The first challenge was to understand the buying behavior of Gen Z, which unlocked learnings about the relevance this segment has on the growth of second-hand apparel shopping, with conscious and savvy shoppers being the fastest growing segments. At the same time, global leading retailers are turning to resale as a way to engage with this demographic.

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Insights from Research:

Starting with the above insights, we started the validation phase with four concepts that responded to the biggest pain points and expectations of both, buyers and sellers. Through experimentation, we understood that sellers are looking to increase their sales while decreasing operational hassles while buyers need to browse and discover curated pieces.

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Our approach

Ropstar is redefining what selling and shopping second-hand means, thanks to its mobile-first and highly curated approach. Now, sellers can grow their business, reduce the operational hassle and help them make informed and data-driven decisions, while buyers have a fun and easy experience, in which they can discover unique items, support the planet and elevate the work of local entrepreneurs.

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Business Model

Ropstar was launched in April 2021 with exciting progress in a market full of opportunities:&nbsp;<ul><li>Onboarded Entrepreneurs in Residence, Raphael Kromer and CMO Martín Jara.</li><li>Early-stage team of +10 people with expertise in Tech, Product, Sales, and Marketing.</li><li>Mentorship from Damian Alcedo, Senior Director at Polymath Ventures with over 15 years of experience with tech companies.</li><li>Launch of 2.0 digital marketplace.</li><li>+13.000 Instagram followers.&nbsp;</li></ul>

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The Venture Today:

Raphael's journey at Polymath Ventues began as an Investment Analyst, where he showcased his analyticial prowess and ability to identify promising investment opportunities. However, his entrepreneurial spirit and passion for creating impactful ventures led him to take on a broader role as a Business Designer and later as EIR were he co-created Ropstar.&nbsp;Before joining Polymath, Raphael worked at Paua Ventures, a German venture capital fund focusing on early-stage tech companies across Europe. Prior to that, he worked in the M&amp;A department of Mediobanca in Frankfurt. Raphael graduated cum laude in MSc Finance and Investments from Erasmus University Rotterdam and holds a BSc in International Business from University Maastricht. Before studying he completed a 2-year apprenticeship at UBS in Switzerland.

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Co-Founder & CEO - Ropstar

Raphael Kromer

Leadership

Polymath Ventures is the Venture Studio for Latin America, we are a group of entrepreneurs building digital platforms to empower the middle-class. Our story as pioneers of the venture studio model and innovation leaders in Latin America started in 2012 under the leadership of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wenyi-cai-5a99876/">Wenyi Cai</a>, our co-founder and CEO, who had an epiphany during her academic journey at Harvard; leveraging entrepreneurship in Latin America as a tool to encourage social and economic development and generate growth opportunities for the middle-classLatin America is the ideal emerging market for scalable business disruption: size and growth of the emerging middle class, regional integration, and tertiary education. Middle-class consumption is exploding across the region; consumption patterns show that Latin America will surpass the US by 2030. At the same time, the digital adoption rate of this segment also reflects its readiness for more sophisticated solutions. By 2020 the smartphone penetration in Latin America, China, and the US was around 70%.Now, methodologically facing some of the challenges and opportunities requires an intentional approach. Building for the emerging middle-class looks very different than hubs like Silicon Valley, so how you design, launch, and fund companies need to look different. At our core, we combine powerful solutions for the emerging middle class with exceptional teams that have the ability and hunger to build big.As the idea of Polymath Ventures evolved, Wenyi dropped her MPA and MBA studies at Harvard and Stanford University in 2012 and relocated to Bogota, Colombia to launch Polymath Ventures, the first Venture Studio in Latin America. Since then the company has built over 200 business concepts, 11 ventures, <a href="https://polymathv.com/ventures/">6 of them still operating</a>, raised over $45M US in capital, and built a team of 315+ talented individuals.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50.12%;"><img src="/uploads/Polymath_s_Venture_Portafolio_d98766441a.png"><figcaption>Ventures built by Polymath Ventures</figcaption></figure>So, what do we do at Polymath Ventures? We create companies from scratch and go along with them through the whole journey, giving them advice, capital, talent, and safeguarding the maintenance of the culture of Polymath, so all our ventures turn around the same consonance. Below we are covering the most relevant components of our model and answering some of the most frequent questions about what do we do and how do we do it.<h2>THE VENTURE STUDIO MODEL</h2>Venture Studios are company builders, matching business ideas with proven entrepreneurs. They/We test ideas and back them with funding and resources to launch and grow powerful and scalable startups. Unlike accelerators and incubators that receive applications from startups, Venture Studios start with their own ideas to create companies from scratch; ideas are born, validated, and developed from within the studio.<ol><li>Design the company: Our talented team of Business Designers uncovers large opportunities through months of intensive research, business thinking, and iteration, by going to the streets to find out what the needs are, connecting with people, running interviews through the different places where they feel that something’s missing.</li><li>Recruit the founders: During the process of design, we start to assemble founding teams of the best international talent to lead the launch and growth of the business. We always look for passionate people, committed to Polymath´s values, with a huge growth mindset and an entrepreneurial soul ready to put their hands on to lift their venture.</li><li>Accelerate the business: We work full time alongside the founders, the core team of builders, and the early-stage team during the first year of operation leveraging agile and lean methodologies to build and accelerate the venture. As the venture matures, we support the recruitment and building of the early-stage team and support other strategic functions through core experts teams within Polymath, such as fundraising, growth, branding, finance and accounting, legal, talent acquisition, and development. Everything we do aims to drastically de-risk the company (making it more likely to succeed big).</li><li>Assemble the capital: We provide funding to design and launch the business and we support the venture in subsequent financing rounds. One of the most difficult parts of building a company from scratch is finding the capital to make it happen. For this reason, we have structured and launched PVG, a “corporate entity” structure that provides capital to our ventures during their lifecycles, from Series Pre-Seed to Series C.</li><li>Support the venture: We supply the venture with continued hands-on support in tech, finance, marketing, talent, fundraising, strategy &amp; biz development. Our core is to develop technological solutions, not only to cover the people’s needs but to make it in an easier way that eases development and growth. Our proficient team will always be available to start new projects that add value to our ventures.</li></ol>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:68.1%;"><img src="/uploads/Polymath_Ventures_methodology_099681e4ed.jpeg"><figcaption>Venture Studio Methodology</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/comp-icons-1.jpg" alt=""></figure><h2>How do venture studios get financed?</h2>Our investment model provides value to both entrepreneurs and investors. We support our entrepreneurs with capital during the ideation (Series Pre-Seed), launch (Series Seed), and growth (Series A-C) phases. To solve the capital constraints in the region, we are able to lead follow-on funding rounds and leverage our extensive network of investors. From an entrepreneur’s perspective, this significantly de-risks their business and helps them to grow at a faster pace. For investors, we have built a “corporate entity” that provides upside potential but with risk reduction coming from both a diversified portfolio and the advantages of having a group structure in terms of knowledge and capabilities sharing, talent, data, and resilience during hard times. If you want to learn more about our fundraising history, we highly recommend <a href="https://polymathv.com/fundraising-in-latin-america-our-journey/?utm%5Fsource=Digital&amp;utm%5Fmedium=Blog&amp;utm%5Fcampaign=IntroToPv-Fundraising">this blog post</a> sharing our journey.<h2>Our methodology</h2>In order to implement the Venture Studio model, we need the right methodology to build from scratch. We designed our own <a href="https://bit.ly/3kmBuZg">Company Building</a> methodology that combines Human-Centered design, high experimentation, and iteration, along with an entrepreneurial toolkit. This methodology consists of 4 phases, going from ideation to acceleration, each phase has clear timelines, deliverables, and objectives. We designed this methodology to build market-transforming business models. It’s about finding a big untapped opportunity and building a 10x better product. Especially to serve the mass demographic in Latin America, it also means business model innovation.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:58.75%;"><img src="/uploads/Company_building_methodology_0e22300cf5.png"><figcaption>Company Building Methodology&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>If you want to have an in-depth view of our**<a href="https://bit.ly/3kmBuZg"> Company Building </a>**methodology, we recommend our <a href="https://bit.ly/3kmBuZg">latest playbook</a>, which summarizes how we do what we do and some of our best-kept secrets to successfully build ventures for the emerging middle-class in Latin America.<h2>The secret sauce of venture studios</h2>Today there are more than 200 venture studios around the world, according to the <a href="https://www.enhance.online/startup-studio-map/">Studio mapping</a> done by Enhance. Each of them has a unique approach to the process, for example, we leverage four major components that we consider critical to the success of our operation.Deep understanding of the segment. Successful company building relies on the right identification of opportunities. It’s not about what startups get the most funding or the trendiest business model, it’s about solving deeply unmet needs and achieving product-market fit before scaling.Reaching Product-Market-Fit. Reaching Product-Market Fit is necessary before investing in growth, and it is usually a ~12 month iterative journey because of the need to find a 10x value proposition. To do so we have built a digital growth engine focused on customer understanding and engagement, experimentation and metrics, and an appropriate technology stack.We move fast. We aim to reduce uncertainty, and to do so we embrace experimentation and failure as a part of our journey. Our systematic approach and clear alignment on this mindset allow us to be agile and make as many mistakes at the least possible cost to make sure we continue learning.Access to global talent. To build disruptive business models you need exceptional talent, so we have designed a scientific approach to talent acquisition that allows us to recruit, develop and grow entrepreneurial talent that shares our building vision.As pioneers of Venture Studios in Latin America, we are committed to strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the region, influencing how corporations innovate, and overall generating awareness about the importance of building intentional solutions to face some of the most complex challenges of our times.

The Venture Studio model in Latin America

Moving from corporate to <a href="https://polymathv.com/">startup</a> may seem daunting. For years you have been used to the traditional corporate ways and immersing in a new, shiny, and uncertain world has its own challenges and rewards. If you come from corporate and just got hired in a startup or if you are considering doing the jump, then this blog piece is for you.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:63.88%;"><img src="/uploads/Startup_Pearks_97687437c8.jpeg"><figcaption>Young startup employees pretending to be talking about very important things</figcaption></figure>The overall perception about startups is that we work fast and maybe a bit disorganized, that we have very young <a href="https://polymathv.com/team/">teams</a> with very fancy titles, the office is unusual (to say the least), and priorities change constantly. Even though some of these perceptions may be true, there are crazy myths that should be destroyed and some other truths that deserve to be shared.<h2>What is it like moving from corporate to startup:</h2>– Collaborative work is a priority. Let go of your expert approach, no matter how senior you are, and embrace a culture where everyone gets an opinion and a vote.– Embrace risk. Startups, especially in the early stages, live amongst many unknowns so your ability to not only deal with ambiguity and messiness but to thrive in it will be key.<blockquote>“Changing priorities and strategy constantly (sometimes daily). This has been a big challenge for me. I used to very focus on planning (control) the strategy for the next 6 months and making sure we complied with it, nevertheless, to be successful in this type of high uncertainty environment it is imperative to develop the openness to rethinking the initial hypothesis and the flexibility to constantly adjust the plan based on new developments or learnings”. – Nicole Perez, Talent Director</blockquote>– Be creative. At corporations, final decisions come from the top, but at startups, the next great idea can come from you, so get comfortable with sharing your opinion and pushing your mental boundaries to detonate greatness.– Go with the flow. Titles are very blurry at startups because we are in “make it work mode”. That means sometimes we need to remove our fancy CEO/Director or VP hat to actually get our hands dirty and do whats is needed to win; from making big decisions to experimenting with digital ads and moving boxes.– Move fast. You come from an environment with way more resources and startups usually can not compete against that. So, to survive and win startups move fast.– Get ready to learn. No course or official program. Get ready to learn by doing the work, you will face challenges from new perspectives, will work around with cross-functional teams, and will have a first-hand view on the overall management of a new business.<blockquote>“I think the learning curve on the entrepreneurial ecosystem is extremely fast-paced and at the same time, very rewarding”. – Lucía Jaramillo, Service Designer.</blockquote>– Own a growth mindset. You were hired or could be hired because you are great at your field. But, that does not mean there is no room for you to learn and grow, especially in an environment where you will have to face multiple challenges from different areas.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:60.03%;"><img src="/uploads/Corporate_Struggle_f2930fe7cd.jpeg"><figcaption>Former corporate employees struggling with the startup environment &nbsp;😉</figcaption></figure>If you are having second thoughts about moving from corporate to startups, here are a few tips from our own experience and real testimonials (we promise they are real) to help you in your decision-making process.<ul><li>Take a look at the social media account of the startup. At Polymath we use LinkedIn and Instagram as channels to get candidates excited about their potential role with us. For example, we use Instagram to showcase our culture, the off-work activities we do, and our team.</li><li>Talk to a friend that has gone through a similar experience. Since I experienced this transition, I have been able to provide some insights to friends that are looking to join Polymath and other startups.</li><li>Reflect on your motivations, work styles, and expectations to identify potential areas of discomfort. Startups are not for everyone, so you should do the work before jumping in.</li></ul>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:53.22%;"><img src="/uploads/Team_members_f96bb3e806.jpeg"><figcaption>Group of finance and accounting experts clapping for the picture</figcaption></figure><h2>Our experience</h2>Coming from the corporate world, where resources are in excess and things move slower, it was a big shift to adjust to the lean, agile way that startups operate. Working here, I’ve learned to challenge myself to prioritize my focus on the most pressing problems and creatively tackle them with the limited resources available to me.The most exciting thing about working here is how much autonomy and agency I have. When I notice something at the company that can be done differently, I am given the freedom to execute my idea. Already I can very clearly see the direct impacts of my work on the organization and that keeps me motivated each day to do my part in bringing Polymath to the next level.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieloabraham/">Daniel Abraham</a> – Chief of Staff at Polymath Ventures. Former associate at <a href="https://www.oliverwyman.com/index.html">Olyver Wyman</a>.————I was expecting to work for a different type of recognition, one that is less focused on my ego and more towards a transcendental purpose. In the corporate world, the ultimate recognition comes from climbing the ladder faster than anyone else, and you do so by meeting targets and fostering the right relationships. My experience in entrepreneurship has been the exact opposite, the challenge we face is so complex and difficult to solve that the only way to do it is by full immersion &amp; commitment into a team, where egos blend and all the members together strive for a bigger purpose, here the ultimate recognition is the sensation of fulfillment that you can get from solving a problem that creates real impact to others.The most exciting part is being part of an organization where the rule is to break the mold, looking at every challenge from different angles, and as a team build something that no one has managed to do before. There is no boring day, if anything there are too intense days.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleperez991/">Nicole Perez</a> – Talent Director at Polymath Ventures. Former Human Resources Manager at <a href="https://latam.pg.com/">P&amp;G</a>.————My transition from corporate to a startup has been a roller coaster ride, I guess the most challenging part for me was this new dimension of collective responsibility small startup teams have in them because your startup is the reflection of every decision you make. It’s both exciting and terrifying to think that together you have the power of setting a new course and building something you feel proud of.I always tell people this is some sort of “business parenthood”, your startup becomes your baby, and every decision you make has a tangible impact on its future. The most exciting part for me is not knowing what comes next, and knowing my job is to do the best I can to provide it with all the tools and insights to thrive.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ljaramillora/">Lucía Jaramillo</a> – Service Designer at Polymath Ventures. Former Corporate Social Responsability Manager at <a href="https://www.davivienda.com/">Banco Davivienda.</a>————Currently, we have over 20 positions in Digital, Product, Investment, Marketing, Talent, and Tech. We would love to meet new talents looking to make a change in their careers. Join the Polymath family, <a href="https://polymathv.com/join-us/?utm%5Fsource=Digital&amp;utm%5Fmedium=Blog&amp;utm%5Fcampaign=JoinUs-FromCorporateToStartup-Aug20">check our open positions and apply now.</a>

From Corporate to Startup: Myths and Truths

Building a <a href="https://polymathv.com/about/">Venture Studio</a> with the right capabilities to systematically build new startups requires, among other things, access to capital. Fundraising in Latin America has its own challenges and characteristics and after nine years doing it, we have acquired a massive amount of learnings that we believe are worth sharing.We met with our co-founder and CFO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-fern%C3%A1ndez-de-la-pradilla-a786711/">Carlos Fernandez de la Pradilla</a> to talk about our journey, the key learnings and the most valuable lessons other founders can elevate when fundraising in Latin America.<h2>How did we start?</h2>In the early days, around June of 2012, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wenyi-cai-5a99876/">Wenyi</a> was leading the conception and structure of Polymath as a Venture Studio. As a foreign entering a new market her first move was to provide the seed capital to kick off the journey. Instead of fundraising from external sources in an unknown market, she wanted to focus on the creation of what we called Labs1.Labs 1 was our <a href="https://polymathv.com/seeds/transportation/">first seed</a> vehicle, which was focused on researching the transportation ecosystem in Colombia. At the time, a team of five, 2 designers, 2 business people, and an engineer observed urban mobility behaviors of real users in their daily lives. This research allowed us to surfaced complex market insights and exciting areas of opportunity.From smart bus stops to personal security networks, the team iterated and tested their ideas in the field until one concept, a safer taxi, began to take real action. By early Q3 of 2012, we had our first concept on the ground, Taximo, a data-driven vehicle leasing platform for Latin America’s ride-sharing market. We started fundraising with friends and family and then started our first approach with angel investors in LatAm.<h2>What is our fundraising strategy?</h2>Our fundraising strategy has two levels of complexity, on one hand, early-stage fundraising in Latin America has its own dynamics, then we need to consider that fundraising for Ventures is very different than doing it for a Venture Studio, no matter the region.The value proposition of these structures is dramatically different. Venture Investors are usually big corporations, family offices, and VCs, which are mainly looking for economic returns, knowledge, and business synergies due to their structures. The venture’s structure is clear when considering disinvestment objectives and timelines. In this sense, the fundraising strategy for the ventures of our portfolio aligns with the expectations of the market. We build high-growth startups that can provide the desired results.On the other hand, our value proposition as a Venture Studio mainly focuses on knowledge, learnings, and synergies, and lastly on returns. We know it is a long-term investment, primarily because we are not looking to sell in short periods of time, and that does not necessarily match with the expectations of the more traditional institutional investors.As a Venture Studio, we operate as a holding company that designs ventures from scratch. We leverage our entrepreneurial methodology, the right talent, our deep knowledge in the emerging middle-class, and the acquired expertise after nine years of building. This scheme allows investors to unlock richer partnerships, reduce their risk through a diversified portfolio, and access a broader network of talent, advisors, and experts.The evolution of our fundraising strategy for the Venture Studio considers a stronger relationship with Corporations looking to enter the digital native ecosystem along with proven entrepreneurs. This relationship does not necessarily reflect on direct investment, but it clearly unlocks valuable partnerships focused on co-building along with them.Our long-term strategy as a Venture Studio led us to build an ever-green funding structure, different than closed-end funds, which allow us to eliminate any predefined exit deadlines and better tackle the volatility of Latin America.<h2>Biggest wins fundraising in Latin America</h2>After nine years and $41M of capital raised, we feel very proud of our results. First of all, as a portfolio, we have been able to raise relevant amounts both for capital and debt, which is truly significant considering the investment behavior in Latin America (without Brasil) and the nature of our structure which at the time was relatively unknown. This amount is a reflection of our work and the trust of our investors, who believe in the power of building for Latin America.Beyond our track record, we feel particularly proud of being part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem acceleration in the region; enabling the arrival of renowned international investors, 60% of our capital comes from outside Latin America, and building a stronger bridge of collaboration between local entrepreneurs, corporations, and family offices looking to extend their presence in the region.Lastly, I would like to highlight the work we have been doing to bring methodologies and formality to the fundraising exercise. It is no doubt that within the startup ecosystem there is a gap between ideas and methodologies. In fact, one of the key reasons for startup failure is the lack of proper research before launch and the lack of formal tools to support pivots and achieve product-market fit.Amongst this, we made sure that our methodology covered these gaps. We have built an entrepreneurial toolkit that ensures proper research in the initial stages, we have also designed a validation stage that ensures we prove desirability and viability. Lastly, our studio structure allows supporting the designed ventures in the most advanced stages of the process.This ensures they have the right tools to cover potential pivots, continue applying internal methodologies to better understand the business, and access a platform of experts, resources, and stakeholders.<h2>Fundraising in Latin America: Our advice</h2><ul><li>Fundraising is an ultramarathon, not a sprint. We have experienced 38 rounds of financing, over 2K pitchings, 6K investor leads, so you must know this is an ongoing process that requires continuous preparation and follow-up.</li><li>Fundraising is a fundamental skill of a startup CEO. As a Venture Studio that recruits founders, we always have this component in mind.</li><li>Fundraising requires planning. Consider leaving some margin in your cash flow, and always have at least one additional plan.</li><li>Manage a disciplined process. Start by building your investment thesis, which will help you identify your target leads and qualify them. Once you have that structure, build your timelines to follow up and always consider that it’s not closed until the money is in the bank.</li><li>Each round is different. When you are raising Series Seed, you must prove that you have identified and articulated the problem and a good team. When you move forward to Series A, Investors are looking for Product plus Market Fit. Then Series B is all about scalability.</li><li>Always be honest. Good businesses do not need to be over-embellished. If you have built something differential, with a great team and a clear growth plan, feel confident you are starting with the right foot.</li><li>Nothing beats building a good business. So make sure you focus on your building methodology. This will support the first fundraising stages when you need to prove the value of your concept.</li></ul>