless with IaC via SST - we only use the AWS UI for debugging purposes, never to create or modify a resource. 📊 Time-series optimized OpenSearch (analytics) + Aurora (user and project data) + DynamoDB (events) 📡 Websockets, queues(SQS), event bus, CDC via DMS, and a whole lot more We’re shipping faster than ever. Huge credit to Daniel - none of this would be possible without him! #VoiceAI #Roark #YCW25 #IaC #AWS

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