BRAVO Symposium: Marcelo Claure of Claure Group and Bicycle Capital

please welcome to the stage Marcelo CLA founder and CEO of CLA group and executive chairman and managing partner of bicycle Capital along with our moderator Patricia Menendez gambo director of PMC Capital Partners who will engage in a Bravo leadership conversation to discuss how bicycle Capital seeks to empower exceptional Founders and boost Latin America's entrepreneur potential hi so it's really my pleasure to be here with my friend my former boss and um who needs very little introduction Marcelo CLA one of the most preeminent investors in the re in the region Marcelo recently you have been very

active in Latin America you had um you've started a fund bicycle to invest in growth entrepreneurs you've taken a GP position at EB capital and you have become a global key person for shine so you've kind of sheen sheen you've gone back to your roots of being a global and multi-industry actor why do you continue being so bullish on latam and why do you think investing in latam is a great opportunity right now great so it's it's good to be here it's good to see so many old friends that we've had a chance to work

together ER and you know Latin America dream began a few years back because I do believe that us as Latin Americans if we don't promote Latin America nobody else will and I a strong believer that Latin America is one of those few regions where the opportunities in many cases are greater than capital and we we are I would say we are going to have a few good years ahead due to the macro trends that are happening today's in today's Global macroeconomy when I look at Latin America I see that the current geopolitical situation between China

and the US has forced a lot of companies to rethink their supply chain and today Mexico is a prime example of that out of which you cannot find a single Distribution Center or a warehouse or a truck due to the fact that you've had so many different companies is relocate to Latin America in order to bring their supply chain that's closer to its customers and if if you follow data last month it was announced that now Mexico is the US largest trading partner basically surpassing China and that hasn't happened in many years so I like

that micro Trend secondly we're going to go there's so many bold statements have been made as it relates to energy transition or the ecological transition as some call it but we expected to happen is that the world will get electrified in the next 10 20 30 years and we're looky at Latin America to have most of the critical resources most of the critical minerals that would power that energy transition C lithium copper nickel and so on and Latin America today holds in many cases 40 50 60% of those essential minerals and then thirdly as population

has gotten bigger there's going to there's a food scarcity issue and today Latin America is one of the largest producers of food soy beans corn beef and so on so when you look at this macro trend is something that we've never had before so I think that's going to be incredibly helpful and from a technology perspective and and I live this every day with what I do as Shen we we live we have an incredible population who's always willing to adopt technology so we're young and it's a it's a population that's willing to adapt technology

if technology going to make their life better so when I look at all these Trends it's definitely something that I want to be part of I want to not only invest but be able to help entrepreneurs be able to develop business in Latin America a region that I'm completely bullish on and one that I want to make sure I played a key role going forward so that that brings a good you know I think a good perspective as a you know an entrepreneur and a seasoned operator you know looking at it from the outside you

have you know made shine a Latin American company in their operations as opposed to a foreign company doing business in Latin America and you've taken a different approach um with respect to that why is you know and it's been very successful what are the benefits for the stockhold you know for the stakeholders in that and really becoming Latin American as opposed to being a foreign company operating in the region yeah so Sheen to me thought call a shine a lot of people call It Shine to me is Shen and to me Shen is probably one

of the most fascinating companies in the world that exist today and this was a good example of a company that wanted to have a good business in Latin America but didn't fully understand how to do business in Latin America especially in a complicated country like Brazil where there's always taxation issues and and other issues and for those who don't know Shen you know I think the easiest way for me to describe it there's old fashion which is a traditional fashion that you find when you go to a mall and and you go buy your stuff

there's fast fashion which is companies like Uno or Sara or H&M who took old fashion and just became faster and I like to call Sheen as new fashion and it's a company that designs product manufactures and ships product within a 7-Day time frame which makes the ability also to make about three to 5,000 new products a day and we're able to just pretty much bepoke and design product based on what customer needs are H when you translate that to a market like Brazil Who traditionally had been a a difficult economy in terms of importing products

and all that and when you take the macr trends of near Shing we figured out that we were going to test a model in Brazil that had never been tested outside you know Shen even though we have thousands of designers all over the world we do we used to do most of our Manufacturing in China if not all and we decided why not test the model by bringing local manufacturing into a place like Brazil so Brazil became the second country in the world for a company like Sheen to start doing local manufacturing and we made

a commitment and what I call that those are the new companies agile companies and we made a commitment to open 2,000 factories in Brazil and do it in two years and four months later yesterday we reported that we already have over 330 factories in only four months and and that's also another prime example of a market like Brazil Who completely digital today you know we have over 45 million customers in Brazil Who downloaded our app who basically their entire fashion needs are are sourced by us and that's just a perfect example of a global company

who's you know who sells in 150 different countries who had to take a different approach if they wanted to be the key player in Brazil and that is to bring local manufacturing to Brazil and that's you know another great example of you know how Global comp companies have to adapt in many cases their supply chain the way they do business when they move to countries like Latin America and why it's important to be that bridge or the corridor between China in this case China and Latin America or I mean there are great companies flourishing all

over the world that when they go to Latin America they need to either partner or have local partners that will help them in many cases replicate what they've been successful in other parts of the world well and it's that ecosystem that you helped create four and a half years ago that invested in all the technology in Brazil so it's interesting to see how you're taking advantage of the ecosystem and the operations so in on your other roles that you have is investing in entrepreneurs um how do you envision the next generation of entrepreneurs emerging from

Latin America I think Latin America needed and I I take a lot of Pride what we did at SoftBank SoftBank from day one we set up the we set up a strategy that was say let's equalize Latin America let's make sure that the Latin American entrepreneurs have the same opportunities that entrepreneurs all over the pl all over the world have had and that was mainly around Capital but once you have the right amount of capital in Latin America that is powering you know I called entrepreneurs who have shown that it's all possible that Latin America

can create the same type of entrepreneurs at all parts in the world and then when you start looking at what has happening in Latin America is so it's fascinating you look at the amount of exits that have happened in Latin America as a percentage of total Capital deployed we have one of the highest in the world if not the highest in the world which means this has been a market that has been traditionally underinvested within Venture growth Equity but we've had some great exits and I probably the one that everybody knows and everybody talks about

which is one of many is newbank right newbank is today the world's most valuable digital bank is the one with the highest penetration and that's one that's been proven that whenever you bring the right product to a population in Brazil or in Latin America you can build a long-term sustainable business that is similar I would like to give the example you know newbank is to banking what she needs to fashion right you're bringing a different set of entrepreneurs with a different set of Ambitions that are customer-driven companies that are not solving on what is important

for the company but in this case you know what newbank does is they build a product that was solving you know what their customers needed and I always say you know Shen is solving a problem of either a CO those are customer-driven organizations who are designing product in both cases for what are the customer needs and you know what once that happens once you have that big exit when you see Mercato Li thriving and being one of the best e-commerce companies in the world once you go to Brazil and you see a company like iFood

who is you know the preminent winner within the food delivery that creates a culture of other entrepreneurs who want to follow their tracks and that creates you know you need dreamers like those that were able to build businesses and that creates what I call a thriving community that starts in early stage you know Latin America today has one of the best early stage ecosystems where you have some incredible funds who do a great job of putting that first check that city capital that series a and what we're trying to position ourself with s with a

bicycle is what we like to call growth Equity those are companies that have already been funded that have a proven business model but need that extra check that $50 to100 million check that traditional what lacking in Latin America and once you do that then you have pre you know pre-ipo funds and others that will allow those companies to potentially exit but to me is you needed those winners you needed those new Banks or Mercato Libra those globant ER kabak and others in order to rapy that in order to create that dream for people to want

to decide to become entrepreneurs in Latin America um I couldn't agree with you more what you know when when looking and you're looking at ideas there's so many things to be disruptive in the region what are the key qualities that you look for in an entrepreneur so it's the same always right you want that you know those people that have the ability to dream big who are going to play in an industry that is particularly broken that needs that level of innovation and disruption and more importantly entrepreneurs that can build great teams because when you're

investing in entrepreneurs at one point in time anything that they show you you know it's going to be different you know that they're going to have to overcome a substantial amount of obstacles and there are those special entrepreneurs Who Won't Give Up who will persevere and who will adapt to the change in needs in order for them to thrive and you know I've been very lucky my entire life to have been surrounded by incredible entrepreneurs and you always find that common threat and that is dreamers who are Relentless who don't give up who are playing

in markets that that urg the need of doing you know of bringing new different bus models and with the Advent of technology and artificial intelligence and so many different things happening you know today you know I think the cost of disruption is lower than ever right when you when you see what gen is doing to the world in terms of bringing the ability to problem solve that before it was just left to just us to humans to do it you know I think there's going to be a lot of disruption coming in the next few

years in pretty much in everything that we do so in today's world of new entrepreneurs and and growth companies they're facing different macroeconomic conditions that were the last five years in the region and you have been an experienced operator in the region for many years what advice do you have for them you know in operating in these times as opposed to you know the last cycle I think when you're building businesses yes you do want to have a general view of macropolitical issues and microeconomic issues you're going to have but you're solving a bigger issue

you're you know you're solving to make a customer life's better and whatever you're going to do and whatever you're solving needs to be bigger than any political issue any any currency issue that we're always going to have that those are quite common of Latin America and when you're building a product that is going to solve you know you know a big a big issue in somebody's life that is always going to be bigger than any political issue or any currency issue or inflation and so on and when you see all these great businesses that have

been born in the last few years the winners those have always been bigger than any issue any any political issue and as an entrepreneur you always got to put your focus on areas that you can solve right when you're building a company you cannot solve political issues you cannot solve currency issues you cannot solve micro issues you're incredibly focused on solving a specific issue that in many cases is going to be way bigger than any of the crisis that were so issue to that we're so used to living especially within Latin America now what I

find fascinating is I I always tell this to the Latin American entrepreneurs you know if you can be successful in Brazil which is a complicated country from a tax perspective from a logistical perspective regulat regulatory perspective you know you're going to be successful in any other Market that you go to and I think that is a perfect example of newbank who were able to solve issues in Brazil and today as they start expanding to other parts they found it incredibly easier I always cite you know my own personal example when I when I was an

entrepreneur still an entrepreneur but when I did my first company we had to solve logistical issues in Brazil which are quite quite complex and as we move down to other parts of the world where things were done a lot easier it was a lot easier to grow the company because in Brazil you were solving to the most difficult circumstances and we're going to find hopefully other entrepreneurs that have the ability to grab business models that were created in Latin America and then be able to export it to other parts of the world I think a

perfect example in the tech world you know is a company called gy pass who's been able to develop a a pretty creative business model within Brazil within the health and wealthness sector and today as they expand to the United States to Europe to other parts of Latin America it's easy to replicate a business model that was born in Brazil and be able to take it to other parts of the world so you have been a mentor to so many in the region you know the CEO of Jim pass and many you know of the new

unicorns today are there because you believed in them and invested in them you know in the last um you know in your last fund who was your Mentor who was your inspiration because when you did this I've been lucky to be surrounded by by a lot of people that that I've learned right I always site the example of in my previous company we invented something that all to all of you seems so logical and that is I always say the buyback and trading phones the fact that you can sell your used iPhone and then be

able to get money and buy a new one and that whole story began with a conversation with Steve Jobs who was totally against Apple buying a buying a used iPhone and allow us to resell it and the the sessions I had with him was fascinating of how do you actually perfect the product so I was incredible I was blessed to do that you know I've been blessed to be given the opportunity by Massa SoftBank to believe in me buy my company and make me the Sea of Sprint right and and those were incred opportunities that

were given to me that allowed me to to uh you know allow me to do what I did when I was at a spring and then we did the T-Mobile merger who now is the world's most valuable telecomunications company you know I was given the chance to say hey Latin America is 8% of the world's GDP you know why don't we launch an8 billion fund so I've been lucky to be surrounded by people who have given me trust you know when when they believe in a vision that I set forward and I would say those

were always my mentors you know people who and I've had so many stories of of people like that and I think there's there's a there's so many learnings from people who you interact and who uh you know later give trust in you that allows you to test new funds new models new things that that today some of them have actually changed the way we live so blessed by the many opportunities have been given to me well but you've always been a big proponent of Pay It Forward I mean going back to 15 years ago with

one lap per child I mean no matter how hard you work and how many Endeavors you take you have always managed to focus on assisting other people um how can that how is that um that role modeling thing everybody's looking at you from an entrepreneur but people don't realize all the incredibly um charitable and philanthropic things that you have done over the years and you're a role model to so many entrepreneurs what do you think the future entrepreneurs can learn from that I think that I always tell people you know give without asking and the

world is a I think the world is a fair place you know the more you give without expectations of receiving you know life has a way of giving it all back to you and if you consider you know I I'm not supposed to be here right I came from Bolivia with very little money and I was very lucky to have been part of building you know two world's number one companies and it's always nice to say hey you can go home and tell your grandkids you know hey I was a global champion in my own

sports right so that that's that's always been an important part to just get back as much as you can you know we invented something many years back that was called the one laptop per child and all it took was you know a scientist called Nicolas negroponte who run the MIT media lab and he showed me how how was the profitability of a laptop and I remember that that the profitability was very high so we figured what if we could make a laptop for $100 from scratch and we designed and we got some of the world's

best scientist and with the only goal of giving those laptops to kids who didn't have access to the internet I'm a huge proponent that we should all have the same connectivity Because the Internet is basically you're democratizing information and that was a dream and you know a few years later 3 million kids all over the world had access to to we call it one laptop per child and our goal was to give kids who couldn't afford a laptop then when I went to Sprint it drove me nuts that there were 5 million kids in the

United States you know was supposed to be a pretty Advanced country that didn't have access to the internet but they were but their homework was given to them and they needed access to the internet they went home and they didn't have access to the internet and what bothered me most is that most of these kids were Black Or Hispanic so so I figured at a Sprint that had a network I convinced my the guys who used to sell me phones and computers to give me back their used phones and we launch what was called the

1 million project which we give away 1 million free laptops and cell phones mainly Hispanic kids all over United States and we gave him free connectivity and then we follow the career of some of those and and I it fills me with so much pride that those kids woman they were they were going to outside of McDonald's they were getting in the wrong business they were turning to prostitutes guys were turning to drug dealers because they didn't have something as basic as something that we take for granted that was having internet access at home and

we fixed that and when I did the Sprint an T-Mobile merger I made a condition that T-Mobile will continue that and we made that instead of being 1 million we made it 10 million and today due to T-Mobile we have eradicated what I call a disease a problem that every kid that needs access to the internet today we will give him free access to the internet which is something that I take a lot of Pride to have helped so many people and life is good you know I'm in a great position because I've been able

to give to others and life just balances it out it's a it's a good thing of life no that's that's great but that's very much of your core because that's something that you did at the very beginning when you were starting your own company others would have just focused on the for-profit side you managed to balance both so with all the demands that you have on a global basis for Sheen and all of the demands that you have that you've put on yourself to help the next level of entrepreneurs in Latin America I know personally

that you're very involved with your family so I think you know how do you balance that for people because Mo people don't realize how committed you are to your family so I think there's three things that matter right one is family first and H and I've changed my mind right I'm lucky I have six kids and at the beginning like every father I have one boy and five girls and like every father we all want to send him to the best universities and we all want to make him better than what we are and I've

changed my mind you know my only goal now is to raise good human beings and if it happens to be that they end up being great entrepreneurs or great leaders or they go to Great institutions two of my kids actually went to um you know my new goal in in in in kids in fam to just raise good human beings and if they happen to be great leaders so be it but I think it's important today to recognize how important is to just bring good human beings so that's one priority my second priority is my

football teams you know I I I love I I was going to ask I love football or as we know as we call in this country soccer I love to see what's happening with inter Miami which was my team I I I I take a lot of pride in bringing football to Miami then I sold that team but I'm incredibly proud to see that Miami finally has a competitive football team and people are paying attention to it I own a team in in Spain called Jona which for those of you who don't follow La Liga

we're number two now ahead of Barcelona head of Atletico Madrid and it shows is ex exact same thing in business if you actually have a big dreams you put a good plan you know you can accomplish I always tell people our payroll is $45 million real mad is 500 million and we are one point away from them and we were leaders last week now they're leaders this week and then my third area which today is the most I would say and also very important part is you know I don't want to be a CEO of

another big company I've had a chance to do that I'm dedicated the next few years to basically grab the capital that I've luckily earned combined with the experience that I've accumulated in my 32 years of working and building great companies and be able to pass that on to in entrepreneurs and to fund managers in different companies that I invest but my goal now is how can you create an exponential effect you know how can I grab everything that I've learn and be able to pass it to others so they can do what I've done in

a much bigger in a much bigger Arena and be able to do it much better than I've done in the past so family football and my work those are my three priorities well thank I think we're out of time Marcel but thank you very much you're an inspiration to many here and you know uh I'll be looking forward to see how you take Sheen from this level which is already successful to the next one and the next wave of entrepreneurs that you identify in the region and see their success thank you very much thanks everybody

for your [Applause] attention