20VC: Marcelo Claure & Shu Nyatta on Lessons from Investing $7.5BN at Softbank & Why Dumb Money has Gone, Why "LATAM is Under Construction" and the Next 10 Years Will Be the Best & Investing Lessons from Missing Nubank & OpenAI & Investing in FTX
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2023
⏱️ 58 minutes
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Summary
Marcelo Claure is the Founder & CEO of Claure Group, a multi-billion-dollar global investment firm. He is the Executive Chairman and Managing Partner of Bicycle Capital, a $500M Latin America-focused growth equity fund, and was appointed Chairman in Latin America of SHEIN, the global #1 on-demand fashion company in the world. Claure was also the CEO of SoftBank Group International where he launched SoftBank’s $8B Latin America Funds, and had direct oversight for SoftBank's operating companies. As an entrepreneur, Marcelo built Brightstar from a small local distributor to the world’s largest global wireless distribution and services company. In addition, Claure led the turnaround of US wireless telecommunications company Sprint and helped orchestrate its US$195 billion merger with T-Mobile.
Shu Nyatta is the founder of Bicycle Capital. Before Bicycle, Shu was most recently a Managing Partner at SoftBank Group International, where he launched and managed two separate funds - the SoftBank Latin America Fund and the Opportunity Fund for early-stage investments in US-based founders-of-color. In the first part of his SoftBank career, Shu was a founding Partner of SoftBank's Vision Fund. Several companies have retained him on their boards as an independent board member following his departure from SoftBank, including Lemonade (NYSE: LMND), Kavak and Tribal Credit. Shu also serves on the board of Endeavor Global - the leading global community of, by and for high-impact entrepreneurs.
In Today's Episode Featuring Bicycle Capital We Discuss:
1. From Deploying $10BN at Softbank to Founding Bicycle Capital:
- What was the founding moment for Marcelo and Shu in the founding of Bicycle?
- What does Shu believe is Marcelo's superpower? How has working with Marcelo changed the way he thinks?
- Why does Marcelo believe that he is not a good investor? How does Shu make him better, specifically?
2. Lessons from Investing $10BN at Softbank:
- What are 1-2 of the biggest lessons from investing $10BN over the last few years at Softbank?
- How did missing OpenAI and Nubank impact how Shu and Marcelo think and invest today?
- Why was losing $150M on Softbank's FTX investment, the biggest lesson of Marcelo's career?
- What are Marcelo and Shu doing differently at Bicycle, having seen how it went at Softbank?
3. The Venture World is Changing:
- Why do Marcelo and Shu believe the world of venture is changing? How is it changing most?
- Why are founders going directly to LPs to raise rounds today, over going to VCs?
- Do Marcelo and Shu believe that many VCs provide value?
- Who will win in the next 10 years of venture? Who will lose?
- Why do Marcelo and Shu believe you should not invest in founders that do not take your advice?
- Do Marcelo and Shu agree with the statement that "the best founders do not need your help"?
4. LATAM is Under Construction: It is Time to Build:
- What are the two reasons that the next decade will be the best ever for LATAM?
- What are the biggest misconceptions about the LATAM tech market?
- How do Marcelo and Shu answer the question of the lack of liquidity available with few M&A deals taking place and very few LATAM companies listing on the NASDAQ?
- How do Marcelo and Shu evaluate the withdrawal of foreign capital from LATAM tech markets? Is it good or bad? Have a load of US funds lost money on early-stage LATAM deals?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We don't want to be the biggest. The biggest doesn't necessarily mean you're the best. |
| 0:03.7 | We're bringing more than $200 million of our own money. |
| 0:06.4 | The days of just dump capital with access are long gone. |
| 0:10.6 | Tourist capital is gone. |
| 0:12.2 | Latin America is under construction and we're builders. |
| 0:15.2 | This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. |
| 0:17.3 | Now last month, Marcelo Klalaw and Xu Nayata announced bicycle capital, |
| 0:21.6 | Latinham's newest growth equity firm with 500 million in fresh capital. |
| 0:25.6 | Today, I'm so excited to welcome back to the hot seat Marcelo and shoe to the show for the first time. |
| 0:30.6 | Keeping the intro short, Marcelo was the CEO of SoftBank Group International, where he launched SoftBank's $8 billion Latin America funds and had |
| 0:38.3 | direct oversight for SoftBanks operating companies. |
| 0:41.5 | Now, as an entrepreneur, Marcelo built Brightstar from a small local distributor to the |
| 0:45.9 | world's largest global wireless distribution and services company. |
| 0:49.8 | As for Shue, Shue was most recently a managing partner at SoftBank Group International, |
| 0:53.6 | where he launched and managed two separate funds, at SoftBank Group International, where he launched |
| 0:54.2 | and managed two separate funds, the SoftBank Latin America Fund and the Opportunity Fund. And I want to say |
| 0:59.6 | huge thank you to Neil Mater, Mickey Malka and Tj at Base 10. Some amazing question suggestions |
| 1:05.0 | today. I really did so appreciate that. But before we dive into the show today, this episode is |
| 1:09.9 | brought to you by Teegas, the go-to research destination for bold investing. |
| 1:13.6 | Tegas curates expert insights, analysis and financial data to give you powerful perspective for your investment decisions. |
| 1:20.6 | With lightning fast access to over 60,000 transcripts across 20,000 companies, you'll discover a wealth of unique insights to fuel |
| 1:29.5 | your fundamental research, gain perspectives, synthesize information, and even model outcomes, |
... |
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