Welcome to this special solo episode of Season 4 of The J Curve with me, Olga Maslikhova.

Every few months, I take a step back from the interviews to zoom out, connect the dots, and reflect on the themes that emerged from our conversations with Latin America’s most driven founders and sharpest investors.

This quarter, the learnings hit hard.

From Paulo Passoni’s breakdown of growth-stage capital and the M&A trap, to Roberto Oliveira’s slow-and-steady playbook at Blip, to Guilherme Horn’s vision for conversational commerce and fintech infrastructure on WhatsApp, to André Penha’s disciplined expansion strategy at QuintoAndar—one truth kept resurfacing:

In Latin America, the founders who win don’t just ride momentum. They build leverage.

Here’s what I cover:

• Why M&A caps in LatAm create a hidden trap for venture-backed startups

• The SoftBank boom, and what it got right—and wrong—about the region

• How control, not capital, gave Blip the upper hand in choosing investors

• Why the next wave of winners will scale productivity—not headcount

• The difference between surviving a downturn and compounding through it

• How conversational commerce + AI is reshaping the frontend and backend of business

• What Andre Penha’s expansion philosophy can teach us about product sequencing

• Why the real fintech opportunity isn’t credit—it’s infrastructure and insight

• And why sometimes the boldest thing a founder can do… is walk away and start again

This is your quarterly operator’s memo—full of tactical insight, strategic frameworks, and hard-won lessons from the frontlines of building in Latin America.

If you enjoy today’s episode, please rate us on Spotify, subscribe to our newsletter at blog.thejcurve.com, and follow us on YouTube (@thejcurvepodcast) and Instagram (@olgamaslikhova).

Let’s get into it.