The audio and video are in Spanish. These notes are a translation.
One of the main reasons investors give for not investing in a company is market size.
Today we invited Adriana Suarez, partner at Matterscale Ventures, to talk about how to measure the size of a market, how to communicate it to investors, and what weight the market plays versus the team in an investment decision.
Matterscale is a fund that invests in startups that offer high-quality services accessible to the majority, and its portfolio includes companies such as 1Doc3, Torre, and Aprende Institute.
We also talked about how Adriana got started in angel investing, going on to invest in the unicorn Habi, and how her way of evaluating startups has evolved as she moved from investing her own money to investing a fund’s capital.
Youtube Timestamps*
[1:17] - Lessons from Entrepreneurship
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How did Adriana arrive at the fascinating world of startups?
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How has Adriana’s view evolved on the opportunity of betting on entrepreneurship as an engine of development for economies like Latin America’s?
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In an earlier interview, Adriana said that thousands of people attended the events she organized for Colombia’s Young Entrepreneurs and Exporters government program. What lessons did she learn during that stage about how to attract young Latin Americans to entrepreneurship?
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Adriana worked as private secretary to Marta Lucía Ramirez, who was Minister of Trade and later Vice President of Colombia, and she has said that Ramirez shaped her professional career. What did she learn from the role of a CEO like her, and how has this experience shaped the way she evaluates a founding team?
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Fernando Fabre, Adriana’s partner, told us that one of her superpowers is the quality of being able to “disagree and commit.” Where does this skill come from, and how does she practice it?
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We were told that Adriana is very good at connecting with people. What is her secret? What does Adriana believe she does that is genuinely different from everyone else, and that has allowed her to build such a broad and close network?
[24:10] - Angel Investing and Venture Capital
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In 2015 Adriana started investing as an angel, and today she has a portfolio of more than 10 investments, including 3 of the best Colombian startups. What led Adriana to make her first angel investment in a startup, and what have been the most important lessons?
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How has Adriana’s way of evaluating investments and risk changed as she moved from investing as an angel to investing from a venture capital fund?
[34:13] - Evaluating Markets
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Matterscale’s investment thesis is to invest in founders creating products and services for the majority, what in economic policy is called the base of the pyramid. How does Adriana explain why so few startups and investors are focusing on this population, and what opportunity does she see?
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How does Adriana approach measuring the size of a market? What are the key elements she looks for?
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How does Adriana evaluate a market’s potential growth or, even, the “creation” of a market?
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When it comes to raising capital, what common mistakes has Adriana seen founders make when communicating the size of their market, especially in nascent markets?
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What weight does the market versus the founding team carry for Adriana in her evaluation of a possible investment?
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What does a team need in order to show Adriana that it has what it takes to start a company?
[55:17] - Rapid-Fire Questions
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Books recommended by Adriana
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Changes Adriana would like to see in Latin America’s startup ecosystem
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A founder Adriana recommends interviewing
Episode Mentions
You can find Adriana on LinkedIn and Twitter
Recommended books: Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman
Founder to interview: Brynne McNulty of Habi
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Follow Enzo Cavalie on X: @enzocavalie.