The J Curve with Olga Maslikhova

What is Stripe really buying in its $8B+ OpenRouter acquisition—and why could a company that reaches $16 billion in revenue still disappoint investors? Olga and Paulo Passoni unpack AI model routing, durable moats, runaway valuations, the compute bottleneck, and the growth benchmarks that matter now. Then they turn to Latin America: Brazil’s AI opportunity, the Series B funding gap, FIDCs and venture debt, and what Cashea signals about Venezuela’s next chapter. Partners: Huge thank you to our partners: ⁠iFood Beneficios ⁠⁠Jeeves⁠Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠The J Curve Insider⁠⁠⁠ newsletter for deeper insights and follow Olga on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠.

AI isn't changing media. It's changing what a media company is.For years, creators monetized through sponsorships, advertising and subscriptions. Today, the most successful creators look more like startup founders than entertainers—building software, venture funds, holding companies and entirely new businesses.In this solo episode, Olga argues that the unit of value has changed. Content is no longer the product. Ideas are.We explore:• Why the biggest creators increasingly resemble venture-backed companies• Why AI transforms one conversation into an entire content ecosystem• Why "repurposing" is becoming an outdated concept• Why judgment—not content creation—becomes the scarce resource in the AI era• Why Google partnered with Alex Cooper instead of another advertising agency• What Steven Bartlett's business model reveals about the future of creator companies• Why venture firms like a16z and Lightspeed are investing in media as a competitive advantage• Why every company—from startups to private equity firms—may eventually need a media armIf content becomes infinitely abundant, what becomes valuable instead?Subscribe to ⁠The J Curve Insider⁠ newsletter for deeper insights and follow Olga on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ and ⁠Instagram⁠.

Olga Maslikhova, Founder and Host of The J Curve, breaks down what four Latin American founders did differently — Daniel Vogel (Bitso, $2.2B), Caique Carvalho (Gringo, $200M exit to Corpay), Tiago Dalvi (Olist, $10B GMV), and Piero Contezini (Asaas, 37 revenue streams). This is a strategic debrief on why the friction that makes emerging markets “too hard” is exactly what makes them defensible.We cover the infrastructure decision of when to build from scratch versus orchestrate what exists and why control beats features in volatile markets, the contrarian bet that won Mexico as Bitso ignored the entire crypto industry’s narrative and built the bridge instead, the tattoo marketplace that failed and what Caique learned about the difference between problems people tolerate and problems they’ll pay to eliminate, the pivot that required courage as Tiago offered to return investor money and what that decision revealed about founder clarity, distribution as product design and why Gringo built for WhatsApp first, the four-layer playbook behind how Asaas went from “help SMBs get paid” to 37 revenue streams, the M&A playbook behind Olist’s four-step integration strategy, and why 2,600 hours on taxes equals $185M raised — the value of inefficiency and why vertical SaaS works differently in Latin America than anywhere else.This is a masterclass in seeing opportunity where others see impossibility.Subscribe to The J Curve Insider ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for deeper insights and follow Olga on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Caique Carvalho is Co-Founder and former Chief Product Officer of Gringo — a Brazilian super app for drivers that was acquired by Sem Parar (owned by NYSE-listed Corpay) for approximately $200M. Before Gringo, Caique built two failed startups that taught him everything about product-market fit.In this episode, Caique shares the hard lessons behind two failed startups and how they shaped his approach to product-market fit, the principles of great UX and why listening to customers isn’t enough, the 80/20 rule of growth and why mastering one acquisition channel drove most of Gringo’s traction, the business-model decisions that turned a WhatsApp MVP into a platform processing billions of reais in transactions annually, the art of building a cap table with Kaszek, VEF, and Valor Capital for their complementary strengths, and the culture principles that helped the team scale without losing its startup DNA.Subscribe to The J Curve Insider ⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ for deeper insights and follow Olga on ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Julio Vasconcellos is Managing Partner at Atlantico — a leading Latin American venture firm and publisher of the Latin America Digital Transformation Report, now in its 6th edition. Julio was previously Facebook’s first country lead in Brazil and co-founder of Peixe Urbano.In this episode, Julio unpacks why local LATAM VC funds have quietly outperformed global peers and what it will take to attract more LP capital, why Mexico is suddenly attracting Sequoia, Founders Fund, and a16z capital and what it means for investors placing their first bets, the geopolitics of tech and what’s driving the 39% of Brazilians who say they’d align with China over the U.S., Pix’s relentless rise with 87% corporate penetration and $15B in fee savings and what it means for Visa, Mastercard, and fintechs, Brazil’s AI moment following Microsoft’s $2.7B AI/cloud investment, and the founder archetypes Atlantico’s research identifies as most likely to win in Latin America.Subscribe to The J Curve Insider ⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠ for deeper insights and follow Olga on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠.

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.

Vitor Asseituno is CEO and Co-Founder of Sami — Brazil’s fastest-growing health insurance startup, serving 20,000+ customers across 11 Brazilian cities in the $60B private health insurance market. Sami has raised $65M in total funding.In this episode, Vitor shares the “pipeline mathematics” behind turning 100+ VC rejections into a Series B raise, investor psychology and what resonates when pitching complex healthcare business models, how embracing broker networks after everyone said “avoid them” drives 50%+ of Sami’s sales, AI workflow implementation delivering $800+ monthly savings per clinician and 30% EMR compliance improvement, the loss ratio optimization tactics that cut losses from 85% to 53% of premiums, and why regional focus beats national scale in Brazil’s complex healthcare market.Subscribe to The J Curve Insider Newsletter and follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram.