Martin Escobari

Co-President, General Atlantic · 1 appearance on the record, plus 1 compilation re-air.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorexecutivefounderauthor@MartinEscobari ↗LinkedIn ↗Wikipedia ↗

At General Atlantic, Escobari oversees global growth investments and chairs the investment committee. He previously co-founded Brazilian e-commerce company Submarino.com, serving as CFO through its IPO, and co-authored the book Sucesso Made in Brasil.

34statements → 17claims → 12claims resolved → 75%fully supported → 4.34/5average certainty → 1.94/5average debate potential → 4.5/5argument clarity · the sources → 3said about them ↓

9 supported 3 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not yet assessed 2 not checkable as stated how the 17 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 predictions · 14 assertions · 3 opinions · 7 insights · 7 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 17 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 12 are resolved, 3 are not yet assessed, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Martin argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Escobari: Competitors deployed funds in 12–18 months, 3x faster than General Atlantic
“Every one of our competitors was running their funds in 12 to 18 months. Deploying capital three times the rate we were”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 18:58 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
100% certainty 4
71% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.5 / 5 directness 4.5 · coherence 4.8 · precision 4.5 · compression 4

redirected or did not address 1 of 34 assessed questions (3%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

256 words/min while actually speaking · 10.5 um and uh per 1k words · 13.7 false starts per 1k · 21% of pauses land inside a clause

English is their second language (first language: Spanish). These numbers measure fluency in English. They do not measure thought; the argument clarity score above is read from substance alone.

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 7,678 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

Everything Martin Escobari said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Escobari: No startup team or business model can outgrow its market size
“The three more statistically significant things, size of the market, defensibility of the business model, The quality and the capabilities of the team. The three things. Equally significant, but the most significant size of the market. Because no matter how go…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 10:23 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Escobari: Paying 20x ARR on two weeks' notice is irresponsible LP management
“It's a lot more fun than competing for deals on, you know, two weeks notice and paying 20 times a year. I find that irresponsible with the capital of our capital partners.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 17:58 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Escobari: Competitors deployed funds in 12–18 months, 3x faster than General Atlantic
“Every one of our competitors was running their funds in 12 to 18 months. Deploying capital three times the rate we were”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 18:58 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Escobari: Many Startups Raised in Abundant Liquidity Will Cease to Exist
“The hangover of a period of excessive abundant capital globally, not just in Latin America, is that you have a large percentage of the companies Who got lost in this abundance of liquidity and today don't have viable business models and will unfortunately ceas…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 24:37 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Escobari: Market Followers Often Beat Early Leaders Who Spend Recklessly
“And in most situations, it is often the follower that does even better because they learn from the mistakes of the leader who spent all that money recklessly without listening to the signals. And you're listening to the signals and you're being wise. These guy…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 26:00 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
General Atlantic priced investments 20-30% lower than competitors during market boom
“We looked like tough negotiators because we were pricing things, 20, 30% below the tourists.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 28:48 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Escobari: General Atlantic passed on Nubank's Series A, B, and C rounds
“I should have backed David Vélez at Nubank. David had worked at GA. I had tried to, and he left for Sequoia, and I tried to bring him back when I got hired into GA. He called us in our Series A, Series B, Series C, then he stopped calling because he kept sayin…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 49:30 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Held up
Escobari: Emerging markets will automatically create $5B-$10B+ global companies
“Just watch us create five, ten billion dollar plus companies, global companies out of the emerging markets. It's going to happen automatically. You know, FOMO. FOMO will take care of it.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 51:10 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Escobari: Investors hold information superiority in founder pricing negotiations
“In negotiating price with an entrepreneur, it is often that the investor has a lot more information than the entrepreneur, and it is often that the investor has a lot more experience negotiating in terms of an entrepreneur.”
Martin Escobari Feb 9, 2024 ▶ 14:31 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
Disclosure
Escobari: Deals are underwritten to a minimum 25% five-year return
“The fair price is the price that allows me to get at least a 25% return in five years based on a P multiple exit by the time I exit.”
Martin Escobari Feb 9, 2024 ▶ 14:50 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Escobari: General Atlantic suffers capital losses on only 3% of invested capital
“We have 42 years of data at General Atlanta, and we've done over 400 transactions. We know we've very experienced, and across the entire world in six sectors. Over the 40 years, 10% of the transactions lead to 50% of the gains. And that's been consistent throu…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 9:50 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Escobari: General Atlantic passed on Uber's $2B round over market size limits
“So, one of my mistakes as an investor is Anton, my friend Anton Levy, co-president of the farm, invited me to look at Uber, the two billion dollar round, because of the international opportunity, and we went, and we met Travis, The entire black market industry…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 11:29 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Escobari: Venture Capital and Growth Investors Lose Discipline at Market Peaks
“One of the problems of the venture capital community and the growth community is we're extremely pro cyclical. We drink our own Kool-Aid, we over invest in the peak of the bull market, and we lose all discipline.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 14:43 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Escobari: Three warning signals that mark the end of a bull market
“You know, things are really, really silly, and it's beginning to be the end of the bull market when three things happen. First, everyone's making money, even the least talented people in the market. That's a clear warning signal when everyone's making money. S…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 15:37 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Escobari: The two main ways venture capital funds get destroyed in downturns
“What we did learn, and we learned this in, in, in 2000 is the two ways you get hurt is you spend too much of your LP's money at the peak of the market. And then you have too many unfunded business plans who need to raise money when everyone's frozen.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 18:24 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Held up
Escobari: General Atlantic will never deploy fund commitments faster than 3 years
“So the two things we said is we're never going to run our commitments faster than three years. And we want to make sure the vast majority of our companies have fully funded plans.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 18:47 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Escobari: General Atlantic Lost Great Deals to Fast, High-Paying Tourist Capital
“And we lost to them. You know, I, you know, here's a sort of wise, seasoned manager that adds lots of value, but requires three months of due diligence and pays 40% less than a guy that gives you a check in three days. Hard to compete. So it was humbling and w…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 23:09 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Escobari: General Atlantic targets a 25% annual return over five years
“It's the price that allows me to get at least a 25% return in five years based on a P multiple exit by the time I exit. And I backtrack into what I can afford to pay today on a base case.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 27:36 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Escobari: General Atlantic partners are paid on global, not deal, results
“We all get paid out of the same pot. So no one gets paid of their individual performance. We get paid out of global performance”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 33:57 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Escobari: 30% of LATAM investment came from committed regional capital
“This time around, at least 30% of the capital came from people who were permanently committed to the region.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 39:51 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Escobari almost spent $500M on an Argentine acquisition before pulling out
“I almost spent five hundred million dollars on buying a company in Argentina, and then the day bids were due, I woke up and said, what the hell am I doing? And I'm glad we didn't buy it because the country went where it went.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 48:28 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Martin Escobari: Very few corporate boards actually add value
“Very few.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 49:06 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Martin Escobari: GA Portfolio Raised $20B Primary Capital in 2021
“So in twenty-twenty-one, our portfolio raised twenty billion dollars of primary capital, 19 of which from other parties.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 16:38 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Martin Escobari: 97% of General Atlantic's 200 Portfolio Companies Are Fully Funded
“Today, we have 200 companies, 97% of them, fully funded plants.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 16:46 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 10statements(10 left)

The other half of the tape: Martin Escobari's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 3 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 3

Every mention by year

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Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: What are the World's Tech Leaders Running From? Fear? Insecurity? Poverty? What Driv compilation Jun 9, 2023 1m
Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | Nov 11, 2022 36m

Played on the show (1)

Episodes where a recording of Martin Escobari was played rather than Martin taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When Feb 9, 2024 54s clip played
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