Sur LATAM

You’re not a real founder because you raised $500k and bought a merch. The real startup milestones are not glamorous, not on pitch decks… but they hurt a little. Funding isn’t the milestone. The chaos is. Here's my unofficial list of startup milestones: 1) Buying the domain because that’s all you can afford. 2) Creating first@company.com like you’re suddenly a Fortune 500. 3) Switching from personal laptops with 47 tabs open to actual company issued MacBooks. (don't forget the stickers) 4) Adding your first cursed custom Slack emoji. 5) Realizing onboarding has to be more than “here’s your desk.” 6) Filling a conference room for the first time and pretending you have a plan. 7) Upgrading from bags of flossers to a real dental plan. 8) When the office humor gets… legally reviewed. 9) Getting sued. (Congrats...you’re officially legit.) 10) HR actually exists now, and so do policies. 11) Making it home for dinner once a week and feeling like a hero. 12) Closed-toed shoes. Enough said. 13) The snack stash is no longer beef jerky and a rogue K-Cup. 14) Sales stops being “me on Zoom calls” and becomes an actual team. 15) Your first mat/pat leave policy, and realizing how behind you were. 16) Not sweating payroll at 2 a.m. 17) First news hit. Your mom shares it on Facebook. 18) Making 30 under 30 and somehow not going to jail. (that last one is tough for most) These are the real inflection points. They’re unglamorous, chaotic, and slightly ridiculous, but they’re what separate a logo on a slide from a company that survives. IYKYK What’s the most unhinged “milestone” that told you your startup was growing up?

Most people quit at the base of the mountain. Not because they’re weak. But because the summit looks impossible when you’re staring straight up. Right now, it probably feels like you’re standing at the base of your Everest. Overwhelmed. Unsure where to start. Trying to figure out how to climb the entire thing in one shot. But here’s the truth: No one climbs Everest in one push. And no one climbs it alone. Every summit starts with: - Base camp. - A map. - The first step. - A Sherpa who’s been there before. The pros break it into stages: - Camp 1. - Camp 2. - Camp 3. - Summit. Each step compounds. Each leg gets you closer. I’m not worried about the mountain. I’ve climbed plenty. I know what the wind feels like up there. I know how hard it gets, and how worth it it is. So stop staring at the peak. Start setting up camp. One step. One brick. One win at a time. That’s how mountains are moved. If you’ve climbed your own Everest before, share the lesson you wish you had at base camp.

Unpopular opinion: Lazy people want everything successful people have… They just refuse to do the work. “The soul of the lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.” The lazy man desires what hard working people want: A nice house. Food on the table. Vacations. College for his kids. A comfortable retirement. But desire doesn’t build wealth. Discipline does. The world doesn’t owe you your dreams. It doesn’t reward desire. It rewards discipline. A lazy life is an empty life. Early to rise gets the job done. Dreams without work are just fantasies. Harsh? Maybe. True? Absolutely. Be honest, are you working? ...or just wishing?

The #1 motivator of every ultra successful person isn’t money. It isn’t fame. It isn’t legacy. It’s making mom proud. Yeah, I said it. All the Forbes covers. All the “I want to change the world” speeches. All the “I’m doing this for the culture” talk. Strip it all away… and at the root of almost every savage... operator, billionaire, or obsessive founder... is a kid trying to prove something to the one person who shaped their world. “Look, Mom. I made it.” That’s the real mission statement. People love to talk about ambition as if it’s some noble, enlightened thing. It’s not. It’s personal. It’s emotional. It’s messy. It’s the quiet rage of wanting to be seen. The ache of a moment where you weren’t. The chip on your shoulder that never quite goes away. Some people call that trauma. Others call it fuel. Either way... it’s what separates “motivated” from “obsessed.” Most people will never win because they’re chasing surface level rewards: 💰 Money 🌍 Status 🏝️ Comfort But the killers? They’re chasing something much harder to satisfy: 🩷 Validation. 👩 Mom’s approval. 👀 The moment someone who mattered finally says “I’m proud of you.” And here’s the uncomfortable truth: Even when they get it, they keep going. Because it stopped being about her a long time ago. It became the engine. The monster. The addiction. So the next time you look at someone who “made it,” don’t get fooled by the press releases, the polished story, the podcast clip. You’re just watching someone still trying to make their mom proud, only with 8 figures in the bank. That’s the uncomfortable truth most people won’t admit. What’s the thing you’re really trying to prove?

How long does it take to regain focus after a distraction? It's longer than you think. Research shows that it can take an average of 23 minutes. Yes. 23 minutes. That's nearly a half hour lost to distractions that could have been spent creating, learning, or problem solving. So, what truly affects our attention? Here’s a breakdown: Too many distractions lead to a heavy mind. Time spent in deep focus becomes less frequent. Time spent before the next distraction increases. Time to recognize we’ve wandered off track elongates. Intentional focus is often sacrificed for instant gratification. In a world filled with notifications, emails, and constant chatter, we need to rethink our approach to attention. Consider the cost of your distractions. Are they worth the potential loss in productivity? I challenged myself to reduce distractions this month. Results? I feel more present, more productive, and surprisingly, more creative. Focus isn't about simply managing your time; it's about valuing your mental space. How do you reclaim focus in your day?

I did the math. I work 80 hours a week. Yes, 80 …not 160. Let’s not pretend “thinking in the shower” counts as work. We have 312 full-time employees across the group. On average, they work 40 hours a week. That’s 12,480 total hours of work happening every single week. And my contribution? 80 hours. That’s 0.64% of the total. Not 50%. Not 10%. Not even 1%. Here’s the uncomfortable truth most founders don’t want to admit: You’re not that important. Your personal output doesn’t matter nearly as much as you think it does. Your impact does. My job isn’t to “outwork” 312 people. It’s to make my 0.64% of the work output multiply the other 99.36%. To remove blockers. To set direction. To make decisions that amplify every other hour being worked in the company. That’s the real shift from operator → leader. Too many founders stay stuck in the weeds because their ego tells them: “I have to be the hardest worker.” “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done.” “They need me.” No. They don’t need more of you. They need a clearer direction from you. Your team isn’t waiting for you to be a superhero. They’re waiting for you to make one bold decision that moves the whole machine forward. It’s Saturday. Most people will “catch up on emails.” I’ll be thinking about one move that makes 12,480 hours more valuable next week. That’s leadership. ❤️

It’s over for your dusty marketing playbook. Most of LinkedIn is playing checkers. Alex is playing generational chess. Alex just did what every “marketing genius” on this platform thinks they’re doing… He hit critical mass... and his audience got 2× bigger and way younger overnight. Younger. Louder. Hungrier. And you didn’t even see it coming. This wasn’t luck. This was a generational takeover. He’s not “stealing Iman’s audience.” He’s pulling a Portnoy... partnering with creators to flip the age curve and own the next decade. Meanwhile... most of LinkedIn is still busy hosting “growth summits” for the same 500 middle aged consultants who refuse to learn how the internet actually works. “But Gen Z can’t afford $5K workshops.” Cool. They’re spending billions on V-Bucks, Roblox skins, in-app garbage, and fake clout tokens. And in a few years? They’ll have credit cards, jobs, and disposable income. Alex is not playing for this quarter. He’s locking in the next 20 years of consumer mindshare. While you’re obsessing over click-through rates, he’s building a cultural monopoly. While you’re trying to convert a lead, he’s raising a generation of fans. While you’re selling a course, he’s owning the wallet. Your funnel isn’t the moat. Distribution is. If your audience is aging out… your business is already dying. Alex is just proving it faster than anyone else. So be honest... how much did your kid spend on digital crap last year? Drop the number below 👇 Let’s stop pretending who actually owns the future.

🚨 This will piss some people off 👇 Hot take: Being a CEO has nothing to do with strategy. It’s 90% navigating human emotions. Everyone fantasizes about being a “visionary founder.” They picture... boardrooms big decisions raising billions and giving TED Talks speeches. The reality? It’s being an unpaid therapist with a P&L. Your head of sales feels undervalued. Your engineer wants to quit over one Slack message. Two executives can’t stand each other. An investor freaks out over one bad week. A customer sends a meltdown email at 2 a.m. And guess who everyone expects to absorb that chaos? 👉 You. Nobody warns you that the real job is: Talking someone off an emotional cliff while on 4 hours of sleep. Mediating egos that would rather burn the company down than compromise. Making the “right” decision when either path pisses someone off. Keeping a calm face while everything catches fire behind the scenes. Strategy? Easy. Execution? Teachable. Emotional chaos? That’s what actually kills companies. Most founders don’t fail because their product sucks. They fail because they can’t handle the human storm that comes with leadership. You don’t need another framework. You need thicker skin sharper EQ and the ability to stay calm when the room is on fire. Being a CEO isn’t glamorous. It’s emotional warfare. And most people aren’t built for it. EQ > IQ. If this offends you… it probably hit too close to home.

Hot take: San Francisco is not the promised land. Every time I see another “we’re moving to SF to be at the center of innovation” post from a random GTM AI startup... I cringe. No disrespect. (ok, a little disrespect)… but you don’t need to move to SF to build another outbound sequencing tool wrapped in ChatGPT with a $9/month subscription model and a mid-market SaaS logo wall. Let’s call it what it is: It’s not “strategic.” It’s not “visionary.” It’s herd behavior. A bunch of founders convincing themselves proximity equals greatness. SF used to be special because it concentrated capital, talent, and infrastructure. But the world evolved. Talent is global. Capital is global. Innovation happens anywhere. The sad part? Most of these companies moving there won’t “unlock” anything magical. They’ll just pay $8,000/month for a closet apartment... brag about how many AI meetups they went to... and still get outcompeted by a team of absolute killers building from Medellín Lisbon Sioux Falls or god forbid... New Jersey. If your product doesn’t need to be in SF… why are you there? Stop pretending your GTM tool requires “seminal access to the AI ecosystem.” It doesn’t. You just think it makes you more fundable. On the other hand… If you’re building frontier tech. If your work truly depends on semantic breakthroughs... cutting edge research... or being at the bleeding edge of hardware or AI model development. If proximity to other world-class technical minds creates actual competitive advantage… Sure. SF makes sense. That’s called strategy. But for most? It’s cosplay. Startup theater. It’s “let’s burn money in the zip code that makes me feel like a founder.” The truth is: Innovation is no longer geographically locked. There are thriving tech ecosystems everywhere: Austin is booming. Miami is scrappy and fast. NYC is a monster. London is surging. Berlin, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Medellín, Buenos Aires, Singapore… absolute killer talent hubs. Some of the most innovative companies of the next decade won’t be built in SF. They’ll be built in random corners of the world... by founders who actually execute, not congregate. Stop buying the hype. Stop pretending to be a Silicon Valley founder... because it looks good on your pitch deck. Build where you want to live. Hire globally. Win globally. The game changed. SF didn’t get the memo.

Most founders approach GTM strategies all wrong. They create their product first. Then they panic when it’s time to launch. They slap together a marketing campaign. When results fall flat, guess what? They blame the channel, not the strategy. They blame the offer, not their execution. This needs to change. Here’s the truth: GTM isn’t an afterthought. It’s the engine that drives your business forward. If you’re not considering distribution while building, you’re already falling behind. A successful product doesn’t guarantee success alone. You need to think ahead. You need to integrate your marketing seamlessly from the get-go. Here’s how to do it: 1. Identify your target audience early. 2. Craft a value proposition that resonates. 3. Plan your distribution channels as you build. 4. Test your messaging with your audience continuously. 5. Iterate your product based on feedback. Building for GTM means building for success. It’s not about bolting on marketing later. It’s about creating a cohesive strategy from the start. Ask yourself: Are you ready to make GTM your priority?