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Miguel Armaza sits down with Santiago Suárez, Co-Founder & CEO of Addi, one of Colombia’s fastest-growing fintech and commerce platforms. With a background that spans global finance and a track record of driving innovation in Latin America, Santiago shares a candid, in-depth look at lessons from scaling Addi to over $1.3 billion in annualized GMV, serving 2.5 million customers, and achieving industry-leading gross margins above 55%.

In this episode, Santiago and Miguel dive deep into Addi’s unique approach to board management—treating every board meeting as a “dirty laundry” session to maximize transparency, trust, and tangible input from world-class investors like Andreessen Horowitz, GIC, and Union Square Ventures. Santiago also unpacks the company’s relentless focus on operational excellence, from shifting to a North Star-driven management style to building a contentious yet high-performing executive team with global talent from Amazon, Capital One, and PayTM.
Timestamped Overview
00:00 Intro
03:57 Monthly updates streamline meetings
09:00 Building Success Amid Challenges
13:02 Seamless commerce and finance ecosystem
14:20 Persistent Networking Pays Off
18:49 Marketplace built on consumer demand
21:43 Scaling globally through self-funding
24:00 Show Your Work The Why
27:30 Empowered Customer Service Equity
31:30 AI Agents Powering Transactions
34:10 AI Data and Deployment Nuances
38:30 Building success through early funding
41:30 CEO weekly field day