The audio and video are in Spanish. These notes are a translation.
For Latin America’s startup ecosystem to keep getting stronger, we need more experienced founders to share their experiences and support the people coming up behind them. Our guest today, Diego Noriega, is a strong champion of mentorship, because it changed his life and opened the door to the world of startups for him, even though he started in a small city in the interior of Argentina.
Diego is Managing Partner of Newtopia, a venture capital fund that has invested in more than 52 Latin American startups, and his portfolio includes companies such as for_me, hunty, and exactly, whose founders have been on our podcast.
Before becoming an investor, Diego founded several startups, including alamaula, which was acquired by Ebay and became one of the leading classifieds websites in Latin America.
We talked about the impact of mentors on a founder’s life, tips for finding them, and how to get the most out of those relationships.
We also talked about best practices for raising capital at the pre-seed stage, and the advantages of self-funded startups. At the end, we discussed how a founder should evaluate the idea of raising capital in a market as uncertain as the current one.
Youtube Timestamps*
[1:40] - How to Find Mentors
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How did Diego arrive at the fascinating world of startups?
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Why is mentorship so important, what role has it played in Diego’s entrepreneurial career, and how is it different from executive coaching or even a psychologist?
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How did Diego go about connecting with people and expanding his network when he was starting out as a young man?
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Why, and what practical recommendations does Diego have, for asking someone to be your mentor?
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What has Diego learned about how to do mentorship well?
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What is Diego’s framework, and what tips would you give other mentors and mentees?
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What common mistakes has Diego seen in mentorships?
[27:17] - Raising Pre-Seed Capital
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How does Diego explain Newtopia’s investment thesis, and what opportunity did they see at the pre-seed stage?
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How does Diego recommend pitching your “team” at the pre-seed stage to a younger founder, or to one with experience in more traditional industries?
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What are the “quick wins” Diego would recommend that founders raising capital for the first time focus on?
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One of the qualities people highlight most about Diego is his ability to tell stories. How does he advise founders to develop their communication skill, especially those who did not go through experiences that train this skill, such as sales or consulting?
[44:34] - Fundraising vs Bootstrapping
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A couple of years ago, in an interview, Diego said that many of the fundraising tips given in Latin America apply to Silicon Valley and not necessarily to the reality of our region. How does Diego explain this idea?
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In moving from the founder side to the investor side, how has Diego’s way of thinking about the pros and cons of raising capital, versus bootstrapping, evolved? When is one better than the other?
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How does Diego recommend that founders in the Newtopia portfolio think about raising capital?
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For which companies is it worth spending time on fundraising, and for whom would it be better to focus on execution?
[55:05] - Rapid-Fire Questions
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If he had to start a company from scratch, what is the main piece of advice Diego would give himself?
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What has been the most influential book on Diego’s path through the world of startups?
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Changes Diego would like to see in Latin America’s startup ecosystem
Episode Mentions
You can find Diego on LinkedIn
Recommended books: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, The hard thig about hard things by Ben Horowitz
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Follow Enzo Cavalie on X: @enzocavalie.