David Rodríguez

Mercado Libre's CMO says he only makes 1% of decisions. I'm not applauding this as a leadership lesson just yet. Why? Because it’s a scale flex and a luxury most CMOs can’t copy. After 20 years across Fortune 100, startups and PE-backed companies, here are some things this piece isn’t telling you: 1. He inherited a rocket ship. Mercado Libre is Latin America's Amazon. $100B market cap. Market leader. The Board asks if they can invest MORE in marketing. This is not a $20M revenue scale-up. Most CMOs are fighting for budget, not being offered more. The 1% approach is easier when you're not defending your existence every quarter. 2. He build the team to 500 people. Six years to build the trust, the system, and talent in Marketing that lets him step back. Most scale-ups CMOs actually have: - A team of 10-20 people, all stretched thin - A CEO who questions every campaign - A board that sees  marketing as a cost center - Zero room to “only make 1% of decisions” because there’s no one else to make the other 99% 3. The 48-hour decision on F1 Colapinto is a luxury most CMOs don’t have. It was "one of the few decisions" he had to green-light. He made the call assuming it might fail because "the rest of the demand generation engine is working really well." Most CMOs are fixing a pipeline machine that barely works. Every budget decision feels life or death. 4. His core insight. Build a machine so good your judgment is only needed at the edges. Build social capital by delivering results. Hire people who decide like you would. Create systems that make "good" obvious. Reserve your attention for bets that could change everything. 💎 TAKEAWAY 💎: → "I only make 1% of decisions" is what success looks like at scale. → It's not what building looks like at the start. → If you're a CMO proving marketing's value, don't step back yet. Step up. → Make the hard calls. Build the trust. → Then maybe in a six years, you earn the right to make 1% of decisions. Do you think the 1% approach is actually replicable, or is it only possible at true scale?⬇️ Ps you can read the full article in The Drum. 🔔 Follow me -> Fabiola Enciso for more practical takes on marketing, leadership, systems thinking, and how careers actually compound.

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The VC landscape is changing fast. It’s not just about who can write the biggest check anymore. It’s about who can actually move the needle for founders. Founders don’t just want capital, they want: - Distribution channels - Strategic partnerships - Real operator experience - Access to customers, not just LPs The best conversations aren’t with the funds that ask about CAC/LTV right away…they’re with the ones who ask: “How can we accelerate your next 10x?” Question for both sides: Founders, what’s the #1 thing (besides money) you wish investors brought to the table? Investors, what edge do you think founders undervalue the most?

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Artificio is building a deeptech startup in Peru. They're raising $7M. Its founder went to Harvard and MIT. Yet, fundraising isn't a piece of cake. They're stuck between two dilemmas. Here's how co-founder Arturo Deza (the Harvard/MIT one) explained it to The Realistic Optimist: "Artificio is an outsider for both LATAM VCs and for American VCs, but for two different reasons. For LATAM VCs, we’re a rare occurrence of a local deeptech startup. They don’t have many benchmarks to point to, and are thus frisky about investing. They don’t know how to value us. Things would be easier if we were doing food-delivery, in which case we could both point to Rappi and call it a day. Of course, Rappi is a spectacular company. But we’re building something very different. For American VCs, we’re a rare occurrence of a non-San Francisco based company building extremely advanced technology. To American VCs, if you’re not based in San Francisco, it means you lack ambition. Many don’t understand that the world has changed, and that Artificio is five steps ahead. We’re playing “4D Chess”. We are not the only ones crazy enough to do this: in other industries, many founders have decided to build outside of the US while still taking US-based VC funding (Mistral AI in France, NotCo in Chile…). They know that post-pandemic, newer markets and opportunities are emerging outside the US that no one else is seizing." Link to Arturo's full Realistic Optimist interview in the comments.

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HUGE news: one of the world’s biggest VC firms, a16z, just launched a free academy for founders 🔥 Meet the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, a new full-time program in San Francisco for young builders. The first class will have around 50 people. They’ll spend the year working on their own projects and taking classes in areas like startups, fundraising, AI and design. The lineup is crazy: → Ben Horowitz on Leading Through the Hard Things → Steven Sinofsky on the history of computing → Fei-Fei Li and Yann LeCun on the AI research track → Sam Altman, Jensen Huang and Patrick Collison in the wider network The school is run by Gagan Biyani (co-founder of Udemy and Maven), with Marc Andreessen and Erik Torenberg on the board. The school is tuition-free, students get $50k+ in compute credits, another $5k for a project abroad, plus a 3-month co-op at companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and NVIDIA. You can apply with a high school diploma and max 1 year of full-time college. The Academy is looking for people who have already built something - a product, research project, community, audience, etc. This might be the biggest opportunity for young ambitious founders right now. The program starts in September 2027. Apply here: https://theacademysf.com/ -- Bonus: GetFluently.app - AI tutor to nail your sales and pitch calls in English -- Save this and share with someone who should apply!

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As a VC, one of the first questions I asked founders was simple: What’s your traction or revenue? But that was a mistake. I saw revenue as the most important signal of progress. Now I see it differently. Revenue is important, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. The Lean Launchpad framework teaches founders to build an MVP and use it as a learning engine. That idea is even more powerful today. With AI, an MVP can often be built in hours, and in some cases it can even generate revenue immediately. But revenue shouldn’t always be the first objective. In many industries, the real opportunity is fragmented. The solution isn’t a single product, it’s a system built from multiple pieces that have to come together over time. In those cases, rushing to monetize too early can distract from building the real solution. Build the MVP. Use it to learn as fast as possible. But stay anchored to the vision, even if that vision doesn’t produce revenue on day one. Sometimes the MVP is the sailboat for discovery, not the engine for immediate revenue. #startups #venturecapital #founders #leanstartup #ai

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Most early-stage founders underprice without realizing the damage they’re doing. In the recent episode of #StartupsUnedited, Ellen Rubin, Operating Partner at Glasswing Ventures, we also broke down something that doesn’t get talked about enough: pricing isn’t just about revenue - it’s about learning how enterprise buying actually works. A few truths that hit hard: • Even early customers should pay something - not to maximize ARR, but to test procurement reality • Enterprise buyers don’t want to be nickel-and-dimed - they want a license and speed • 60–90 day sales cycles are normal… and that’s before you hit large orgs • Deals will get stuck - pricing exposes where and why • “Cool AI experiments” don’t count as real revenue • Underpricing kills velocity, and velocity is what investors care about now The biggest mistake? Founders confusing early interest with durable demand. As Ellen put it: you cannot underprice if you want to show real velocity to revenue. A handful of tiny deals won’t prove anything - except that customers can walk away easily. This isn’t about cool tech. It’s about proving that buyers will commit, pay, and renew. If you’re building in AI or infrastructure and thinking about pricing “later” - that later moment comes faster than you think. #Startups #EarlyStage #PricingStrategy #AIStartups #EnterpriseSales #FounderLessons #VentureCapital

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An example of how every job interview, VC conversation, etc. will start to look like. Side projects have always been a way to demonstrate willingness to experiment and curiosity but perhaps they're not so "optional" anymore. (source: via YC's application)

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I met a 25-year-old Brazilian who's taking on Scale, Mercor and Surge. José landed in Silicon Valley with barely any English, no money, and no idea what VC even was. Today, his company Vetto AI is treated by the AI labs as a research partner. How? By refusing to play everyone else's game. Most companies sell data to the labs. José decided to compete with the labs themselves, in research. Do the research first, then sell them the results. Everything flows from that. Vetto is a team of researchers selling to other researchers. This was a special one because I had the chance to invest in Vetto a couple of years ago when Jose had just dropped out of ITA. And see him grow as a founder and recruit a stellar team like Lucas Smaira, Roberta Antunes and Rodrigo Schmidt. José and I talked about: 🔹His journey from a small town in Brazil to Silicon Valley 🔹Why the most valuable part of AI data happens before collection 🔹How Vetto competes with the labs in research 🔹How it recruits researchers it cannot outbid the frontier labs 🔹Why researchers hired in Brazil can perform alongside people from DeepMind 🎙️ My full conversation with José: rebrand.ly/SYT297LIEZ Huge thanks to our sponsor Ashurst Perkins Coie (& Paul Navarro) for supporting this podcast!

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𝟐𝟎 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 The best seed investors often show up years before everyone knows the company’s name. That early conviction can define an entire portfolio. 1️⃣ They identify exceptional founders early The graphic connects seed investors with breakout companies including Cursor, Stripe, Figma, Ramp, Anduril, Deel, Canva, Sierra, and Lovable. 2️⃣ Pattern recognition matters at seed There is limited data at this stage. Investors are underwriting the founders, market insight, speed of execution, and what the company could become. 3️⃣ The right seed investor compounds Beyond the first check, great early investors can help with hiring, customers, positioning, and introductions to the next round. Bottom line? Seed investing is about seeing something before it becomes obvious. For founders, the goal isn’t just finding capital. It’s finding the investors who can see the future with you. 🔔 P.S. Raising capital? Find the right investors for your startup in 30 seconds. https://lnkd.in/ehddabZ5

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