SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Altitude, where we talk to founders of the future high-flying companies in Latin America. I'm your co-host Brian Reckworth.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

And I'm your co-host Tomas Roger. Today our guest is Gastoni Diosen, co-founder of Omelo.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Gaston was an early employee of Google Latam, a serial entrepreneur with two exits, one of them the trip advisor, and former CEO of Naranja X, Argentina's largest neo bank with five million customers. He's also part of Forbes 35 under 35, a fintech lecturer at the University of San Andrés. Gaston was born in Buenos Aires, where he lives with his family, wife, and two daughters, and also lived in Basel, Lima, Dublin, and New York. This guy's a fan of running, skiing, asados tech podcast, and investing in stocks and crypto. Gastón, great to have you on the Latitude Podcast. Welcome to Altitude. Brian, Tommy, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me. Awesome. Let's start off with just a quick overview of your background. I just gave a little intro, but it would be great to hear from you, kind of how this came together.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Yeah, of course. No, that was super spot on. Listen, I define myself as a tech entrepreneur. I was super lucky to be a very early employee for Google in Spanish speaking Latin America back in 06 during the years of hypergrowth and international expansions. And uh yeah, I spent six years at Google, three here in Argentina, three in Europe. Then I started my more like my entrepreneurial career. I've been involved in three startups so far. This is the fourth one across three continents. One that I founded myself in Ireland. Then with time I moved to New York and eventually sold it in the Valley. Then I came back to Latin America. I was part of the leadership team at Restorando, up until we became profitable and sold to TripAdvisor to the Fork. And then most recently, as you mentioned, I was CEO of Naranja X, a spin-off of Naranja, and uh yeah, arguably becoming the largest neobank in Argentina. So pretty fun and amazing experience there. We built a team of 280 people within 18 months. We built a wallet, we launched a mobile POS business, we were granted a banking license. But that's also where I realized that there was a massive opportunity around infrastructure for Latin America. I think uh this is a special moment in tech, it's a special moment in Latin American history, and we are at the turning point of uh really bringing this continent to a whole new level. So super excited to start with Pomelo and uh to share it with you guys.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Amazing, Aston. Thanks for that. Could you tell us a bit more about the founding team of Pomelo? You have two amazing co-founders.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Yeah, yeah. I couldn't be happier with my co-founders. There's Juan and Hernan. Hernan, he was the CPO at Naran Haeki. So we worked closely together during the last two years. He essentially built everything that I just told you about. But before that, he spent 12 years at Mercado Pago. I think he was employee number three or number four at Mercado Pago. He came into Mercado Libre when there were less than 300 people. I think there will be something like 30 or 35,000 this year. So pretty amazing experience there. He helped build the product and scale the business throughout LATAM, including Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina. And he also hosts uh Cinso Cursal, which is a very well-known fintech podcast uh here in the region. And then Juan, he's a Kellogg MBA, a former consultant, so slightly more corporate profile, and spent the last six years working at MasterCard, where he was director of FinTech, and he actually assigned a lot of the issuing deals uh here in the region. He did Mercado Pago, Voila, Despegaro de Colar, Carrefour, and a few others. So yeah, I mean, we complement each other very well. Hernan very strong in product and technology, Juan very strong in sales and business development. I sort of take care of everything else. But it's not only us. I mean, we already have a team of 15 amazing people, all of them coming from Amazon, Mercado Libre, N26, Naranja X. So we put a lot of effort and attention into hiring like the really, really the like the best talent in the region. And um yeah, super excited with the team, the one that we already have, and the one that uh will come as we as we build it.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

So you've got this great team, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. Talk about what you're building for the audience and why you're so well suited to build this and make it big.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, this comes essentially from our own frustration, right? So Hernan building Mercado Pago and then both of us building Naranja X and Juan actually selling MasterCard in the region. We were incredibly frustrated. It's extremely painful to create a fintech in Latin America, to build a wallet, to issue a card. And even more so if you have a regional company and regional scope, you essentially have to go market after market, partnering with multiple incumbents. They have legacy technology, kind of unclear pricing. It really takes years, a very long team, and by extension, millions of dollars to create a decent fintech in Latin America. And it essentially keeps you from focusing on really building a very solid value proposition. You need to take care of everything that's happening in the back end all the time in different countries over and over again. And so we want to simplify that process. I mean, we want to create the fintech infrastructure that Latin America deserves for the 21st century. And that's exactly the thesis behind Pomelo.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah, I mean, fintech is there's been an explosion of fintechs in the region, right? So you're an enabler for that. And let's just double-click on the team real quick because Tommy asked about the founding team. But what impressed me equally and even more than this incredible founding team is that you had lined up 200 people, is that right? Before you even had a company set up. How did that happen?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, it's a pretty amazing story, but it is a true story. So essentially, you know, when when I left Naranja X and started talking with uh Juan and Hernana about building this, we essentially spent a lot of time together during the summer strengthening the idea, challenging ourselves, uh talking to the industry, really, really to you know make sure that whenever we started Pomelo, we were off to a good start. And uh we had uh rather public profiles here in the local fintech scene, given our previous roles, uh participation in industry events, we teach at universities and so on and so forth. So there was this kind of expectation in the market in terms of what we were doing and so on and so forth. And then at some point we said, okay, let's move forward with this and let's make a small announcement uh to tell everyone we're going to build a new company. And so we posted on LinkedIn, but we didn't mention what the company name was, we didn't mention what the business idea was, we didn't say anything. We just posted a photo of the three of us saying that we were off to creating something new in fintech in Latam. And I think within 48 hours, we got more than 200 inbounds from people willing to work with us. And that included 50 engineers from top, top companies. So it was an amazing thing to see. I mean, we never expected that, but it was great for us to see that happening because it meant that uh, you know, we could build a very good team. In fact, we moved quickly. We hired 15 of those engineers ready. And um, and yeah, I mean, it's a nice way to kick off the team building side of things.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Yeah, I mean, the team is so important, building this incredible team. You've got a big project in front of you, you've got a lot of things to build. So the fact that you're able to build this demand before even having the money and everything else and all the clarity of what the roadmap looks like. Here we are. It's nice to have all this demand of people who want to work with you. You can't hire that many people unless you have some capital. But we get to see firsthand you in action and you were able to raise this historic 8.8 seed round. And latitude is privileged to be your first check-in. Uh, tell us who the investors are and how the round came together.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Yeah, super proud of this $8.8 million seed round. But the reality is that it wouldn't be possible without a lot of effort and tapping into the right people. So, my first key takeaway is that this is the result of maybe something like 50 years of combined experience that Hernan Juan and I have. At the end of the day, our conversations with the market and our deck reflect all of our experience. And it was somehow condensing all of that, all of our knowledge, all of our vision into those slides and being able to articulate them in the right way. So I think it was by no means something kind of improvised or lack, even though we did have luck and you always need a little bit of luck. But I think at the end of the day, it's the result of a lot of hard work. And um I think you guys at Latitude had a massively important role in in this round. Uh, as you mentioned, Brian, you were the first ones to trust us and to write a check. And then we started working together on kind of the round dynamics and the round design and who to talk to and why and in what order. And so you definitely helped me a lot in terms of strategy and how to build the round. And so we obviously practice a lot. We had some good anchors in you and a few other people that we knew from before and some interest that you've made. And then we started, you know, sort of talking to the market, but following a very clear strategy. I had this sort of lemma for the round. We were looking for local flavor, but we were also looking for global access and for lots of hassle. So we wanted to have a local VC, kind of tier one VC in the cap table. And we found a great partner in Monashis. They are leading the round, obviously, one of the best funds in Latin America. But then in the global bucket, we found Index, which of course is one of the top funds in the world, becoming more of a global fund. They recently launched their seed fund to complete their sort of multi-stage strategy. They fought really hard for our deal. And so they were the other right partner to co-lead around. And in that bucket, uh, we also have like Max Lepchin, the founder of PayPal, and a firm with Sy-Fi. There's QED through Fontes, obviously, another great fund in terms of fintech, and some great angels, Angela Strange as Adriesen, Jason, the founder of Marqueta, uh Biz Stonko, founder of Twitter, and Harry Stevings from 20 Minutes BC, and then you know, some other amazing people there. And then finally, on the lots of hustle bucket, I wanted to partner with some of the best entrepreneurs in Latin America, people who have done this already, that are a few years ahead of us, that are sitting in on top of like two, three, four, ten billion dollar companies, because they could help us a lot in terms of the road ahead of us. And so I'm thrilled to partner with the founders of Kavak, some of the founders at Rapi, uh Loft, Out Zero, obviously uh you, Brian, with your experience at Viva Real. So all together, I mean, you know, we were able to pull this amazing round with top names in venture, top names in fintech, and top names in the Latam ecosystem. And so we we feel like we're off to a good start. It's obviously like a massive responsibility now, and we only feel like we have to do a 10x better job than what we had in mind before, but all in all, super happy with the way in which the round uh played up.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

That's great, Gason. Congrats again on that. You run an amazing process. What are the next steps? How are you planning to use the funds? In what markets are you launching Pomelo First? Which products, how does it look for you?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

So essentially, as you know, we are building a new generation regional issuing processor as well as a virtual account or a fintech account as a service for Latin America. I mean, we want to be uh you know, tech-enabled and API-centric infrastructure for fintechs and for embedded finance players in Latin America. And so that means that we first of all need to continue to build this amazing team. I mentioned we have 15 people now. We'll probably take it to anywhere between 50 and 60 people. So lots of hiring ahead of us. There's a lot of open roles in product development, engineering, uh, business development. So anyone listening and interested in Pomelo, definitely reach out to us. And so once we have that team, or as we build the team, we're already building the product and specifically for you know Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia to some extent, right? So there's this kind of core technology that we need to build, and then we need to localize or tropicalize for all these markets. So that's kind of our strategy moving forward. And uh yeah, exciting times in terms of product development and business development.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

That's great, man. And you attended LF2, which is, I mean, it was Latitude's second cohort of our fellowship program, right? Um, can you share a little bit how that experience was for you? You were still in the super early days of Pumelo.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Yeah, 100%. To be honest, at first I was a little bit skeptic. Tommy, you reached out to me. We have known each other for many years, kind of reconnected after a few years without chatting to each other. And the first thing I saw is yet another acceleration program. You know, I'm not sure whether we need it or not, if it's the right time or not. But then you you kind of really insisted and then met Brian. Yeah, and I thought, hey, listen, why not? It's it's only one month. Let's give it a try. I'm sure we can learn a lot and develop our network in Latin America and talk to some amazing people. I mean, I think the program is great and it's super friendly because it only requires a few hours a week as opposed to like a full-time schedule. And it's not too long, it's not too short. I think that kind of one month sweet spot works out really well. And most importantly, you guys have built a program that it's super tailored to each founder, to each startup, and you really make an effort in terms of understanding their needs. So you very early on understood that my main need was around fundraising because we already had like a solid idea in place, a good team in place, and we were off to our seed round. And you really kind of tailored the program for us, and that was super helpful. And we had some great conversations, then you opened up and were very kind, especially you, Brian, to open up your network in Latin America, in the US and beyond for us. And that was key for our funding round. And uh, we would have never pulled out an $8.8 million seed round without all of your help and uh openness and kindness and uh all the great people that you introduced me to. So yeah, I think latitude is changing the way in which uh startups kind of kick off their early days and navigate their early days. And uh I think it's absolutely amazing that you guys are working on this. It's very good for the Latin American tech ecosystem and hopefully many more great companies come out of Latitude.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Thank you. Well, the real work starts now for you. You've got this funding, you've got an incredible opportunity. And uh what advice do you have or that you can share with other founders as you think about your journey so far and sharing with others?

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah, it's a great question. Let me try to give you a rather unconventional one because you know there's a lot of literature around startups and podcasts. And so I think it's probably useful to give people a rather unconventional advice. And I think media trainings are critically important. I think they really teach you how to articulate your story in a simple and effective way, and that's incredibly powerful when talking to clients, to your team members, whether you're hiring them or you need to keep them, you know, kind of motivated and focused working on whatever you're working on. Obviously, the press and incredibly powerful when talking to investors as well, right? And so I had the opportunity to go through different media trainings in my career because of my previous roles. For instance, while working as CEO at Naran Haikis, I had a lot of media exposure, and so I had to go through a lot of these trainings. You learn a lot in a very short period of time if you have a good coach, and you really sort of incorporate tools that stay with you forever and that you can apply in business, but in your personal life as well. And so I think every founder at some point has to go through very extensive media training. It really levels up your game and it helps you articulate your story in much, much better ways. It's great advice.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

And I like that it's kind of the non-traditional advice because there's lots of generic advice out there, but something really specific like that. I I've had some a little bit of media training and I've I've also done some kind of public speaking training, which I think is really relevant because you're, as a leader of an organization, you're in front of people a lot of times, and you've got to communicate and articulate in a way that inspires confidence. So, last thing to close it out here, uh serando con broche oro, what's the word or the one word that describes for you entrepreneurship?

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Oof, what a question. Really difficult to narrow it down to one word. But I'd say I think entrepreneurship is basically extreme passion, extreme ownership, extreme resilience, and extreme desire to move uh Latin America and the world uh forward. If you think in terms of what you guys are doing, what we are doing, and what every single entrepreneur is doing, whether they operate in Latin America or elsewhere, we're all trying to make the world and our industries and our societies uh progress. It can be baby steps in some cases, it can be like massive steps in some other cases. But at the end of the day, I think this profession, what I love the most about being an entrepreneur is that altogether as a community, we're all trying to move things forward. And that's absolutely necessary for society and for humanity and for our progress in general. So, yeah, that'd be my answer. I love that. Gaston, gracias, thank you. Keep flying high y vamos latam. Yeah, thank you, Brian. Thank you very much. It was great uh spending a few minutes with you and Tommy. So thanks for having me and good luck with latitude. Thank you. Thanks for being a supporter of the community, and let's do this together.