While a lot of VCs may ironically be discouraged by turmoil in emerging markets, Shu Nyatta feels comfortable in messy places. In his own words, because he grew up in one. A Nairobi native, he's lived in the US as a young consultant, in the UK as an Anthropology student, and in Dubai as a company operator. He even had a brief career as a recording artist – if you noticed a soundtrack change today, that's his music in the opening of this episode! It was through this winding journey that he found where he wanted to place his intellectual energy: financing tech and underrepresented founders. Shu joined the investment team at SoftBank in Silicon Valley in 2015, before it started revealing itself to the world as the powerhouse it is today. Since then, he's helped direct roughly 2.5 billion in growth capital to startups in Latin America. He's also behind initiatives like Softbank's AI Academy and the Opportunity Fund. In this episode, Shu urges you to embrace the mess as he talks about: The myth of the pipeline problem. Why momentum trumps market size. And how complexity becomes opportunity. Starting something new? Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship program. Building good sh*t in Latin America? Learn about how Latitud can help you at latitud.com Discover and pitch Latitud Ventures, your partner from 0 to 1 and beyond Sign up for our weekly newsletter for founder insights and some tough love And follow us on Linkedin / Instagram / Spotify to stay in the loop

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related