Tag: sustainability

Greatest Hits Episode: Maricel Saenz, Compound Foods: Saving Coffee from Climate Change, Ep 195

You can now find the full show notes of the Crossing Borders podcast on LatamList.com’s new podcast section. I’ll still post the audio of the podcast on my blog and I’m planning to start writing more again on my blog, like I used to.

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Thanks for listening to Crossing Borders all these years! If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to reach out here, or contact me on social media.

Outline of this episode:

  • [01:06] – The backstory of creating coffee without coffee beans
  • [02:30] – Why is coffee the perfect target?
  • [03:28] – Why does coffee contribute to climate change?
  • [04:10] – Why do we need to brew coffee without coffee beans?
  • [05:10] – Two minute background on Maricel
  • [06:05] – First startup experience
  • [06:40] – Singularity University and meeting her first co-founder 
  • [07:10] – From fighting bacteria to fighting climate change
  • [08:03] – Can we do something for climate change now?
  • [08:40] – From climate anxiety to taking action
  • [09:27] – How to take action fighting climate change
  • [12:00] – Opening jobs at Compound Foods
  • [13:05] – What does it take to build a company like Compound?
  • [14:05] – From Costa Rica to the Bay Area
  • [15:33] – Fundraising for a live product
  • [16:25] – Thoughts on fundraising 
  • [17:35] – Why is Compound not a synthetic food company?
  • [19:50] – What does the future look like?
  • [21:05] – Next steps for Compound
  • [22:09] – What advice would you give to yourself when you were first getting into tech?

Shownotes on Latamlist.com

Daniel Cossío, Village Capital: Transforming Big Ideas from Vision to Scale, Ep 102

Daniel Cossío decided he wanted to be involved in technology when he realized that businesses could produce a greater social impact than just an economic return. Today, he is Regional Manager for Latin America at Village Capital, a venture capital firm that supports impact-driven, seed-stage startups that focus on financial services, sustainability, and the future of work and education. 

For ten years, Village Capital has supported over 1100 entrepreneurs from around the world, investing in more than 110 startups including Fintual, Vexi, and Siembro in Latin America. Daniel explains that Village Capital believes in supporting entrepreneurs that are often overlooked, helping them bring their big ideas from vision to scale.

In this episode, I sit down with Daniel to discuss how he got on the investor side of the table and became the lead in LatAm and how entrepreneurs can get involved with Village Capital. We also talk about a recent report released by Village Capital called Beyond Borders on how to successfully scale a startup in Latin America, among other industry trends in the region.

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