Federico Antoni, ALLVP | The Investment Thesis Behind Cornershop [Ep. 34]

The audio and video are in Spanish. These notes are a translation.

Welcome to a new episode of Investment Thesis, the Startupeable Podcast format in which we analyze some of the best startup investments in Latin America together with the Venture Capital funds that invested in the earliest rounds. Today we have Federico Antoni, partner and cofounder of ALLVP.

ALLVP led the first three rounds (pre-seed, seed, and Series A) of Cornershop, one of the largest on-demand supermarket services in Latin America.

Recently, Cornershop was acquired by Uber for more than 3 billion dollars, becoming the most important acquisition of a startup in our region.

Federico told us how he met Cornershop’s founding team, why he made the decision to invest, and the main challenges the company faced.

This is a great opportunity to understand how a Venture Capital investor thinks.

What You Can Learn Today

Criteria for investing in Cornershop
Cornershop’s differentiation and expansion strategies
Tips for a good Pitch Deck

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*Youtube timestamps

Introduction to Cornershop

[1:19] - How did Federico get into the world of startups?
- Teaching classes on macroeconomics and entrepreneurship
[2:55] - Federico’s first contact with Cornershop
- Coworking spaces at Stanford
[5:00] - Characteristics of the Cornershop market that convinced Federico of ALLVP to invest
- Market size of hundreds of thousands of dollars
- Lack of adoption of E-commerce platforms at supermarkets
- Technical team with prior experience scaling startups

Expansion Strategy

[10:47] - Cornershop’s launch and initial expansion strategy
- They started initially with a platform for Mexico and Chile
- They went after several markets from the start
[13:48] - Why did Cornershop not take Rappi’s strategy of discounts and credits to attract new users?
- Solving the company’s problems with software and not with operations
- Absolute focus on dominating the supermarkets of Chile and Mexico
[20:08] - Cornershop’s differentiator
- Strategic partnerships with supermarkets
- Maximizing value creation

Leading Subsequent Rounds

[23:08] - Why did ALLVP decide to lead Cornershop’s Seed round and Series A?
- Blind faith that Cornershop could be gigantic
[25:49] - Cornershop’s Unit Economics and their evolution
- Dynamics of partnerships with the companies
- Total clarity on the business’s growth levers
[27:58] - Cornershop’s partnerships with supermarkets
- Increasing supermarket sales
- Discomfort at losing their digital channel
[30:04] - Federico’s position on VC funds’ demand for very tight unit economics
- Investors who understand the markets well are more willing to invest
- Local excess and competition among firms

Consumer and Pitch Deck

[33:28] - ALLVP’s differentiator for identifying B2C startups with potential
- The companies that generate the first waves
- Being able to impact many people
[35:10] - Cornershop’s first Pitch Deck
- It was only a conversation, there was no pitch
- Passion for storytelling
[37:59] - Tips for building a good Pitch Deck, according to experience at ALLVP
- Storytelling
- Team
- Traction
- Clarity and simplicity about what you are going to solve, how you are going to do it, and how you differentiate yourself
- Marketing and branding

Tweet Round

[41:42] -
- Recommended book: for experienced founders: books by Mukaramí, Gabriel García Márquez, The Secrets of Sand Hill Road
- Changes in the startup ecosystem: a more feminine world
- Founders to interview: Monica Saggioro and Lara Lemann of Maya

Episode Mentions

You can follow Federico Antoni on Twitter

Recommended book: for experienced founders, Haruki Mukarami and Gabriel García Márquez. For founders just starting out, Secrets of Sand Hill Road