Welcome to Tech Talents! In this newsletter, I share real-time key talent movements in the LatAm tech ecosystem, including founders entering and exiting stealth mode, executive-level movements in unicorns, and partner-level changes in local VC firms.
Here’s a quick look at what you’ll find in this week’s edition:
📖 Recent Reads: Peter Thiel interview, tokenized stocks, a16z’s new traction benchmarks & more
🎊 Startup Launches: Qonta, Aloi
👀 Talents to Watch: Ex-New Business Director at Scaleup, ex-Director of Growth at Scaleup
🤫 Talents Entering Stealth: Ex-Head of Marketing at VTEX, ex-Growth Manager at Meru.com, ex-Head of Recruiting at DiDi & more
👋 Co-Founder Matching: Looking for an early or late-stage co-founder? Click here to be connected with top talent that matches your criteria
Let’s dive in…
📖 Recent Reads
My quick takes on interesting articles, news and data that I’ve come across recently.
Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal and well-known venture capitalist, participated in an interview with The New York Times. Peter has long defended the view that we are currently moving slower with technology than we were hundreds of years ago. From 1750 to 1970, we were building faster ships, railroads, cars, and planes; we built the Concorde and had the Apollo missions. Now, in the 2000s, we have crypto and AI, which are amazing innovations, but he still thinks it isn't enough to move us away from this sense of stagnation. This is a very contrarian view, and it is worth reading/listening to if you want to understand why he thinks this way and what his arguments are.
Tokenized stocks are here. Crypto exchanges such as Kraken, Bybit, and most recently Robinhood have all launched tokenized stock trading services on their platforms. These services allow customers to buy cryptocurrency tokens that are backed by real shares of companies like Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft, directly mirroring the stock's value. Benefits of trading tokens instead of real stocks are several: global accessibility without geographical restrictions, direct custody of your assets, 24/7 trading capabilities, and fractional ownership opportunities. As this technology gains traction, we can expect more exchanges to integrate tokenized stock trading into their platforms in the coming months.
According to VC fund Andreessen Horowitz, Generative AI has changed traction benchmarks for both enterprise and consumer startups. While the traditional gold standard for enterprise-focused startups was $1M in ARR within the first year of commercialization, this figure now represents bottom-quartile performance, with top-quartile companies achieving $5.3M in ARR within 12 months. Most interestingly, consumer-focused companies are now generating revenue faster than their enterprise counterparts, completely inverting the traditional logic that B2C companies only monetize meaningfully after reaching millions of users. It will be interesting to monitor churn rates of these next-gen companies and compare them to traditional software to understand how sustainable this accelerated revenue generation is.
Apparently, a software engineer in India was working for multiple Silicon Valley startups at the same time. It all began when Suhail Doshi, the founder of Playground AI and Mixpanel, posted on X that he fired a software developer named Soham Parekh who had allegedly been working for 3-4 startups at the same time. The post went viral, and several other founders replied, saying they had also hired Parekh recently, even giving him "Founding Engineer" roles on multiple occasions. This looks like just another crazy story in the tech world, but it is a great reminder of how remote workers need to be carefully managed by founders, as this is not the first time I have heard of developers/engineers having multiple gigs at the same time. It also highlights one of the perks of having a strong and transparent network of founders who can share issues like this.
🎊 Startup Launches
Founders who have just publicly announced what they are working on.
Qonta
Overview
Startup Description: End-to-end partner to enable financial solutions for your business.
Industry: Fintech
Team Size: 7
Time in Stealth: 1 year and 3 months
Founder Profile
Milton Camargo - Co-Founder, CEO at Qonta
Previously featured as a Stealth Founder in Tech Talents #22.
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Ex-Corporate, Scaleup Experience
Previous Experience: Ex-Partner, Head of Banking at Celcoin, ex-Head of Business Development, Partnerships at Zapay Pagamentos, ex-Co-founder & CEO at Capital Empreendedora, ex-Founder & CEO at Premmier Mobilidade Corporativa, Bachelor's in Business Administration from IESB.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Aloi
Overview
Startup Description: Aloi transforms tax & trade compliance into a strategic advantage with AI that centralizes, automates, and optimizes compliance operations.
Industry: AI
Team Size: 8
Time in Stealth: 1 year and 6 months
Founder Profile
Samuel Giraldo Hoyos – Co-Founder & COO at Aloi
Founder Highlights: Masters, Ex-Big Tech, Ex-Corporate, Unicorn Experience, Scaleup Experience
Previous Experience: Ex-Head of Commercial Strategy at Razor Group, ex-Head of Operations and Finance at Neta, ex-Head of Operations | LatAm at CloudKitchens, ex-Ops Manager | Growth Strategy México at Rappi, Master of Science in Economics from Universidad de Los Andes, Bachelor of Science in Economics from Universidad de Los Andes.
Headquarters: Mexico City, Mexico
Time in Current Position: 1 year and 6 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
👀 Talents to Watch
High-potential individuals likely to make significant career moves soon.
This section is exclusive to Pro subscribers, but here is a snippet of the profiles covered in the past two weeks. To view the full profiles, try Tech Talents Pro for free for 14 days here.
Former leader in a scaleup, currently with no full-time position
Founder Highlights: Ex-Corporate, Ex-Consultant, Masters, Unicorn Experience, Scaleup Experience, Fintech
Previous Experience: Ex-New Business Director at Scaleup, ex-Director of Innovation at Unicorn, MBA from FGV.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: N/A
Currently on sabbatical
Founder Highlights: Ex-Big Tech, Ex-Corporate, Unicorn Experience, Fintech
Previous Experience: Ex-Director of Growth at Scaleup, ex-Sr. Growth Marketing at Corporate, ex-Sr. Account Manager at Big Tech.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Former leader in a scaleup, currently with no full-time position
Founder Highlights: Ex-Consultant, Top University, Unicorn Experience, Scaleup Experience, Healthcare
Previous Experience: Ex-Project Manager at Health Scaleup, ex-Coordinator of Operations at Health Scaleup, Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Insper.
Headquarters: Brazil
Time in Current Position: N/A
🤫 Talents Entering Stealth
Talents with relevant experiences who have just entered stealth mode.
Angélica Escobar – Cofounder at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Masters, Unicorn Experience, Scaleup Experience
Previous Experience: Ex-CMO | Vicepresidente de Marketing at Lulo bank, ex-Head of Marketing LATAM at VTEX, ex-Brand Manager LATAM at Rappi, ex-Head of Marketing | Colombia at DiDi, ex-Marketing and Operations Manager | Mexico at Uber. Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from CESA, Master's in Internet Business from ISDI.
Headquarters: Colombia
Time in Current Position: 3 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Antonio Espino – Co-founder at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Ex-Corporate, Scaleup Experience, Unicorn Experience
Previous Experience: Ex-Growth Manager at Meru.com, ex-Senior Commercial Coordinator at SinDelantal.mx, ex-Account Manager at Gympass.
Headquarters: Ciudad de México, México
Time in Current Position: 8 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Rodrigo Camargo – Building Something New at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Masters, Top University, Ex-Big Tech, Ex-Corporate, Unicorn Experience, Scaleup Experience
Previous Experience: Ex-Regional Director at ambi.careers, ex-Sr. TA Manager, Head of Recruiting for Mobility - LatAm & MEA at DiDi, ex-Head of Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding at Swile Brasil, ex-Head of Talent Acquisition at Banco BV, ex-Recruiting Manager/People Partner at QuintoAndar, ex-LatAm Senior Recruiter at Uber, LLM from Fundação Getulio Vargas, Bachelor of Laws from PUC São Paulo.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 6 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Felipe Palhares – Co-Founder at Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Top University, Scaleup Experience
Previous Experience: Ex-Community & Events Lead – Project Management at Monashees, ex-Events Coordinator at iClinic, Business Economics and Controllership degree from USP.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Paula Promenzio – Stealth Startup
Founder Highlights: Masters, Scaleup Experience, Unicorn Experience
Previous Experience: Chief of Staff at Koya AI, ex-Head of People and Customer Experience at Clubbi, ex-Head of Sales Enablement at Alice, ex-Gente e Gestão - Atração e Desenvolvimento de Talentos at Arco Educação, master's in Engineering from Swansea University, Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from Universidade Federal de São Carlos.
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Time in Current Position: 6 months
Ask for an Intro: Click here
Rodolfo Corcuera Meier – Founder at Stealth Startup
Stealth Description: Helping airlines improve load factor using AI.
Founder Highlights: Serial Founder, Previous Exit, Investor, Top University
Previous Experience: Scout at Accel, ex-Founder and CEO at Higo, ex-Founder and CEO at Tandem, ex-Founder and CEO at Aliada MX, Bachelor of Laws from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Endeavor Innovation and Growth Program at Stanford University.
Headquarters: Mexico
Time in Current Position: 1 month
Ask for an Intro: Click here
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