A strange thing happens in startups: the earlier the stage, the less the numbers matter—and the more everything depends on human behavior. That’s where most people get it wrong.
They think early-stage investing is about spreadsheets, TAM slides, and clever decks. But as Cintia Mano’s journey reveals, the real game is far messier—and far more human.
The Day the “Safe Path” Stopped Making Sense
Cintia didn’t grow up dreaming of startups.
She followed the classic high-achiever arc: computer science, MBA, consulting, corporate roles—the kind of trajectory where each step is mapped out in advance. Promotions are predictable. Risk is managed. The future feels… linear.
Until it doesn’t.
At some point, she realized she was optimizing inside systems that moved too slowly. So she did something most people delay for years:
She left.
Not for a unicorn. Not for a sure thing. Just for a startup in the energy sector—and a completely different way of building.
That jump changed everything.
She fell into the startup ecosystem, started mentoring founders, and noticed a pattern that would define her career:
Brilliant people were building interesting things—but dying before they had time to prove they worked.
Not because the ideas were bad.
Because they ran out of time.
The Invisible Problem: Early-Stage Capital Isn’t Just Money
Here’s the paradox: early-stage startups don’t just lack capital—they lack breathing room.
Founders are trying to:
Validate a market
Build a product
Find customers
Pay rent
…all at once.
And without early capital, they’re forced to make short-term decisions that kill long-term potential.
That insight pulled Cintia into angel investing.
But even then, she hesitated.
Because the industry sends a subtle (and misleading) signal:
Angel investors are wealthy insiders with millions to deploy.
That wasn’t her reality.
So she did what great operators do when the system doesn’t fit: she redesigned it.
Why Angel Investing Works Better as a Team Sport
Instead of investing alone, Cintia joined a group.
And something interesting happened.
The quality of decisions improved—not because individuals got smarter, but because the system did.
People asked different questions. Spotted different risks. Brought different experiences.
It’s the startup version of a simple idea:
One brain guesses. Many brains triangulate.
That insight eventually scaled into Core Angels—a global network of angel funds now spanning:
350+ angels
120+ startups
Multiple geographies across Europe, LATAM, the US, and beyond
But the real innovation wasn’t scale.
It was structure.
Each fund operates with:
Shared decision-making (supermajority voting)
Distributed expertise across angels
Built-in support networks for founders
In other words: capital + collective intelligence.
What Investors Actually Look For (Hint: It’s Not Your Pitch Deck)
At the pre-seed stage, metrics are… flimsy.
Revenue? Maybe.
Traction? Often early.
Forecasts? Optimistic fiction.
So what do great investors look for instead?
Cintia points to something surprisingly simple:
Speed of learning.
Not how fast you build—but how fast you adapt.
The best founders:
Talk to customers early (not after the product is “perfect”)
Iterate constantly
Detach from their original idea
Chase the problem, not their ego
Because at this stage, the goal isn’t to be right.
It’s to become less wrong quickly.
The Most Underrated Skill in Startups
If there’s one skill founders consistently underestimate, it’s not product, engineering, or even fundraising.
It’s sales.
Selling innovation is brutally hard.
You’re asking someone to:
Trust something new
Change behavior
Take a risk
And most founders treat it like a secondary function.
But in reality, sales is the engine that validates everything else.
No sales → no feedback
No feedback → no iteration
No iteration → no product-market fit
It’s not glamorous. But it’s decisive.
Global Investing Is Changing the Rules
One of the most fascinating shifts Cintia highlights is how geography is becoming less of a constraint.
A decade ago, angels invested close to home.
Now?
Startups in Chile expand to Spain.
European founders build for global markets from day one.
Investors collaborate across continents.
Partly because of technology.
Partly because of COVID.
But mostly because:
Great ideas don’t respect borders anymore.
That said, geography still matters in subtle ways.
US founders tend to be more capital-aware
European ecosystems struggle with regulation
Emerging markets offer lower valuations—but higher friction
The opportunity isn’t just global access.
It’s global context.
The Quiet Shift: From Solo Angels to Networks
Another trend flying under the radar:
Angel investing is becoming collaborative.
Instead of lone individuals writing checks, more investors are:
Joining syndicates
Forming micro-funds
Pooling knowledge and capital
Why?
Because early-stage investing is too complex—and too risky—to do well alone.
The winners aren’t just those with capital.
They’re those with:
Pattern recognition
Shared learning loops
Access to better deals
In short: networks beat individuals.
A Contrarian Take on “Invest in What You Know”
There’s a popular piece of advice in investing:
“Invest in what you know.”
Cintia isn’t fully convinced.
Because sometimes, knowing too much becomes a liability.
Experts often:
Overfit to past patterns
Try to control founders
Miss unconventional opportunities
Meanwhile, a bit of informed curiosity can go further.
Enough knowledge to understand the space.
Enough humility to let founders lead.
The Real Filter: Grit
If you zoom out, one trait keeps showing up again and again:
Grit.
Not in a motivational-poster way.
But in a practical sense:
Can this person handle repeated rejection?
Can they keep going when things break?
Can they operate under uncertainty for years?
Interestingly, many strong founders share similar patterns:
Immigrant backgrounds
Non-linear careers
Hard-earned experience
Not because struggle is required—but because it builds resilience.
And in startups, resilience compounds.
So… What Actually Matters?
After all the frameworks, strategies, and trends, the core insight is surprisingly simple:
Early-stage investing is a bet on people under uncertainty.
Not perfect ideas.
Not perfect markets.
Not perfect timing.
Just people who:
Learn fast
Adapt constantly
Keep going
And investors who:
Support them early
Give them room to experiment
Stay patient
Or as Cintia puts it:
“Let’s fund the world that we want to live in.”
Because the future isn’t built by those who wait for certainty.
It’s built by those willing to move before it exists.
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Chapters:
00:01 – Intro: From Corporate to Angel Investing
00:43 – Leaving the Safe Path for Startups
02:58 – The Missing Piece: Early-Stage Capital
04:14 – First Angel Checks & Learning Curve
06:38 – Why Investing in Groups Works Better
07:19 – The Origin of Core Angels
09:47 – How Core Angels Operates
12:24 – Fund Sizes, Check Sizes & Strategy
15:08 – Capital vs Value-Add
16:45 – Investing Across Global Markets
18:32 – Teaching the Investor Mindset
20:23 – Cross-Border Founder Challenges
23:33 – AI, Climate & Emerging Investment Trends
26:24 – Evaluating Pre-Seed Without Metrics
29:16 – Founder Traits That Matter
31:38 – Bootstrapping vs Raising Capital
33:32 – Global vs Local Strategy
36:47 – Navigating Market Downturns
40:48 – What’s Next for Core Angels
42:54 – What’s Next for Cintia Mano
43:44 – The Future of Angel Investing
47:09 – Advice for New Angel Investors
49:30 – Common Founder Mistakes
52:07 – Angels vs VCs Collaboration
53:48 – Rapid Fire Insights
57:57 – The Importance of Grit
Transcript:
Brian Bell (00:01.998)
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Ignite podcast. Today we’re thrilled to have Cynthia Amano on the mic. She is the former CEO and co-founder of Core Angels, an international network of angel investment funds that supports early stage startups around the world. Before leading Core Angels, Cynthia spent more than a decade in corporate and venture roles, including management consulting, entrepreneurship, and investing. And now she helps build and scale global angel ecosystems. We’re excited to dig into her origin story, her journey into angel investing. and how she sees the future of early stage investing across geos and sectors. Welcome, Cynthia.
Cintia Mano (00:34.705)
Thank you. Thank you so much, Brian, for having me here. It’s a real pleasure.
Brian Bell (00:39.018)
Yeah, so I’d love to get your origin story. What’s your back story?
Cintia Mano (00:43.621)
Okay, so my career started very traditionally, let’s say. I studied computer science and I did my MBA. And I’ve been to consulting firm, Big Corps, so climbing the corporate ladder, learning how to navigate. And I like it very much. I had a very good time in this environment. But there was a time I had never thought about becoming an entrepreneur in my career when I was studying. My goal was to work for a big company and I did this for a while. But then came a time that I was a little bit tired of the old fashioned way of building stuff in corporate. So I was looking at what was going on with startups, with technology development. and I had an opportunity of joining a startup. So I left the corporate world, which was a decision that took me a while to take. I was not prepared to take this decision very quickly. So I took some time to think about it. And I had this opportunity and I decided to jump and take this opportunity. And I joined a startup in the energy sector. This was a complete change in my career. I fell in love with the startup ecosystem. Of course, there are many struggles when you are living in a corporate position with the title benefits and the status and everything and all the future ahead that you can see well if I stay here for more five years or more 10 years, where can I go? What can I reach? But I decided to take this opportunity and I I didn’t regret any time. So I really fell in love with innovation, entrepreneurship. I started mentoring some of the early stages startups that I met and the incubators, accelerators and events that I met. Because with my corporate background, I could help them, especially the ones that were serving the B2B, were designing B2B solutions and serving the corps. They didn’t know exactly how to approach this type of clients, how to serve them.
Cintia Mano (02:58.129)
So I started mentoring them. And then I realized that, well, there is missing capital in the very early stage because I saw many talented people developing amazing stuff, but they didn’t have the peace of mind to test and validate what they were designing. So what happens was that they were trying to figure out how to build stuff, what markets they would be serving. validating solutions, market pricing, etc. But they didn’t have time to do that. They were very rich or they needed to pay their bills and therefore they wouldn’t afford having like one year or one year and a half not making any money and trying to validate that. By that time, it was like 10 years ago, there was very few capital to early stage. And this is something that made me think, well, have some money that I invest in other stuff, why shouldn’t I get some part of my money and invest in talented people that I know and make a difference in their stories, in their journeys? So this is how I started thinking of angel investing. But this is not how I started, know, between thinking about it and really starting to invest, it took me a while.
Brian Bell (04:14.518)
Yeah, that’s interesting. I had a similar story. know, it from when I started thinking about it, I was actually doing it took years, I think, you know, I probably started thinking about it. Yeah, a couple of probably a couple of years before I wrote my first check. And then I was probably writing angel checks into syndicates and direct for a couple of years before I actually started my own syndicate. What did that process look like for you kind of that escalate escalation of commitment?
Cintia Mano (04:38.501)
Yeah, know, yeah, yeah, you know, it took me a while because when I started thinking of investing, first, I thought, well, is this really for me? Because we tended to see investors at multimillionaires there, you know, they have just five million in their pockets to throw away. It was not my reality. In the other hand, also, I wanted to invest, but I’m not a crazy person. I’m not responsible with my finance. So I wanted to invest. in more than one startup because I knew that the risk is really high. So I wanted to invest and diversify my risk. So this is something that made me think for a while. And also, I think I saw that there was a learning curve that it would took me some time to understand precisely what would be the commitments that I have to make. So the legal stuff, what are the... conditions, the terms, the clauses and trying to understand everything, figure out everything. So it took me some time because I didn’t have access to knowledge on this stuff all in one place, you know. And later on it motivated me to write a book on angel investing with a friend, precisely because I felt this, I missed this a lot when I started and I think that this could be helpful to aspiring angels and people who are studying right now. So it took me a lot of time. Then I found a group of people that were doing this together. So I took, I started investing with a group of angels. And this made a difference for me because I started, well, first you feel like you are with a team, with a group, you were learning together. People can give you some hints on things that you don’t know. You feel, I think it’s easier for you to ask them questions or to make wrong decisions or to discuss decisions. a lot before taking them. So starting with the group, I think it was the best way for me.
Brian Bell (06:38.741)
Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of like the wisdom of the crowds, right? If you’re in a room with a dozen or a couple dozen people, you can bounce ideas off each other and kind of learn the collective wisdom of what’s in the room versus just going it alone.
Cintia Mano (06:53.487)
Yes, absolutely. And sometimes it’s just paying attention to the questions that are being asked. You start learning a lot. So why is this person asking this? And it never came to my mind. And then you start to fine tune a little bit your mindset to evaluate the startup, to try to figure out the things that are not in the spotlight, and try to investigate a little bit more.
Brian Bell (07:19.024)
So let’s talk about core angels the origin story there. How did that network come together? What was the vision at the beginning? How is that evolved?
Cintia Mano (07:27.823)
Yeah, so this first group that I took part was the ideal group for what came next with Core Angels. in this first group, we were all angels. We invested in the same group of startups. So there was not just a deal flow sharing. We were all deciding together and invested in the same group of startups. And this experience was very, I was very happy with the experience because It made sense for me not only because of the aspects we were just discussing, deciding together, it’s safer, but also because after investment in the post investment phase, it’s much better if you are sharing the same portfolio with other people because you can actually support much more the founders. I don’t have to, I don’t need to support, I’m very limited with all the support that I can give to one startup. And the other angels are limited as well. But we together, we have a group of backgrounds, expertise, connections, network that together we can help much better all the founders. So it’s very common that I’m talking to a founder and he or she is experiencing some trouble and I cannot help with my expertise, but I know someone in the group that can. And then I make this connection and they can work together. This is the first group and I like it very much the experience. I decided with another colleague with another fellow angel to open a similar group. Other colleagues in the same group made the same decision and the founders of this group they invited me to think about a model that we could replicate this to different groups to different geographies. Okay, so this first group was based in Portugal then we created more groups in Spain. in Brazil, in the US, and then it started spreading until now there are 13 angel funds within Core Angels in different countries. And each fund has its own thesis, own group of angels and own portfolio of startups. So right now, Core Angels might be in 350 angels with a portfolio of 120 startups at something like this.
Brian Bell (09:47.351)
So how are the funds managed? Is there a GP or is it kind of like every angel that’s an LP is like a co-GP?
Cintia Mano (09:51.653)
Yes. No, in fact, there are usually two fund managers that they are responsible, usually two. Why? Because one is more dedicated to startup deal flows, creating opportunities and bringing opportunities to the group. The other one is more into getting to know and selecting good angels, potential good angels for the group. And why that? Because we understand that not It’s not just a matter of having money to become a good angel. You need to have someone, the person needs to understand quite well what sort of investment is this. This is a patience game. This is not something that will return to you in two years. You cannot count on this money in two or three years. So we need to be very aligned with this. So one of the fund managers is more into bringing angels and the other bring in startups. They don’t allocate, they don’t decide the allocation of capital. What they do is they facilitate this. So they bring startups to investment committees and the angels they vote. So if two thirds or more of the angels, they approve a startup, they will be invested in the startup. If not, this is not going to be an investment. And if you’re part of this group and you wanted to invest, but it was not approved, then you can invest directly in the startup. You can discuss with the founders, but not through the group. So this is how the model works in Core Angels. So all the funds, they work in the same way. But of course they need to adapt to the cultural aspects of each country or even sometimes the thesis if it’s very focused on a specific industry vertical, you need to make some adjustments. But this is basically the model.
Brian Bell (11:36.801)
So yeah, it sounds different from a traditional angel network in that you actually have a fund and the fund has, you know, this kind of super majority voting requirement to actually make an investment from the fund. And then each of those angels are members of the fund, right? Like an LP in the fund pro rata to their pro rata to their commitment in the fund. Is it a typical kind of a 10 year kind of three year call down kind of structure?
Cintia Mano (11:39.973)
Yes.
Cintia Mano (11:47.601)
Thank you.
Cintia Mano (11:53.979)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cintia Mano (12:01.231)
Yes, Yeah, exactly, exactly. In terms of legal structure, in some countries they are regulated funds. In other countries they have simple ways like limited companies depending on the size of the fund and the legal framework of each country.
Brian Bell (12:04.981)
Interesting.
Brian Bell (12:24.877)
That’s interesting. What is the typical size of these funds? Is there a management fee? What’s the check size? All that stuff.
Cintia Mano (12:32.999)
Okay, so it depends on the theses. We have some funds they are investing in very, very pre-seed. So they invest like 80K in a startup. So in this case, the checks that the angels are investing are lower, like 25K, 50K, something around this. Okay, we have other funds that are investing 300K in a startup, 500K in a startup. then the checks of investment from the angels are higher, of course. And it’s trade-off. So when Core Angels is deciding with the fund managers how this fund is going to work, we discuss this a lot because we don’t want to have like 100 people as angels in a fund because it gets a lot of drama to manage all these people. It’s really hard. But also if you have just 15. with big checks, you don’t have all this diversity supporting the founders. So this is a trade-off in terms of size of the fund, in terms of amount of angels participating. But also, we don’t want to have 10 startups invested because it’s too low to diversify the risk. So we think of usually 20 startups or more.
Brian Bell (13:54.583)
So doing about 20 startups per fund.
Cintia Mano (13:57.135)
Yes, that’s the goal for all the fans, usually.
Brian Bell (14:00.973)
Got you. you. Why 20? Why not 30 or 40? How do you guys kind of center in on that number?
Cintia Mano (14:05.063)
It can be, you know, yeah, we have two funds that they have already invested 27, 28, they just closed, they are not investing anymore now, they’re just following on. But it’s also, it’s a lot of hard work also, if you don’t have, because it depends a lot on the cycle also, if you’re talking about health tax or some industry that needs some gateways of approvals. then the cycle is longer, then you can have a chance of funding more. But if it’s a very short cycle, there will come a time that you have to, when you’re managing a portfolio, there comes a time that you need to pay attention more to growing the startups that you have invested or helping them with the next round so that you can provide your angels with access, opportunities and liquidity. then starting to help them get the first ones in the beginning of the round, et cetera. So it’s kind of complicated. But they can reach up to 30 startups.
Brian Bell (15:08.15)
Right. How do you balance that leads into the next question, which is this tension between pure capital allocation and then hands on value add through the mentoring, fundraising, operational support, all that stuff. How do you guys manage that trade off?
Cintia Mano (15:21.777)
Yeah, you know, in the ideal world, we would have all the angels putting money and time and energy, you know, but this is the ideal world. And we understand also that life happens. So sometimes there is an angel that is coming and entering the group and this person is in between jobs. He has lots of time, he’s very engaged, but then it’s going to another challenge and then not so much time available anymore. So it’s important that we have this balance. We usually say that around 30 % of the angels are active in terms of supporting founders after investment. In terms of participation in investment committees for approvals, what we do is we do the sessions. Sometimes it’s hybrid, it’s local to get people together in the same room, but also online. And then we make the recording available to all the angels and leave the space for one week for them to watch, ask their questions, download the material, and so that we can have a better, more people participating in the decision. But of course, sometimes they can, they’re traveling, they’re doing other stuff, but usually 30 % is what we have as the observant metric for active angels.
Brian Bell (16:45.805)
Yeah, that makes sense. And geographically, you guys operate across Europe, Latam, MENA, Africa, all that stuff. What unique challenges and opportunities exist when investing in markets outside of the classic US and UK ecosystems?
Cintia Mano (16:59.139)
Yes, yeah, you know, it’s interesting because there are plenty of opportunities. You know, it’s a market where valuations are typically lower than in US, so you can have better deals in this sense. Of course, the founders are not so mature investment wise as in the US, same thing. So it’s you have an opportunity, but you also have to back up a little bit the founders in this sense. There is lot of opportunities also for bringing them international opportunities. So one of the advantages of having this network and making people connect is that we can support a startup that was invested by our group in Chile, South America. If they have plans to come to Spain and Europe, we can support them with our groups in Barcelona or Madrid. So this kind of arrangement is very, very powerful to support the startups as well. And of course, dealing with cultural differences. And this happens everywhere. So it’s very interesting when you have a founder coming from Europe wanting to enter the Latin market. It’s very supportive if they have angels that are in that market saying, look, this is not how we worked here. You need to get this, do that, that number one, number two, number three, and then you’re good to go. So it’s like a coaching part of being an angel and I think it’s very useful in some cases.
Brian Bell (18:32.781)
Yeah, and that was literally the next question. You know, have all these angel investors coming in from operator backgrounds. How do you help them think about their transition to the investor mindset, know, educating them on portfolio risk, diversification, time horizon?
Cintia Mano (18:46.457)
Yeah, know, one of the things that we see as many of our angels, are coming from the corporate experience. And sometimes we hear some questions like, yes, but I don’t realize how the embed is this size, know, or how are we going to how do you do this evaluation with this sort of matrix? And we need to educate them somehow. Like, this is a different game. We are not. We are evaluating potential. And for someone that has been working with finance or corporate finance for a while or evaluating consulting projects in the corporate side, it’s a lot of risk. People take a look at the numbers and say, but how do you say it values $10 million? Because I don’t have a spreadsheet with all the financial. projections and the projections are not that reliable. So it’s really educating part. This is why in Core Angels we we started to develop some courses to our angels as well, like explaining the matrix, explaining what are the evaluation methods that exist and how you can apply in one case or in another. And it’s different like thinking of a big company and thinking of a startup. But it’s part of the fun that they have in this activity. Many of these angels, are working with big corps for their whole lives and they know exactly how it works, but now they want to learn something different and they want to engage with this new world and new way of doing business. So it’s a fun part also.
Brian Bell (20:23.103)
Yeah. What lessons have you learned about the founder investor dynamics when you’re working cross border, know, culture, time zones, regulatory, exit expectations, all that stuff?
Cintia Mano (20:32.89)
Yeah, you know, talking about culture, well, it’s very, I have a funny story to tell about at Core Angels. We have funds in eight countries, in Europe, Latin, US, and it was that we were having a meeting with all the fund managers. And the meeting was scheduled to something, I think it was like 5 p.m. Yeah, 5 p.m. Lisbon time. And we have all of them, they were trying to gather on time, et cetera. And then one leader said, you know, 5 p.m. is not a very good time for me because, you know, we have dinner at six. And so for me, it’s I struggle with that. have to pick up kids and then we have dinner with family, blah, blah, blah. And then the guy from Spain comes to say, dinner at six? I have dinner at 9 p.m. know, 9 p.m. I come in from the gym and I have dinner at 10 p.m. And really? 10 p.m. And we were discussing like for some minutes what would be the best time and even in time zone, it was not easy to agree, you know. When you go to other stuff, there are even more complicated, like how do you have whole meetings with clients? How do you ice break in different cultures? It’s different, you know. how you shake hands or not shake hands, you come to a Portugal people kiss on the cheek, you know, it’s very common. And then it’s a lot of learning for the fund managers, for the angels and also for the founders. We also see that founders, they tend to be much more open to learn this stuff because they are interested in selling their products in different markets. So they are very quick in understanding how things work. Legally, it’s a challenge because... every single, even if you’re talking inside Europe, of course you have the common regulatory framework, but there are differences in the practice. And if you’re comparing to other countries, while it’s, you to US to Brazil to Chile, you need to adjust. So the fund managers in the beginning, especially they needed to dedicate some time and work with lawyers to understand how to frame it. in a way that it would be comfortable for angels to invest and founders to get invested because it’s business of trust. So we really need to have transparency and trust between all the stakeholders. Founders, need to feel like they are being invested, not because people want to take advantage from them, but because people are believing in their business and they want to be part of it. It’s completely different. And in some cultures, in some... frameworks, we don’t have the proper way of doing that. We are building stuff, know, like things, this is all very recent, you know, so we need to make some adjustments to guarantee this.
Brian Bell (23:33.867)
Yeah, totally make sense. So let’s talk about focus themes and sectors. What sectors or themes are you actively leaning into right now? Obviously AI, but there’s also fintech marketplaces, climate tech, emerging markets. know Core Angels has written a lot about climate tech and emerging markets. So I’d love to know. And I know you’re not CEO anymore, what sectors and themes are you guys actively looking at?
Cintia Mano (23:57.551)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can share. I think that in Core Angels, we’ve been seeing a lot of AI, of course, as you said. but they are also cautious because we see that all of a sudden, every single startup that was bitching to us, they started saying AI. And not necessarily they were using AI in an advantage way, know? Like maybe they’re just using automation, not AI, you know? And so it’s hard. And so the fund managers, realized that they needed more support from experts. or the angels themselves, they started reading more and trying to educate themselves more or reaching out to people that could support them in this kind of evaluation. Nobody wants to invest in something that says it’s an AI solution, but in the end, it’s not. So we have to separate the buzz from the real thing. So AI is, of course, one thing. And we’ve been seeing a lot of tech and health tech in convergence with AI. So I think health. is one of the sectors that will be highly impacted by AI. We have verticals and core angels. We have one vertical that is dedicated to food tech, which is a trend, I guess. I think that we are still in the beginning, but in the near future, we’ll have lots of very interesting solutions being possible. Food is a challenge right now. So not only amount of food, but good quality of food, healthy food. and all the consequences that it brings to our society. And climate we have also invested. And in terms of verticals, I think this is it. In the end, it’s kind of how can we use technology to make good impact in the world? It’s not impact speech like philanthropy or because people, have a very hard time in talking about impact investments. Usually, Many of the financial people, think, impact is just blah, blah, It’s just let’s help the trees and hippie stuff. But it’s not. But right now with AI, I think there is a very good possibility that we can use this machine thing to really accelerate the testing of new technology to make things better.
Brian Bell (26:24.619)
Yeah. Yeah. So given your lens on early stage investing. Yeah, I’m a techno optimist as well. Given your lens on early stage investing, how do you assess a founder’s traction or starter signals when you’re still in the, you know, really the angel round, you know, is is kind of a new phrase, I think, before the pre seed. Do you where do you guys play at core angels? Is it do you guys consider yourselves angel round? like pre launch, pre revenue? Do you consider yourself pre seed? What metrics matter and kind of what? Yeah, what?
Cintia Mano (26:26.439)
I’m optimistic, sorry, I’m optimistic.
Cintia Mano (26:41.415)
now.
Cintia Mano (26:52.23)
Yeah, please see.
Brian Bell (26:54.689)
Fox to you guys playing.
Cintia Mano (26:56.195)
Yeah, pre-seed and seed. Pre-seed is really tough to assess because traction, you don’t have the typical metrics. But there is something that I like to assess that is not necessarily the numbers, like number of clients or number of people responding to a research or whatever, but it’s the speed of founders working on it. And it’s something that you can assess when you are building a relationship with the founder. This is why I truly believe in building relationships with founders. Sometimes I talk to founders for six months, one year, and then they are in an investment committee. And it’s important that they understand this because it’s not because we don’t believe in their business. It’s because there are certain things that need to happen so that we can all be enthusiastic about it. It’s not simply, simply, that’s a fantastic idea. Because many fantastic ideas, die. So we need to assess what are they working with. So one thing that strikes me most, what I really like to see in a founder when they are in the pre-seed, is this ability to listen to the market, to the feedback from the market. It’s really common to see founders that have designed the solution, and they think this is the best solution to address the problem they want to solve. but they are not doing enough research or they are not validating this with the market. They want to wait until the solution is good enough so that they can present, they can start talking to potential customers. And many times when they start doing this, they have spent a lot of time. And so when we see that someone is deploying, developing a solution and... right away, you know, communicating to the market, making some tasks, doing some research, getting feedback, adjusting, and doing another iteration. So when we see founders that they have this clarity that they need to do that, this is a very good sign because it means not that, well, by magic, the solution works. No, it’s that they will work until the solution works, you know? So they will be pursuing this until it works. They are not attached to what they built. They are looking to solve a real problem for a big group of people or companies. So in the early stages, it’s much more on the founding team, like their behavior, how they see what they are doing, what are their expectations in terms of how they feel about growing the company, what are the next steps and how they are working together. This is a very risky aspect in founding teams because sometimes, as I said, people they have to pay their bills and sometimes you have co-founders that they are very complementary in terms of functions, but they are in different periods in life. So we have someone that urgently needs to make some money out of that and another founder that well, I can’t wait for two years because my partner is working and it can support me a little bit or because I have some savings from my career and I can wait a little bit. So the level of risk that each one is able to accept also makes a difference. So I think that in the pre-seed, of course, when you are in seed, you start to have some metrics and it’s impressive. Sometimes we see founders, they don’t know about those metrics. They don’t know about customer acquisition costs or LTV or basic metrics. And there is another aspect that sometimes founders, don’t see, that is, if you are asking for investment, you need to be, you need to demonstrate your capacity to manage money. And, you know, it’s impressive to see how many times people, get money, they fundraise, and the money is gone in six months, you know, and they hire, and, you know, they hire in a way that... they don’t stop and think and plan and well I’m going to start higher from this role because this will bring me money first and then there’s no there is no point of having an HR manager in a company that has five people you know or let’s bring a CFO to a company that’s not making a lot of money yet so it’s it’s complicated in the seat because they are still in the garage mode but they they need to have these competencies with them.
Brian Bell (31:38.062)
Yeah, I like that. That’s why I tend to only invest in companies that have revenue, because I feel like I feel like if you’ve gotten to revenue, you’ve, you know, de risk the startup by 90%. You know, because you have, you know, 10 20, you know, 30,000 monthly recurring revenue. And especially if you’ve bootstrapped it, that’s even more impressive to me, because now, you know how to manage money, you’ve bootstrapped this thing all the way there 20 20,000 of monthly revenue. And so you’re going to be a good steward of capital and you’re only raising capital now because you want to go faster rather than, I’m raising capital so I can hire the head of HR and the CFO and stuff like that’s not a good. Yeah, not a good use of funds. That’s a really good insight.
Cintia Mano (32:03.931)
Yeah, exactly.
Brian Bell (32:06.593)
monthly revenue. And so you’re going to be a good steward of capital and you’re only raising capital now because you want to go faster rather than, I’m raising capital so I can hire the head of HR and the CFO and stuff like that’s not a good. Yeah, not a good use of funds. That’s a really good insight.
Cintia Mano (32:17.04)
Exactly. But that’s a very good point that you brought, Ryan, because it’s not, you know, there are many founders that they think the only way they can build a company is raising money from investors. And this is something I tell all the founders that I mentor or in university where I have classes or what I say is that investment can be very good, but can be a nightmare for you. If you are raising money because you want just to fill in the, you know, tap the hole that you had because you didn’t manage money well.
Brian Bell (32:40.429)
Yeah.
Cintia Mano (32:49.595)
This is going to be a nightmare. you convince someone to invest, it’s hard, but if you convince someone to invest in this situation, it will be a nightmare for you in a couple of months. On the other hand, if you know what you’re doing and you find out how’s the model of your business, how you are already generating revenue, have a tested and validated market, and you just need more money to accelerate your growth, this is a totally different story. And as I said, if you’ve been bootstrapping, you prove a lot of competence already, you because you were able to build a business and make some money out of nothing. So money will come to add and not just to postpone your pain, you know.
Brian Bell (33:32.375)
Yeah, I love that. How do you think about global versus local on backing startups? you guys are, you have this tension between global scalability versus regional specific modes, especially around your angel base in each fund.
Cintia Mano (33:45.957)
Yeah, you know, when we started, it’s funny because in this first group that I started, we were based in Portugal, investing in Portuguese startups. And one of the founders of the group always says that, well, Angels, like to invest in companies that are two hour drive away from their homes because then they can go there and check what’s going on. know, there was this mindset. But when Core Angels started, we were in the pandemic, you know. So it was 2019, the first group, but then when it started scaling, it was 2020. And by the time, or we could have meetings through Zoom and signed contracts using DocuSign, or we would not do anything. So there was no way. And so because of the pandemic, we started seeing people more open to, okay, let’s take a look at this company in this other country, or... So I think that we started to be more open to new opportunities in different countries because we didn’t have the physical barrier. So this is one of the things. In terms of the startup, one challenge that we have, some of our groups, they invest in startups that are going to other markets. And if the home country of that startup is big enough, It’s hard to find startups with this appetite to go international while they’re still in the pre-seed or seed phase. Like Brazilian startups, they have a huge domestic market. when they start, sometimes they think, I’m going to conquer the country and then I think about the next step and go international. But what happens is that if you’re building a global technology, what will happen is that when you go to the next country, there is already someone there doing something. So you really need to act quickly. In Portugal, it’s different. In Portugal, the market is really, really small. So all the founders here, never think about Portuguese market. They started thinking at day one, European market, and day two, US, Latin America, Asia, whatever, Africa, whatever. it’s a good... It’s a good thing when you are talking to this kind of founders because they are already thinking globally. But another point of attention to these founders is about focus because although it’s a great thing to think internationally, you cannot do five things at a time, especially if you are a startup with a small team. I think that the most valuable asset of a startup is the time of the founders. So you really have to pick very wisely where you’re to spend your time and your energy from you, your team. So focus on, you know, like the straight-offs, where to put first, what are the priorities, what I’m going to tackle first. It’s very, very important.
Brian Bell (36:47.405)
Yeah. Well, and you you you obviously live through this or invested through the, you know, the the hangover after 2021, the 22, 23, 24 macro pressures, slowing exits, higher cost of capital, geopolitical risk. How did your investment criteria and risk frameworks kind of adapt during those years? And how do you kind of see it adapting now that I feel like things are kind of thawing out here as we enter 2026?
Cintia Mano (36:58.375)
Yeah.
Cintia Mano (37:13.351)
Yeah, well, I don’t know, because I think that 26 has started so wild that I really, I was thinking about a 26, but now I don’t know anymore. But the thing is that you’re right, we had this hangover. It was hard. Many of the startups, they were planning max rounds and they stopped for a while. So we were seeing the value of having good execution teams. So not only the visionary founder, but the execution founder and how valuable was it to have a visionary, but also someone that is very disciplined, that knows how to manage money. So this was a very valuable asset to the startups. The ones that could have this at home, they could survive it much better than others. But we have to help and support startups that they didn’t have this competences, that they were not with this skills in place. and helping them to raise bridge rounds or bringing co-investors or doing some loans or extra money to help them go through it. And many of them, they survived it really well. But it was a very, very hard time. In those times, of course, fundraising gets a lot worse because people were not the level of confidence. It’s really low. So the ones who are thinking about entering angel investing, they got a lot more cautious. Maybe it’s not, you know, there’s coming a bubble and there will be an AI bubble. I don’t want to be caught in the middle of that. So it’s hard in terms of fundraising. But the thing is that I believe that good businesses, we always have opportunity for good businesses, especially good people, know, good, talented people. So the fund managers, they also learned a lot in those times because they had to understand, they had to work closer with the founders. and support them in what they needed. So I think that the angels had the opportunity to prove how useful they are to the founders. But I was thinking of, well, in 25, it got better than 24 in terms of fundraising. And also, I think that the startup founders, the startups that were pitching, they were already much more conscious. They were not in that, know, I think I value 20 million and I want to raise 5 million, you know, and I have 10 clients. You say, really? So I think that it was good in a way to fine tune a little bit expectations. And I was expecting to say that while 26 will be much better, but now I really don’t know. think that... We are in a situation with so... In one hand, people are afraid of what’s coming, like in terms of the globalization, deglobalization, all the international relations. This is going to suffer a lot this year. But in the other hand, I believe in the power of building stuff and the power of founders and entrepreneurship. I think we need to fund the world that we are, that we want, you know? If investors and people who have the money and need to understand that they need to continue funding, I think it can be a better year than last year if you unite our efforts around the values that we believe.
Brian Bell (40:48.557)
Yeah. Well, let’s talk about looking ahead. What’s coming up next for Core Angels in the next year or two in terms of geos, funds, any other innovations in the pipeline?
Cintia Mano (40:59.909)
Yeah, we are. In fact, we started doing this last year. We are building a layer of syndicate on top of the funds. Why that? Because we have more than 100 startups invested. So it makes sense that we can get the best ones, the ones that are fundraising to grow even more and make it available to anyone in the community. So if we started doing this as an experience last year. but we’re going to do even more this year. So we right now, we have a sports tech startup that was presented and approved for investment in the sports tech group. Now it’s been available to all the communities, so anyone can write a check and invest through a syndicate. So this is an implementation with the objective of bringing to our angels more opportunities, not only their funds that they are investing, but also in the whole community. This is and also to the founders, like you can raise like 200 with your fund, but also you can raise more 100 or more 200 with whole community of core angels. And when you do that, it’s not only about the capital, but it’s also counting on people that will be in other countries at least routing for you, but hopefully helping you build your business there. one of the things and the other thing that we started doing and I believe we’ll do more this year is the education side. So making sure that angels they can be better in what they do they can feel safer in terms of making decisions and evaluating startups so that they can feel empowered to do that and to bring more opportunities. These are two things that I see in the pipeline.
Brian Bell (42:46.261)
Yeah. Now, what about you? mean, you’ve recently stepped away as CEO of Quarangels. What’s next for you?
Cintia Mano (42:54.343)
Yes, well, I took some time to rest a little bit, to be honest, I was needing this. I’m giving some thoughts on next steps. One of the things I want to do more is something that got me last year was like speaking and doing conferences and the university. I like it a lot. I really do like this and I’m now putting together a website and all the stuff to do this more professionally. This is something I love doing. But I’ve been in conversations with my next about my next role. So I think in Some more weeks or months I can I can say what I do but definitely in the ecosystem definitely working with innovation and the scaling investments and providing access to capital to good and talented founders
Brian Bell (43:44.013)
What do you believe are the biggest tailwinds headwinds for angel investing globally in the next five years?
Cintia Mano (43:52.091)
Well, I think that investing together is a trend more and more, like building groups or I see many people who have tried angel investing and had a very poor experience because they were doing this not because they were doing this alone, but because they were doing this with not so much support or preparation or they were doing it like gambling, know, let’s, you know, like someone who is buying stocks and I don’t understand nothing about this market but well let’s gamble a little bit and the chances that this is going to end well are very very low so I think that people started to think better of well or I will take some time to really understand this thing and do it by myself but you know get courses or education or learn from a more experienced angel whatever or I will join a group which is a very quick way of learning and do this. So I believe that doing more and more groups. I’ve been meeting many other groups in Europe, but also in the US. Another thing also is that angels are becoming more experienced angels are becoming wiser in terms of terms and causes, especially in the next round. angels, have a difficulty that is when they are negotiating their exits. and the VC fund is going to buy their shares. The negotiation is really hard for angels. Usually VC funds, say, I don’t need to buy your part. I can invest in the company and leave you there. So I think that we are improving on this, like having more favorable causes to angels when they enter an investment for the next round. And this is needed because we need to... we need to address the issue of liquidity and exiting. It’s important for the ecosystem that the angels who are in fast and they have a guarantee, but they can trust that they will have an exit and a fair exit when the opportunity comes. this is very important. Like secondary market is also something that has been, I’ve been hearing this here and there, nobody has been implemented this in a very... scalable or worldwide way, but I’ve been listening to many conversations from big players around this. We need to build some solution for secondary markets and start buying shares from angels because they will want to share. It’s important to mention that there will come a time that after we invest and we have supported the founders, after they grow, they will have to find new friends, know, and there’s that becomes a time that we cannot support them anymore as we did in the beginning, that they will find much more support and help in bigger checks and bigger companies. So we need to address this. So I think that the secondary market is something that everybody’s been talking about, but I didn’t see yet any, you know, very robust and scalable solution for this.
Brian Bell (47:09.227)
So if you were a first time angel investor coming out now making your first investments, what three things two or three things would you tell him to focus on and conversely maybe avoid?
Cintia Mano (47:21.926)
Okay, I would say be aware, well, be cautious about show men or show women. It’s really easy to get impressed with people that they can’t present very well and do your due diligence. It’s important to know if the story that is being told is really the story behind because it happens. Of course, that is not the majority of founders, but it happens. Sometimes you can fall for some bad tales. One thing is like join a group even if it’s not for investing together, even if it’s just for going to network events, but join other people and learn from their stories. Ask what you’re doing, how they failed, what they learned about it. You can learn immensely from other people’s experience. And people in this kind of environment, they are very open to share. So take advantage of this, talk to people and ask their advices. I should have done this more in the beginning. I think it would scale my learning curve much more. And the third thing would be don’t wait to be prepared to start doing it. There is not a course for doing this. You can get content, you can read books, you can talk to people. But the truth is that It’s a very dynamic space for investing. You have to, and it’s something that you learn differently from the stock market. You invest in a company, you’re never talking to the founder of the company. In the startup world, you can talk to the founder of that company. So it’s something that has a lot to do with relationships. So if you don’t start, you’ll be just thinking about how it would be. So start slowly, start with little checks, but start doing it. Start practicing this. Because then you will learn a lot from the dynamics, from people, from how these things are built. So I would not wait too long to start.
Brian Bell (49:30.157)
Yeah, I love that. So for founders in the early stage world, you know, with early stage startups, what mistakes do you continue to see that you wish would go away?
Cintia Mano (49:40.241)
Sorry, sorry, didn’t get you.
Brian Bell (49:41.793)
Yeah, what mistakes are early stage founders making that you wish they’d stop doing?
Cintia Mano (49:46.152)
okay. Good. Well, there is one mistake that is... You need to be unique, know? Like we have many startup founders approaching investors every day through email, through LinkedIn. And I receive tons of messages in LinkedIn and email. are, you know, a lot of texts. don’t, I can’t spend like, you know, half an hour trying to figure out what is the business of the person. So try to be very, you know, straightforward and don’t... and don’t talk to anyone, you know, it’s important to do some research. If you reach out to someone, if it’s okay, if you think it’s too much to approach people individually, go to groups, go to funds, go to whatever, to syndicates, but study what they are doing. I receive many proposals of investments like, this is an amazing opportunity for you. And then I see that they didn’t realize what I’m doing, you know, I have like offerings to investment businesses that are nothing what I do. So I think it can be much more effective if you study your investors, potential investors. And one thing they tend to think, and I understand why, because all the industry was built this way, like if they were the only one chosen, but they also have to choose the investors. And this is extremely important because many times they believe that, well, I am the one needing resources and they have money to throw away. And it’s not like that. Investors, also need good founders because they are not looking for anything to invest. They are looking for good things to invest. So you’re also making the choices. You’re also choosing your investor. This is extremely important. And it gives you and the investor... a sense of value. It’s not they’re begging for money. They are presenting an opportunity. But try to study a little bit what investors are doing.
Brian Bell (51:59.425)
Love that. And from your vantage point, how should VCs and angels collaborate more effectively or differently to support founders and ecosystems?
Cintia Mano (52:07.513)
Yeah, I see that. I’ve been seeing a lot of new VC’s like micro VC’s or VC’s wanting to go more into the early stage, which I think is very, very good for the industry. And my experience with founders for many years, they were going to VC’s because there was the only, you know, source of funding they knew or it was the most common or most mentioned in the media so they would go to VCs and VCs would say okay come back when you have the metrics and they would say okay Cinta what do I do until I have the metrics I need money to for my business okay so it’s good that VCs are coming a little more in the early stage and I also have been seeing lots of collaboration in Corengios we see this a lot we have many Intel funds they are doing in the same rounds they are investing and other VCs are investing as well Which is good. Usually VCs are more formal in terms of governance. They will require a seat on the board. They will have their governance compliance and stuff, et cetera, which is also good for the startup because they will grow in the sense. And angels can be supportive also with a seat on the board or with more informal roles. But it’s a different mix, you know, because angels, are more available to be supporting. and the VCs, are more into the financial side of the investment, but they can leverage a lot, both they can leverage a lot each other. So I think it’s a good collaboration. I’ve been seeing this in many of the funds in Corengios.
Brian Bell (53:48.983)
Yeah. Well, let’s wrap up with some rapid fire questions. What book has influenced your investing mindset the most?
Cintia Mano (53:52.54)
Okay.
Cintia Mano (53:59.271)
Oh, I’m going to mention a book that is not about entrepreneurship, but it’s about a big company that is show dog, the story about Nike. And this influenced me a lot because I realized that even a company that is that big, that huge, they were, for a long time, they were in the edge. They were already producing. millions of shows, were already many countries, but the risk was there still. They were operating in a level of risk that was shocking to me, you know, and this changed me, this changed me because right now when I evaluate startups, even they are more late stage, I pay more attention to this kind of thing, because even Nike could be operating for years in that level of risk. So now I realize, okay, but They are telling me this story. Let’s take a look at all the risk levels they are really facing right now. So this is one that contributed a lot to changing my mindset as an investor.
Brian Bell (55:01.965)
What’s a startup in your portfolio or a Quarangels portfolio startup that you’re most excited about and why?
Cintia Mano (55:09.199)
I like one very much that is called Gova. They are building a substitute for sugar. And they are from Finland. They have been in class here in Portugal. They are now moving all the stages for approvals for the product. And not only is substituting sugar, the sugar itself, but also producing lots of cakes, cookies, brownies, things with this fiber. It’s a fiber. So it’s very healthy and I think it has a lot of potential for the future.
Brian Bell (55:45.549)
If you weren’t angel investing, what would you be doing instead?
Cintia Mano (55:53.473)
maybe creating a startup or I would be for sure in something related to innovation. Probably I’ll be doing a PhD on angel investing or entrepreneurship or this kind of thing. university, I love it.
Brian Bell (56:11.125)
Well, yeah. What is one piece of startup or investor advice you believe is underrated or under discussed?
Cintia Mano (56:20.647)
Yeah, I think that there is one skill that I believe founders sometimes they underrate, many times they underrate, that is sales. I have a very, this is something that I really like to assess in teams because we usually tend to think that it’s easier than it is and it’s really hard to sell innovation. It’s really, really, really hard. I was in this role when in my startup I was the commercial part and it’s extremely hard. It’s not like selling a product, established product. And usually everyone takes it for granted. Everyone thinks it’s much easier than it is in reality. So sales is one of the points, I guess.
Brian Bell (57:11.467)
No. Speaking of skills, what new skill are you personally working on this year?
Cintia Mano (57:17.255)
Well, this year my goal is to study more about AI in a practical way, like building agents, how to use this more. I’ve been using it in my personal and my professional life, but very randomly. I really want to study more and build some stuff for me to make life easier and work more productive as well. So this is in my pipeline for this year.
Brian Bell (57:45.197)
Yeah.
Brian Bell (57:49.367)
From your experience, what’s an underestimated founder trade that tends to separate those who scale versus those who plateau?
Cintia Mano (57:57.039)
Mmm, great. I think, and this is hard, know, this is really, hard to assess. And I think this is why many of the successful founders are immigrants, for instance, because, you know, immigrants. Yeah, that’s it. Exactly. So.
Brian Bell (58:14.647)
That shows grit. Yeah. It self-selects for grit. Yeah. That’s my theory of the United States, by the way. We’re all kind of here because we all, like, chose to go to a place where there was opportunity and be effectively entrepreneurs. We’re a nation of entrepreneurs. And yeah. So it kind of selects genetically for that kind of in our DNA a bit.
Cintia Mano (58:28.615)
Exactly. Absolutely. I totally agree with you and everyone. Yeah, yeah, and everyone that is there looking for this and has accomplished something has already done a lot. Especially if you’re coming from... And it doesn’t need to be from another country. Even if you’re moving from one state to another or from one type of family to a type of business. this kind of changes. It reveals that the person has a lot of grit and will not give up very easily.
Brian Bell (59:06.817)
Yeah.
Cintia Mano (59:07.015)
It’s common to see in some ecosystems, it’s common to see the kind of founder that is playing around, know, I think this is a good thing to do, you know, my father has some connections, my mother can provide me. They can build stuff, of course they can. And I’m not going to be generalizing everything here, I think that it’s much easier for them when the first... Because it’s a lot of rejection. When you talk about startups, sales, all this kind of things that we were discussing right now, it has to do a lot of rejection. And if you’re not there to get so many no’s in your face, and you can give up very easily, you know... It’s not a very easy pathway. So, grit is extremely important. It’s hard to assess. It’s not easy to assess. But I believe that... Yeah, yeah, exactly. There’s story. Then you can figure out, you know, well, this person... Yeah, yeah. This person is not here just to...
Brian Bell (59:50.593)
We can ask some questions about their background typically, you know, like what’s the hardest thing you ever accomplished or yeah. Yeah. Tell me about your background. Tell me about your origin story. Yeah. A question I’ve actually. A question I’ve actually used is like, you know, why do you think you have a chip on your shoulder?
Cintia Mano (01:00:18.959)
Yeah, that’s a good one.
Brian Bell (01:00:22.261)
Yeah, because usually people with chips on their shoulders have something to prove and they’re kind of like, you know, yeah.
Cintia Mano (01:00:26.073)
Yes, absolutely. And they will not give up very easily. will have to prove that. So that’s a very good one.
Brian Bell (01:00:31.98)
Yeah. I love that. What’s a commonly held belief in angel investing that you disagree with or think will be proved wrong?
Cintia Mano (01:00:42.597)
Well, this is a little controversial because people, like to say things like, investing things that you know very well. Yes, it’s true. It’s good that you know that industry. But sometimes I feel that as not so good. I see many people that they know a lot about the industry and they want to teach the founders how to do that. And this is tricky, you you are not there. If you are investing as an angel, it’s the founders call. They have to make choices. You can influence, you can suggest, you can bring data, you can make connections, but it’s not your call. You’re not going to control that person. You’re not going to decide what you’re going to do. So if you know a lot about that industry, sometimes I think it gets in the way.
Brian Bell (01:01:08.556)
Hmm.
Cintia Mano (01:01:32.327)
So I’m not very fan of this sentence. I like to invest. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Brian Bell (01:01:32.747)
Right. Yeah, sometimes you have to be a little ignorant to believe it almost, right? You have to have a little bit of ignorance and go, I think this could work if it works. It’s a big thing. And some of my biggest, now that you say that, some of my biggest markups have been things that I wasn’t an expert in. Like I kind of knew a little bit about it, but enough to invest. I wasn’t, you know, it wasn’t like AI marketing tech, which is probably the thing I know most about, Yeah, anyway, yeah, that’s a good insight. Given your global footprint, what region do you think is poised for a breakout in startup and angel activity next and why?
Cintia Mano (01:02:14.555)
Well, I hope Europe does it, but I’m not sure. Well, I think in Europe we are waking up, I hope. We have been suffering a lot from regulations, lack of incentives. And in Europe we have some countries that have been doing good work and incentives for investors, especially angels. Other countries not that good work and founders what is happening is that when they get to series A, B, C, they go to other countries. And if they continue doing this, what will be the future of innovation ecosystem here in Europe? So they really, we need a change and we’ve been seeing here and there some movements. I hope this happens. Latin America is a very good market for this also. But the issue there is that emerging markets, have a very high interest rate. So capital prefer to invest in safer and high returns applications or kind of alternative investments. It’s really tough to convince people with a lot of money to invest in startups when compared to Europe, for instance. Asia is booming and continue doing this. I think they are huge. They are fast. and we have a lot to learn with them about speed. And Africa will be the future because we have so many challenges there. They are building their own stuff in ways that we cannot imagine with their own ways. And I think that entrepreneurship can mean a big change in people’s lives when you don’t need any more, when you can build stuff without need of government or very formal roles or big companies or you can do stuff with your own. Once people realize this, I think this will accelerate a lot, especially in this emerging market.
Brian Bell (01:04:19.287)
Yeah, makes sense. Last question. If listeners could take away one sentence from our conversation today, what would that sentence be?
Cintia Mano (01:04:28.641)
come on guys, let’s fund the world that we want to live in.
Brian Bell (01:04:34.541)
Love it. Well, Cynthia, thank you so much for coming on. I learned a lot. I really enjoyed the conversation.
Cintia Mano (01:04:40.305)
Thank you so much, Brian. Thank you for having me.
