Tono Mandly is the co-founder of Riogrande, a Y-Combinator startup building local e-commerce brands, through acquisition and incubation, for the emerging middle class of Latin American consumers. But Mandly's entrepreneurial story begins in his hometown of Spain where he started his first e-commerce business at 16 years old selling men's suspenders and apparel. Mandly graduated from University and briefly worked as an investment analyst at Lazard. Realizing investment banking wasn't for him, Mandly hopped into the startup scene working as Head of Expansion at Grin Scooters and angel investing on the side. He then applied to Y-Combinator where he came up with the idea for Riogrande.
Tono Mandly stopped by DTC Pod's Miami studio to discuss the current consumer landscape in Latin America and how Riogrande is filling a gap in the consumer market, the startup scene in LatAm, the challenges of building DTC Brands in Latin America, and the incredible potential for this $100 billion e-commerce market.
3:47 - 10:22 Tono's background
10:36 - 14:22 Ecommerce landscape in LatAm
14:28 - 16:47 Challenges in LatAm Ecommerce
17:03 - 21:18 What is Riogrande
21:21 - 23:46 Consumer landscape in LatAm
26:22 - 29:12 Operating in different countries
30:07 - 33:59 Startup scene in LatAm
34:17 - 36:12 Fixing the lack of trust between consumers and businesses
38:12 - 40:10 Opportunity in LatAm
40:12 - 41:53 VCs in LatAM
41:55 - 43:07 Who should join YC
This episode is brought to you by OpenStore:
Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours.
Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?
Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you.
Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!
Tono Mandly- CEO of Riogrande
Ramon Berrios - CEO of Trend.io
Blaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel