GroupRaise is an online platform that helps groups raise money for the causes they care about by eating at restaurants. I previously interviewed two of the other founders of GroupRaise, Devin Baptiste and Sean Park, in Episode 5 and Episode 31 of Crossing Borders, so please check out those podcasts if you are interested in learning more about GroupRaise.
In this episode, I sat down with Kevin Valdez, one of the co-founders of GroupRaise to learn more about how he moved to the US from Guatemala in middle school, helped build the family business, and eventually joined Devin and Sean to found GroupRaise.
At Magma Partners, we work with people who share our values, whether they’re the founders we invest in or the mentors and investors we bring on to our team. We hope to create lifelong relationships with the people we support.
For this episode, we’re featuring eleven Magma entrepreneurs –some are members of our portfolio, and others are from our team– who have appeared on previous episodes of the Crossing Borders podcast to share their advice to founders from Latin America on how to get started.
Crossing Borders: A Venture Capitalist’s Guide to Doing Business in Latin America is your jumping off point that will give you what you need to know to get started if you’re seriously thinking about living, working or doing business in Latin America.It is an insiders look at each country in the region based not only on Nathan Lustig’s own experiences, but also directly from the mouths of entrepreneurs, investors and government officials who have spent decades living and working in their countries and have appeared on Lustig’s Crossing Borders Podcast.Crossing Borders: A Venture Capitalist’s Guide to Doing Business in Latin America chronicles Lustig’s experience living, working and doing business across Latin America since he moved to the region in 2010 as part of the pilot round of Start-Up Chile. Since 2014, Magma Partners, the venture capital fund that he cofounded has invested into 50 startups across the region. Magma has offices in Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, USA and China.Crossing Borders has in depth chapters on all of the countries in the region, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and many more. It features entrepreneurs like Daniel Undurraga CEO Cornershop, Marco DeMello CEO Psafe, Fabricio Bloisi CEO Movile, Diego Caicedo CEO Omnibnk, Maria Paz Gillet CEO Jooycar, Rocio Fonseca Director Start-Up Chile, Alba Rodriguez CEO Gricha, Santiago Zavala Partner 500 Startups, Alejandro Freund CEO YaEsta, Federico Vega CEO CargoX, Jie Hao Magma China, David Lloyd CEO Intern Group, Devin Baptiste Sean Park, Kevin Valdez founders GroupRaise, Brian Requarth CEO Vivareal, Bismarck Lepe CEO Wizeline, Jack Fischl, Kyle Wiggins founders Keteka and many more.
I’ve been in Latin America for a little over eight years, first going to Chile in 2010. I spent the first five in Santiago, Chile, first going through Start-Up Chile, starting Andes Property and then cofounding Magma Partners. Since 2015, I’ve split my time between Colombia, Mexico, Chile and the US, and have been able to spend time in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and more, as we expanded Magma Partners across the region. I’ve truly been a nomad. I haven’t spent more than 6 weeks in a row in any location since I started this odyssey.
During my 8 years in Latin America, I’ve learned about culture, doing business and the opportunities available to both local and foreign investors. I’ve been writing about Latin America since 2010 and having conversations with top entrepreneurs and investors on the Crossing Borders Podcast since 2017.
Crossing Borders: A Venture Capitalist’s Guide to Doing Business in Latin America is a way to share what I’ve learned, along with these amazing entrepreneurs’ stories. My goal is to help foreigners and locals interested in pursuing business in Latin America get a jump start on their research. I also want help the Latin American entrepreneurs covered in this book share their stories more broadly.
