Daniel Salvucci, Draper Cygnus | Deep Tech Investing in LatAm, and Building a Career in Venture Capital [Ep. 15]

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

Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology, and Robotics are some of the deep technologies, also known as deep tech, that make us think of a science fiction future in the style of Star Wars. These technologies are no longer the future, but the present, even in Latin America. Every year, we see more Latin American startups creating solutions with deep technology for the global market. And Draper Cygnus is one of the few funds in the region specialized in investing in these deep tech companies.

To talk about this and other topics, the guest of this episode is Daniel Salvucci, partner at Draper Cygnus, an Argentine Venture Capital fund. His portfolio includes startups such as Satellogic and Auth0, the most recent Argentine unicorn.

What You Can Learn Today

Deep Tech industry
Draper Cygnus investment thesis
Process of building a career in Venture Capital

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Deep Tech 101

[2:22] - How did Daniel arrive at the world of startups?
- Electronic engineer with a business vision and first venture
- Parallel evolution of the Venture Capital industry and of Electronics
[5:08] - What is Deep Tech?
- At the edge of state-of-the-art technologies
- Leapfrogging, incremental innovations
- Facilitators or creators of new industries
[7:18] - State of Deep Tech in Latin America
- Not such a sexy industry
- Development in the academic sphere and with government support
- Latin American talent in the world that returns to LatAm
- Results of government efforts in science and technology

Draper Cygnus’s Deep Tech Investment Thesis

[11:20] - Draper Cygnus investment thesis and how they evaluate a deep tech company
- Financing processes specific to the sector
- Market trends and the correct timing to invest
- 2 pillars at Draper Cygnus: Deep Tech and decentralization
- Impact of Deep Tech on society
- Decentralize production and governments and recover biodiversity
- The case of Stämm, a deep tech startup in the Draper Cygnus portfolio
- Potential of Deep Tech
[22:57] - Product-market fit in their evaluation of startups with little traction
- Product-market fit differentiated by industry
[25:33] - How does Draper Cygnus co-invest?
- Draper Cygnus specialization in Deep Tech
- Appeal of Deep Tech
- Industry knowledge of non-specialized investors
- Network of expert contacts
[29:27] - Why does Draper Cygnus invest across such a long spectrum of stages?
- Confusion between Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A in Latin America
- Investment tickets between $300K and $2M
- Startup valuations between $3M and $20M
- Preference for being the first institutional investor
[31:32] - Competition with other funds in LatAm and the U.S.
- Situation of deep tech investment in Latin America
- Presence in the global ecosystem (U.S., Israel)

How to Build a Career in Venture Capital in Latin America

[34:10] - What was the process of building a career within Draper Cygnus like?
- Corporate experience and technology-related ventures
- Contact with the founders of Draper Cygnus
- Learning while working ad honorem
- Building a firm vs a fund
- Daniel’s growth in Venture Capital
[41:25] - Are the funds cultivating the talent of future venture capital investors?
- An industry in its early days
- VC funds with few years
- Trend in Latin America of attracting young people
- Perspective on the future of talent in VC

Tweet Round

[45:56] -
- Verticals/trends in which Daniel would like to see more entrepreneurs: Synthetic biology, space technology, and quantum computing
- Recommended books: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins
- Changes in the Latin American startup ecosystem: stay the course and have patience for the results
- Investor to interview: Matias Peire (Grid Exponential)