Uruguay hosted the Community Week from the 7th until the 11th of March. In this event, promoted by the investment fund Newtopia VC, founders from 13 of the most promising startups in Latin America, partners of the fund, unicorns and figures from the ecosystem met in person to live a week with an intense agenda.

The opportunity to share secrets, experiences, ask for advice, learn from those who have traveled the same path before, exceeded the expectations of the attendees. There were workshops, talks, mentoring sessions, pitch practice, networking where entrepreneurs (new, not so new, and others very experienced) collaborated side by side.

Some of the participating figures were Marcos Galperin, co-founder and CEO of Mercado Libre; Matias Woloski, founder of Auth0; Agustina Fainguersch, new Regional Director of Meta; Sean Summers CMO of Mercado Libre; Facundo Garreton, founder and CEO of Terraflos; Elad Levy, co-founder of Dive and House of Fun; Maximiliano Casal, co-founder of Nowports; Guido Vilariño, Director of DevOps at Mural, among others.

The framework of the meeting was set by the warmth of Montevideo and the beauty of Punta del Este, in Uruguay. The experiences in the city, the forest and the beach were enhanced with the gastronomy and cocktails that accompanied the climate of camaraderie, where closeness and enjoyment allowed the strengthening of the bonds of the Community. In the words of Pato Jutard, unicorn with Mural and General Partner of Newtopia, “We are not just check writers. We are forming a Community that makes us proud. Our LPs, mentors, advisors and entrepreneurs are open doors and door openers. The idea is that we can all knock on those doors whenever we need. And give us access to places that otherwise we could not access”.

One of the most interesting activities consisted of reverse pitch sessions, where international investment funds presented their value propositions and visions to entrepreneurs. “Usually the entrepreneurs pitch to the investors. Newtopia organized this Reverse Pitch where top-tier funds such as Softbank, Kaszek, ALLVP, Cometa, FJ Labs, Monashees and Canary presented to us their thesis and answered all our questions. I appreciate it a lot, because it always took a lot of effort to connect with funds”, shared Matias Botbol, co-founder of Maslow and former CEO of Taringa.