Wenyi Cai is the Founder &amp; CEO of Polymath Ventures, a venture studio that builds digital platforms to empower the middle-class of Latin America. Prior to founding Polymath, Wenyi was an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. As the COO of Milo.com, a consumer internet startup that sold to eBay in 2010, Wenyi led business development efforts with major technology companies like Microsoft and eBay and oversaw the product and engineering teams. Earlier in her career, Wenyi was a consultant with McKinsey &amp; Company in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Preceding her business career, Wenyi helped build a quantitative trading hedge fund, and was a published researcher in applied physics. Wenyi graduated cum laude from Harvard College, and studied philosophy and physics. Wenyi was born in China and grew up between China and the United States.

Co-Founder & CEO 

Wenyi Cai 

Polymath Ventures was founded on an audacious hypothesis: that building tech companies intentionally designed for the emerging middle-class could be a catalyst to solve the structural inequality and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle%5Fincome%5Ftrap">middle-income trap</a> that has plagued Latin America. Nine years into the journey, we have built important proof points validating this hypothesis, with portfolio companies like <a href="https://www.venturecapitaljournal.com/aflore-grabs-6-6m/">Aflore</a>, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/04/elenas-series-a/">Elenas</a>, and <a href="https://polymathv.com/ventures/autolab/">Autolab</a> jointly impacting millions of people in the region already. It took time and grit to acquire the capabilities to consistently build great companies, with many lessons learned along the way.With the LatAm middle-class <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/06/24/pandemic-crisis-fuels-decline-of-middle-class-LAC">pummeled by the pandemic</a> — 5M people have already slipped from the middle class, showing the vulnerabilities of the gains made in the last decades — the mission of Polymath Ventures is more relevant than ever.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:64.47%;"><img src="/uploads/Copy_of_Wenyi_01_2_96430463c9.jpg"><figcaption>Wenyi Cai - CEO &amp; Co-Founder Polymath Ventures</figcaption></figure><blockquote>Our commitment is to leverage the platform and talent base we have built, to even more courageously attack the core issues, like education, productivity, and financial access, that hold back the potential of the emerging middle class, and of the region.&nbsp;</blockquote><h2>Lessons learned</h2><h4>#1 Building a movement requires peers</h4>We approached building Polymath Ventures from first-principles thinking. If the issue of the middle-income trap came from the productivity of informal and small firms, then let’s design solutions that systematically increased their productivity; over time, we realized that business models like managed marketplaces were especially well-suited for this challenge. If the issue is the lack of experienced entrepreneurial talent, then let’s create a venture-building backbone that partners with and trains entrepreneurs. If there is very limited early-stage capital, then let’s fund the early rounds ourselves.The benefit of first-principles thinking is that it allows you not to shy away from very complex and difficult problems, and helps you break them down into testable and actionable steps. The downside is that you are the pioneer, often along multiple fronts, which is a challenging and potentially even fatal setup. Looking back, we set out to build scalable ventures in LatAm before all the conditions were ready: middle-class smartphone adoption did not massively take off until after 2016, VC capital only started flooding the region in the last three years, and experienced startup talent remains limited today.Our willingness to jump into the game gave us many years to iterate and learn what works and what doesn’t work. But the bumpiness of the journey also shows the limitations of tinkering away like a mad scientist in your own lab. Not taking away from the deep and even unique insights Polymath has developed about our target demographic and the business models that match their needs, we really gained momentum as more allies and peers appeared. For example:<ul><li>Other companies solving problems along the value chain our ventures operated in (e.g. logistics, fintech infrastructure), so we didn’t have to build everything ourselves</li><li>The 600+ strong global movement of venture studios, showing that we were not crazy in building from scratch</li><li>The growing universe of venture capital (especially international ones entering LatAm), so that there is enough firepower to propel great products and teams to scale.</li></ul>Although venture studio models have certain biases towards being inward-looking, it is critical that we understand we need all the allies and peers we can get to tackle the audacious problem that launched us on our journey.<h4>#2 Human-centered companies build resilience</h4>Polymath’s Ventures design methodology is led by Human-Centered Design. This imbeds user-centered orientation into the DNA of our ventures, which we believe gives them an important competitive advantage. A different manifestation of this is what I would call “Human-Centered Companies”.What has given Polymath Ventures a powerful resilience over our long and windy journey is our philosophy and approach to talent. We understand that people are complex and good. That means few are driven by singular pursuits of money and ego for long. Most talented people seek challenge, mentorship, meaning, friendship, and a richness of life. Therefore, an organization that can weave a delightfully entangled ecosystem for talented people to interact and flourish creates enormous value for each person and the company.We are lucky to have been around enough now to see people leave and then rejoin, evolve from analysts at Polymath to co-founders of our ventures, form lasting friendships even as they disburse around the world in their next pursuits. These life-long relationships are the result of shared values and the formative experience of trying to do something very hard together.Throughout the pandemic crisis, we have lived the results of our approach: every single person in the company decided to sacrifice salary temporarily so that we could keep everyone while cutting burn; alumni reached out to contribute money and work; and despite very difficult times and aggressive external poaching, we kept almost everyone together. As our outlook recovered in the last trimester of 2020, we were able to hire amazing talent and train them up quickly because of the excellence and coherence of the existing team. This type of resilience is no longer dependent just on the grit of founders, it is now deeply rooted in the organization, and in an even broader ecosystem of support, including alumni, advisors, investors, and friends.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:51.05%;"><img src="/uploads/IMG_0824_2480f0512c.jpg"><figcaption>Polymath Ventures Team</figcaption></figure><h2>Next horizons</h2>Looking forward, the internal and external conditions are ripe for us to build and scale innovative and impactful companies in Latin America. The region has developed more mature conditions to build new technological solutions, the middle-class is rapidly driving the adoption of digital solutions, and the entrepreneurial ecosystem is flourishing thanks to the abundant investments led by global VC investors.Our commitment to the mission of serving the emerging middle class has only been reinforced by all the pain wrought by the pandemic. However, we see not only resilience at the Polymath level, but we continuously derive inspiration from the motivations and grit of the tens of thousands of people who work as financial advisors, sellers, mechanics, and doctors in our businesses.At Polymath Ventures, we believe our path to achieving our mission is not by conquering, but rather impacting the hearts and minds of all that engage with us. We believe we can transform how Latin America approaches innovation with every interaction, so our promise going forward is to more readily share our learnings and values with the wider ecosystem.Our plan is to continue building transformational and scalable businesses. For us, it is not about how many ventures we build, but the impact of each new venture we design, validate and scale. Our mandate is to create impact through disruption, building for a more equal and prosperous Latin America.

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Lessons learned from our CEO, Wenyi Cai

<hr><blockquote>DAY 1</blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/xiaomi-logo-png-xiaomi-accesories-600-1.png" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/Day_one_Xiaomi_0cf5e64b8a.png"></figure>“Consumers are at the center of our Universe”Our first visit took us to<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/2300557/"> Xiaomi Technology</a>’s avant-garde new campus, where we learned about the smartphone giant’s mission to serve the mass market by offering quality products at an affordable price. Xiaomi’s top priority is to harness consumer trust by remaining close to its audience, and by basing its philosophy on four core pillars: Innovation, Design, Quality, and Value for Money.One of Xiaomi’s biggest accomplishments has been to create the “MiFan” concept, a knit-tight community of fans who truly embrace and appreciate the value for money that Xiaomi delivers. Xiaomi has also developed the MiOT ecosystem, a large network of smart device manufacturers that develop high-tech products that can be accessed through Xiaomi’s MIUI operating system and follow standardized usability and design protocols. MiFans interact within the Mi Community on a daily basis, where they have an opportunity to learn about new products or give Xiaomi feedback on existing ones.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:78.77%;"><img src="/uploads/day_xiaomi_48d415e4bf.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/BeFunky-collage-1.jpg" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/ByteDance.png" alt=""></figure>“Building global platforms that foster creativity and enrich people’s lives”<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:40.35%;"><img src="/uploads/Byte_Dance_d111bbe38d.png"></figure>Then we visited<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/6575553/"> ByteDance</a>’s business headquarters, where we learned about the company’s ability to create viral products and use innovative content to reach the mass market in China and around the world.Bytedance was founded in March of 2013 and launched Toutiao, a news aggregator platform that leverages algorithms to give readers personalized suggestions according to their reading patterns. Today, it is one of the largest news aggregator platforms in the world, present in over 200 million monthly unique devices.Bytedance’s most viral product was founded in 2016; Douyin, or internationally known as TikTok. TikTok is a short-video creation platform that provides users with a myriad of content customization features and that is giving both consumers and commerces a powerful storytelling tool. Douyin and TikTok have surpassed the 500 million MAU mark that was disclosed last year and recently announced its <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3029893/bytedance-releases-apps-boost-marketing-plans-advertisers-its-short">marketing plans for advertisers in its short-video platforms</a>. Today, the ByteDance content conglomerate is valued at over 75 billion dollars, the highest valuation for a private company worldwide.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:69.65%;"><img src="/uploads/Be_Funky_collage_3_9673de70b0.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/BeFunky-collage-3.jpg" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/VIPKid.png" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/vipkid_bf20c36f0e.png"></figure>“Tech globally, work locally”We spent some time with<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/3802582/"> VIPKid</a> + LingoBus at their Qing Dynasty temple office. This company is revolutionizing online learning, offering kids from the ages 5-12 access to interactive language courses in English and Chinese, and even using virtual reality technology to assist real teachers online.VIPKid is one of the youngest unicorns in China, valued at over 3 billion dollars since its inception just over 5 years ago. VIPKid has 600,000 paying students and over 70,000 teachers across the U.S., making it the biggest employer of teachers worldwide.VIPKid deploys technology with a human touch. Through its artificial intelligence technology, VIPKid measures how frequently a teacher smiles throughout the entire virtual lesson, how often and for how long the pupil speaks and other facial expressions and behavior measurements that are paired to the performance of the student. VIPKid has a competitive recruiting program for its teachers and continuously trains its staff to give kids an exciting and productive experience.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:65.4%;"><img src="/uploads/vip_kid_2_70b6b5de7b.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/BeFunky-collage-2.jpg" alt=""></figure><hr><blockquote>DAY 2</blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/meituan_logo.png" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/meituan_logo_300x120_99cf8dc9a0.png"></figure>“Our mission is to help people throughout their daily lives; to live better, to eat better”On our second day, we had the opportunity to visit Meituan-Dianping<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/1166424/"> 美团点评</a>, a one-stop-shop lifestyle platform that allows users to fulfill almost any needs at any time of the day. One of Meituan’s competitive advantages is its ability to operate across the entire value chain with the power of fully automated AI systems and big data.Meituan-Dianping reached profitability this year, just a year after its IPO, with a market cap of 56 billion dollars and over 3 billion dollars in revenue.Meituan-Dianping has aggregated platforms across different services, such as movie ticketing, ride-hailing, bike-sharing, food delivery, trip and hotel booking, and airfare ticketing.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:66.56%;"><img src="/uploads/Yooli_d437ea3acc.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:46.35%;"><img src="/uploads/Yooli_logo_18dea6e908.jpeg"></figure>“Don’t stop, never give up, keep your head high and reach the top”We then visited fintech startup<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/5399517/"> Yooli 有利网</a>, a P2P lending firm that offers transparent consumer lending products to borrowers. Yooli has created a powerful matchmaking platform that connects investors with borrowers that fit the right risk profile, a system that was fully developed in-house due to the lack of standardized credit systems in China.It is important to notice that Yooli is one of the few FinTech firms that survived during China’s regulation crackdown of similar firms. Yooli endured by quickly adjusting to the new regulatory framework that the government developed, including strict reform on fund-pooling for investors and the banning of offline promotion of similar investment vehicles.For its credit risk profiling, Yooli leverages open-source data from Alipay, the Chinese Central Bank, and consumer behavior data that hints at borrowers’ propensity to make payments in time and their overall purchasing power to identify accurate funding needs. The average consumer loan hovers at 7,300 RMB (about 1,000 dollars) and an installment repayment plan between 12-18 months.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.61%;"><img src="/uploads/credit_eas_cc71051839.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/BeFunky-collage-8.jpg" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/CreditEase.png" alt=""></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:24.16%;"><img src="/uploads/creadit_ease_097356df4d.png"></figure>“Social responsibility, credit responsibility”CreditEase<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/1244919/"> 宜信公司</a> is redefining fintech by leveraging the latest technology to offer consumer and SME loans, build high-return portfolios for high-net-worth individuals and even give farmers access to credit across China.CreditEase operates across four main verticals: CreditEase Wealth and Asset Management, Yiren Digital (consumer, SME, Agriculture, and Supply Chain Financing), InsurTech and FinTech Enabling Services (risk management and infrastructure technology).One of CreditEase’s biggest goals is to tap the RMB17.4 trillion (USD2.5 trillion) consumer credit market, where the outstanding balance has grown at a swift CAGR of 21%. This massive growth has mainly been driven by future consumption estimates of a larger middle class, low consumer credit penetration and total retail sales expanding at a 7-8% rate.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:33%;"><img src="/uploads/link_sure_1013bcc583.png"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/BeFunky-collage-5.jpg" alt=""></figure><hr><blockquote>DAY 3</blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/LinkSure.png" alt=""></figure>“The behavior of the internet user is changing. Consumers are shifting from a proactive to a passive interaction online, constantly seeking to be fed with new information. We must rethink how we offer products or services based on that change in the dynamic”We had the pleasure of meeting <a href="https://www.wifi.com/about.html">LinkSure</a>, the creator of Wifi MasterKey, a hotspot-sharing platform with over 900 million monthly active users, one of the most utilized apps in the world.It was especially interesting to learn about LinkSure’s core strategy to acquire a massive database of users and leverage their internet traffic to learn about what consumers care about and why. For instance, the company has developed a platform for users to generate fiction short stories for anyone on the platform to read. These stories gave LinkSure insights on user behavior, tastes and preferences and allowed it to then generate in-house content that resonates. This strategy has allowed LinkSure to reach a purely organic 95% retention rate on average.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/new_retail_f1e78f4a36.png"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/Eleme.png" alt=""></figure>“Unlocking the value of new retail ”We also discussed e-commerce trends with <a href="https://www.ele.me/">Ele.me</a>, one of the largest online shopping platforms in the world. Ele.me has created and integrated an O2O ecosystem of lifestyle services in China. Ele.me was acquired by Alibaba in 2018 for 488 million dollars, and offers take-out and delivery food services as its core product, taking 4.5 million deliveries per day on average.Ele.me’s philosophy is that a consumer that is acquired on one of its business verticals can easily transition to other services and in turn, monetizing a first-time user becomes much easier and less costly, increasing average profit per user as the company grows.We also learned how Ele.me is leveraging the power of in-house video content, an extensive understanding of its consumers and a well-developed e-commerce platform to uplift its value proposition. For instance, a user can watch a “China food tour” video on Ele.me’s platform and as he or she watches, order the specific product or dish that is being filmed, and have it delivered at their footsteps before the video ends.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:69.32%;"><img src="/uploads/unlocking_new_retail_0ece9757c0.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/BeFunky-collage-6.jpg" alt=""></figure><hr><blockquote>DAY 4</blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/FTA.png" alt=""></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:37.66%;"><img src="/uploads/china_venture_e539088a9d.png"></figure>“Committed to constructing China’s road logistics infrastructure, providing the freight-truck matching platform for truckers and shippers, as well as integrated services to truck users”We visited Full Truck Alliance Group (FTA), the largest inter-city logistics matching company in China backed by Softbank. The company is revolutionary in digitizing the traditional offline, human-heavy shipper and cargo trucker matching system, improving trucks’ operating efficiency by reducing empty runs and increasing matching success.The company already dominated the Chinese market when two of the leading logistics matching platforms merged into FTA, Yunmanman, and Huochebang. Unlike most internet companies in China that were started in either Beijing, Shanghai or Hangzhou, both Yunmanman and Huochebang were created in second-tier provincial capitals in China due to the customers it serves. The truckers that the company serves are usually not technologically savvy, so the company built a powerful ground sales team in charge of installing the apps for the truckers one by one.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/nio_54ae9e6634.png"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/NIO.png" alt=""></figure>“Shaping a joyful lifestyle by offering premium smart electric vehicles with best user experience”We visited Nio House, the flagship customer experience center of Nio, the “Tesla” of China. The company designs and builds electric vehicles and provides top-notch customer experience to its car owners.Nio is also investing in charging stations in major highways to enable users to travel longer distances with the EV. The cars are powered by world-leading engines that accelerate to 100 km/h in 4 seconds. The cars are also equipped with an in-car AI assistant that can control temperature and air quality inside the vehicles. Our delegation test rode the flagship model ES8.<hr><blockquote>DAY 5</blockquote><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/ALIBABA.png" alt=""></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:37.3%;"><img src="/uploads/ALIBABA_300x65_fda04153ef.png"></figure>“To make easy to do business, anywhere”On our last day, our delegation had the opportunity to visit<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/3839570/"> Alibaba Group</a>, one of the most successful e-commerce companies in the world. Alibaba has 601 million monthly active users and 666 million mobile monthly active users. The e-commerce giant delivers 100 million packages a day and has reached 900 million annual users on AliPay.We spent some time talking with AliCloud’s strategy department learning about how the company’s mix of Cloud + Big Data + AI capabilities have enabled it to create an ecosystem of retail, marketing, finance, logistics, travel, healthcare and entertainment verticals that share and communicate data with each other.Today, Alibaba’s public cloud services encompass a 47% share of the Chinese market with over 1 million paying customers.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:64.95%;"><img src="/uploads/alibaba_d6b5f44252.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/BeFunky-collage-7.jpg" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/Screen-Shot-2019-09-25-at-11.47.18.png" alt=""></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/pinpong_87a445cb08.png"></figure>“Helping new economy players keep their hard-earned profits”To wrap up the trip, we visited Hangzhou-based <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/10311918/">PingPong</a>, a company that supports new economy merchants in all aspects related to e-commerce cross-border transactions.PingPong is a B2B platform with a product matrix of diversified services that leverage its core competencies: an extensive payments network, global compliance network, and geo-agnostic technologies. Some of its value-adding services for merchants include payout and collections, supply chain finance, currency exchange hedging, and local market intelligence.PingPong already has 800,000+ merchant sellers using its services and is seeking to capitalize on the 1.1 trillion dollars gross merchandise volume that Chinese e-commerce exports see in China per year.And so it continues…These meetings, followed by <a href="https://polymathv.com/polymath-ventures-hosted-first-china-latin-america-tech-innovation-summit-beijing/">The China-Latin America Tech &amp; Innovation Summit</a> put an end to a week full of insightful conversations with some of the most influential tech players in China. Stay tuned to read about the strategy that some of these Chinese companies undertook to win in China’s fiercely competitive landscape.

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An Inside Look into Polymath Ventures’ First Latin American Tech Expedition to China

On September 7th of 2019, Polymath Ventures hosted the first technology summit specifically focused on discussing Latin America’s technological landscape with the Chinese tech community. A big crowd of Chinese and Latin American entrepreneurs, investors, young professionals, and passionate tech-lovers showed up at The 2019 China-Latin American Tech &amp; Innovation Summit in Beijing.The Summit was structured in a way to facilitate the conversation around opportunities in Latin America’s tech boom. The Summit opened with a thorough and data-backed view of Latin America’s current digital transformation process and the case examples of how to succeed in this environment. The second part of the event focused on industry deep dives in FinTech, E-commerce, Mobility, and Logistics; the fastest growing industries in Latin America and where we see some of the highest momentum and opportunities.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:82.7%;"><img src="/uploads/Summit_Agenda_ENG_1_b388912a67.png"><figcaption>Summit Agenda</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/Summit-Agenda-ENG-1.png" alt=""></figure>Why we did it<a href="https://polymathv.com/latin-america-becoming-worlds-next-technology-mega-hub/">In previous articles</a>, we’ve talked about the data that has set up Latin America to be the next technological mega-hub. We have also explored why <a href="https://polymathv.com/china-latin-america-next-consequential-alliance/">China can add significant value</a> in Latin America given its extensive experience building digital services and products. Furthermore, we’ve seen a new trend of “going overseas to emerging markets” within the Chinese tech community and that is becoming more prevalent by the day.The summit was part of our first Latin American Tech Expedition to China, where we took a group of prominent entrepreneurs and investors in Latin America to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou to meet with leading Chinese tech companies like Alibaba Group, Meituan-Dianping, Ele.me, CreditEase, among other relevant firms. We wanted to further understand both their ability to leverage technology to build powerful businesses and their interest in Latin America.The contentAlthough highly interested, Chinese tech players cannot easily access quality information and the right network in Latin America. The Summit was a platform to bridge the information and connection gap between the two regions.During the Summit opening, Wenyi Cai, Founder, and CEO of <a href="https://polymathv.com/">Polymath Ventures</a> showcased how Latin America’s economy and market conditions are most similar to China compared to other emerging markets. She compared GDP per capita similarities between China and Latin America (US$17,000 vs. US$17,700, PPP), the equal level of smartphone penetration (71%) and the huge percentage that the middle class represents in each economy (30%).In addition, she went over some numbers that showed the under-penetration of Chinese venture capital in the region despite having more similar market dynamics compared to regions like India or South East Asia, markets that have seen much higher Chinese investment in the past few years.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:71.41%;"><img src="/uploads/Tech_and_innovation_summit_ba2a4eb083.png"><figcaption>Wenyi Cai- CEO Polymath Ventures</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/531567932435_.pic_hd.png" alt=""></figure>In the picture below, Lauren Connolley, Partner at <a href="https://qedinvestors.com/">QED Investors</a> spoke about the reasons why the U.S.-based venture capital firm has made Latin America a key market in building its FinTech portfolio. She talked about their successes in the region, talking about Nubank and Creditas as clear business cases for companies that have successfully built affordable products and that have seen exponential growth.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:72.48%;"><img src="/uploads/QED_Investors_4a6425c0f3.jpeg"><figcaption>Lauren Connolley, Parnet at QED Investors</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/7Y3A1230-1.jpg" alt=""></figure>Immediately after, Nadim Matuk, Investment Principal at <a href="https://www.liil.city/">Liil Ventures</a>, spoke about Mobility in Latin America. Nadim talked about the inefficiencies of traditional public transport systems and the high costs of mobility. Nadim then explained how rising mobile phone connectivity has enabled the adoption of alternative ride-sharing options and emphasized the great opportunity that exists to build a connected mobility ecosystem to fulfill all transportation needs in a holistic and affordable fashion.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:71.68%;"><img src="/uploads/Enapsys_b605be4fb4.jpeg"><figcaption>Nadim Matuk, Investment Principal at Liil Ventures</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/7Y3A1254-1.jpg" alt=""></figure>Finally, Pablo Sedano, Founder, and CEO of <a href="https://www.enapsys.com/">Enapsys</a> spoke about the opportunity of developing better E-commerce infrastructure in Latin America. Pablo described the massive growth of e-commerce transactions in the region despite the latent infrastructure to support it, the lack of sufficient technology to improve it and the still cash-heavy environment.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:72.94%;"><img src="/uploads/Tech_Innovation_c31e864d93.jpeg"><figcaption>&nbsp;Pablo Sedano, Founder, and CEO of Enapsys</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/7Y3A1272-1.jpg" alt=""></figure>And the conversation went both ways…The Tech Summit was also a space to hear from local entrepreneurs and investors who are just starting to develop an interest in Latin America or who are already operating in the region. For us, this was a great opportunity to hear the local perspective and gather more insights on what are some of the burning questions that the Chinese have about our region. Locals yearned for more information about the perception of Chinese businesses in Latin America and the different strategies that Chinese tech firms have taken to enter Latin America.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:71.12%;"><img src="/uploads/Local_participation_1f252bd263.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/7Y3A1252.jpg" alt=""></figure>It was especially interesting to observe the level of curiosity that local tech players showcased. Traditionally, access to quality information about Latin American tech has not been readily available, and we were glad to answer these questions in a setting that allowed for a meaningful back-and-forth conversation.<ul><li>How could China’s product strategy and technological expertise help build affordable services in Latin America?</li><li>How could Chinese venture capital add value to founders seeking strategic guidance?</li><li>How could the Chinese ecosystem-building approach turn into actionable methodologies for Latin American entrepreneurs?</li></ul>These are some of the questions that we discussed and that we will continue to explore moving forward.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:70.1%;"><img src="/uploads/Local_support_a646bf2b9f.jpeg"></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/7Y3A1249-1.jpg" alt=""></figure>What’s nextIn the coming weeks, we will be discussing in detail what we learned during the Latin American Tech Expedition to China. We will dissect Chinese business models and will trace a roadmap on how these tech giants got to where they are today.We will also analyze the Chinese super-app and how their strategic approach to building products has made waves into other emerging markets. Finally, we will discuss how Latin American entrepreneurs, investors, and governments can become strategic players of the China-Latin America chessboard, and reap the benefits of an alliance that is long overdue.If you would like to receive more information about China, our expedition or discuss perspectives feel free to reach us: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#204348494e4160504f4c594d415448560e434f4d">[email protected]</a>.

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Polymath Ventures hosted the first China-Latin America Tech & Innovation Summit in Beijing

<blockquote>Wenyi Cai managing partner at Polymath and Jeremy Dann Professor of Innovation of USC were interviewed at Bay Area Ventures. A weekly show about the Bay Area way of doing business. In this episode they discuss the case study Professor Dann wrote on Polymath and how entrepreneurship has had an impact on economic development in emerging markets like Latin American.</blockquote>&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Interview: Launching and growing startup ventures in Colombia.

In <a href="//polymathv.com/tortoises-hares-chickens-and-pigs-how-you-should-live-and-work-in-your-20s-part-i/">part I</a> of this post, I talked about the importance of being a pig in your 20s. It’s the only way to open yourself to the possibilities of the world and shed the identity that parents, peers and society lent you while you were growing up. Only then can you begin to really understand what you are about.In this post, I want to share the primary perspective change that I made through the arc of my 20s (in a large part because I was such a dedicated pig). I believe it is the most important developmental journey you can make during your odyssey years and one that sets you up for sustained life success as an adult.I went from being a hare to a tortoise.The fable is one all are familiar. Even though the hare had the natural advantage, the tortoise ultimately won the race by not over-estimating itself and by keeping at it. Slow and steady wins the race.I was the ultimate hare: I went to preschool 1.5 years early because we went through 9 nannies in 18 months and my parents gave up; my mom changed my birth certificate so I would be accepted into first grade early; I finished high school math when I was 12; I used to take 6 classes per semester at Harvard compared to the average 4 to complete two unrelated majors; by the time I was 26, I had switched careers 3 times and sold a company. If there was a poster child for living like the hare, the first quarter of my life was it! I was racing time, and the speed of attaining goals was almost more important than the goals themselves.But as you race past marker after conventional marker, as the road becomes less signed and less paved – as you start pushing past the boundaries of what others around you have explored before, you start to realize that most things worth doing in life take time. If they get easier and easier, it means that you are not pushing yourself very hard, or at least you are running on a well-worn path. Driving 200km takes 2 hours if you are traveling paved highway, and days if it is virgin wilderness. For those of us who are pioneers (and really we all should be in some way or another), the fact that it’s hard means you are more likely on the right path.So if the right path is going to take time, then the perspective of how you should live it radically changes.Flash converts to endurance. Boastful turns to humility. Fast-talking habits modify to a more reasonable pace. “Fake it until you make it” is much less likely to work. The why and the how, particularly the how, becomes much more important than the what. The end almost never justifies the means. True shortcuts are rare. You start investing in people. Loyalties and responsibilities are real. You start taking care of yourself.Observing my peers over the last 10-15 years, there are astoundingly different ways to live your 20s. Some of us had life-changing adventures, others worked through deep emotional wounds, and still others started a family. Any journey that guides one through honest self-examination to emerge out the other end as a tortoise is a successful and healthy way to have spent ones 20s. It is a sign that you now understand who you are, and are confident that you are heading in the right direction of what you want out of this life.Lao Tzu said “the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.” The average life expectancy of a giant tortoise is 100 years. The average for a hare is 3. This is the beginning of the rest of your life. And in many ways, since it takes most of us almost a decade after we leave our parents house to understand what our identity is, towards the end of your 20s is truly the beginning of your life, on your terms. Make every step count. But make it count not in service of some marker on the road, but in the expression of your beliefs, passions, and hopes. Take each step with confidence, courage and patience:I am here. This is what I am in this world, and I’m going to be here for awhile.My sincere wishes for anyone traveling through your 20s: be a pig – engage, struggle, cry and laugh. I hope you gradually let go of the insecurities of the hare and emerge as the tortoise that lives with your true self for 100 years. And while you are at it, try to leave the world something authentic, and worth savoring for another 100 years.In this spirit, and that of both the pig and the tortoise, I leave you with the words of Teddy Roosevelt from a speech he gave at the Sorbonne in 1910:“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”<hr>Tortugas, liebres, gallinas y cerdos: cómo vivir y trabajar en tus veinte (Parte II)En la parte I de este post, hablé de la importancia de ser un cerdo durante tus veinte. Es la única forma de abrirte a las posibilidades del mundo y eliminar la identidad que tus padres, compañeros y la sociedad te prestaron mientras estabas creciendo. Sólo en ese momento puedes empezar a entender lo que tú realmente significas.En este post, quiero compartir el cambio principal de perspectiva que hice durante el paso de mis veinte (en gran parte porque estaba dedicada a ser cerdo). Creo que es el viaje de desarrollo más importante que puedes hacer durante tus años de odisea y el que te prepara para una vida de éxito sostenido como un adulto.Pasé de ser una liebre a una tortuga.La fábula es una que todos conocen. Aunque la liebre tenía la ventaja, la tortuga al final ganó la carrera al no sobrestimarse y siguiendo con constancia. Lento pero seguro gana la carrera.Yo fui una liebre en su máxima expresión: empecé preescolar 1.5 años antes de lo normal porque después de 9 niñeras en 18 meses mis padres se rindieron; mi mamá cambió mi registro civil para que me aceptaran en primer grado antes; terminé matemáticas de secundaria a los 12; solía tomar 6 clases por semestre en Harvard, comparado al promedio de 4 para completar dos carreras no relacionadas entre sí; a los 26, había cambiado de carrera 3 veces y vendido una compañía. Si hubiese un cártel sobre la personificación de vivir como una liebre, eso fui yo durante el primer cuarto de mi vida. Estaba en una carrera contra el tiempo y la velocidad de alcanzar metas se volvió más importante que las metas en sí mismas.Pero mientras corres por la carretera demarcada, y giras por un camino donde se empieza a acabar la señalización y cada vez se encuentra menos pavimentado. Cuando empiezas a pasar los límites de los que otros a tu alrededor han explorado antes, empiezas a darte cuenta que la mayoría de cosas que valen la pena en la vida toman tiempo. Si se ponen cada vez más fáciles, significa que no estás esforzándote lo suficientemente fuerte a ti mismo, o al menos estás corriendo por un camino conocido. Manejar 200km toma 2 horas si estás viajando por la autopista, y días si estás en medio de la selva virgen. Para esos de nosotros que somos pioneros (y realmente todos deberíamos serlo de una u otra forma), el hecho que sea difícil significa que probablemente vamos por el camino correcto.Si el camino correcto va a tomar tiempo, entonces la perspectiva de cómo deberías vivir cambia radicalmente.La rapidez se convierte en resistencia. La arrogancia se vuelve humildad. Los hábitos de hablar a toda máquina se modifican a un paso más razonable. Fingir hasta que se logre “fake it until you make it” tiene menos posibilidades de funcionar. El “por qué” y el “cómo”, particularmente el “cómo”, se vuelven mucho más importantes que el qué. El fin casi nunca justifica los medios. Los verdaderos atajos son poco comunes. Empiezas a invertir en la gente. Las lealtades y las responsabilidades son reales. Empiezas a cuidarte a ti mismo.Observando a mis colegas durante los últimos 10-15 años, existen diferentes formas sorprendentes de vivir tu veinte. Algunos de nosotros tuvimos aventures que nos cambiaron la vida, otros trabajaron heridas emocionales profundas y otros comenzaron una familia. Cualquier viaje que pueda guiarte a una examinación propia, honesta para salir al otro lado como una tortuga es una forma exitosa y sana de pasar los veintes. Es una señal que necesitas ahora entender quién eres y tienes la confianza que estás avanzando por la dirección correcta de lo que quieres en esta vida.Lao Tzu dijo que “la llama que brilla el doble se quema a media velocidad.” El periodo de vida promedio de una tortuga gigante es 100 años, el de una liebre es 3. Este es el inicio del resto de tu vida. Y de muchas formas, ya que a la mayoría nos toma casi una década después de dejar la casa de nuestros padres para entender cuál es nuestra identidad, hacia el final de los veinte es realmente cuando empieza el inicio de tu vida, en tus propios términos. Haz que cada paso cuente. Pero hazlo contar no al servicio de una señal en el camino, pero en la expresión de tus creencias, pasiones y esperanzas. Da cada paso con confianza, valor y paciencia:Estoy aquí. Estoy es lo que soy en este mundo y voy a estar aquí un buen rato.Mis sinceros buenos deseos para cualquier persona que esté realizando el viaje que son los veinte: sé un cerdo – comprométete, lucha, llora y ríe. Espero que gradualmente dejes ir las inseguridades de la liebre y emerjas como la tortuga que vive con su verdadero yo durante 100 años. Y mientras estás en esas, trata de dejarle al mundo algo auténtico y que valga la pena saborear por otros 100 años.En este espíritu, y el de ambos el Cerdo y la Tortuga, los dejo con una parte del discurso de Teddy Roosevelt dado en la Sorbona en 1910:“No es el crítico quien cuenta, ni el que señala con el dedo al hombre fuerte cuando tropieza o el que indica en qué cuestiones quien hace las cosas podría haberlas hecho mejor.El mérito recae exclusivamente en el hombre que se halla en la arena, aquel cuyo rostro está manchado de polvo, sudor y sangre, el que lucha con valentía, el que se equivoca y falla el golpe una y otra vez, porque no hay esfuerzo sin error y sin limitaciones. El que cuenta es el que de hecho lucha por llevar a cabo las acciones, el que conoce los grandes entusiasmos, las grandes devociones, el que agota sus fuerzas en defensa de una causa noble, el que, si tiene suerte, saborea el triunfo de los grandes logros y si no la tiene y falla, fracasa al menos atreviéndose al mayor riesgo, de modo que nunca ocupará el lugar reservado a esas almas frías y tímidas que ignoran tanto la victoria como la derrota”.

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Tortoises, Hares, Chickens and Pigs: How you should live and work in your 20s (Part II)

At 21, I said yes to the McKinsey Dubai office without ever having been to Dubai, or any part of the Middle East for that matter. What convinced me was a simple letter on the office website from the then office manager, Kito de Boer.<a href="#%5Fftn1">[1]</a> He told the fable of the chicken and the pig – that the chicken contributed to breakfast, but the pig made the ultimate sacrifice. He also wrote something that struck me straight in the heart: If you come…I don’t know exactly how…but I promise that you will change.And so I went.Change is probably too trite of a word to describe what happened. The alien-ness of everything meant that I needed to strip down to the core – to leave many things that I thought were essential and others I didn’t even know were there – and rebuild who I was from scratch. It was the first time in my life that I actually understood gender, and subsequently learned how to get myself taken seriously by a lot of older men. I started to understand that my ivory tower arrogance of meaning trumping materialism was the result of enormous privilege rather than enlightenment. I tested the boundaries of physical danger by crossing dubious borders and working in cities controlled by terrorist groups. I muddled and then glided my way through loneliness. I fell in love, and also learned heartbreak and repair.And through it all, I became a lot more of who I really was.This is what happens when you choose to be a pig. It is only through complete engagement with a life experience – taking bold decisions and making a real commitment for some time – that the most unexpectedly wonderful and important things happen. And it only gets better when you choose to be a pig over and over again.At 22, or 24 or even 27, you don’t actually know much about anything. It is not time to plan your career because you don’t understand who you are yet. You don’t really know what different jobs actually entail. And you don’t understand what is meaningful work because you are still mostly influenced by what other people think are important and good (even if you loathe to admit it). The smartest thing you could do is to understand your own ignorance and confusion. In fact, embrace it, and be truly open to what the world and others can show you.Being genuinely open is not easy. The vast majority of people are too delusional or cowardly to expose themselves. Being open means you are uncovering yourself to the elements: to lashes, to regrets, to strong headwinds, but also to paths that you never could have intended but are truly yours, revelations that deeply change your assumptions about the world and yourself, and connections and love from unexpected places.Over the last five years, I have encountered countless young talent who make the simple mistake of thinking that they know. They think they understand the exact function or industry they want to work in without experiencing more than 1 or 2 (there are at least dozens of each out there). They take a job because they are flattered that someone they know from their past looked for them, or someone else is willing to pay them more. They strive for positions because of social status rather than genuine passion. These are all false handrails that make one feel less lost, but true understanding and self-discovery just does not happen this way. This type of thinking is like a frog that jumps from one lily pad to another, comforted by the movement, but never stopping to think whether he should be in this pond at all, or whether he could actually be a prince!In your 20s, there should only be 2 criteria for how you make decisions about what’s worth your time:<ol><li>Choose things (especially jobs, but also maybe lovers and friends) that challenge you so much, they make you quite uncomfortable and you don’t know where they will lead you; and,</li><li>Always choose to be with the best people (measured by capability and values) you can possibly have access to. Everything else, like what industry, what function, even what geography, are all secondary.</li></ol>There were consultants who came to the Dubai office to do a 3-month study. They had an adventure and then they left; there were no grand transformations nor re-imaginations of self that took place. They dipped their toes in water, but because they never jumped into the deep end, they never learned to swim.Be a pig. Who would ever choose eggs over bacon anyway?<a href="#%5Fftnref1">[1]</a> Interestingly, Kito is now the Head of Mission of the Office of the Quartet, in East Jerusalem. The Quartet comprises the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia, and mediates between Israelis and Palestinians.<hr>Tortugas, liebres, gallinas y cerdos: cómo vivir y trabajar en tus veinte (Parte I)A los 21 años, le dije que sí a la oficina de McKinsey Dubai sin haber nunca ido antes a Dubai, o el Medio Oriente en ese caso. Lo que me convenció fue tan solo una carta que estaba en la página web de la oficina del gerente de esa época, Kito de Boer<a href="#%5Fftn1">[1]</a>. En ella contaba la fábula de la gallina y el cerdo: la gallina contribuye al desayuno, pero al final el cerdo hace el último sacrificio. También me escribió algo que me llegó directamente al corazón: si vienes, no sé exactamente cómo, pero te prometo que vas a cambiar.Y entonces me fui.“Cambio” es probablemente una palabra muy trivial para describir lo que pasó. Lo ajeno del entorno significó que tuviera que deshacerme de mis capas: dejar muchas cosas que pensé eran esenciales y otras que ni siquiera sabía que tenía, me reconstruí desde ceros. Fue la primera vez en mi vida en la que realmente entendí el concepto de género y tuve que aprender a lograr que hombres mayores que yo me tomaran en serio. Entendí que mi torre de marfil arrogante y de éxito materialista, era el resultado de enorme privilegio y no producto de mi genialidad. Probé los límites del peligro físico cruzando fronteras dudosas y trabajando en ciudades controladas por grupos terroristas. Me confundí y avancé en la soledad. Me enamoré y también aprendí sobre el corazón roto y reparación.Y durante todo ese tiempo, me convertí más en lo que yo realmente era.Esto es lo que pasa cuando decides ser un cerdo, como en la fábula. Es la única forma de aventurarse completamente en una experiencia de vida: tomando decisiones arriesgadas y haciendo un compromiso de verdad durante un buen tiempo, así es como las cosas más inesperadas y maravillosas pasan. De ahí en adelante, sólo se pone mejor cuando decides ser cerdo una y otra vez.A los 22, 24 o incluso los 27 años, uno no sabe realmente mucho de nada. No es el momento de planear una carrera porque no entiendes quién eres todavía; no sabes lo que implican realmente los trabajos; no entiendes lo que trabajo con propósito significa porque todavía estás completamente influenciado por lo que otras personas creen que es bueno e importante (aunque duela admitirlo). La decisión más inteligente que puedes tomar es entender tu propia ignorancia y confusión. De hecho, aférrate a ella y sé completamente abierto a lo que el mundo y los otros pueden mostrarte.Ser alguien genuinamente abierto no es fácil. La gran mayoría de personas son algo ilusas o incluso temerosas para permitirse esta exposición. Abrirse significa destaparse a los elementos: a la adversidad, arrepentimientos, movimientos fuertes en la marea y también a caminos que nunca habrías creído que podrían ser tuyos. Revelaciones que cambian profundamente tus supuestos sobre el mundo y sobre ti mismo; conexiones y amores en lugares inesperados.Durante los últimos cinco años, me he encontrado con una innumerable cantidad de talento joven que comete el sencillo error de creer que saben demasiado. Creen entender la función exacta o industria en la que quieren trabajar sin experimentar más de una o dos (hay al menos docenas de cada una en el mundo). Aceptan trabajos porque se sienten halagados de ser reconocidos por alguien de su pasado, o porque simplemente alguien está dispuesto a pagarles más. Luchan por posiciones que entregan estatus social más que pasión genuina; y estos son bastones que funcionan sólo como apoyo para sentirse menos perdido, sin embargo, el verdadero entendimiento y descubrimiento de sí mismos no se encuentra así. Esa tipo de pensamiento es como el del sapo que salta de una hoja a la otra, reconfortado por el movimiento pero nunca deteniéndose a pensar si debería estar realmente en esta laguna, o si de pronto, tal vez, podría ser un príncipe.Durante tus veinte, deberías tener dos criterios sobre cómo tomar decisiones sobre lo que realmente vale la pena:<ol><li>Escoger cosas (especialmente trabajos, pero de pronto también amigos y amantes) que te reten tanto, que te hagan sentir algo incómodo y no sepas adónde te van a llevar.</li><li>Siempre elige estar con la mejor gente (medida por capacidades y valores) a la que puedas tener acceso. Todo lo demás, como qué industria, función o incluso lugar en el mundo, son secundarios.</li></ol>Había consultores que venían a la oficina de Dubai a realizar estudios de 3 meses, tenían una aventura y después se iban; no pasaban por grandes transformaciones o reconocimiento de sí mismos. Mojaban los dedos de los pies en el agua, pero como nunca saltaron hasta el fondo, nunca aprendieron a nadar.Sé un cerdo ¿quién escoge huevos sobre tocino al final del día?<a href="#%5Fftnref1">[1]</a> Resulta interesante que Kito ahora es el Jefe de Misión de la Office of the Quartet, al Este de Jerusalén. El Quartet contiene a las Naciones Unidas, Los Estados Unidos, La Unión Europea y Rusia; e incluso ayuda a negociaciones entre Israel y Palestina.<hr>Also published on <a href="https://medium.com/@polymathventures/tortoises-hares-chickens-and-pigs-how-you-should-live-and-work-in-your-20s-part-i-e46af1eeb187">Medium</a>.

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Tortoises, Hares, Chickens and Pigs: How you should live and work in your 20s (Part I)

Polymath’s model is the subject of a Harvard Business Review <a href="https://hbr.org/product/polymath-ventures-building-an-international-incubator/SCG521-PDF-ENG">Case Study</a> which will be taught in an HBS course during 2017.Jeremy Danns and Benjamin Rokoster delved in-depth into our story and methodology. In this case-study, they communicate the story of how Polymath was created, provide insight into how the first ventures were launched, and analyze the growing pains of our complex ecosystem of investors, ventures and their founders, employees, and customers.<blockquote>Edelman described one memorable investor meeting. After pitching an idea to an enthusiastic boardroom full of executives, the team presented its financing request. “We had asked for an initial investment for 10%, with a conservative valuation, and follow-on rounds. This proposal would have been completely reasonable in Silicon Valley, but in this meeting it was met with silence and then the boardroom erupted in laughter.”</blockquote>We are very honored that Harvard has taken an interest in our mission and methodology.Find it <a href="https://hbr.org/product/polymath-ventures-building-an-international-incubator/SCG521-PDF-ENG">here</a>.

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Harvard Business Review Case Study

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About Polymath Ventures

About Polymath Ventures Sub-titled

Santiago has experience in Digital, Inbound and Growth Marketing. Prior to Polymath, he worked in several digital and media agencies leading an executing data-driven marketing strategies for companies in sectors like Technology, Health, Telecom and and Goverment. He's passionate about digital culture, blockchain edtech and future of work.

Marketing Manager

Santiago Pérez

Failure stories are at the core of the entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem.Failure is one of those things that we are taught to be afraid of since we are little kids.It’s something that you have to avoid: To fail.Then, as we grow up we face the inevitable truth, that is: It’s impossible to grow without failing.In entrepreneurship, it might be even more evident. To fail is to learn, and even if we want it or not, we all will have to fail a lot in our lives.The core of the matter of course is: How to get the most out of those failures?We talked to our Founder &amp; CEO, Wenyi Cai, to try to frame some ideas around the importance of recognizing, documenting and celebrating failures as a fundamental part of the journey of building transformative companies.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="/uploads/Copy_of_Wenyi_005_d09a9f8073.jpg"><figcaption>Wenyi Cai - Founder &amp; CEO</figcaption></figure>Before funding Polymath, Wenyi spent some years in Silicon Valley as the COO of <a href="http://Milo.com">Milo.com</a>. What she remembers about the ecosystem there, is its focus on celebrating and getting as many insights out of failure.“What’s really insightful about failure is that you learn a lot through it” Wenyi Cai.That’s one of the things that makes Silicon Valley a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. People are not afraid of failures, rather they are eager to make mistakes because they know how valuable that knowledge can be.There is this idea of entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley being an overnight success, but that's just B.S. Sucess for the majority of people doesn’t come as easy as we all see it from the outside.Usually, the kind of success that strikes, comes only after a process of repetitive failure and learning.Especially in entrepreneurship, as Wenyi says:<blockquote>“In order to create really breakthrough businesses and companies you have to learn how to learn better”.</blockquote>&nbsp;So let’s stop for a bit and really think about that phrase: “Learn how to learn better”.That’s when experience comes to play. Most breakthrough ideas and businesses come from insights that cannot be obtained in books. In order for a company to really understand the nuances of their business, the only thing they can do is to operate the business itself.Learning does not happen in steadiness, on the contrary, it happens in movement.That’s why if you are trying to create transformative companies, you will have to unlock access to knowledge and insights that other people couldn’t, and again, those are things you cannot read about because not everyone has access to them.The thing is that experiences can’t all be good. In fact, most of them might feel bad or at least uncomfortable, and when you start feeling that, you know you are on the right path to learning something new.<blockquote>“The real insights about a market, an industry o certain costumers comes through experience, and it’s really hard to make all those experiences, good experiences.Almost by definition in order to gain these differentiated insights you have to go through a lot of experiences and a lot of them are going to be failures or not entirely successful experiences”. Wenyi Cai</blockquote>&nbsp;That’s how having funded 2 or 3 companies before you “succeed” is not a sign of failure, rather it’s a sign of evolution, process, and a path filled with unique learning experiences.Silicon Valley’s culture rapidly embraced the idea of celebrating failures and that helped build a community with a mindset of falling and bouncing back as many times as it is necessary to achieve something extraordinary.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="/uploads/Quotes_4959731b35.png"><figcaption>Celebrate Learnings&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>In Latin America that spirit is yet to be fully embraced, as the early ecosystem that it is, we are just starting to see these second or third-time founders, or even exceptional talent coming out of unicorns to capitalize on their learnings by building something themselves.The challenge from now on will be not only to celebrate and embrace failure but also to maximize the learnings we all take out of them. The success of the ecosystem depends on it.<blockquote>“One of the things that are really difficult is that if we don’t embrace failures and understand what are the best ways to come out of them and take the learnings, we are losing a lot of talent and we are losing a lot of access to those learnings as an entire ecosystem”. Wenyi Cai</blockquote><h2>&nbsp;</h2><h2>Being Antifragile</h2>There are many things that can contribute to a business’ failure. Some of them are exogenous, or things you have no control over. These could be the market you are trying to reach, the financial situation of the region or even the political state of a country.The best thing you can do about those things is to deeply understand and monitor them, so you can take more informed decisions about your business. But even if you closely analyze them every day, there are few things you can do to shift their behavior to your own good.On the other hand, you have the things you can control, these are related to how you build your team, the business model or features your product offers.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="/uploads/Wenyi_s_Quote_e93ed71dee.png"><figcaption>The kind of issues that can kill a business</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;In our<a href="https://polymathv.com/library/articles/10-years-of-building-companies-for-latin-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> 10 years path of building companies,</a> we have encountered many of these problems. Some of them have led us to pivot entire business models or even close some of our ventures. The fact is that no matter the final outcome, we have always found a way to learn from failure, and become better. That´s what we understand as being antifragile.Because of the way we build companies at Polymath and at the Venture Studio level, we are very intentional with our learning processes which have allowed us to concentrate our efforts on specific business models and solutions that we now know work better for the demographic (middle-class) and the region (Latin America).<h2>A real-life story</h2>Now that we have outlined the importance of failure in the process of building companies, let’s deep dive into a real-life story to better exemplify how we leverage our learnings.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="/uploads/POST_TAXIMO_48b1c86bb0.jpg"><figcaption>Taximo, a business model for mobility in Latam</figcaption></figure>Taximo was one of the first Ventures we launched at Polymath. It was 2013 and technology-based companies in LATAM were just starting to rise, with very little or no money coming from Venture Capital at the time, it was a very challenging but fun ride.The initial business model aimed to help drivers who couldn’t own a car access lending options so they could work and make a living by using Taxis owned by other people, who at the same time needed drivers for their cars.In its history, Taximo evolved from a “simple” lending business model, to be more of a tech enabler for the Taxi market, focusing its efforts on developing solutions not only around connecting drivers and car owners but also becoming a Software + Data + Service Provider business model.After years of small successes and many iterations around the business model to drive more innovation and value to the specific industry, Taximo finally closed its operation in late 2019.Here are some reflections from Wenyi on Taximo’s learnings:One of the fundamental reasons why it didn’t work: It’s not that the taxi market is small, or that people don’t need loans or financial instruments to have that business, it’s more that we decided at some point to have an asset-light model in which we were kind of the software, credit assessment and collection.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="/uploads/Asset_light_Vs_Asset_heavy_2573dd8187.png"><figcaption>Defining a business model: Asset heavy VS Asset light</figcaption></figure>The problem is that in Latin America there’s not a lot of depth in terms of financial institutions. Most of the formal banking sector doesn’t have as much competition as you have in other markets, but even below that, there are no specialist financial institutions even if they are not banks. It is a very shallow market in LatAm.So for Taximo at the time, there were only 3 big players for it to sell it in Spanish Latam, so the depth of the market wasn't there.That’s probably the most faithful decision that was made at some point and that was not correct. Alternatively, we could have chosen an asset-heavy model to underright the market and give these credits to taxi and uber drivers.It’s very important to understand what really were the most fundamental things that you didn't do right because there will always be things that are exogenous and things you can’t control and usually make everything go slower rather than fundamentally derail the ability to build that business.My reflection is that in Latin America if you want to be in the lending business you need to be asset-heavy because the depth of the niche financial institutions market isn’t there which is a completely different situation than other markets like the U.S.This example illustrates how some decisions like becoming asset-light, can have made all the sense at that specific time, and ultimately ended up not being the right decisions for the market.There are a lot of details that are recoverable mistakes, if you are a good founder and are able to pivot quickly, you can recover from many business decisions and even exogenous things happening.But there are some faithful choices that are harder to recover from, and maybe people are not so intellectually honest about that. We could just say “This didn’t work because of the market or the competition” Instead of reflecting on our own choices.<h2>A never-ending learning cycle</h2>Interesting, huh?The most interesting part of all this is of course how we have been able to capitalize on those learnings to continue to improve the way we scale our businesses.For example, all the learnings we had with Taximo’s journey were pivotal to the decision-making process of pivoting Aflore and Autolab to more tech-based companies, as well as to the building of Elenas.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="/uploads/2021_rewind_619a1e268f.png"><figcaption>Cross Learning: From one Venture to the whole portfolio</figcaption></figure>If we hadn't experienced that failure with Taximo it would probably have taken us more time, money and energy to build the business models that we have now.The most interesting part of this happening inside a Venture Studio is how it can occur repeatedly and generate a compound effect that goes from one company to another. It’s cross and scalable learning, a difficult but necessary thing to entrepreneurship.About those learnings, these are some of Wenyi’s thoughts:“Over time we have crystalized these learnings by focusing on certain business models that we think work.Fintech lending, e-commerce platform, b2b2c services, there’s a lot underneath and we have developed a building thesis around those learnings.We now better understand what is the level of fragmentation you need to be seeing in a industry for these business models to work or what is the gross margin we can expect, etc…We have learned that for socially building for the middle-class you need to have a high gross margin in order for the effort to be really worth it.We spent a lot of time thinking what is the value that the business adds to the different players and if we don’t feel we are adding this 10x better value, then we think that you also don’t get the kind of exponential growth that is needed to make these businesses grow.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="/uploads/Elenas_10_X_Better_Product_56a75fbd5f.png"><figcaption>Elenas: A 10X better model for Direct Sales&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>In LatAm is happening something similar to what happened in China in the 2010s, when funding and opportunities were going to a specific kind of founders that came from universities in the U.S or had experiences in certain kinds of companies like Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley and some of the likes.Then they realized that the more grounded founders, the ones that didn’t come from these places but rather have been working in the local sphere, were the ones building more scrappy and scalable companies, because they were closer to the ground, closer to the users and the channels and things like that.Both profiles bring a lot of value and if you can get a team that combines those actually have pretty good results, but it’s not always possible”.<h2>A message for the ecosystem</h2>Latin America’s ecosystem is still young, and there are many things to be learned and experimented in the region.We are excited by what’s coming and we believe there are many opportunities yet to be capitalized and that can radically change the way people live in Latam, especially those that have been neglected and underserved for years.We asked Wenyi for her advice to founders and professionals working in the ecosystem and summarized them in 4 crucial points:1- Recognize and celebrate failure: The first step to being antifragile is to be very intentional and reflective about the things we do and learn. If we want to build a more mature ecosystem, we shouldn’t only reflect on our own process, but also share it and celebrate our failures in public.Creating an open conversation about failure will help other founders to learn from our mistakes and encourage newcomers to take the leap and build their own companies.Wenyi’s words: “One of the interesting things about LatAm is that we all want it to grow but there are few conversations about failures. Do we learn from other people's failures and challenges in a healthy way? Or do we sneak behind the back of the people? Do we get jealous for other people's success? Or do we come all together to be helpful to each other and talk about lessons learned in an honest and healthy way. ”.2- Develop a Growth Mindset: Recognizing learnings and growth opportunities in everything that you do is a way of living, it goes back to how you think and confront life, that’s what makes it a mindset-level conversation.Here you would have to be transparent and make a growth mindset a requirement for your everyday actions. Also, it’s about sharing, because everything is about sharing.Wenyi’s words: “The successful founder has to be someone who has a growth mindset, and reflecting on your mistakes in a very thoughtful transparent manner and then being willing to share is one of the best ways to have that growth mindset”.3- Focus on healthy growth: One thing is fast-paced learning and other very different is throwing money at problems in order to move more nimbly.This has always made sense, but maybe it has even more value now as we see a possible economic recession developing in the world. Learning how to fail, while being mindful of the resources is also a must for a healthier ecosystem.Wenyi’s words: “There’s a lot of money going to businesses that haven’t generated that much value. Sometimes having that much money can make people not very discipline on the expending of money and how you can achieve growth not throwing money at it but rather finding real product-market fit”.4- Embrace your weirdness: People that build the best businesses and projects tend to have very specific and diverse ways of seeing the world, that’s what makes them ideal for innovation and disruption.You should be embracing that, and even making it part of your company’s culture, way of working, and day-to-day processes. Often times what makes us feel weird is also the thing that makes us stand out from the crowd.Wenyi’s words: “You kind of have to be a bit weird to be a founder. We are all weird in our own ways but you can be weird in ways that become the secret sauce behind the resilience and vibrance of a business”.

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Fail, learn, celebrate, repeat 

Shuang operates Cloud Service-related accelerators to advance China's startup ecosystem globally. Additionally, she advises on eCommerce and Fintech-related topics as a consultant at Polymath Venture. Shuang has led Elenas' China team, developing China's supply chain and facilitating various strategies. Previously she held a leadership role at CreditEase, a top Fintech company in China, where she led corporate strategy and investment projects. Shuang's early career includes working with MSCI and the World Bank and volunteering for a Microfinance project in rural Guatemala. Shuang holds a BPhil in Philosophy from Wuhan University and a Master's degree in Intl Development from Georgetown University with distinction. &nbsp;

Wenyi Cai

Co-Founder & CEO

Looking at the future of LatAm digital payments through the lessons of China

Fail, learn, celebrate, repeat

Lessons learned from our CEO, Wenyi Cai