Sebastian Kanovich's guest appearances

Sebastian Kanovich

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Finding Genius Podcast

Wharton FinTech Podcast

Michael Seibel

Dave Girouard

Tim Draper

Brandon Krieg

William Hockey

Howard Lindzon

Oliver Hughes

Leigh Drogen

Henrique Dubugras

Abby Johnson

Jason Brown

Aaron Frank

Andy Rachleff

Kenneth Stanley

Bronwyn Varty

OwlTail

My guest today is Sebastian Kanovich, CEO of payments company dLocal. Sebastian founded dLocal in 2016 to bridge the infrastructure gap between payments in developed and emerging markets. Since then, the initially bootstrapped start-up has enabled global merchants like Uber, Spotify, and Google to service billions of emerging market users. And in doing so, dLocal has created $10bn of equity market value, having IPOd last year. Our discussion covers dLocal’s playbook for facilitating payments in emerging countries, what Sebastian has learned about great API building, and how he challenges himself to improve personally. Please enjoy my conversation with Sebastian Kanovich.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page  here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Pilot.  Pilot handles your startup’s finance, accounting, and tax prep needs, so you can focus on what matters most—building your business. Join over 1,000 startups that rely on Pilot to help them scale. Founder’s Field Guide listeners get 20% off their first six months. Get in touch with Pilot at  https://pilot.com/founders.    -----   Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:13] - [First question] - His take on global payments, what is interesting about this system today, and dLocal’s role within it [00:04:06] - Approaching a country that could benefit from low-friction payments and the playbook for helping them improve their system [00:06:10] - Differences between being an API business versus a protocol one [00:07:13] - What companies handle these systems outside of emerging markets and why they haven’t entered the emerging market space [00:08:59] - A specific example of the steps involved in getting a country integrated into global payments for an app or service provider [00:11:22] - Whether or not they interact with consumers [00:12:09] - The trading and foreign exchange component of global transactions [00:13:16] - Country specific product teams and consolidating their process [00:14:52] - What he would look for in early-stage payment companies to invest in [00:16:23] - Defining excellent when it comes to working with regulators and regulatory environments [00:17:53] - Their role in digital globalization and trends that might arise in the future [00:19:52] - Ways that low-friction payments have helped accelerate regional innovation [00:21:31] - The unit economics and costs of a single payment  [00:24:05] - What the source of cost is to process a payment or transaction [00:25:10] - Variables in currencies that make them desirable to work with [00:26:38] - Lessons learned from distribution and customer acquisition of their service [00:29:23] - Advice he would give to developers building API products [00:31:16] - An example of wanting to build a function into an API that was never built [00:32:40] - How they’ve been able to move and scale so fast [00:34:23] - Ways their business could most improve [00:35:14] - The operating system he uses to run the company [00:36:38] - Ways he’s most improved or gotten better as a CEO over the years [00:37:58] - Why deep humility is such an integral part of his character  [00:38:30] - The biggest mistake they’ve ever made as a business and what they learned  [00:39:20] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is Sebastian Kanovich, CEO of payments company dLocal. Sebastian founded dLocal in 2016 to bridge the infrastructure gap between payments in developed and emerging markets. Since then, the initially bootstrapped start-up has enabled global merchants like Uber, Spotify, and Google to service billions of emerging market users. And in doing so, dLocal has created $10bn of equity market value, having IPOd last year. Our discussion covers dLocal’s playbook for facilitating payments in emerging countries, what Sebastian has learned about great API building, and how he challenges himself to improve personally. Please enjoy my conversation with Sebastian Kanovich. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page <a href="https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/25751178/kanovich-powering-emerging-markets-payments" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> here</a>. ----- This episode is brought to you by Pilot. <a href="https://pilot.com/offer/foundersfieldguide?utm_medium=digital&amp;utm_source=affiliate_pod&amp;utm_campaign=foundersfieldguide_122021" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Pilot</a> handles your startup’s finance, accounting, and tax prep needs, so you can focus on what matters most—building your business. Join over 1,000 startups that rely on Pilot to help them scale. Founder’s Field Guide listeners get 20% off their first six months. Get in touch with Pilot at <a href="https://pilot.com/offer/foundersfieldguide?utm_medium=digital&amp;utm_source=affiliate_pod&amp;utm_campaign=foundersfieldguide_122021" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> https://pilot.com/founders</a>.  ----- Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit <a href="https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">joincolossus.com/episodes</a>. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up <a href="https://www.joincolossus.com/newsletter" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. Follow us on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/patrick_oshag" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@patrick_oshag</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/JoinColossus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@JoinColossus</a> Show Notes [00:02:13] - [First question] - His take on global payments, what is interesting about this system today, and dLocal’s role within it [00:04:06] - Approaching a country that could benefit from low-friction payments and the playbook for helping them improve their system [00:06:10] - Differences between being an API business versus a protocol one [00:07:13] - What companies handle these systems outside of emerging markets and why they haven’t entered the emerging market space [00:08:59] - A specific example of the steps involved in getting a country integrated into global payments for an app or service provider [00:11:22] - Whether or not they interact with consumers [00:12:09] - The trading and foreign exchange component of global transactions [00:13:16] - Country specific product teams and consolidating their process [00:14:52] - What he would look for in early-stage payment companies to invest in [00:16:23] - Defining excellent when it comes to working with regulators and regulatory environments [00:17:53] - Their role in digital globalization and trends that might arise in the future [00:19:52] - Ways that low-friction payments have helped accelerate regional innovation [00:21:31] - The unit economics and costs of a single payment  [00:24:05] - What the source of cost is to process a payment or transaction [00:25:10] - Variables in currencies that make them desirable to work with [00:26:38] - Lessons learned from distribution and customer acquisition of their service [00:29:23] - Advice he would give to developers building API products [00:31:16] - An example of wanting to build a function into an API that was never built [00:32:40] - How they’ve been able to move and scale so fast [00:34:23] - Ways their business could most improve [00:35:14] - The operating system he uses to run the company [00:36:38] - Ways he’s most improved or gotten better as a CEO over the years [00:37:58] - Why deep humility is such an integral part of his character  [00:38:30] - The biggest mistake they’ve ever made as a business and what they learned  [00:39:20] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Sebastian Kanovich - Powering Emerging Markets Payments - [Founder’s Field Guide, EP. 56]

In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Miguel Armaza is joined by Sebastian Kanovich, CEO of dLocal, a 360 payments technology company which handles payins and payouts in emerging markets for some of the largest global e-commerce and marketplace companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, and Google.As the CEO of AstroPay, prior to dLocal, he grew the company into a premier cross-border payment-card provider that processed millions of transactions daily. Sebastián holds a Bachelor degree in Economics from Universidad ORT Uruguay. He also studied Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Management of Technology at Tel Aviv University, and completed a prestigious Endeavor Innovation and Growth Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He continues to be fascinated with how payments work around the world.

In our latest episode of the Wharton Fintech podcast, Miguel Armaza is joined by Sebastian Kanovich, CEO of dLocal, a 360 payments technology company which handles payins and payouts in emerging markets for some of the largest global e-commerce and marketplace companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, and Google. As the CEO of AstroPay, prior to dLocal, he grew the company into a premier cross-border payment-card provider that processed millions of transactions daily. Sebastián holds a Bachelor degree in Economics from Universidad ORT Uruguay. He also studied Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Management of Technology at Tel Aviv University, and completed a prestigious Endeavor Innovation and Growth Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He continues to be fascinated with how payments work around the world.

Solving Payments in Emerging Markets with Sebastian Kanovich, CEO & Founder of dLocal

Businesses and consumers worldwide are looking for safer and easier ways to do business across borders. dLocal has developed a platform to bridge the gap between people in countries with underdeveloped payment systems or who have large numbers of unbanked customers, and e-commerce businesses who are looking for ways to access these untapped markets. dLocal is helping international e-commerce companies sell and get paid locally in emerging markets including Latin America, China, and Turkey along with a number of other countries. They offer a given user the ability to pay for goods or services in local and preferred payment methods such as cash, local credit cards, installments, etc. The international company then receives the payment in their own currency. The cross-border platform opens the customer base for e-companies to reach billions of consumers globally by supporting over 130 local payment methods, with a single integration. Top global brands such as Disney, GoDaddy, and others are already working with dLocal, allowing them to reach emerging markets and expand their business. For more information, visit: https://dlocal.com/

Businesses and consumers worldwide are looking for safer and easier ways to do business across borders. dLocal has developed a platform to bridge the gap between people in countries with underdeveloped payment systems or who have large numbers of unbanked customers, and e-commerce businesses who are looking for ways to access these untapped markets. dLocal is helping international e-commerce companies sell and get paid locally in emerging markets including Latin America, China, and Turkey along with a number of other countries. They offer a given user the ability to pay for goods or services in local and preferred payment methods such as cash, local credit cards, installments, etc. The international company then receives the payment in their own currency. The cross-border platform opens the customer base for e-companies to reach billions of consumers globally by supporting over 130 local payment methods, with a single integration. Top global brands such as Disney, GoDaddy, and others are already working with dLocal, allowing them to reach emerging markets and expand their business. For more information, visit: <a href="https://dlocal.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://dlocal.com/</a>

Sebastian Kanovich – Chief Executive Officer At Dlocal – Building The Bridge Between Developed And Emerging Economies