20VC: From Struggling to Raise Funding to IPOing at Close to $9BN Just Five Years Later; The $8BN Company You Might Not Know | How To Build Large Companies with Small Teams | The Biggest Hiring Lessons and Mistakes with Seba Kanovich, CEO @ dlocal

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Seba Kanovich is the CEO @ dlocal, the #1 payments leader with a single solution focused on Latin America and other emerging markets. In June 2021, dlocal raised $617M in their NASDAQ IPO listing valuing the company at nearly $9BN. Before their IPO, dlocal raised from some of the best including General Atlantic, Bond Capital, and Oren Zeev to name a few. Prior to dlocal, Seba was CEO @ AstroPay, a leading payment solution provider in Emerging Markets.

In Todays Episode with Seba Kanovich We Discuss:

1.) The Journey to CEO of an $8BN Company:

How Seba made his way to the role of CEO of an $8BN company through dinner at his mother-in-law's house?
What does Seba know now that he wishes he had known when he first became CEO?

2.) Leadership 101:

What does "high performance" in business and leadership mean?
How important are velocity and speed of execution in startups? When should one trade speed for quality? Where is the nuance?
How does Seba approach prioritization? What framework does he use to determine what to focus on?
How does Seba think through effective delegation? How can leaders determine what only they can do?

3.) Leadership: The Challenges and Lessons:

What are Seba's biggest insecurities in leadership today? How does he manage them? How have they changed over time?
What is the single most painful leadership lesson Seba has learned that he is also pleased to have learned?
What gets easier with scale as a leader? What gets harder?
In a scaling organization, what is the first thing to break? What can be done to mitigate this?

4.) The Funding and The IPO:

Why did dlocal bootstrap for 4 years instead of raise funding? How did that process change their mindset toward capital efficiency? What was good about it? What was bad?
What are the single biggest advantages great investors can bring to the table?
Why did Seba decide 2021 was the right time to go public?
What was the biggest surprise about going public? What is better and what is worse about being a public company?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Seba's Favourite Book: Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I am so excited for this 20 VC state. Often we bring you stories of the hot Silicon Valley funded company all around,
0:06.3	but today we bring you the incredible story of an $8 billion public company that you've likely never heard of,
0:12.5	the story of D Local. And joining me in the Hot Seat to share this incredible story is their CEO,
0:17.7	Seba Canovic. Before the official bio, I just want to say a personal note on
0:21.3	Sebba. Seba is one of the most kind, humble and down-to-earth leaders I've had the joy of meeting,
0:26.2	wisdom beyond his ears. And for the official intro, DeLocal is the number one payments leader
0:30.7	with a single solution, focused on Latin America and other emerging markets. In June 2021,
0:36.5	DeLocal raised $617 million in their NASDAQ IPO,
0:40.8	valuing the company at nearly $9 billion. Before their IPO, DeLocal, raised from some of the
0:45.8	best, including General Atlantic, Bond, and Orrin Zeeve, to name a few. And this schedule was a team
0:51.3	effort thanks to Orrin's Eve, Alex at Deal and Martin and Louise at General Atlantic.
0:56.1	Amazing question suggestions and I so appreciated that.
0:59.2	But before we dive into the show today, I want to talk about an incredible tool that I use every single day, Notion.
1:04.5	Now, I am the worst for having 50 tabs open and constantly hopping between an endless array of tools.
1:10.1	Do you feel me? Are you with me?
1:11.5	Well, then Notion came into my life providing one tool to do it all with everything from seamless
1:16.2	project management to easily organizing 20 VC's company information. A fascinating stand on
1:21.3	Notion usage, more than 70% of companies who start using Notion stop using two plus other tools. And so Notion can even save you
1:29.1	money, given how many other tools it can displace. Notion has a worldwide network of millions of
1:34.0	users, creating templates, tutorials, and new inspiration. The product's getting better and better
1:38.9	every single day, and you always have the support you need. Learn more and get started for free at
1:43.5	Notion. So, take the first step toward an organized happy team today, again at Notion.
	...

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