Henrique Dubugras

Nubank’s growth to 100M+ customers is powered by #AWS, using 40+ services to stay scalable and cost-efficient. They quickly adapted to Brazil’s Pix system, handling huge transaction volumes while saving customers over $8B in fees. A great example of smart scaling and innovation. #AWS #Fintech #finance #banking

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In the last months, I had the opportunity to chat with a bunch of folks about AI and its impact on the way we sell Among the conversation I had, the best ones were with - Marty Kausas, founder Pylon - a modern Zendesk backed by Andreessen Horowitz - Micael Oliveira, founder of Amplemarket - the best sales engagement tool I've used recently - Anis Bennaceur, founder of Attention - capturing precious data from call recordings to generate insights and actions So I thought we needed to regroup. When & where? - Wednesday, November 6th - 9AM PT // 6PM CEST - Register here: https://lnkd.in/eDgmjakU Topics we'll be covering in the webinar: - Where should you introduce AI into your sales workflow? And what are the key benefits? - How can you measure AI’s impact on your sales efforts? - What are common challenges for a sales team getting started with AI? - What key benefits have other founders seen since implementing sales AI?

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BJJ CORE PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO THE STARTUP JOURNEY 🥋 As I navigate the startup journey, I’ve been reflecting on core principles of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and how they apply to startups (and to life in general). The parallels are numerous! Just as in BJJ, the startup path is marked by BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS -pushing through the hard times and constantly refining your approach. BJJ has provided lessons in strategy, patience, and perseverance, all of which are just as relevant in business as they are on the mat. 1. LEVERAGE: Doing More with Less In BJJ, leverage allows a smaller practitioner to overcome a larger opponent. In startups, it’s about maximizing limited resources. Whether it’s capital, personnel, or time, founders must make strategic decisions to gain an edge with what they have. ---------------- 2. CONNECTION AND SENSITIVITY: Building Relationships and Staying Attuned In BJJ, connection is about staying in sync with your opponent’s movements, while sensitivity helps you react to subtle shifts. In startups, this translates to building meaningful relationships - with customers, your team, or investors - and staying attuned to their needs. Sensitivity to feedback and market changes allows a startup to adjust and grow, and make complete pivots if warranted. --------------- 3. WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION: Balance and Control Proper weight distribution in BJJ enhances control. In startups, it’s about balancing focus across product development, marketing, and operations to keep the business steady during highs and lows. ---------------- 4. TECHNIQUE: Precision Over Power In BJJ, superior technique wins over brute strength. In startups, it’s about focusing on execution, ensuring strategies are well thought out and refined. It’s not about doing more, it’s about doing it RIGHT. --------------- 5. BEING COMFORTABLE IN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITIONS In BJJ, you learn to breathe and stay calm in hellish positions. Startups often face tough moments - financial constraints, rejections, or setbacks. The ability to remain calm and adapt during these times is crucial. --------------- 6. ADAPTABILITY In BJJ, no two matches are the same—you have to adapt to your opponent’s style and strategy. Similarly, startups operate in constantly shifting environments. The ability to adjust and embrace uncertainty is what keeps startups alive. -------------- 7. RESILIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE Both BJJ and startups demand resilience. Failure is part of the process in both, but those who learn from mistakes and keep pushing forward ultimately succeed. ------------- #Startup #Unicorn #JiuJitsu #BusinessStrategy #Innovation #AngelInvesting

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Starting September with 6 consecutive months of GMV and Revenue growth 🎉 And for the first time we know WHY. And it's sustainable When we graduated YC we had similar growth - but it wasn't replicable and it felt like we were constantly scrambling. We compensated poor retention with massive top-of-funnel. But when you do that, you reach the natural limit on top line - as churn cancels out new customers and you end up at net new = 0. This is called fin tailing. And it's why poor retention is the silent killer So what did we do? We started patching leaks in our funnel. It took time. And we almost ran out of water. But now *most* of the leaks are patched. And as we add water to the bucket, even in small quantities. The bucket fills up.

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Cat Swetel, director of engineering at Nubank, shares how they grew rapidly on Amazon Web Services (AWS), from a small startup to a company with 100 million customers 🤯 Nubank uses more than 40 AWS services, including Amazon EC2, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3, and more, to run an infrastructure that’s stable, scalable and highly cost efficient. When the Brazilian Central Bank proposed a major change in how people transfer money, Nubank quickly supported the new ‘Pix’ protocol, developing a transfer flow with 10 second latency in under 5 months. In one year, Pix transactions exceeding total debit and credit transactions, causing stress and instability across Nubank’s infrastructure. Using AWS, Nubank spearheaded a multi-team effort to increase stability while optimizing latency and costs, positioning itself to continue growing while saving its customers over $8billion in fees. Nubank keeps impressing me. Find this helpful? [ 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 ] Anything to add about this subject? [𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁] Nice story, Marcel. Next! [ 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 ]

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(NEW EPISODE) Matthew Kligerman's path as a founder is a masterclass in vision, adaptability, and persistence. His entrepreneurial story is woven with bold moves, serendipitous moments, and relentless curiosity. Matthew’s story offers rich insights from early ventures in South Florida and at Duke, bootstrapping ventures in Brazil, scaling a growth-stage business across telecom, health insurance, and banking sectors, and what it takes to build a company that thrives in challenging markets. In this engrossing interview, Matthew talks about adapting his experiences as a climber into building, scaling, and financing his companies. He also reveals unique aspects of the adventure of building a company in Latin America. #founder #alejandrocremades #cremades #funding #fundraising #dealmakers #podcast, #dealmakerspodcast #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #entrepreneur #business #success #venture #venturecapital #investment #invest #investors #tech #technology #innovation #leanstartup #leanstartups #inspiration #startup #startups https://lnkd.in/eCN_PaMk

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One of the aha moments from building Nubara? Our real product isn’t just our software... it’s the community we’re nurturing. As our network expands, our value grows exponentially. Each new connection brings hundreds of potential contacts that you want to meet. Welcome to the magic of network effects. But achieving critical mass is a tough nut to crack. It requires a collaborative spirit across our members and their groups. We’re tackling this by creating a space where everyone benefits from intros / referrals, making sure every user contributes to and benefits from our collective growth. Do you know an organizer of a Meetup, Slack / Discord community, alumni group, or chambers of commerce? I'd love to learn from their approaches on community building. #Community #NetworkEffects #Entrepreneurship

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This is wild! Brazil's FinTech giant Nubank just posted another insane quarter. The growth & numbers #NU is showing are out of this world and make it one of the best-run technology companies globally 😳 Key facts & figures from #Nubank's 2Q 2024 earnings: 👥 105 million customers globally (+20.8M Year-over-Year) 🌍 It's now the largest digital banking platform outside of Asia 🇧🇷 It's now the 4th largest financial institution in Latin America 🇧🇷 56% of the adult population of Brazil now uses Nubank 💰 $25.2 billion worth of deposits (+64% YoY) 💸 $2.8 billion in revenues (+65% YoY) 🤑 $487 million in profit (+134% YoY) What's also wild is that their average customer is now using more than 4 products 😳 But here comes the crazy part. NU's customer acquisition costs is something we have not seen before. Due to customer-friendly, low-cost products, Nubank has a high NPS of around 90. Even a popular brand like Apple only has an NPS of 72, and banks are often in negative territory. That's why Nubank, to date, still acquires ~80% of its new customers cost-effectively through recommendations and word-of-mouth 😮‍💨 On top of that, despite serving more than 105 million customers, its monthly average cost per active customer remains at $0.9 🤯 This coupled with a stunning efficiency ratio of 32% (i.e. JPMorgan’s efficiency ratio is >55) makes Nubank not only one of the best digital banks globally. It's probably the best-run tech company on the planet right now. Phenomenal. P.S. check out 🔔linas.substack.com🔔, it's the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Technology. For founders, builders, and leaders.

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For every startup, profitability is important—especially if you are fully bootstrapped. Building MRR with great traction from zero is one of the most rewarding feelings a founder can experience. We track and analyze our MRR and revenue graphs daily and monthly, witnessing how this “baby” grows bit by bit. I have always dreamed of creating something big. Alhamdulillah, that dream is becoming a reality. Once, a million-dollar revenue was just a dream. Now, Alhamdulillah, multi-million-dollar revenue feels achievable, in sha Allah.

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Steal this growth play that Joey Maddox and I built in 2 days during our recent offsite in Brazil During our recent offsite, we dropped everything to experiment with a few new growth tactics. One of the most effective strategies - competitor comparison pages - can be set up in just a few days—and I’m sharing it so you can use it too. Here’s the step-by-step plan: 1/ Find examples you like: a) Identify companies with outstanding competitor comparison pages—even if they’re not in your sector. b) We took inspiration from Rippling; their comparison pages are some of the best we’ve seen. 2/ Dive into Competitor Reviews & Research: a) Read the non-5-star reviews of your well-known competitors on platforms like G2; extract pain points. b) Develop comparison matrices - consider features, pricing, integrations, ease of use, customer support, and onboarding. 3/ Build Comparison Pages: a) Create dedicated comparison pages for each of your major competitors. b) Design these pages as solid landing pages that showcase your advantages and your findings from step 2. 4/ Launch Targeted Ad Campaigns: a) Set up a Google Search Ads campaign using phrase match keywords with your new landing pages. b) Bid on terms like “{Competitor Name} pricing” and “{Competitor Name} alternatives.” 5/ Automate Outreach to Unconverted Visitors: a) Add intent provider pixels like RB2B, Apollo.io, Clearbit. b) Funnel the intent data collected from your pages into a tool like Clay c) Set up automated outreach to these prospects if they haven’t booked a meeting. Within just a few weeks, this has already driven $250K+ in pipeline

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Would a Nubank copy-paste work in Africa? Probably not (at least right now). "LATAM is similar to the US: credit-cards are understood, widespread. Credit cards as a product are supremely powerful. Users can seamlessly borrow and spend. It’s a gold mine for the issuer, and it’s (in part) what made Nubank so successful. A small survey estimated that 58% of Latin Americans have credit cards. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the figure stands at around 1.6%. Any African neobank play has to start with contextually-relevant products, like someone’s first proper bank account." Read the full Realistic Optimist piece by Hassan Bourgi, co-founder of Djamo here: https://lnkd.in/gSb4TNfB

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New Framedrop.ai blog post straight from the oven by Filipe Pessoa. How you can monetize a podcast in 5 steps: 1. 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲: Wait until you have an established audience base.     2. 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: Understand their interests, pain points, and preferences.     3. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: Sponsorship, affiliate marketing, donations, premium content, merchandise, events, memberships, product sales.     4. Click to read the full article 🎣     5. Click again 😅 It includes 10 tried-and-tested ways 🤓

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[28] The first naming process I ever ran was at 12 years old. At that time, Diogo Lutz and I were starting with Web Design and Web Master, and we created a web development “business.” The name? Impacto. We wanted to make an impact on the businesses that hired us. Sounds genuine, right? But… the domain impacto.com.br was taken. So, in our 12-year-old wisdom, we came up with the next best thing: we swapped the “o” with a zero. Yep. Our brand literally became Impact0—impact zero. 😬 Did we realize this at the time? Absolutely not. I actually just remembered it while on a walk the other day and couldn't stop laughing. My wife had no idea why I was cracking up, and honestly, it was hard to explain. Fast forward to 2018: It was time to name our next company. Andrio Frizon, Vinicius de Morais Justo, and I brainstormed. We realized how wide open the software industry is—work with clients anywhere, any industry, endless career paths. Entering the software world is like stepping into a jungle full of possibilities. And thus, Jungle Devs was born. By 2021, post-acquisition, we were scaling Jungle Devs and adjusting processes. But when aiming for the mid-to-enterprise US market, we wondered, “Does the name Jungle Devs scream ‘professional’ enough?” We teamed up with an incredible agency, and that's how 𝗢𝗹𝗯𝘆 came to life. Fast forward to now, and we’re naming our new startup. Part of me thought, “Name doesn’t matter; we don’t even have a company yet.” But the other part knew, “Name always matters.” Let’s be honest, though—naming is wild. You come up with ideas, get excited, and realize the domain or trademark is taken. It’s a draining loop that can last weeks. People usually say, "If you succeed, they’ll like the name." Maybe they’re right. For this venture, we kept it simple. We listed keywords that resonated with the problem we’re solving, looked into all the brainstorming we've done in the past, and searched for domains. The word that tied it all together? Connect. And 𝗡𝗲𝗸𝘁 was born. I appreciate a good story and believe in the impact strong branding has. But I’m not pretending we spent hours on this at this stage—we didn’t. That time will come, and I’m sure it’ll enhance our journey even more. Huge shoutout to Débora Wernke and Maria Alice Hoffmann for creating this logo. We love it! So here we are, post #28, with a new name, and logo, and we’d appreciate your feedback! You can catch up on posts 1-27 using the hashtag #behindthescenesonstealth #nektjourney. On to the #nekt one!

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Brex is one of my favorite fintechs. Ever wonder what their journey from $0 to over $300M in revenue within 7 years looked like? 2017-2018: The Birth of Brex • Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, both 22-year-old Stanford dropouts, decided to flip the fintech world on its head by launching Brex, a corporate credit card tailored for startups. • With their co-CEO model (which has become popular), they doubled their management bandwidth. Internal & external duties? No problem when you have twice the number of CEOs to lead folks 2019-2020: Rapid growth • Brex quickly partnered with big names like DoorDash, Flexport, and Roblox. • In 2019, they secured $300 million in funding, catapulting their valuation to $2.6 billion. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you’re swimming in a pool of investor cash. 2021-2022: Diversification and challenges • Brex expanded its product suite to include expense management, bill pay, & travel booking services. If you’re going to burn through cash, you might as well make it convenient. • Despite their success, they faced some “minor” hiccups. Layoffs in 2022 were a delightful reminder that even fintech unicorns aren’t immune to cutting costs by cutting people. 2023: Strategic shifts • Transitioning to a single CEO model, Pedro took the helm while Henrique became chairman. Having two brains was slowing things down? • They continued to innovate, integrating AI into their platform. By the end of 2023, Brex hit over $300 million in revenue, proving that even with all the chaos, they were still making bank​. 2024: Path to profitability • With a goal of being cash-flow positive by 2025, Brex halved its cash burn by chopping 20% of its staff and focused on sustainable growth. Making money instead of burning it is always a sound strategy. • Serving 30K+ customers globally, Brex’s commitment to transparency & customer-centric solutions has kept them in the game. They’re not just participating – they’re rewriting the rules. Want to copy their homework? 1. Identify a significant pain point in an industry and create a solution that addresses it. Please don't start a business without doing this. 2. Utilize a strong co-founder dynamic to maximize efficiency & divide responsibilities effectively. Two heads are better than one, until they aren’t. 3. Secure early partnerships with influential companies to build credibility and a customer base. It’s always about who you know. 4. Listen to your customers. & Expand your product offerings to meet their evolving needs. 5. Maintain a strong focus on transparency & trust to build a loyal customer base. People surprisingly prefer not being lied to. 6. Strategically manage growth, and make tough decisions like layoffs when necessary to ensure long-term sustainability. 7. If you want to go public, be profitable. Did I miss anything?

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Startups live on the edge of two sharp cliffs: One called ambition, and the other called runway. As founders, we dream big, but the harsh reality is simple: without enough cash to keep the wheels turning, dreams don’t matter. Let’s talk about two critical milestones: securing your runway and reaching break-even. 👉 The Runway Reality Fundraising isn’t just about getting money; it’s about buying time. Time to learn. Time to adapt. Time to survive. 1- Why 18-24 Months? Investors know this is the sweet spot. It’s enough time to test hypotheses, refine your product, and uncover what works. 2- Stretching Every Dollar: In the early stages, every dollar spent must lead to an insight. Marketing experiments, product tweaks, customer feedback loops—everything should be about learning, not just scaling. 3- Avoiding the Burnout Cliff: Running out of cash forces desperate decisions. That’s why managing a runway is about staying calm under pressure while maximizing every opportunity to prove your concept. 👉 Break-Even: The Calm After the Storm Reaching break-even is a game-changer for startups. It’s the moment when the business sustains itself—when survival is no longer tied to fundraising. 1- Why It Matters: Break-even provides stability, allowing founders to focus on growth, innovation, and strategic decisions instead of survival. Your investment burn rate is close to Zero. It means every dollar you spend - you spend on the scaling hypothesis. 2- How It Shapes Decision-Making: Once you’re break-even, you gain the flexibility to take calculated risks and experiment without fear of sinking the ship. 3- The Psychological Win: For founders, reaching break-even isn’t just a financial milestone. Before Business was on Founder/s back. Now it’s the reassurance that the business can stand on its own two feet. Does it mean that challenges are over? Hell no. ⏰ Balancing the Two The real challenge? Knowing when to push for aggressive growth versus when to conserve resources for the long haul. ✅ Smart Spending: Fundraising shouldn’t just be about hitting vanity metrics. It’s about finding product-market fit, refining operations, and scaling sustainably. ✅ Saying No to Pressure: Investors might want to see exponential growth, but founders need to stay grounded. Remember: revenue without sustainability is a house of cards. As founders, our biggest battle isn’t just building the product or convincing investors—it’s managing time and resources wisely. What are your strategies for balancing ambition with financial discipline? Let’s exchange the biggest lessons in it. #Startups #Fundraising #BreakEven #RunwayManagement #Entrepreneurship

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Back in 2011, I said "No" to a $500k/year salary to sell clouds. I'll explain below ↓ I moved to the US in 2008, right after finishing my masters in Software Engineering (in Portugal). I ended up in San Francisco and my first job was in the databases space. These were super early days but, at that time, I remember getting exposed to companies like Uber, MongoDB, and Instagram which were just starting out. They were hiring and offering crazy salaries to hire engineers. I saw offers from $300-500k/year! But I said 'No' and moved to NYC to work on something called Node.js. Rings a bell? 😅 Well, at that time, I can guarantee you it didn't! For most people close to me, I was the guy whose job was to sell clouds. Translation: no one really understood what I did. Fast forward 10+ years, everything makes a lot more sense to them now.

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Many times, I get asked for bio-writing advice. My tips: keep it lean, straightforward, and show numbers when it comes to traction! Pedro David Espinoza is an entrepreneur, investor, and author. In 2014, Pedro founded SmileyGo, an app that indexed the data of 1.3 million NGOs in addition to having users in 30 countries. Incubated at SkyDeck, his startup gained funding from 1517 Fund, Frank Baxter, Jack Larson, and Berkeley Haas Seed Fund. In 2017, Janet Napolitano awarded Pedro The University of California Entrepreneur Winner. In 2018, Pedro founded Pan Peru USA, a venture that empowers women to become entrepreneurs. With the support from Fortune 500s, Pan Peru has scaled from empowering 1 to 100 women. In 2019, Pedro wrote a book with contributions from Eric Schmidt, Reed Hastings, and Dan Schulman. Pedro's book – Differences That Make A Difference – attracted 100 CEOs as contributors such as Pat Gelsinger who wrote the foreword.   Educated at Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard, Pedro is the General Partner of PDE Ventures, a venture capital fund that has 20 startup investments. In 2021, The Silicon Valley Business Journal recognized him as a Latin Business Leadership Honoree.   In 2016, Pedro became a corporate keynote speaker. Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are some of the companies he has given speeches. Pedro has given 300 keynotes by sharing his entrepreneurial story. In 2024, Pedro's third book – The Real ROI: Return on Inclusion – attracted 50 CEOs as contributors such as Michael Dell, John Hennessy, and Shellye Archambeau.   Pedro has been profiled in Forbes, Nasdaq, Yahoo Finance, CBS, Univision, Telemundo and Times of Israel. In 2017, The Voice of America named Pedro "The Robinhood of Technology”. Pedro serves on the board of trustees of Notre Dame de Namur University, Silicon Valley Tech Academy, ActAware, Loyal Card and Institute For International Medicine.   In 2017, Pedro gave his TED Talk – Build the Bridge – sharing his American Dream story having 22,000 views. In 2020, Pedro joined the Silicon Valley Leadership Group as the VP of Business Development. In 2021, Pedro was elected as the Vice Curator for Global Shapers in Palo Alto by the World Economic Forum. In 2022, Pedro got accepted to the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program as a Technology & Innovation Awardee having 21,200 followers. Later, he became the CMO of Ever Medical Technologies. In 2023, Pedro received the NextGen 30 Under 30 Award presented by Goldman Sachs. Later, Pedro was appointed to the Advisory Board of 1t.org of the World Economic Forum. In 2024, he founded RoseFem to empower women to live well in every season of life by approaching healthcare from an integrated perspective. That year, Pedro received the Silicon Valley 40 Under 40 Award presented by BMO. Pedro’s Pan Peru has given 3,000 children access to STEM education and reforested 15,000 trees. Pedro has received recognition for his success, he has received the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 HITEC 100 Awards.

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Are Short-Term Rental Conferences A Worthwhile Investment? As a founder of a small tech company based in Portugal, I've always been mindful of ROI and resource allocation. Attending industry conferences often involves significant costs, from booth fees and travel expenses to the time investment required for preparation and follow-up. So, is it worth it? While the initial costs may seem high, the long-term benefits can be substantial. Attending conferences provides invaluable opportunities for: 1. Networking: Connecting with industry leaders, potential partners, and investors. 2. Knowledge Sharing: Learning about the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. 3. Brand Building: Increasing brand visibility and establishing your company as an industry leader. 4. Inspiring Innovation: Gaining new perspectives and sparking creative ideas. Beyond the tangible benefits, there's an intangible reward: the camaraderie, the shared passion, and the sense of belonging to a vibrant community with amazingly smart people as Matt Landau, José Santiago Vázquez Rojel, Marcus Räder, Travis Wheeler, Jess Toro, Maria Lopez Duran, Mikko Nurminen, Yannis Pasmatzis, Cali Bowen, Leo Walton, Javier Perez Arranz, Humphrey Bowles, Josh Loe, Steve Trover - Better Talent, Tim Wilson, James Caswell, Jane Churchill and many others! Thank YOU for making our trip to Miami a pleasure together with my fav human being Nuno Rodrigues What are your thoughts on the value of attending industry conferences? Share your experiences in the comments below. #Hostchella2024 #airbnb #conferences #airbnbcleaning #saas

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Amazing Nubank! Funded 9 years ago is the most influential finance company, not only fintech but financial company, in 2024  1. Nubank got a higher valuation than Paypal, $62.9 billion (Nubank) vs $61.9 bn (Paypal).  2. In 2023, Nubank hit $1 billion in profit, a first for any Western online-only bank. Nubank in 2023 launched 40 new products with 9000 employees (around a quarter of what Santander has in Madrid for Tech Support) And remember that it was set up for 1 main expat founder, with no bank experience and a bunch of interns doing research and MVPs in Brazil. https://lnkd.in/dnbMAqdT Now tell me that the insurance industry is working well globally and that will not have similar change-makers.  Who is in? 😉 🚀

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