The Enthusiast: Founders and VCs beyond the Valley

A podcast by Pat Alex

100 Episoade

Pedro Vallenilla (Cashea) on bringing consumer credit back to Venezuela, scaling to 10M customers in 3 years and becoming Kaspi
Publicat: 11.11.2025
Bernardo Garcia (Félix) on doing things that don’t scale, the power of your first 20 customers and getting the flywheel going
Publicat: 16.09.2025
Puren Ucar (fmr. Head of Talent @Earlybird) on why founders need to spend 40% of their time on hiring, the unequal impact of AI on startup roles and revenue / employee as a metric
Publicat: 18.08.2025
Gaurav Biswas (Trukker) building the uber of trucks in MENA, scaling in a fragmented industry and growing on century old logistic routes from Turkey to Kaszakstan
Publicat: 29.07.2025
[Operator Stories] Lucas Vargas (Nomad) on diversifying your assets, investing like the 1% and scaling to 100M+ in ARR
Publicat: 15.07.2025
[Operator Stories] Pedro Arnt (dLocal) on preserving startup agility whilst becoming big company, the IPO is just the beginning and his new chapter as dLocal CEO
Publicat: 20.05.2025
[Investor Journey] Camila Vieira (QED) on prioritizing moats over themes, the fund’s structure through multiple instruments and know where you land on Liquidity
Publicat: 29.04.2025
[Investor Journey] Michael Lints (Golden Gate Ventures) launching the fund’s MENA presence, synergies between South East Asia and the GCC, liquidity and the role of secondaries
Publicat: 15.04.2025
Mihai Faur (UiPath) on timing and IPO readiness, Act 2 for the company from UiPath to AiPath combining the power of AI and automation
Publicat: 01.04.2025
[Investor Journey] Rafael Costa (Across Capital) driving alpha through portfolio concentration, inflection stage capital for LatAm & US
Publicat: 11.03.2025
[Investor Journey] Milena Oliveira (Volpe Capital) on taking concentrated bets in Latin America, dynamics of early growth investing and lessons on portfolio construction
Publicat: 25.02.2025
[Operator Stories] Alexis Pantazis (Hellas Direct) scaling an insurtech, profitable markets vs. TAM, vertical integration as a moat
Publicat: 11.02.2025
[Investor Journey] Jimena Prado (Hi Ventures) on filtering through the AI noise, investing in lines not dots and transitioning from founder to funder
Publicat: 28.01.2025
[Investor Journey] Izabel Gallera (Canary) on getting to conviction in early stage investing, pattern recognition and what will be the next Nubank of Brazil?
Publicat: 14.01.2025
[Investor Journey] Christine Kenna (Ignia) on navigating ambiguity in investing, introducing Mexican pension funds to VC and driving DPI
Publicat: 10.12.2024
[Operator Stories] Pavel Fedorov (Salmon) on building a challenger bank in the Philippines, the Tinkoff Playbook and why credit first
Publicat: 26.11.2024
[Investor Journey] Esteban Sosnik (Reach Capital) on building a sector specific fund, challenges of digitizing education and new value unlock through AI
Publicat: 12.11.2024
[Investor Journey] Alex Lazarow on Emerging Markets Fintech Quo Vadis - Data, Delivery, Distribution
Publicat: 29.10.2024
[Operator Stories] Coen Jonker (TymeBank) on building a multi-country emerging markets digital bank from South Africa to the Philippines & maintaining CAC low
Publicat: 15.10.2024
[Operator Stories] Mikhail Lomtadze (Kaspi) on building a $20Bn business out of Kazakhstan, the superapp strategy and secrets on execution
Publicat: 01.10.2024

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"Entrepreneurial Talent is Global" - On The Enthusiast, Host Pat Alex chats with some of the most fascinating Founders, Operators and Investors Beyond Silicon Valley. Every two weeks, he sits down with the likes of Arjuna Costa (Flourish), Paulo Passoni, Jeffrey Paine (Golden Gate Ventures), Gerry Giacoman (Clara) and Monica Brand Engel (Quona) to dissect their challenges around scaling, fundraising, managing boards and company leadership. Taken together, the guests have raised venture capital in the hundreds of millions and are behind their regions' biggest business and venture successes paving the way towards a more equitable and diverse future. Follow the newsletter to always stay up to date with the latest episodes: https://linktr.ee/Patalex

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100 Episoade

Pedro Vallenilla (Cashea) on bringing consumer credit back to Venezuela, scaling to 10M customers in 3 years and becoming Kaspi

Bernardo Garcia (Félix) on doing things that don’t scale, the power of your first 20 customers and getting the flywheel going

Puren Ucar (fmr. Head of Talent @Earlybird) on why founders need to spend 40% of their time on hiring, the unequal impact of AI on startup roles and revenue / employee as a metric

Gaurav Biswas (Trukker) building the uber of trucks in MENA, scaling in a fragmented industry and growing on century old logistic routes from Turkey to Kaszakstan

[Operator Stories] Lucas Vargas (Nomad) on diversifying your assets, investing like the 1% and scaling to 100M+ in ARR

[Operator Stories] Pedro Arnt (dLocal) on preserving startup agility whilst becoming big company, the IPO is just the beginning and his new chapter as dLocal CEO

[Investor Journey] Camila Vieira (QED) on prioritizing moats over themes, the fund’s structure through multiple instruments and know where you land on Liquidity

[Investor Journey] Michael Lints (Golden Gate Ventures) launching the fund’s MENA presence, synergies between South East Asia and the GCC, liquidity and the role of secondaries

Mihai Faur (UiPath) on timing and IPO readiness, Act 2 for the company from UiPath to AiPath combining the power of AI and automation

[Investor Journey] Rafael Costa (Across Capital) driving alpha through portfolio concentration, inflection stage capital for LatAm & US

[Investor Journey] Milena Oliveira (Volpe Capital) on taking concentrated bets in Latin America, dynamics of early growth investing and lessons on portfolio construction

[Operator Stories] Alexis Pantazis (Hellas Direct) scaling an insurtech, profitable markets vs. TAM, vertical integration as a moat

[Investor Journey] Jimena Prado (Hi Ventures) on filtering through the AI noise, investing in lines not dots and transitioning from founder to funder

[Investor Journey] Izabel Gallera (Canary) on getting to conviction in early stage investing, pattern recognition and what will be the next Nubank of Brazil?

[Investor Journey] Christine Kenna (Ignia) on navigating ambiguity in investing, introducing Mexican pension funds to VC and driving DPI

[Operator Stories] Pavel Fedorov (Salmon) on building a challenger bank in the Philippines, the Tinkoff Playbook and why credit first

[Investor Journey] Esteban Sosnik (Reach Capital) on building a sector specific fund, challenges of digitizing education and new value unlock through AI

[Investor Journey] Alex Lazarow on Emerging Markets Fintech Quo Vadis - Data, Delivery, Distribution

[Operator Stories] Coen Jonker (TymeBank) on building a multi-country emerging markets digital bank from South Africa to the Philippines & maintaining CAC low

[Operator Stories] Mikhail Lomtadze (Kaspi) on building a $20Bn business out of Kazakhstan, the superapp strategy and secrets on execution