Exploring International Cannabis Investment with Andres Azcarraga of Yaax Capital

Join hosts Eric Schneider and Isaac Bach on a captivating journey across borders with Andres Azcarraga, co-founder of Yaax Capital, in this episode of Roots to Risk. Discover the intricate world of international cannabis investment from the perspective of a leading venture capital fund based in Mexico City.

Andres shares his invaluable insights on the differences and similarities in cannabis markets across the US, Germany, Brazil, Uruguay, and beyond. Delve into the challenges and opportunities of fundraising, the impact of potential US federal rescheduling on global markets, and the strategic importance of investing in cannabis technologies that transcend geographical boundaries.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the evolving landscape of global cannabis investment and the future of the industry.

Transcript:

00:01 Eric Schneider
This is the Roots to Risk Podcast hosted by Eric Schneider, alongside Isaac Bach. Roots To Risk brings you insights, the latest stories, and long form discussions about the cannabis industry. You’ll hear interviews with industry leaders and their perspective on current and future trends, how they’ve built success and what challenges they have faced. Our goal is to facilitate candid conversations and provide informative content for the cannabis community at large. Let’s go. What is going on, Isaac?

00:31 Eric Schneider
How are we doing today? How are we feeling? Got the pen hat on. It’s February 1st. Lacrosse is back

00:38 Isaac Bock
Start of, start of the Ivy League lacrosse season, although the roles could be vastly different than they were when we were playing, but I know we couldn’t start real practice until February 1st, so got got her up the quakes on on the first day of the year, you know?

00:52 Eric Schneider
Absolutely, man. Absolutely. But on more important news, we got another great guest on the Roots to Risk podcast, which is fantastic. We have Andres Azcarraga from That’s pretty good.

01:06 Eric Schneider
That was pretty good. I got, I got my double S back. You know, it’s, it’s been a while since, you know, it’s junior year Spanish, but I think, I think we’re okay. <laugh>. But Andres is one of the co-founders of Yaks Capital, which was founded in 2018. It’s a multi-stage VC fund based outta Mexico City, led by a seasoned team of professionals. Yaks investment philosophy is centered around partnerships and having long-term successful relationships with entrepreneurs. We, they invested and their team focuses on empowering extraordinary teams in breakthrough industries to achieve outstanding results.

01:44 Eric Schneider
To date, they have raised 35 million and they have 35 million under management with more than 35 investments. The funds overarching strategy centers, diversification across the value chain and di diversification across venture stages, enhancing the risk reward profile for its investors. What’s really cool, and I think something that we’re gonna get, you know, really good insight into, is not only the US market, but global markets and, and, you know, specifically I know that they have business in Germany, Brazil, Uruguay.

02:21 Eric Schneider
So it should be really exciting to get not only their or Andres’s take on the US market, what they’re seeing, but also internationally. Right. And, and what global expansion looks like for the cannabis industry.

02:35 Isaac Bock
No, for sure. And definitely not something that we, we’ve had e enough conversations on, on this show or just, you know, honestly in general and our day-to-Day work. So very excited to hear Andre’s point of view on everything and, you know, hear what international markets they’re, they’re excited about.

02:52 Eric Schneider
Yeah, absolutely. Well, let’s bring ’em in. Hey, Andres, how are we doing, man? Thanks for jumping on the Roo to Risk podcast today.

03:00 Andres Azcarraga
Hey, Eric. Pleasure to be here, my friend. Thank you for having me.

03:05 Eric Schneider
Absolutely. No, and it, and it’s been a while since we connected, so I’m, I’m also excited to get updates from, from my end, but you know, if you could just provide a little background for, for the audience, like your role in the industry, you know, what you’ve built at Yaks Capital and what you guys are doing in the space.

03:27 Andres Azcarraga
Definitely with pleasure. Thank you for, for that. Yeah, so basically Yaks, we started out in 2018. My background is finance, especially venture capital and private equity. I would say that my last job was on venture capital and that’s where I met my partners. They were, we were in a, I would say a VC focused on technology place here in Mexico with more or less $200 million on, on their management.

03:59 Andres Azcarraga
And John and I, my partner, we were working there with them and we started seeing the, the cannabis legalization kind of wave going on in 2018. So we decided to leave that fund and, and go build the acts. I would say since then, it’s been a, a long, long, long journey, but basically I would say that in, in a matter of a few months, we were able to raise our first fund, that’s a $20 million fund, and now we have a, a second fund, which is now 15.

04:35 Andres Azcarraga
We’ve done around 35 investments across the value chain. I would say our, our strategy in Yaks was diversification to our LPs, diversification through sub-sectors in the cannabis space and diversification through company stages. And one thing that differentiates us, I would say is we’re based out of Mexico City, so most of our LPs and our high net worth family offices, and I would say some LPs from the us but mostly Mexican family offices.

05:11 Andres Azcarraga
And I would say that we use most of our network to try to leverage our investments to, to, to break that up. We have probably one of the larger textile companies in our investment committee, two of the largest CPG companies in Mexico in our investment committee and one of the pharma companies as well. So I would say most of our angles have been trying to invest initially in the US and then bring back technologies, know hows brands into Mexico once it allows it, but that’s more or less with what we’ve been doing in the space.

05:50 Isaac Bock
That’s awesome. One of the, one of the questions I have is, you know, how has the, how’s the fundraising differently between your LPs based in the US and the LPs based in Mexico? I know no, raising money in the US has been a little difficult over the last few years. I don’t know if that’s the same down in Mexico, and you obviously have much more insight than Eric or I on that front.

06:10 Andres Azcarraga
Yeah, of course. I, I would say that the, the industry has been ups and downs. Obviously. There was a, a burst of invoicing and survey fundraising at the beginning of 20 18, 20 19. That was when Canada legalized and then kind of a lot of people made a lot of money there. People that went in in the US early went and had a lot of money. I would say initially it was very easy for us to go pitch cannabis as it’s a very, when you talk about it to an L, potential lp, they know what you’re talking about.

06:48 Andres Azcarraga
Probably they’ve used it in the past or they know the potential of alcohol once they lived through that. So it’s easy to, it was an easy sell after, I would say several years of ups and downs regulations being as tough as they’ve been. I would say many LPs have been burnt down the past and mostly in the US I would say now it’s been super hard to fundraise, especially because LPs, I would say that they’re waiting for something on regulations to happen for them, for them to deploy more.

07:23 Andres Azcarraga
I would say in Yaks in Mexico specifically, I would say we have, we were fortunate enough that most of our LPs from Yaks one invested with us in YAKS two. So definitely 2021 was when we started raising Yaks two and most of the LPs came through. But 2022 and 2023 have been very hard for fundraising as well. So we’ve definitely paused our fundraising efforts until we have something on the federal level.

07:55 Andres Azcarraga
Having said that, we will extend our fundraising of yaks two until 2024 with the hope that we have something on regulation and we can, we’re able to reach out to those LPs that were on the verge of investing, but kind of waiting for that regulation to change.

08:15 Eric Schneider
Yeah, and I think, I think a lot of times when people think about the challenges of investing capital, or sorry, raising capital in the cannabis space, we always think about it at the operator level and, and not really at the, the VC level to then invest into the operators. Right. And it’s a big, it’s a big trickle down, you know,

08:34 Andres Azcarraga
A hundred percent. I would say that that’s the toughest part of the industry now. The industry doesn’t have access to capital. There’s no institutional investors and companies are suffering from that. There’s really no capital for expansion, there’s no access to debt. We can talk a little bit more later of, of rescheduling, but I would think that having capital in the industry to be able to grow is the most important thing. And regulations have been very tough on capital raising and on operators as there’s really no capital to be deployed.

09:09 Andres Azcarraga
So cannabis brands cannot expand. There’s no dispensaries, there’s no real money in the industry or even for tech platforms, there’s no money for the companies to expand. So really that that shortened up the, the, the time and it’s been difficult for us as a VC to find good opportunities.

09:29 Isaac Bock
Sure. Yeah. And kind of on that note with the rescheduling, do you think if it does get rescheduled that’ll open up more capital markets and institutional investors putting money into the space, which allows you then to raise money a little bit easier and then invest money into helping some of these operators grow?

09:46 Andres Azcarraga
Yeah, no, most definitely. I think, and for the benefit of everyone, I think that this rescheduling of one to three will bring a lot of capital to the table and many initial changes. First of all, two 80, I think companies will benefit greatly from a two 80. They will be able to, the dues, the sg NA from their p and ls, they will, their effective tax rates are around 50%.

10:16 Andres Azcarraga
That will reduce until probably like 2021. Like any other company that happens, they’ll probably go on the uplifts on, on the NASDAQ or New York Stock Exchange. I think we saw it in Canada whenever Canada legalized the inbound of capital that came in into that, those stocks was great and we just see it in the CSC, like all the top MSOs that trade on the CSC, they, there’s just not enough volume and I think the institutional money is just not there.

10:49 Andres Azcarraga
I think compared with Canada, the US is around like 3% of institutional capital versus 11% on, on Canada. So I think there’s a lot of capital that will come in once this happens. I think that there’s also, there will be better access to credits. MSOs will be able to pay down debt m and a activity and just pushing down restructuring debts that they have. So I think all of this will be great for, for the industry and, and I think that this is the time, one of the most interesting times to invest in cannabis.

11:26 Andres Azcarraga
I always joke with John, but <laugh> and some of our yaks one LPs will kill me, but I think Yaks one in a way was a bit too early just because regulation has taken too far. And I think yaks two is on the perfect verge of how we’re investing, where the time of regulation and investing is just because I think this rescheduling will happen and, and this will be very beneficial for inbound of capital, multiple expansions and access to capital in general.

12:01 Eric Schneider
Yeah, the in, one of the interesting things when I learned about it is that there are Canadian plant touching companies that are listed on the nasdaq, but US companies that are plant touching can’t list on the nasdaq. I, I find that very interesting and contradictory, and that’s just one of the multiple things that, that don’t make a lot of sense unfortunately. But

12:23 Andres Azcarraga
It, it, it doesn’t make sense at all. And I think, I think last survey was 70% of adults, one legalization. I think it’s a matter of when, not if, and I always Jo Jo joke with John around this, but we’re kind of feeling in, in the big short movie like 20 18, 20 2008 crisis where how much do you have to wait for us to kind of get the returns that we’ll wait.

12:55 Andres Azcarraga
So we kind of like started out a few years ago, we’re waiting on this big moment, which we think will happen and we think will happen soon. So kind of like bullish on the industry and and and putting our eggs for it. Yeah.

13:11 Eric Schneider
Yeah. And, and one question that I had is like when you, you know, your philosophy on companies that you want to invest in, you know, what are maybe some key metrics that you’re looking for and, and when you’re analyzing potential opportunities, like what’s interesting also is, you know, you guys not only operate in the US but you know, other countries. So we’d love to just get a a sense of like what your thesis is when looking at investing, you know, an attractive operator versus maybe, maybe not so much de

13:42 Andres Azcarraga
Definitely. So you touched on a great point. So, so the YI would say what differentiates us is we’re, we’re kind of a global cannabis VC fund. Most of our investments have been in the us but we have invested in Brazil, we have invested in Colombian euro Y in a company and we have two investments in, in Germany. I would say our focus is the US and, but we have diversification and we believe in globalization of global legalization of cannabis.

14:17 Andres Azcarraga
Specific to your question, in terms of how we see opportunities, I would say there’s different buckets. First of all, in the US we see a big opportunity in public markets now just attractive multiple entry points. If you see an MSO that was trading before, kind of like HHS announcement was trading at four or five times just EBITDA versus a 14.5 x on high growth retail companies or CPG.

14:49 Andres Azcarraga
It’s just the, the the, the difference there between one industry and the other is just two 80 E. So the, the attractive entry points right now is just a financial trade, in my opinion, not even about cannabis. I think the entry points that we’re getting there are very attractive and even more so than the private ones, as some of the private ones can’t offer or are, are not trading at those discounts that the public ones are. And this is assuming some of the big companies have trade up a hundred percent, 200% since that announcement.

15:23 Andres Azcarraga
So that means that some of these companies were trading at four times every, the 0.5 to one time sales. So to me that’s one of the most attractive entry points of my lifetime at least. And that’s also has transferred into the private markets with, with John’s experience. John’s background is, he’s a, he was a CEO of Google, Mexico, one of the first employers in Google.

15:50 Andres Azcarraga
His background is tech and he was a director of YouTube latam for many, many years. So that’s his background. So we have the benefit of having the technology background on our team that gives us a lot of edge to when we analyze technology opportunities. So right now we’re also analyzing some and, and investing in some of the early stage tech opportunities supporting the, the cannabis industry. I would say our focus has been more on bigger times and great teams.

16:26 Andres Azcarraga
It’s important to mention that some of these companies have no capital, they cannot spend anything. So some of these companies on the tech platform, they’re supporting the industry, but they don’t have enough tam. There’s 10,000 dispensaries and there’s two th hundred thousand restaurants. So we’re trying to focus on companies that can grow outside of the cannabis industry as well and can go beyond. An example of this is a company called Recover, that’s cannabis testing through saliva.

16:57 Andres Azcarraga
We just approved that in the investment committee. It’s a huge tam, almost $10 billion. And it supports, it has to do something with cannabis industry, but it’s not related to getting consumers or getting dispensaries to pay you a SaaS fee.

17:19 Isaac Bock
No, for sure. I mean that, that’s a good example. Are there any other kind of major technologies or sectors within the technology space that you guys or you personally find most interesting and have the largest application both in and outside of cannabis? Yeah,

17:34 Andres Azcarraga
De definitely. We, we invested in, so we like companies that can grow outside of the, of, of the cannabis industry. We invested in Catalyst, which is an affiliated marketing platform, which helps companies grow their revenue through their technology. And they started out with, with the CBD space, they grew into two Xing their revenue each year and the natural next move is moving outside of cannabis. That’s definitely something that we saw that was interesting that we can support through our investment committee.

18:10 Andres Azcarraga
And we think that that’s a huge market per se. I think one of the biggest challenges from our industry now is there’s a lot of companies doing the same on the tech platforms called ERPs, marketing data software for companies and MSOs. And they all have raised large amount of capital at large, large amount of valuations. So the consolidation is not there. I feel, I feel at one point there’s gonna be a huge big tech platform that consolidates every single one of them, but it’s hard to combine CO egos and then some who, who of those VCs will eat the, the lower valuation, which is not supported by the, by the business or the growth.

19:02 Andres Azcarraga
So I think that there’s a lot of opportunity to grow on the tech space. I think that’s one of the most interesting platforms. I think once payments is allowed on cannabis, that’s gonna change the whole model. I think payments is one of the most interesting avenues in tech and as you know, without Safe, it’s been so very complicated for companies to try to do payments. There’s workarounds, but in the end, I think once payments is activated, it’s gonna be a huge market and something that we’re closely taking a look at.

19:41 Eric Schneider
That’s awesome. And and very well said. One, one thing that I was curious about, Andres, is given your experience in both the US and and other markets, what are some differences that you’ve seen and also what are some, you know, similarities? I, I think, you know, that’s a, a really interesting insight that we haven’t had, you know, on this show previously. ’cause again, we’ve dealt with mostly folks in the, the US market, so we’d love to just get a, an understanding from your point of view, maybe, you know, two or three main similarities and differences

20:12 Andres Azcarraga
For sure. So, so I’ll start with kind of the main markets that we’re focusing on outside of the us. For example, Brazil. Brazil is 200 million people, country, I think they and Visa, which is the FDA equivalent of Brazil authorized medical cannabis imports in 2020. So right now Brazil can import finished products into the country and we invest in this company called Connect.

20:45 Andres Azcarraga
Basically Connect is a marketplace that gives online data to, through the doctors and patients. They’ve done it in the past through a company called Conexa, which is backed by ga. So they’re second time founders kind of doing a pivot. And it’s interesting to us because we see a com states like Florida with three or 4% of the population with medical cannabis and then going rec. We feel Brazil will never go rec, but we feel that the medical cannabis platform could be big enough for a huge market since, since we invested, the company has grown like 350%, they’re profitable and growing.

21:29 Andres Azcarraga
So we feel that Brazil, for example, is very much like Florida. It’s a medical platform, it’s a medical state, and it’s a medical country for now, we don’t feel that it will go wreck soon. However, it’s, it’s an interesting market that doesn’t need to be rec. And, and so we’re, we’re, we we’re, we’re thinking large times that can go there. Another example would be Germany. We have two investments in Germany and we always thought how can we invest in the next GTI do we have to go early enough, take risk before regulation.

22:07 Andres Azcarraga
Yes, I think Germany is on the verge of legalizing rec on the se 22nd of February, the Bundestag is gonna vote to decriminalize cannabis and authorize kind of like these cannabis clubs that will be on a second period of, of legalization. But most importantly, I think we took a risk of investing prior to legalization and we invested in this company called Bloom Will.

22:34 Andres Azcarraga
Bloom Will is this telemedicine platform that imports cannabis from all the, from all over the world into the me, the medical German market. They brand it and then through their prescriptions they give it on through their online pharmacy. They’re the number one company in our opinion in Germany, number one market share. They’ve gone, they’ve done like 20,000 patients, 150,000 appointments. And I would say it’s, it’s, it has the potential of becoming the next GTI if regulations change.

23:09 Andres Azcarraga
But have we seen in the past one similarities regulations have take more time than you expect and this you can count on cannabis and also, I, I would say that another thing that you can count on cannabis is anything will, if it go wrong, it can go wrong, it will go wrong. So mostly regulations will take a lot more than you expect. Companies will need more cash than you expect and you have to be there to support your portfolio companies to be able to provide them capital if they need it.

23:43 Andres Azcarraga
And then try to be very hands-on approach. I would say one of the learnings from yak, from Yak two to Yak three from Yaks one to Yaks two I would say is how we support our companies. How do we introduce portfolio companies with amongst each other? How can we increase their business, their revenues, how can we take advantage of those network that we have through our investments? So I would say that most of the, of the other countries have been the same in regulations, but there’s huge tams and, and to, to finish, I would say Mexico was one great example where initially we, we thought that the, we were gonna invest 70% in the us, 30% in Mexico because back in 2019 there was gonna be a change in regulation.

24:37 Andres Azcarraga
Well, to our surprise, obviously that didn’t happen. Medical products can be imported into Mexico, but no regulation on rec if that were to happen. The difference between Mexico and the US is if Mexico is legalized on the rec market, you have 130 million people right away and no boundaries on states, no boundaries on anything. So that’s a very, very, very different perspectives and larger times I would say.

25:08 Eric Schneider
Yeah. One, one, just quick follow up, is there any, I guess variation between different parts of like, you know, obviously with like the US Florida is a different market than Ohio, than New York, right? Is there any differentiation in other countries that you’ve invested in or is it pretty consistent throughout? No, does that make sense?

25:29 Andres Azcarraga
Yeah, no. Or is

25:31 Eric Schneider
Like submarkets?

25:32 Andres Azcarraga
No, no, de definitely different. I would say the in general Europe, Europeans are much more conservative than Americans and Mexicans are much more conservative than Americans too. I would say that Americans look for high THC, the la the, the, the larger amount of THC that a plant or product has, they’re better and they’re happier to Mexicans, I would say is a little bit different. So tropical izing brands and everything, that’s gonna be a very tough, I would say, task to achieve.

26:11 Andres Azcarraga
But in general, I would say that definitely there’s differences between the US and Germany. I would say Germany is a little bit more focused on the medical play and I think Europeans will always be a little bit more focused on the medical play, prescriptions, doctors, data, even drugs, developments with the cannabis rather than the us which is I think very, very focused on the rec market.

26:47 Eric Schneider
Isaac, anything to to follow up on? That’s all, that’s all I had. I know I’ve been dominating questions so wanted to

26:53 Isaac Bock
No, it great. Yeah, it was a lot of like very helpful information on kind of the international market and how it differs from the us which, you know, Eric and I, for a variety of reasons. Not, not to, not to mention the existing insurance regulations that kind of get in the way. Sometimes they’re more familiar with the US market than anywhere else, obviously.

27:13 Andres Azcarraga
Yeah,

27:14 Eric Schneider
Yeah. I guess I guess looking into to 2024, it, it’s kind of crazy. We, we just closed on month one of 2024, which is wild, you know, what are you most excited about? What are you looking forward to? And you know, do you think that there is gonna be any regulation done by the end of the year? Just want to get your thoughts on what, what you see over the next 12 to 24 months.

27:40 Andres Azcarraga
De definitely. So I’ll, I’ll, I don’t wanna be, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’ve been burned before saying that regulations will pass and they haven’t, but this time feels different, I think

27:53 Eric Schneider
Every single person has. So yeah, you’re not,

27:56 Andres Azcarraga
This time, this time feels a little different. We’re optimistic that rescheduling will happen. We, we have a hunch that it has to happen before April so that it, it they have enough time to be able to implement rescheduling before if, which maybe I, I think Trump will win eventually. So they cannot kind of cancel out these rescheduling the same way they, that they implemented it. One thing that we’re very excited about is hemp beverages.

28:31 Andres Azcarraga
Beverages, I would say is one of the, since regulations changed in Minnesota and trying to be able to be massive distribution and points of sale, I would say one of the, the, the problems that cannabis has is there’s not enough doors, as I mentioned before, and with these beverages will be, be able to expand distribution number of doors, which if you compare beverages to beer or even hard seltzers health seltzers 10 XD in three years.

29:07 Andres Azcarraga
So I think hemp beverages has the potential to be huge in the next coming months if and when regulators adapt. I think Minnesota was one of the few states that took the, the risk and, and is paying off. I think New York’s kind of doing something the same. So I, I would love to see regulators kind of adapt in that way so that they give space to hand beverages. And I think that could be a market that could eat up for shared liquor and beers.

29:40 Andres Azcarraga
And I would say I’m also very excited about DeSantis coming out and saying that there, there will be Florida November ballot, which if that happens, I think Florida will go rec. We invested in this company called TRP, which is heavily invested in, in Florida, which obviously there’s public and private MSOs heavily invested in Florida. But I think that will be one of the big catalysts for this industry. And yeah, obviously I’m very excited about the entry points for Yaks two and the public and the private.

30:18 Andres Azcarraga
I think we’re getting pretty aggressive deals and opportunity just because there’s not enough capital in the space. So we feel that there’s gonna be, obviously if the, if the industry goes our way, we feel that we have a strong portfolio.

30:40 Eric Schneider
That’s awesome. A lot to, a lot to unpack there. And I think all, you know, super valid and a lot, a lot to be excited about. Honestly, I think, you know, 2023 was definitely a challenging year, but you know, a lot to be excited about, a lot to look forward and I always kind of try to keep optimism because even when it is challenging, you still see more proliferation of states coming online and just every year it seems like there’s, there’s momentum and movement. So I I’m definitely excited and we really appreciate your time, Andres, this has been an awesome episode, a lot of great insight that we haven’t had previously and super excited to see what, what Yaks Capital has in the pipeline, especially Yaks two with coming online.

31:25 Eric Schneider
I know you guys will do great things. And before we wrap up here, Isaac, just gonna ask a, a few fun questions, nothing, nothing serious or, or business related and we’ll, we’ll get you about your day.

31:37 Andres Azcarraga
Perfect, no worries. Yeah,

31:39 Isaac Bock
So, you know, one of the things we love asking people is, you know, if you, you’re getting ready to work out in the morning or have a big call, you need to psych yourself up for what’s, what’s on the top of your playlist? What’s the go-to hype up song? <laugh>,

31:53 Andres Azcarraga
I, i, I like Tech House. I would say something with Solomon or <laugh> or Dickson or, I’m one of these guys, so I’m, I’m pretty much into the music.

32:06 Eric Schneider
Love that. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, you’re in good company. Yeah,

32:09 Isaac Bock
Yeah. <laugh>, you know, another one is, you know, what is a book that you’ve, you know, found a lot of useful insights in, whether it’s on personal development, business, you know, kind of development, is there, you know, one that you would recommend people look into?

32:24 Andres Azcarraga
So definitely my favorite book is Stealing Fire by Jamie Wheel. I think that’s given me one of the best insights to life in general. Seeing how, obviously how to expand different parts of my brain, how to attack different situations, I horseback ride. So for me, the flow state is the most important part of my day. And I think for me, trying to achieve the flow state every time or in a way is, is my most important part of the day or, or week.

33:03 Andres Azcarraga
And in this book I learned a little bit more of how, how to maneuver the, the flow state and in different situations in work, in, in sports, in family. So kind of being present in the moment where it matters. Yeah,

33:20 Isaac Bock
I’m gonna write that. That’s like one of the, the biggest kind of hitting points that people wanna always figure out how to get into the zone. So figuring out a way to get into that state is definitely important. Yeah, there’s and

33:32 Eric Schneider
Better than when you, when you go through something and then you’re like, I don’t even remember what just happened over the past hour

33:39 Andres Azcarraga
Because you

33:40 Eric Schneider
So dialed

33:41 Andres Azcarraga
In. That happens to me. You’re

33:42 Eric Schneider
So dialed

33:43 Andres Azcarraga
In. Yeah, well that happens to me when I’m in, in show jumping and I’m in the course jumping and it’s, I go clear, that means like, you, you went really good and it’s, you’re standing there and you’re like, I don’t remember what just happened. I just knew it was like perfect. And then you see the video and then you, you kind of like re like recall it, but in that moment you’re, yeah, not thinking of anything else.

34:07 Isaac Bock
No, it’s, that’s the best, honestly, the best feeling there is in, in sports. And then last one, I’ve never had a chance to come down to Mexico City where you guys are based. I know he’s been down there once, but what’s, what’s one restaurant if I make it down there, I need to try out.

34:22 Andres Azcarraga
So definitely Mexico City is the spot. I would say if you haven’t been, you’re missing out. And this coming week in Macco, the art week is pretty fun. But I would say my favorite restaurant, which has food, good ambience and people is Contra Mar, which is seafood in the middle of Cones, aroma. And it’s, it’s a very nice vibe there. So I would definitely recommend everyone to come and take a look.

34:54 Andres Azcarraga
You have to look, I love it. Not line up, no reservations <laugh>

34:59 Isaac Bock
That, that means, that means it must be good.

35:00 Eric Schneider
That’s how you know, it’s, that’s how you know.

35:04 Isaac Bock
But awesome on Grace. We really appreciate it. This has been Greg and so you have anything to wrap up on?

35:10 Eric Schneider
No, just, just thank you and, and again it’s been great to catch up Andres and here what you guys are up to and looking forward to seeing what you guys do in 2024.

35:20 Andres Azcarraga
Definitely. Thank you so much for having me and we’ll be in touch.

35:25 Eric Schneider
Another great one in the books. Really, really interesting perspective on both obviously the, the US market as well as international, kind of what we previewed the show with. I think, and Andreas gave great perspective and some insight that we haven’t had on, you know, previously, which, which was very much appreciated and excited to see what they do in 2024. What are your thoughts

35:47 Isaac Bock
On it? Yeah, for sure. I mean I think, you know, honestly, like I’ve heard a lot of excitement about Germany in the past. His insights on Brazil were definitely interesting. I’ve heard, you know, some things about South America but not good time. And so understanding what their view of Brazil is is definitely good insight for us. And then honestly, you know, excited to see how they continue to grow their investments inside and out of the US and Mexico.

36:15 Eric Schneider
Yeah. And, and it definitely does give them a little bit of a leg up on, you know, even for us VCs, right? Because eventually, hopefully one day this, this expands internationally, right? And I think having the infrastructure and partnerships and relationships that they have and they continue to build will just give them a, a larger leg up on other VCs in the space that, you know, may not have the, the same resources internationally for

36:41 Isaac Bock
Sure. Yeah. Hopefully we get to a point where, you know, it’s kind of like the wine industry where stuff from Sonoma is getting shipped across the world, so we’ll, we’ll definitely see, and yeah, those connections they’re building right now are definitely gonna help them in the long run.

36:56 Eric Schneider
Absolutely, man. Well, until next time, appreciate you as always and fire it up for the next one, another

37:00 Isaac Bock
Great one. Thanks.