Olga Maslikhova: Why 90% of LATAM Founders Fail at VC

Olga Maslikhova, Founder and Host of The J Curve, breaks down why 90% of LATAM founders struggle to raise venture capital — and the patterns behind every major success story from Nubank to QuintoAndar. This isn’t about product or market — it’s about understanding the game VCs are actually playing. Olga covers the fund economics that drive every investment decision, the founder profiles that get fast-tracked, the three business models that dominate portfolios, the four-element framework for stacking the odds in your favor, why fundraising is actually B2B sales, how to evaluate VCs before they evaluate you, and the exit math that determines premium outcomes.We cover the Goldman/McKinsey pattern — why the majority of funded LATAM founders share investment banking or top consulting backgrounds, and how to borrow credibility if you don’t have it, the fund math reality check — how a $300M fund needs $6B+ outcomes from single deals and why this changes everything about what VCs actually fund, the Stanford platform mindset of shifting from “solving problems” to “designing market architecture,” market timing and how 2012’s 3G+smartphones created unicorns while 2025’s Pix+AI+Open Finance could be bigger, the 4-element fundable startup framework (backable founder profile + compounding business model + broken market + perfect timing), fundraising as B2B sales and why treating VCs as prospects with systematic qualification and follow-up changes outcomes, the venture capital fund cycle and how a $100M fund in year 2 beats a $500M fund in year 8, and the multi-country premium — why regional businesses price higher than local ones and how to build global buyer optionality from day one.Subscribe to The J Curve Insider ⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠ and follow Olga on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.