The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 63 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 5 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Startups fail in LATAM by expanding before winning their home market
“And my view of why it has failed in certain areas is it's actually that I think companies have tried to do it too early in their life cycle. And you have to do it once you have a very strong core, when you actually have won the first country.”
Nubank achieved profitability and positive cash flow in Brazil by 2019
“By the time we had that conversation again, in 2019, we were profitable in Brazil. We were cashflow positive. We have great product market fit. We are banking licenses. We were fully funded on deposits.”
Nubank's savings product grew larger than its original credit card business
“And product number two for us Which is savings is way bigger than product number one for us. And product number three is going, is growing faster than product number two.”
Velez: Founder and CEO roles require opposite, rarely overlapping skill sets
“The founder and CEO titles are generally so linked to each other, because if the founder is a horse and the CEO is a rhino, I think the Good founder and CEO is the unicorn. Is this horse that has been able to grow a horn and is this mythical creature? And I fi…”
Velez: Doug Leone's greatest superpower is his ability to read people
“The people rater that Doug has, he has an uncanny ability to read people. I think that's his single biggest superpower.”
Velez: Latin America's GDP per capita is three to five times India's
“Latin America as a region is the third largest GDP in the world. It's a region that has six hundred fifty million people, very large GDP, a GDP per capita that is three to five x India,”
Velez: Financial services holds the largest market cap in Latin America
“Financial services is the single biggest market cap in the region.”
Velez: Nubank's first São Paulo office cost $500 monthly for 20 people
“We started the business in a very small house in Sao Paulo. We paid, I remember the partner of Sequoia, Michael Abramson was there. His mind was blown when I told him we paid 500 dollars per month in rent, and we had 20 people working out of the house.”
Velez: Nubank marketplace counts millions of DAUs across 180+ partners
“We have several million daily active users today on, on our marketplace where our customers are Consuming or buying goods or services from over 180 different partners”
Velez: Nubank allocates 80% of its resources to core financial services
“We allocate today about 80% of all resources and energy to financial services, so that core continues to have most of the allocation of resources.”
Velez: Five incumbent banks controlled 85% to 90% of Brazil's banking market
“The fact that you have five banks in the hands of 85, 90, about 85, 90% of the entire market in the hands of banks was something to be solved.”
Velez wrote Nubank's culture deck immediately after the fundraising pitch deck
“When I decided to start Nubank, one of the first things to do is obviously I did the pitch deck of Nubank to raise capital, but the second thing I did was the culture deck of Nubank”
Velez: Liquidity is the primary bottleneck to scaling lending businesses
“In financial service, especially in lending, capital, but more especially liquidity, is one of the biggest bottlenecks that you have.”