Magma Summits are a time for LPs, founders and the Magma team to connect with each other, share stories, and just get to know each other better. It was great to get back to seeing people in person after two years of (mostly) remote meetings. After being on countless Zooms with people in the Magma community, it was great to meet people in person, some for the first time.
We kicked off with a networking cocktail to meet fellow founders and the Magma team at OCI Restaurant in the vibrant neighborhood of Provenza in Medellin. LPs, founders, and the Magma team got together to know each other and enjoy some of OCI’s best dishes and drinks. The cocktail was a success, as people mingled and moved through different groups to meet each other.
After breakfast, Nathan Lustig, Magma’s Managing Partner, officially opened the Magma Summit by giving an overview of the latest macro trends in Latin American tech.
Next up, a pane called How Fintech is Eating Latin America featuring Tomas Bercovich, cofounder of Global66, Rebecca Fischer, cofounder of Divibank and Gregorio Gilardini, cofounder of Leasy and moderated by by Magma Sr. Analyst Alexa Clark.
Next four founders who built sizable businesses with little to no VC money before taking investment to scale shared their stories.Alejandro Guízar, founder of Billpocket, David Lloyd, cofounder of The Intern Group, Luis Ruben Chavez, cofounder of Zenfi, and Javier Ruiz, cofounder of Cura Deuda all shared tips and tricks to scaling a business without having VC money, and the challenges of changing their mentalities when the did raise money.
Next up, we talked about how Web3 is changing the world and how it might affect Latin America and fintech in particular, and finished with a conversation about how VC funding might change because of inflation, rising interest rates and the public markets pullback, and in the afternoon got to know each other better by having small group conversations and we held an ask me anything for our LPs.
As is tradition, we moved to a physical activity for the first night to get out of our heads and have some fun. This year, we choose bowling, which allowed us to get to know each other better in a more relaxed way.
After breakfast, on the first panel of the day, Techcrunch’s Anna Heim moderated a conversation on lessons learned expanding across Latin America. Neivor’s Caterine Castillo, Truora’s Maite Muñiz, and Fanatiz’s Matías Rivera, shared their experiences scaling their startups from Colombia, Chile and Mexico to the world.
Next, we heard from Influur co-founders Alessandra and Valeria Angelini about how startups and traditional businesses can benefit from influencer marketing. They shared influencer marketing basics, trends and the Influur journey with the Magma community.
Next up, PAG’s Liz Flores who talked about how to build a strong legal foundation for your startup and avoid common pitfalls that startups make.
Magma Summit’s last panel featured Neivor’s Paola TIG’s Johanna Molina from The Intern Group, R5’s Fernando Sucre and Circulo de Belleza’s Maribel Dominguez about how they built products that improved the lives of the communities they work with and was moderated by Forbes’ José Caparosso.
We officially closed Magma Summit Medellin with dinner and drinks with both new and old friends.
On Saturday, we had a Magma BBQ for those who stayed and wanted to get to know the Magma Community even better. We’d really missed hosting our summit because of the pandemic, and it was an important reminder of the importance of community and that some things you just have to do in person. We can’t wait for the next summit and to see more of you at the next one!
