20VC: Marcelo Claure & Shu Nyatta on Lessons from Investing $7.5BN at Softbank & Why Dumb Money has Gone, Why "LATAM is Under Construction" and the Next 10 Years Will Be the Best & Investing Lessons from Missing Nubank & OpenAI & Investing in FTX

**Marcelo Claure** (0:00)
We don't want to be the biggest. The biggest doesn't necessarily mean you're the best. We're bringing more than $200 million of our own money. The days of just dumb capital with access are long gone. Tourist capital is gone. Latin America is under construction, and we're builders.

**Harry Stebbings** (0:15)
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, last month, Marcelo Claure and Shu Nyatta announced Bicycle Capital, Latham's newest growth equity firm with $500 million in fresh capital. Today, I'm so excited to welcome back to the hot seat, Marcelo and Shu to the show for the first time. Keeping the intro short, Marcelo was the CEO of SoftBank Group International, where he launched SoftBank's $8 billion Latin America funds and had direct oversight for SoftBank's operating companies. Now, as an entrepreneur, Marcelo built Brightstar from a small local distributor to the world's largest global wireless distribution and services company. As for Shu, Shu was most recently a managing partner at SoftBank Group International, where he launched and managed two separate funds, the SoftBank Latin America Fund and the Opportunity Fund. And I want to say a huge thank you to Neil Mater, Mickey Malka and TJ at Base 10 for some amazing question suggestions today. I really did so appreciate that. But before we dive into the show's date, this episode is brought to you by Tegas, the go-to research destination for bold investing. Tegas curates expert insights, analysis and financial data to give you powerful perspective for your investment decisions with lightning fast access to over 60,000 transcripts across 20,000 companies. You'll discover a wealth of unique insights to fuel your fundamental research, gain perspectives, synthesize information and even model outcomes all on Tegas. As a 20 Minute VC listener, try it for free at tegas.com forward slash growth. And speaking of tools we can't live without like Tegas there, Mayfair helps companies protect and grow their cash automatically. Access up to $50 million of FDIC insurance and earn up to 4.72% interest rate on your deposits.
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**Shu Nyatta** (3:32)
You have now arrived at your destination.

**Harry Stebbings** (3:35)
Chaps, I am so excited to make this happen. First, thank you so much for joining me in person.

**Shu Nyatta** (3:40)
It's a pleasure. Like I said on Twitter, this is the Abbey Road adventure.

**Marcelo Claure** (3:45)
You're a lot bigger than in Zoom.

**Harry Stebbings** (3:46)
Do you know what? So are you, Marcelo. So we have that in common.
I love a good romance and love story. And so we go back to the beginning of Bicycle and the first conversations.
Can you take me to those discussions and how that formation talk really came to be?

**Marcelo Claure** (4:02)
I met Shu a few years back, who was referred to me as I was dividing SoftBank into two.
And a lot of people told me that I should have somebody called Shu join my team. So I called him one day and your kid was giving birth. My wife was giving birth to a new kid. And it was my kid's birthday. So we immediately bonded because that was special.

**Shu Nyatta** (4:23)
Our two daughters were born on the exact same day. And that's when we met.