Latitud Podcast

#21 - It's an art, not a science: Jonathan Lewy, Investo and Grin

• Latitud • Season 2 • Episode 21

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0:00 | 45:08

In the startup world, it's becoming more common for founders to share mistakes they made when they were starting out, but we rarely get to know about early mistakes investors make.

Well, today, Jonathan Lewy is gonna bring the challenges he faced from both sides.

Jonathan moved from Belgium to Mexico right out of college, and built a food delivery app called MiOrden that was sold to SinDelantal in 2012. His experience fundraising until then had been so frustrating that, after the acquisition, he decided to give back. That's when he joined his co-founder Sergio Romo again and together they started a seed capital firm called Investo.

One of their first bets was Rappi, before many had dreamed of it being a unicorn. Today, Investo's portfolio companies also include Unbabel, Cambly, Runa and many others.

But that's not all. Jonathan and Sergio also co-founded Grin, a brand you may have seen on scooters around one of their many locations. By merging with Brazil-based Yellow, Grin went from 4 to 2,500 employees in one year and became Grow, a micromobility pioneer.

In this episode, Jonathan tells us about

  • The hiccups in his journey
  • His counterintuitive tips on crafting a good pitch
  • Precautions on building a company that depends on VC
  • And how to deal with conflicting interests

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