Paulo Passoni, Valor Capital: No $300M Revenue, No IPO

Paulo Passoni is Managing Partner at Valor Capital. He previously led SoftBank’s multi-billion-dollar investments in Latin America, serving on the boards of QuintoAndar, VTEX, and Creditas. This is the most-played episode in J Curve history.

We cover why M&A is a broken exit strategy for LatAm VCs and why startups need to think bigger, the hard truth that a company needs $300M+ in revenue to realistically IPO, why the $200M acquisition trap kills LatAm’s unicorn potential, how SoftBank’s cash wave reshaped the market and the pricing mistakes investors (including Paulo) made, the scarcity of growth capital in LatAm and what it means for startups at Series B and beyond, how to spot truly “crazy” founders and why they’re the only ones who build billion-dollar businesses, and the game-changing role of AI in scaling startups faster with fewer people.

If you’re building or investing in LatAm, this is the playbook.

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