A transparent culture means facing uncertainty head-on.

"The natural thing to do was to tell everybody don't worry everything is fine we're all good... The reality is we had no idea how we were going to figure this out. What was consistent with our values was to say this is real, we're going to work really hard over the weekend and figure out what to do, but right now I don't know how we're going to solve it."

The podcast opens with this powerful moment of leadership from David Vélez, setting the tone for how Nubank approaches challenges - with transparency and honesty, even when facing unknown outcomes.

David Vélez's entrepreneurial journey began long before Nubank:

• Born in Colombia during the tumultuous 1980s-90s era of violence and drug cartels
• Family relocated to Costa Rica when he was eight
• Grew up in a family of entrepreneurs - his father and 11 aunts/uncles all ran their own businesses
• Worked in his father's button factory during summers
• Developed an early appreciation for the "freedom and autonomy that entrepreneurship and having your own business brought"
• Aspired to attend Stanford University despite no one from his Costa Rican school having done so before
• Successfully attended Stanford for engineering undergrad
• Worked in finance in New York in financial services and private equity
• Returned to Stanford for business school with the explicit goal of starting a business

David's upbringing in an entrepreneurial family and his international perspective would later prove crucial to identifying the opportunity in Brazil's banking system.

Doug Leone and Sequoia Capital played a pivotal role in David's path:

• Sequoia was expanding globally to India, China and considering Latin America (BRIC markets)
• Doug Leone was searching for someone to lead Sequoia's Latin American efforts
• David was introduced to Doug through David George (Leone's son-in-law)
• The interview with Doug went exceptionally well - "he was not only a half pager, he was a two-pager or three-pager" (Sequoia's internal measure of candidate quality)
• Doug sent an immediate referral to partner Michael Moritz
• David received an offer to join Sequoia as a part-time intern while in business school
• During business school, David worked dual full-time roles - student and Sequoia - flying to Brazil on non-class days
• After graduation, David helped establish Sequoia's presence in Brazil with a shared office space

This period gave David deep exposure to Brazil's business landscape while working with one of the world's premier venture capital firms.

A critical turning point came when Sequoia decided not to establish a permanent office in Brazil:

• After extensive market evaluation, Sequoia determined Brazilian startups lacked originality - "every tech company started with 'we are the so-and-so of Brazil'"
• Jim Goetz joined a "seminal trip" that confirmed the decision not to open a Brazilian office
• Doug Leone delivered the difficult news to David around his birthday in October 2012
• Sequoia offered David a position in California doing growth equity internationally
• Despite the setback, David appreciated the honesty and clarity of the decision

This moment, while initially disappointing, created the opportunity for David to pursue entrepreneurship:

"It was a very honest point of view which allowed me to not waste any time doing something that ultimately was not going to be successful. It made it easier for me to finally pursue what I really wanted to pursue, which was starting my own business from scratch."

David's personal frustration with Brazilian banking revealed a massive opportunity:

• When moving to Brazil, David encountered extreme difficulty opening a basic bank account
• The experience involved bulletproof doors, armed guards, excessive paperwork, and a 5-month process
• Brazilian banks charged "some of the highest fees and interest rates in the world"
• Customers experienced "anxiety and frustration and pure rage" but had no alternatives
• David was shocked that Brazilians accepted these conditions: "How isn't anybody competing with these big banks and offering better solutions?"
• Friends explained the oligopoly situation: "If you complain to your bank they're going to say 'well, where else are you going to go?'"

This firsthand experience of a dysfunctional, customer-hostile banking system planted the seed for what would become Nubank.

People

• David Vélez - Founder and CEO of Nubank
• Doug Leone - Partner at Sequoia Capital
• Michael Moritz - Partner at Sequoia Capital
• Jim Goetz - Partner at Sequoia Capital
• David George - Doug Leone's son-in-law who introduced David Vélez to Doug

Concepts

• BRIC Markets - Brazil, Russia, India, China - emerging economies seen as future economic powerhouses
• Silicon Valley entrepreneurship - Referenced as a model David aspired to
• Financial services oligopoly - The situation in Brazil where a few big banks controlled the market

• David Vélez grew up in an entrepreneurial family, moving from Colombia to Costa Rica before pursuing education at Stanford.
• After working in finance, he returned to Stanford Business School with the goal of becoming an entrepreneur.
• He joined Sequoia Capital to help evaluate Latin American markets, particularly Brazil.
• After extensive market evaluation, Sequoia decided not to establish a permanent office in Brazil, freeing David to pursue entrepreneurship.
• David's terrible personal experience with Brazilian banking revealed a massive opportunity - disrupting a system with poor customer experience, high fees, and no meaningful competition.
• The foundation was set for creating Nubank - a solution to democratize financial services in a market controlled by an oligopoly.

David recognized an opportunity to completely reimagine financial services in Brazil:

• Combined his personal banking frustrations with insights gained at Sequoia
• Noted Brazil's rapidly growing smartphone penetration
• Observed Brazil becoming "the social media capital of the universe" (Wall Street Journal description)
• Envisioned "a new Financial Services brand and a new bank that was fully digital"
• Positioned the customer "front and center" instead of as an afterthought
• Spent two months thoroughly researching the opportunity
• Conceptualized "new bank" as a "consumer obsessed digitally native bank for Brazilians"

This vision wasn't just another "me-too" startup but a fundamental rethinking of Latin America's largest industry.

When David presented his idea to Sequoia, Roelof Botha provided critical feedback that shaped David's approach:

• David lacked certain key qualifications:
  • Not Brazilian (he was Colombian)
  • Not a native Portuguese speaker
  • No experience working in Brazilian banks
  • No credit card industry experience
  • No established regulatory network in Brazil
  • Not a computer scientist, yet wanted to build a technology company

Rather than discouraging David, Roelof's feedback became a blueprint for building a complementary founding team:

"Therefore you got to go and find a team that is very complementary to you in nature and they're going to be filling all of these different gaps and your single most important job right now is going to be building that team."

The magnitude of David's undertaking was enormous:

• Taking on five entrenched banks - some of the most powerful companies in Brazil
• Banks operating as an oligopoly with significant political and economic influence
• Financial institutions ready to "do everything in their power to stop a newcomer"
• David's status as an outsider made the challenge even more daunting

As Doug Leone explained: "David's mountain of obstacles was steep."

Doug Leone emphasized the critical importance of early hiring decisions:

"Choosing the right team is a crucible moment because if you choose the right first people and they're A+ people, they will bring like people along."

• The quality of early hires determines the long-term talent trajectory of the company
• "B people don't bring A people" - mediocre early hires lead to talent deterioration
• The first 50-100 hires are crucial for establishing company quality
• It becomes increasingly difficult to raise the talent average as the company grows from hundreds to thousands of employees

This advice made David "laser focused" on finding co-founders who could complement his weaknesses.

David identified two critical gaps he needed to address through co-founders:

1. The Insider: Someone who:

   • Understood Brazilian banks from the inside
   • Had connections with regulators
   • Possessed the local network David lacked

2. The Technologist: Someone who could:

   • Put technology at the forefront of the strategy
   • Build a technology company, not just another bank

These criteria would guide David's search for co-founders.

David's first co-founder choice raised eyebrows at Sequoia:

• Cristina had spent 5 years at Brazil's largest incumbent bank
• She ran their largest credit card business
• She had become frustrated with the bank's customer-hostile approach
• She had tried and failed to create more customer-centric products internally
• Her references were mixed ("a 55/45 call" according to Doug Leone)

One former boss described her in a way that was considered negative in a large company but perfect for a startup:

"If Cristina was a state of matter between liquid, solid, and gas, she would be gas because she's the type of people that expand completely inside a room and fills every single empty space."

Qualities that made her unsuitable for a hierarchical bank made her ideal for Nubank:

• Wouldn't take no for an answer
• Challenged established practices
• Could expand to fill multiple roles as needed (marketing, consumer, customer service, product, finance)
• Doug called her a "decathlon athlete" who could do everything

David's choice for technical co-founder was even more contrarian:

• Edward had been an associate at Francisco Partners, a tech private equity firm
• He had no operating experience building technology companies
• Many viewed him as an extremely risky choice for CTO

What David saw in Edward:

• Extreme hunger and motivation to prove himself
• Desire to "completely fall in love with" a single company rather than manage a portfolio
• A "hacker" who loved to code
• Incredible work ethic
• A "human learning machine" who could master new skills incredibly quickly
• If by Friday "he doesn't know how to do something, by Monday he had just read 10 books and... downloaded so much information that he will know how to do it"

Edward's position was so controversial that Doug Leone nearly "fired" him during their first board meeting, not realizing Edward was in the room.

To validate Edward as technical co-founder, Sequoia arranged oversight:

• Bill Korn, who had run engineering at Google, was brought in to evaluate Edward's technical decisions
• Bill "grilled" Edward repeatedly on his technical approach
• Over time, Bill confirmed that Edward was making "absolutely the right choices"
• The validation process ultimately built confidence in Edward's capabilities
• Eventually the team became "less we needed Bill Korn and... more... extremely confident on the choices"

This validation process helped confirm David's contrarian talent selection.

People

• Roelof Botha - Sequoia partner who provided crucial feedback on David's founding gaps
• Cristina Junqueira - Co-founder with insider banking experience, previously ran largest credit card business at Brazil's biggest bank
• Edward Wible - Technical co-founder who came from Francisco Partners (tech private equity)
• Bill Korn - Former Google engineering leader who validated Edward's technical decisions
• Doug Leone - Sequoia partner who questioned but ultimately supported the co-founder selections

Concepts

• "Human learning machine" - Term used to describe Edward's ability to rapidly master new domains
• Talent density theory - The idea that early hiring decisions determine the long-term quality of a company's workforce
• Complementary founding team - Building a team where each member fills gaps in the others' experience

• David identified a massive opportunity to disrupt Brazil's banking system with a digital-first, customer-centric approach.
• Roelof Botha's feedback helped David recognize his own limitations as a founder and the need for complementary co-founders.
• The challenge was enormous: taking on an entrenched oligopoly of powerful Brazilian banks.
• David made contrarian co-founder selections, prioritizing specific qualities over traditional credentials:
  • Cristina Junqueira brought insider banking knowledge and a customer-first mentality despite mixed references
  • Edward Wible, though lacking technical operating experience, demonstrated exceptional learning ability and work ethic
• Through technical validation with Bill Korn, Edward proved his capabilities as a technical co-founder.
• These early team-building decisions represent a crucial "crucible moment" that would shape Nubank's future success.

The founding team started in humble surroundings that didn't match their ambitious vision:

• Worked out of a "dingy house in a suburban neighborhood"
• Cristina arranged for Edward to live upstairs in the same house
• Visitors were often surprised: "This isn't what I expected... I thought you were going to be competing with the likes of the giant legendary banks in Brazil"

This modest beginning attracted engineers who cared more about the mission than perks:

• Team members "not super preoccupied with perks and comforts"
• Engineers who were "anxious to prove that there's a better way to build systems"
• People who believed "this can't be the best that we can do"

By April-May 2013, with seed funding from Sequoia and Kaszek, the core team was in place and ready to build.

The team made a strategic decision about their first product offering:

• Chose to launch with a credit card fully managed by a smartphone app
• Selected credit cards specifically because they could offer them without being a regulated entity
• Brazilian law made getting a bank license for checking/savings accounts "nearly impossible for a startup"
• Credit cards, being unregulated at the time, provided a way into the market
• Set a timeline of around 12 months to launch the first product

This calculated approach was designed to let them enter the market without the regulatory barriers that protected incumbent banks.

Just months into development, a dramatic regulatory change upended their plans:

• New regulations classified credit card issuers as "payment institutions" requiring Central Bank authorization
• The regulation established that companies needed to be operational by April 2014
• Companies not operating by the deadline would need to apply for a license first - a two-year waiting period
• With limited seed funding, waiting two years would mean certain death for Nubank
• The team suddenly faced a "life or death decision" - launch four months earlier than planned or shut down

This unexpected challenge created tremendous pressure but also brought clarity:

"Crucible moments that bring these kinds of constraints can actually have benefits. They demand focus and creativity. They force you to operate at a higher level than you thought possible."

The team's response to the deadline crisis demonstrated their determination:

• Rather than becoming terrified, the team became "crystallized," "motivated," and "even more focused"
• The constraint eliminated debate and created absolute clarity: "every day counted"
• They constantly questioned assumptions, asking "why why why" until finding real bottlenecks
• Applied rigorous prioritization: "What is the absolute minimum that needs to work in order for us to claim active operations?"
• Engineering team "all hands on deck" with Edward "working 20 hour days" with just "a couple of naps"

This crisis created a "Do or Die moment" that galvanized the team around a common mission.

A major challenge was working with established institutions like MasterCard:

• MasterCard's integration timelines were "generally designed for larger organizations" with 12-24 month horizons
• The team pushed for accelerated responses: "every time they told us 'I was going to get 30 days to get back on you' we said 'no no no no no we need an answer in 7 days'"
• One approval process required sending signed paperwork to Belgium by mail - a 3-day delay in their 15-day timeline
• David considered flying to Belgium to hand-deliver the envelope despite MasterCard's objections
• Though David didn't end up going to Belgium, this "level of restlessness" helped them meet their deadlines

This approach of questioning established processes and pushing boundaries became a core part of Nubank's identity:

"That was just the very first of many lessons on why it pays off for you to aim really high and be aggressive."

The team succeeded in launching just weeks before the regulatory deadline:

• First transactions with a Nubank credit card were made on April 1st, 2014
• The card was designed to be purple, standing out from the "sea of gray and silver ones"
• Initial reception was disappointing - university students showed little interest
• Students already had their parents' cards and asked "where are the miles?"
• The initial product had no rewards, limiting its appeal

Despite meeting their deadline, the early market response wasn't as enthusiastic as they'd hoped.

After months of slow growth, a single review changed everything:

• A niche online publication gave "glowing reviews about the entire process"
• The article described the experience as "magical"
• The day the review was published, they received around 5,000 customer applications
• Interest continued to explode: "10,000 customers... by the end of that month we were getting 10, 20, 30, 40,000 customers"
• The overwhelming demand forced them to create a waitlist

The waitlist unexpectedly created even more interest:

• The purple credit card "became this aspirational product that everybody wanted and not everybody could have"
• Growth accelerated from there to "100,000, a million customers"

This turning point validated their approach and set Nubank on a path of explosive growth.

From the beginning, Nubank established a core value that differentiated them from incumbent banks:

"We had always decided that the foundational value was going to be we wanted customers to love us fanatically."

• The entire experience, including customer service, was designed to generate love
• This approach was "insane" in a market where the typical emotions toward banks were "hate or rage or anxiety or frustration"
• Nubank deliberately aimed for "the opposite emotion" from what traditional banks elicited

This customer-centric approach manifested in concrete decisions:

• When they discovered customers had become more profitable because they'd missed sending payment due notices
• They immediately restored the notices despite the short-term profit impact
• This decision contrasted sharply with what traditional banks would have done: "In most cases the banks would say 'wow we should stop sending letters and make every customer more profitable'"

These values-based decisions reinforced Nubank's identity as a fundamentally different kind of financial institution.

People

• Doug Leone - Sequoia Capital partner who validated David's co-founder selections
• Bill Korn - Former Google engineering leader who helped validate Edward's technical decisions

Organizations

• MasterCard - Payment network that Nubank had to integrate with under tight deadlines
• Central Bank of Brazil - Regulator that imposed the April 2014 deadline

Concepts

• Payment institutions - New regulatory category created for credit card issuers in Brazil
• Regulatory arbitrage - Strategy of starting with credit cards to avoid banking license requirements
• Artificial scarcity - How the waitlist created more demand for the Nubank card

• Despite humble beginnings in a "dingy house," the founding team attracted engineers who believed in their mission.
• They strategically chose to start with credit cards to avoid regulatory barriers that protected incumbent banks.
• A sudden regulatory change created a life-or-death deadline: launch four months early or shut down.
• This crisis forced extreme focus and creativity, with the team working around the clock and challenging every process.
• After successfully launching in April 2014, initial reception was disappointing with limited customer interest.
• A single glowing review describing the experience as "magical" triggered explosive viral growth.
• The resulting waitlist created an aspirational quality that further accelerated demand.
• Throughout this journey, Nubank maintained its customer-first philosophy, making decisions that prioritized customer experience over short-term profits.
• This foundational commitment to making customers "love us fanatically" differentiated Nubank from traditional banks that evoked "hate or rage or anxiety."

Nubank's customer-first philosophy was demonstrated through a revealing incident:

• The team discovered customers had become "suddenly more profitable"
• Investigation revealed they had forgotten to send payment due reminders
• This resulted in missed payments, late fees, and increased profitability

How Nubank responded showed their true character:

"I can tell you in most cases the banks would say 'wow we should stop sending letters and make every customer more profitable.' At Nubank we did the exact opposite."

• They sent letters apologizing to affected customers
• Reversed all late charges despite having "no obligation" to do so
• Demonstrated their values through actions, not just words
• Doug Leone observed: "Those customers... are probably customers for life"

This approach represented "the culture of Nubank" in how they treated both employees and customers, creating a "unique advantage."

Just a few years after launch, Nubank faced another life-or-death regulatory challenge:

• In 2016, a new potential regulation emerged suddenly "on a Friday morning"
• The change would affect credit card payment schedules in Brazil
• Current system: 27 days to pay merchants after credit card purchases
• Proposed change: Pay merchants one day after purchases

This seemingly technical change would have devastating consequences:

"When we made the calculations that meant that we're going to need billions of working capital overnight. That was really a life or death moment for us."

• Despite growth, Nubank was "still printing losses" and "living off venture capital"
• The change would force them either "out of business" or into "selling the company"
• This appeared to be the result of "lobbying efforts by established banks looking to smother the new competition"

Nubank's response to this existential threat tested their cultural values:

• David had to address the entire company at their end-of-year celebration
• Their culture emphasized "treating everybody like an owner and a partner" through transparency
• The easy path would have been reassurance: "Don't worry everything is fine... let's celebrate"
• The reality: "We had no idea how we were going to figure this out"

David chose the harder but more authentic approach:

"What was consistent with our values was to say this is real, we're going to work really hard over the weekend and figure out what to do, but right now I don't know how we're going to solve it."

This difficult moment became a test of whether the company truly lived its stated values.

After the initial shock, the team moved into problem-solving mode:

• Worked with regulators, press, and stakeholders to explain the consequences
• Argued the regulation would "end the little competition there is" against the five big banks
• Warned it would be "impossible for any startup to enter this space"

When news broke that "Nubank could go out of business," something remarkable happened:

• Customers spontaneously mobilized to defend the company
• "Tens of thousands of consumers" contacted the Central Bank of Brazil
• Customers took to social media to stand by Nubank
• They argued this was "the first competition they had seen in years in decades"
• A "very organic, bottom-up, grassroots mobilization" emerged

This customer response was "heartwarming" and "beautiful" - demonstrating the power of the relationship Nubank had built with its users.

The customer mobilization quickly produced results:

• By Monday noon, they received a call from the President of the Central Bank of Brazil
• In the meeting, the President immediately reassured them: "Relax, this is not happening, we're not making this change"
• The team returned to the office to share the good news with employees

This crisis became another "Crucible moment" for Nubank:

• It forced focus and clarity about priorities
• Proved the value of transparency with employees
• Demonstrated that "doing something that was great for consumers" had created their "biggest defense"
• Became "a very foundational moment" in the company's history

This incident marked a turning point in Nubank's relationship with regulators:

• Initially, they weren't sure if regulators would view them as "champions of consumers" or "enemies"
• They were "pleasantly surprised" to discover regulators were "huge fans of Nubank"
• This led to a strategy of staying "very close to regulators" and keeping them informed
• Nubank positioned itself as "the kid in the front row of the class that has all the answers and gets an A+ in every test"

This approach contrasted with typical startup thinking:

"A lot of entrepreneurs want to operate a business in a space that's regulated doing everything possible without being regulated and almost going against the regulator. We took the opposite approach... Let's excel at being regulated."

They viewed regulation as "an area where we can develop comparative advantage."

Working closely with regulators enabled Nubank's continued expansion:

• In 2017, they received a full banking license
• This allowed them to expand from credit cards to debit and savings accounts
• They became a "multi-product company" and then a "multinational one"
• Established "regulated licenses in Brazil, in Mexico, in Colombia"
• Maintained "very good relationships with regulators" that made them "influential"
• Created a "situation of partnership... not a zero-sum game"

This cooperative approach with regulators supported their international expansion strategy.

As Nubank continued to grow, they began considering going public:

• They knew an IPO was their future since "we certainly weren't going to sell the company"
• The decision to go public had two main motivations:
  • "Shore up the balance sheet" with additional capital
  • "Make sure the world knew we were real, we were safe" - building trust with customers

The team viewed the IPO as both "a financing event and a branding event":

• "Branding to Wall Street"
• "Branding to our customer base"

Consistent with their values, they wanted to include customers in this milestone:

"We've always been such a customer-oriented company... It wouldn't make sense for us to go public without having our customers play a role in it."

This led Nubank to develop a "directed share" program for their IPO, allowing customers to participate in the offering.

People

• Doug Leone - Sequoia partner who highlighted Nubank's unique customer-centric culture
• President of the Central Bank of Brazil - Intervened to stop the harmful regulatory change

Organizations

• Central Bank of Brazil - Key regulator that ultimately supported Nubank's continued operations
• "Five big banks" - The incumbent financial institutions that controlled 85% of the Brazilian market

Concepts

• Regulatory capture - The threat that regulators might be "tied" to established companies
• Working capital requirements - The financial mechanism that would have been affected by the regulatory change
• Directed share program - The approach Nubank used to include customers in their IPO

• Nubank demonstrated its customer-first values by apologizing and reversing charges when they forgot to send payment reminders, contrary to typical banking practices.
• In 2016, they faced an existential threat when a proposed regulatory change would have required "billions of working capital overnight."
• During this crisis, David chose transparency with employees despite the uncertainty, staying true to company values.
• When news broke about the threat, customers spontaneously mobilized to defend Nubank, contacting regulators and advocating on social media.
• The Central Bank quickly intervened to assure Nubank the regulation wouldn't change, resolving the crisis.
• This experience transformed their regulatory approach, leading them to embrace regulation as an opportunity for competitive advantage rather than an obstacle.
• This collaborative approach with regulators enabled their expansion into new products and international markets.
• As they prepared for an IPO, they maintained their customer focus by creating ways for customers to participate in the public offering.
• Throughout these challenges, Nubank's commitment to transparency and customer benefit became their strongest competitive advantage and defense against threats.

Nubank's IPO approach reflected their unique customer-centric values:

• Developed a directed share program called "NuSocios" (New Partners)
• The program allowed existing customers to buy shares in the IPO
• Also awarded shares to new customers who started banking with the company
• Created infrastructure for "many millions of customers to become our partners"

This approach came with significant challenges:

• Required building a new investment platform infrastructure
• Added complexity to the IPO process
• Created timing challenges: "There's no way to really get that dialed and experiment your way gradually into it"
• Made "even confident Engineers nervous" due to the "big bang" nature of the launch

The team prioritized customer inclusion despite these additional complications.

The NuSocios program created a crucial timing dilemma:

• Originally planned to go public in September 2021
• Due to platform development needs, the timeline slipped to October, then November, then December
• The systems were "in pretty good shape" but not "perfect"
• Perfecting the systems would require "another quarter"

This created tension within the leadership team:

• Doug Leone was "a proponent of pushing very hard even at the expense of this program"
• He was "willing to scrap the program to get the company public"
• His concern was market timing: "The markets are fickle and they're subject to overnight change"
• The team recognized it was "good timing" with markets, political stability, and investor interest aligned

They faced a difficult choice between their customer commitment and market timing.

Ultimately, the team stayed true to their values:

"We were just willing to do that because otherwise it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't be us. We wouldn't be true to what we stand for."

• Decided to proceed with the IPO before year-end 2021
• Refused to abandon the NuSocios program
• Accepted that the systems were "good enough" though not perfect
• This decision "made a lot of people nervous" and "question our judgment"
• But they believed "it was the right thing to do"

The gamble paid off:

• "The program we install for the stock buyers worked and the systems didn't crash"
• They "got right under the wire"
• Raised "a few billion dollars"
• The IPO was "well received" with the stock running up immediately after

Nubank's IPO timing proved remarkably fortunate:

"It was one of those Indiana Jones moments in which there's this big door closing... and that was us becoming public at the end of 2021 because this big crash came and the window was closed."

• Went public on December 9, 2021
• In January 2022, "US Stocks tumbled, plunging the economy into a bear market" that continued through October 2022
• The company got "lucky in going out before" the market crash
• Being "well funded" allowed them to be "on the front foot" while competitors were "distracted and stressed about financial concerns"

This timing secured their financial position at a critical juncture.

Despite their fortunate timing, Nubank still faced market challenges:

• The stock price dropped "from a high level of 12 or $13 a share to $3 to $4 a share"
• This impacted morale throughout the company
• They had to "endure that" period of market pessimism

Their response was to focus on fundamentals:

• "We kept announcing one better quarter than the other"
• Doug Leone advised: "It's only a matter of time until Wall Street wakes up and says 'look at this gem of a company'"
• This focus on performance eventually paid off
• By podcast recording, the stock had risen to "close to $15 a share" with a market cap of "about $75 billion"

Doug expressed his belief that "the future for years to come is very bright for this company."

Cristina Junqueira's personal journey paralleled Nubank's major milestones:

• Her first child was born the month Nubank launched ("she's Nubank's twin")
• Her second child was born when they launched in Mexico
• Her third child was born right after the IPO ("I rang the bell, I was 8 months pregnant in New York")
• At the time of recording, she was pregnant with her fourth child

This personal timeline humanizes the company's growth journey and highlights the deep personal commitment of the founding team.

Behind Nubank's complex journey lies a foundational principle:

"People want to have business with companies that treat them well, and we should treat people like we would want to be treated by others."

• This simple insight guided their product and strategy decisions
• Executing this vision consistently over a decade led to remarkable results
• The company became "the most valuable financial services company in Latin America"
• An outcome that seemed "really impossible" when they started

This reinforces that their success came not from complex strategies but from consistently applying a straightforward principle of customer respect.

David sees Nubank's journey as just beginning:

• "This is a global thesis, this is not a Latin American thesis, this is not a Brazilian thesis"
• Financial services remains "the single biggest industry yet to be disrupted"
• Technology companies have "only really been able to make a little dent in this market"
• There is "over $6 trillion in value"
• "Several billion consumers" remain unbanked globally
• "Another several billion customers" are "completely overpaying" and "not being treated well by their banks"

Despite a decade of success, the team feels they're "just at the beginning of this great opportunity":

• They remain "humbled and energized and hungry around the next decade"
• Plan to expand "internationally into very more countries"
• View their journey as just beginning, not ending

This forward-looking perspective shows how Nubank's founders continue to see vast untapped potential in their mission.

People

• Doug Leone - Sequoia partner who advocated for prioritizing IPO timing over system perfection
• Cristina Junqueira - Co-founder whose personal life milestones paralleled Nubank's growth

Concepts

• NuSocios ("New Partners") - Nubank's directed share program that allowed customers to participate in the IPO
• Bear Market - The market downturn that followed Nubank's December 2021 IPO
• Golden Rule - The principle of treating customers as you would want to be treated, which guided Nubank's approach

• Customer-centricity isn't just marketing - it should drive even the most complex business decisions like IPO structure.
• Staying true to core values during crucial moments may create short-term challenges but builds long-term advantage.
• Timing matters enormously in business, but you can only control your readiness, not market conditions.
• Simple principles consistently applied can disrupt even the most entrenched industries.
• The traditional banking industry globally remains vulnerable to customer-centered disruption.
• Building trust with customers creates a powerful protective moat during challenging times.
• What seems impossible at the start becomes achievable through persistence and maintaining core values.