La Frontera 🌵 IRL: A Thank You & A Welcome to Our New Community Members

Thank You 🙏 

We want to kick things off with a sincere thank you to every single one of you who came out to our very first La Frontera 🌵 event during NY Tech Week. Folks came from all over NYC and the world and your presence made all the difference.

A special shoutout to our co-hosts at Pygma, our coffee sponsor Bright Cup Coffee, and our location, La Rubia, for making this event not only possible but genuinely a lovely time with folks. This community is what made it feel special and it’s what powers everything we build (with more exciting things coming in the future).

☕ Series B(ean): Our First IRL Coffee Chat

We hosted our very first in-person event, Series B(ean), at La Rubia in New York City, and it was a hit. We had over 100 people signed up with folks stopping by throughout the morning to share tasty coffee, delicious bites, and good music (check out our curated playlist) with other amazing founders, operators, and investors.

For many, it was the first time we met in person after LinkedIn DMs, email threads, and Google Meets. There was even a popular IG Reel made at the event — proof that there’s something special in bringing great folks together.

We learned a lot, laughed even more, and left inspired to do this again. And we will. If you’re interested in co-hosting a La Frontera 🌵 event in your city (👀 Miami, SF, Bogotá, CDMX), let us know.

In the meantime, you can connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, or through subscribing to our newsletter.

🌵What is La Frontera, Anyways?

If you’re new here (bienvenido!), here’s the quick version:

But why the name?

For our non-Spanish speakers, La Frontera translates to “the border” or “the frontier”.

To many outside the region, Latin America still feels like it’s “across the border”: unfamiliar, distant, and misunderstood. But we see it differently.

To us, it represents a frontier — one of innovation, global significance, and untapped potential. Our goal is to make that frontier more familiar, more accessible, and more connected to investors in the United States and beyond.

Our mission is to:

• Elevate Latin American founders and investors through storytelling and context.

• Connect them with international capital in a smart and sustainable way.

• Build a supportive community around the fact that LatAm is worth betting on.

🎙️If You’re Just Joining Us, Start Here

In our first three months we’ve published nine (9!) conversations with some of the most interesting minds in LatAm tech. These are a few we recommend starting with:

• Andrés Botero (Monet) — On co-founding a leading pay-advance fintech and navigating regulatory complexity in Colombia. 🎧 Listen here

• Nico Yepes (Moffin) — On modernizing the way companies receive and process credit scoring data in LatAm. 🎧 Listen here

• Cristobal Perdomo (Wollef VC) — On building a VC fund and understanding the lack of exits in LatAm. 🎧 Listen here

• Courtney McColgan (Runa) — On raising money and scaling as a foreign founder in Mexico. 🎧 Listen here

• René Lomelí (500 Global) — On angel investing, ecosystem design, and lessons from 500 Global. 🎧 Listen here

• Valentina Valencia (Vaas) — On raising from a16z and modernizing private debt in LatAm. 🎧 Listen here

You can listen to all of these episodes, and future ones, on your favorite streaming service.

👋 Who’s Behind La Frontera 🌵?

Cyrus Bakhshi

Investor and former FinTech operator with experience across VC, product, and operations in both the US and Mexico City. He speaks a bit of Spanish and enjoys acquiring small businesses (ask him about his equestrian facility).

🔗 Connect with Cyrus

Thomas Barrett

MBA candidate at Kellogg with a background in capital markets and experience in VC. He now operates LatAm-based FinTech startups. He has spent time working or studying in Mexico City and Buenos Aires, and speaks fluent Spanish and intermediate Portuguese.

🔗 Connect with Tom

📣 We’d Love to Hear From You

We’re building La Frontera 🌵 with our community in mind. If you have feedback, guest recommendations, or topics you’d like us to cover, please let us know.

📬 Shoot Cyrus an email with your thoughts.

Thanks for being part of this journey. We’re excited for what’s ahead, and grateful to have you with us.

Vamos!

— Cyrus & Tom

Thanks for reading!

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