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Feb 12, 2021 · 15m · top-founders

He Exited for $600m, Started with 40%, Now Building YC and AngelList for Latin America

Brian Requarth · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 3m spoken Eric Yuan · 4s spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this interview with Nathan Latka, entrepreneur and investor Brian Requarth recounts building Viva Real to a $600 million cash acquisition and details his ongoing mission to empower Latin American founders through his book, angel investments, and the Latitud startup platform.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 22.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 4.0 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 2.0 Nathan pushing back 4.0
05100:0010:000:12–3:55 · Nathan as informed peer 3/10 GetLatka Subscription Pitch and Show Highlights Segment begins with Latka's subscription monologue before transitioning into foundational background questions about Viva Real's business model and competitive landscape in Brazil.3:55–8:21 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Scaling to a $600M Cash Exit and Bootstrapping Roots Latka digs into the specific financial figures and co-founder equity splits, playfully grilling Requarth on his net proceeds from the $600M exit, which Requarth gently parries.8:21–12:22 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Viva the Entrepreneur Book and Launching Latitud Latka challenges Requarth's decision to use an AngelList rolling fund vehicle for Latitud, prompting Requarth to defend the model's simplicity and alignment with cohort-based acceleration.12:23–14:18 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Angel Investments and Promising Latin American Startups Latka pushes Requarth to name specific forward-looking angel investments and non-venture-backed bootstrap success stories, putting the guest slightly on the spot before wrapping up with book promotion.0:12–3:55 · Guest teaching 3/10 GetLatka Subscription Pitch and Show Highlights Segment begins with Latka's subscription monologue before transitioning into foundational background questions about Viva Real's business model and competitive landscape in Brazil.3:55–8:21 · Guest teaching 4/10 Scaling to a $600M Cash Exit and Bootstrapping Roots Latka digs into the specific financial figures and co-founder equity splits, playfully grilling Requarth on his net proceeds from the $600M exit, which Requarth gently parries.8:21–12:22 · Guest teaching 3/10 Viva the Entrepreneur Book and Launching Latitud Latka challenges Requarth's decision to use an AngelList rolling fund vehicle for Latitud, prompting Requarth to defend the model's simplicity and alignment with cohort-based acceleration.12:23–14:18 · Guest teaching 3/10 Angel Investments and Promising Latin American Startups Latka pushes Requarth to name specific forward-looking angel investments and non-venture-backed bootstrap success stories, putting the guest slightly on the spot before wrapping up with book promotion.0:12–3:55 · Guest disagreement 1/10 GetLatka Subscription Pitch and Show Highlights Segment begins with Latka's subscription monologue before transitioning into foundational background questions about Viva Real's business model and competitive landscape in Brazil.3:55–8:21 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Scaling to a $600M Cash Exit and Bootstrapping Roots Latka digs into the specific financial figures and co-founder equity splits, playfully grilling Requarth on his net proceeds from the $600M exit, which Requarth gently parries.8:21–12:22 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Viva the Entrepreneur Book and Launching Latitud Latka challenges Requarth's decision to use an AngelList rolling fund vehicle for Latitud, prompting Requarth to defend the model's simplicity and alignment with cohort-based acceleration.12:23–14:18 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Angel Investments and Promising Latin American Startups Latka pushes Requarth to name specific forward-looking angel investments and non-venture-backed bootstrap success stories, putting the guest slightly on the spot before wrapping up with book promotion.0:12–3:55 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 GetLatka Subscription Pitch and Show Highlights Segment begins with Latka's subscription monologue before transitioning into foundational background questions about Viva Real's business model and competitive landscape in Brazil.3:55–8:21 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Scaling to a $600M Cash Exit and Bootstrapping Roots Latka digs into the specific financial figures and co-founder equity splits, playfully grilling Requarth on his net proceeds from the $600M exit, which Requarth gently parries.8:21–12:22 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Viva the Entrepreneur Book and Launching Latitud Latka challenges Requarth's decision to use an AngelList rolling fund vehicle for Latitud, prompting Requarth to defend the model's simplicity and alignment with cohort-based acceleration.12:23–14:18 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Angel Investments and Promising Latin American Startups Latka pushes Requarth to name specific forward-looking angel investments and non-venture-backed bootstrap success stories, putting the guest slightly on the spot before wrapping up with book promotion.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 64.7% · guest 35.3%0:00 · Nathan 64.7% · guest 35.3%3:00 · Nathan 11.5% · guest 88.5%3:00 · Nathan 11.5% · guest 88.5%6:00 · Nathan 17.9% · guest 82.1%6:00 · Nathan 17.9% · guest 82.1%9:00 · Nathan 12.5% · guest 87.5%9:00 · Nathan 12.5% · guest 87.5%12:00 · Nathan 11.2% · guest 88.8%12:00 · Nathan 11.2% · guest 88.8%15:00 · Nathan 11.4% · guest 88.6%15:00 · Nathan 11.4% · guest 88.6%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 7:54 Deflecting net proceeds questioning

Requarth playfully calls out Latka for trying to back out his personal equity percentage and net proceeds from the acquisition.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 10:18 Questioning rolling fund efficiency

Latka directly challenges the guest's choice of an AngelList rolling fund, arguing there are more effective capital mechanisms for Latin American startups.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 3:02 Latin American market reality check

Requarth educates the host on the realities of competing in Brazil against a TV network monopoly embedding rivals into prime-time soap operas without an established MLS.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 13:44 Demanding regional bootstrap expertise

When Requarth hesitates on naming bootstrap success stories, Latka presses him to lean into his core regional domain expertise rather than pivoting away.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
GetLatka Subscription Pitch and Show Highlights 3312 Segment begins with Latka's subscription monologue before transitioning into foundational background questions about Viva Real's business model and competitive landscape in Brazil.
Scaling to a $600M Cash Exit and Bootstrapping Roots 4435 Latka digs into the specific financial figures and co-founder equity splits, playfully grilling Requarth on his net proceeds from the $600M exit, which Requarth gently parries.
Viva the Entrepreneur Book and Launching Latitud 5325 Latka challenges Requarth's decision to use an AngelList rolling fund vehicle for Latitud, prompting Requarth to defend the model's simplicity and alignment with cohort-based acceleration.
Angel Investments and Promising Latin American Startups 4324 Latka pushes Requarth to name specific forward-looking angel investments and non-venture-backed bootstrap success stories, putting the guest slightly on the spot before wrapping up with book promotion.

Statements from this episode (8)

Assertion Partly supported
Viva Real reached 7M Brazil property listings and 35K advertisers
“Initially it was just a classifieds model. So we had, you know, advertisers, we had, you know, seven million properties across Brazil and, you know, about 35,000 real estate companies that advertised.”
Brian Requarth Feb 12, 2021 ▶ 2:31
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Viva Real became the market leader despite being the most underfunded
“We were the most underfunded out of the, out of everybody, but we ended up becoming the market leader.”
Brian Requarth Feb 12, 2021 ▶ 3:29
Assertion Partly supported
Viva Real sold for $600M in an all-cash transaction in 2020
“We sold the company for six hundred million dollars all cash. It was approved by the antitrust authorities in November of 2020 six month kind of review process. And yeah, all, all shareholders are now cash.”
Brian Requarth Feb 12, 2021 ▶ 4:05
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Requarth owned much less than 30% of Viva Real at its exit
“I didn't own 30, 40% of the business. I wish I did.”
Brian Requarth Feb 12, 2021 ▶ 7:54
Disclosure
Latitud accepts only successful LatAm founders and top global GPs as LPs
“Just getting our first LP commitments from only LPs are founders that have built big business in Latin America or GPs of top funds in, you know, in the U S or globally.”
Brian Requarth Feb 12, 2021 ▶ 9:59
Assertion Partly supported
Latitud co-founder Gina Gotthilf grew Duolingo from 3M to 300M users
“My co-founder, Gina Gotthil, ran Duolingo, grew it from three to three hundred million users.”
Brian Requarth Feb 12, 2021 ▶ 11:31
Disclosure
Latitud plans to invest $50K to $250K for 3% to 10% equity
“We're gonna start investing in some of these companies probably in the second half of the year. We'll, we'll start formalizing our investment for specific terms taking around a three to 10% equity in these companies and investing between 50 to 250,000.”
Brian Requarth Feb 12, 2021 ▶ 12:00
Assertion Supported
Latin America's aggregate GDP is twice as large as India's
“If you take the aggregate of the region, it's an enormous, you know, it's twice as large as India when you look at the GDP.”
Brian Requarth Feb 12, 2021 ▶ 13:13
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