Rodrigo Schmidt

Father, Engineer, Investor

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

@AtlanticoPart 's annual Latin America Digital Report is live! Congratulations @JulioV and team! It's the most comprehensive picture of Latam's tech innovation, entrepreneurship, and its venture capital sector. My favorite part is the deep dive on AI penetration in Latam. Enjoy!

[Julio Vasconcellos @JulioV]

“The end of friction” is the theme of @AtlanticoPart's 6th annual Latin America Digital Transformation Report.

My top 10 highlights on LatAm tech and VC this year include AI in LatAm, tariff impact, founder archetypes, and venture returns.

Link to report at the end of thread👇

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

Go @openlayerco! Really happy to see its growth. Every company knows AI will transform their business for the better, but for those who can’t rush to market untested, Openlayer transforms AI from a high-risk, expensive experiment into a manageable, high-reward product strategy.

[Openlayer @openlayerco]

$14.5M Series A raised to scale AI evaluation & governance! Led by Race Capital & joined by NXTP, Mindset, YC, Quiet Capital, Telefonica, KPN Ventures, and Mento VC.

Full details here:
https://t.co/9wgApVGOmi

[Julio Vasconcellos @JulioV]

"The Case for LatAm" was the theme of my presentation today at @lavca_org 's annual conference. For any of those that still doubt Latin America can produce some of the world's best tech companies, check out the data and analysis we shared today 👇

[Hugo Barra @hbarra]

The 2024 LatAm Digital Transformation Report is finally here, by @JulioV and the Atlantico VC team @AtlanticoPart 🇧🇷🇲🇽🇨🇴🇦🇷

Download link: https://t.co/ZkQM02ox0T

🚨 This year, we are especially grateful for anyone sharing on X given the platform is sadly banned in Brazil, making it harder for us to share this valuable research to the rest of the world.

In this year’s report, you’ll read about:

1/ LatAm companies win despite the incredible adversity in the region: low labor productivity, high cost of capital, logistics infrastructure gaps, heavy tax burden & a complicated corporate tax system.

2/ Companies that persevere through LatAm’s adverse conditions thrive for decades, capturing
greater market share and disproportionate returns.

3/ LatAm’s modest equivalent to the U.S.’s Magnificent Seven is the Triumphant Three — Mercado Libre, Nubank, iFood — three outstanding companies that became huge regional winners and global outliers with a market cap of nearly $200B. Nubank is the world’s largest digital bank.

4/ LatAm Venture Capital funds have done disproportionately and incredibly well — ½ of LatAm VC funds are in the top 25% *globally*, and ¼ of them are in the top 5% *globally*.

5/ LatAm e-commerce grew 16% YoY in 2023-24, the highest jump ever and narrowing the gap with more developed regions.

6/ WhatsApp is taking over LatAm as a business platform, with Brazil and Mexico accounting for over 60% of global WhatsApp Business revenues.

7/ Fintech: For the first time ever, we published an entire chapter on Brazil’s unique history of financial innovation, competition, and shared infrastructure — leading to Pix becoming the #1 payment method and the Central Bank’s upcoming initiatives including a digital currency (CDBC) and first-of-its-kind tokenization of financial assets (Drex).

8/ There is huge opportunity ahead for further innovation in financial services: credit, wealth management, and insurance. Fintech startups in these areas are rising quickly and we’re likely to see some big winners in the coming years.

9/ In Brazil, BYD launched and quickly captured the lead of the electric car market through cost competitiveness. Brazil is also approaching an inflection point in adoption of electric motorcycles.

10/ LatAm ranks second in carbon credit issuance worldwide, with Colombia leading and Brazil ranking second despite limited regulatory actions.

[Julio Vasconcellos @JulioV]

"LatAm does it best" is the theme for the 5th annual @AtlanticoPart LatAm Digital Transformation Report, where we introduce the "Triumphant Three" and show why Market Dynamics trump Market Size 🧵

Link here: https://t.co/kLaas3bsGh

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

You can’t make this 💩 up.

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

Congratulations to the @back4app team for launching their AI agent today. This is great work and an amazing tool to support devops. People should definitely check it out.

https://t.co/PfT07uFxnt

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

This is an amazing report by the Atlantico team. The most interesting insights about the digital transformation happening all over Latam!

[Julio Vasconcellos @JulioV]

The 2023 Latin America Digital Transformation Report is here. This year we cover the 5 Tectonic Shifts that stand to bring great opportunity (or challenge) to the region. Join us as we explore this narrative through rich original data. My top 10 picks👇 https://t.co/qKz9xez2qC

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

@dksf @atroyn Maybe octopuses are just waiting for the sapiens’ extinction event to thrive. You never know. 65M years ago it really didn’t look like mammals had a chance.

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

@dksf @atroyn Not necessarily a step. Could be just a dead-end branch.

[Openlayer @openlayerco]

Excited to launch Openlayer, an ML testing, evaluation, and observability platform designed to help teams pinpoint and resolve issues in their models.

https://t.co/QsVsiQsPGK

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

@JoshuaWohle @ylecun Because humans tend to believe they are good at reasoning and causal inference when reality shows otherwise. This is more like a funny realization than a literal joke.

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

Congratulations @oxio_com! I can't wait to see the results of this expansion to Brazil and the US. Also looking forward to the new talent you will be bringing onboard. Amazing opportunities for senior leaders in product and technology.

[Atlantico @AtlanticoPart]

Oxio's telecom-as-a-service platform has been making waves in Mexico, and with the added support of top web3 investors, will be landing in Brazil and the US soon. Congratulations to @ngirard and team on the amazing progress to date on your mission to transform telecom.

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

@eladgil And then SF is like: not so soon!

“San Francisco public schools won’t drop masks despite California lifting mandate”

https://t.co/ri5q6KdZYU

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

@dksf 3D is a beaten path already. Shoot for 100D!

[anonymous historian and hat collector @james_e_b_]

My covid conspiracy theory is that the entire pandemic was a plot to turn me, personally, into a conservative

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

SF, Sat 4PM, normal scene: 3 guys doing drugs (one clearly smoking crack) and littering in the open on 4th and Mission, near restaurants, museums, shops, with plenty of people (w/ kids) passing by and officers less than a block away. Anything goes in this city.

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

@hdubugras Happy to make the connection with Meta.

[Rodrigo Schmidt @rodrigo_schmidt]

@eladgil Aren’t the total cases double counting individuals who had it more than once?

[hari raghavan @haridigresses]

So, here we go. I’m moving out of the Bay Area.

This is obviously not a fresh opinion; but the framing may be slightly controversial. My biggest reason is that I believe the Bay Area is no longer the best crucible for the American Dream. 🧵 https://t.co/00BwcbJSPS