4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 30 August 2021
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Marcelo Claure serves as CEO of SoftBank Group International and COO of SoftBank Group Corp., the world’s largest tech investor. At Softbank, Marcelo oversees the company’s strategic direction and its portfolio of operating companies, including WeWork, SB Energy, Fortress, Boston Dynamics, as well as SoftBank’s stake in T-Mobile U.S. He also spearheads the SoftBank Latin America Fund, a $5 billion fund dedicated to investing in technology growth opportunities throughout the region. If that was not enough, Marcelo serves as Exec Chairman @ WeWork, is on the board of Arm, is the president of Club Bolívar, Bolivia's most popular and successful soccer team; co-owner and Chairman of Inter Miami CF and most recently co-owner of Girona FC.
1.) How Marcelo made his way into the world of startups and came to found his first company, Brightstar? How did Brightstar lead to Marcelo meeting Masa and moving to Tokyo to invest $1BN per week with him?
2.) From spending a year with Masa in Tokyo, what did Marcelo learn about Masa that he did not know before? How did spending this time with Masa impact Marcelo's operating mindset and his investing mindset? What were the most memorable founder meetings that Marcelo and Masa had in that year? Why did those ones stand out?
3.) When starting Softbank's LATAM Fund, what hypothesis did Marcelo have going into investing in LATAM? Which were confirmed? On the flip side, which proved to be wrong? How does Marcelo respond to people that say "LATAM produces copycat companies"? Why does Marcelo bet that Softbank will have 8 portfolio companies in LATAM go public next year?
4.) How does Marcelo think about the importance of price and price discipline today? What is their decision-making framework when determining whether to pay up or not for a deal? What have been some of Marcelo's biggest misses? How did they impact his decision-making process moving forward? How does Softbank approach conflicts when investing today?
5.) How does Marcelo analyze the increasing competition in the LATAM ecosystem? How has his style changed as a result? Through what lens does Marcelo assess the role that Tiger has played over the last 18 months? Why does Marcelo think that other firms have trash-talked Softbank before? How does Marcelo see the venture landscape as fundamentally changed?
Marcelo’s Favourite Book: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic
Marcelo’s Most Recent Investment: Uala
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0:00.0 | So the other week we did a special feature week on Latin America and bluntly it was a storming success. |
0:05.0 | We added over 100,000 new subscribers to 20 VC in Latin America alone. |
0:09.0 | But there was one guest that we were not able to feature in time that I really wanted to. |
0:13.0 | Their work has moved the needle for Latin America's tech ecosystem. |
0:16.0 | And this person literally does so much. |
0:18.0 | I'm not quite sure how to make this a succinct bio, but here |
0:21.5 | goes. So I'm thrilled to welcome Marcello Claw, CEO of SoftBank Group International and CEO of SoftBank Group |
0:27.6 | Corp, the world's largest tech investor. At SoftBank, Marcello oversees the company's strategic |
0:32.4 | direction and its portfolio of operating companies, including the likes of WeWork, SB Energy, Fortress, Boston Dynamics, |
0:39.5 | as well as SoftBank Stake in T-Mobile US. He also spearheads the SoftBank Latin America Fund, |
0:44.8 | a $5 billion fund dedicated to investing in technology growth opportunities throughout the region. |
0:50.1 | And if that wasn't enough, Marcello also serves as the exact chairman at WeWork. He's on the board of Arm. |
0:55.1 | He's the president of Club Bolivar's most popular and successful soccer team. |
0:59.3 | He's the co-owner and chairman of Inter-Miamy CF. |
1:02.1 | And most recently, co-owner of Girona FC. |
1:04.7 | I mean, I'm not quite sure what his diary looks like, but that is pretty incredible to see. And then finally, a huge thanks to Mateo |
1:11.0 | had eight sleep for some fantastic question suggestions today. Really did so appreciate that. |
1:15.5 | But before we move into the show today, Mercury is building full-stack banking for startups, |
1:20.3 | applying under 10 minutes from anywhere for FDIC insured bank accounts, physical and virtual |
1:25.4 | debit cards, domestic and international wires, |
1:28.2 | and integrations with gusto, stripe, quickbooks and plan, to name a few. |
1:32.1 | They also offer unusual features like API access, custom team management, and their newly |
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