Christian Van Der Henst, Platzi | Becoming a Silicon Valley Insider: Culture, Mindset and Tech Communities

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

Christian Van Der Henst is cofounder of Platzi, the largest online education platform in Spanish in Latin America, with more than 5 million users. For more than a decade, Christian has lived in Silicon Valley, where he has become a true insider. In every corner of this technology epicenter, he knows someone: founders, investors, restaurant owners, and members of various communities.

Even so, his arrival in San Francisco was not easy. The city, with its unique culture and mindset, can be overwhelming for newcomers. In this episode, we explore Christian’s path, from his beginnings to becoming one of Rappi’s first angel investors. We also discuss his vision for taking Platzi to tens of millions of users and his perspective on how artificial intelligence will transform education and the technology industry.

Youtube Timestamps*

[7:01] - Insider in Silicon Valley

Today, Christian is a true “insider” in Silicon Valley. Wherever he goes, he knows someone. But it was not always that way, and he had to live through many hard realities when he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.

What was Christian’s arrival in Silicon Valley like, what was the hardest part, and what surprised him?

Christian has been an angel investor in several Latin American startups, including Rappi. He was also Simón and Sebastián’s guide in Silicon Valley and helped them apply to Y-Combinator.

For someone who would like to come to Silicon Valley to look for opportunities, as the Rappi founders did, what does Christian think founders should understand about the people, the place, and the culture in Silicon Valley?
What does the startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley have that Christian would like to see more of in the Latin American ecosystem? And the other way around?
What has Christian learned about the ability to think big? If we wanted to multiply the level of ambition of founders in Latin America, what would we have to do?

Christian and his team were rejected by Startup Chile, 500 Startups, and Y Combinator on their first application attempt. Even when Christian and Freddy tried to raise capital in Latin America, they did not succeed either.

How many times have people told Christian NO at Platzi?
What is Christian’s relationship with failure? Does he have a ritual, a message, or something he does or says to handle it in the best way?

[32:45] - Platzi and the Tech Ecosystem

Could Christian tell the story of how Platzi was born, not the usual one, but the one about the trip through China, Korea, and Japan?

Platzi has already reached 5 million users and, to keep growing, it has to reach an audience that is less and less familiar with technology.

How does Christian think Platzi’s product and marketing strategy has to evolve as it moves from an early adopter audience to a mainstream one?

In Latin America, there are approximately 30M students in higher education. Given that penetration is quite low, fewer than 2 in 10 Latin Americans go to university.

How does Christian think about expanding Platzi’s market? Is it about reaching a larger percentage of those 30M, or about people who do not go to university but are open to alternative models?

[50:37] - Artificial Intelligence

When Christian started his career, he wanted to be a teacher and an academic. In fact, he did his master’s in Spain with that goal.

What has Christian thought about the role of the teacher in the world of artificial intelligence?
What is artificial intelligence used well in a learning context? Both on the school side and on the student side.

Last year, there was a discussion about why there were not more Latin American founders in artificial intelligence. Christian, together with Fede Soria, has a fund to invest in top technical founders.

One side of Christian that younger people may not know is his “hacker” side. In fact, Christian hacked Stripe so he could use it in Latin America.

What skills does Christian think people should develop given this new set of technology tools? And which skills will be less valuable than in the past as a result?

[1:04:13] - Final Questions

What are the most important questions Christian Van Der Henst does not have answers to today?
What is the hardest part of Christian’s job? Aside from managing time.