Entrepreneurship Lessons with Brian Requarth, Co-Founder of VivaReal & Latitud

Wharton FinTech Podcast

Miguel Armaza sits down with Brian Requarth, a seasoned entrepreneur who in 2009 launched the Brazilian real estate marketplace, Viva Real, successfully grew the business over the following decade, and sold it in 2020 for over half a billion dollars. His recently-published book Viva the Entrepreneur is a fascinating modern guide designed to inspire and inform current and aspiring Latin American entrepreneurs. However, the book is just as applicable to founders from Silicon Valley to rest of the globe. Humble and often funny, Brian’s reflections of his own journey help humanize the perception and mystique behind successful tech entrepreneurs. The book is unequivocally straightforward and Brian is not afraid to celebrate his successes. But perhaps more importantly, he is also willing to reflect on his mistakes. In fact, one of the biggest takeaways from Viva the Entrepreneur is that successful founders use mistakes as learning opportunities and grow from these experiences. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the book is that Brian lays out incredibly important lessons for entrepreneurs, but he doesn’t just teach you the theory, he also illustrates every lesson with countless examples from his own experience. From balancing your personal life, managing your relationship with your co-founders, recruiting a team, building and scaling a product, fundraising and dealing with investors and board members, and even the importance of taking care of your mental and physical health. Finally, Mr. Requarth is putting his money where his mouth is. Because he sees tremendous opportunity in Latin America, Brian recently co-founded Latitud, an accelerator to help Latin America's top thinkers and doers build the next generation of world-class tech companies. If you are even remotely interested in entrepreneurship, I encourage you to take a look at Brian’s book - Viva the Entrepreneur. You can also catch Brian on his own show, Latitud Podcast, where he sits down with the biggest innovators and tech founders in Latin America.