Hernan Kazah's journey as an entrepreneur starts in 1999, in the early days of the internet in Latin America. Co-founder of Mercado Libre, he has witnessed firsthand, as a pioneer, the extraordinary evolution that the startup and VC ecosystem has experienced in the region. In 2011, hoping to help solve some of the pain points they've faced themselves, Hernan and former Meli CFO Nico Szekazy launched Kaszek. Fun fact, the name originated from the combination of both of their last names.Since then, the firm has raised $2B across 7 funds. Half of that sum was closed just two months ago in a duo of funds. In one decade, Kaszek has backed over 90 companies, nine of which spawned into unicorns. And Mercado Libre, now worth $60B, became the most valuable company in Latin America.In this episode, Hernan shares:The mistakes that almost killed Mercado LibrePainful misses as an investorRisks they welcome and risks they avoid when investingAnd what's broken in the VC gameClick here to see the Stop & Go Strategy graph mentioned in the episode.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

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