# What I Learned So Far by Lauta > Lessons from running companies in Latin America by Lautaro Schiaffino — founder of Rodati, then Sirena (sold to Zenvia, 2020), now building Darwin AI. Plus a blog, notes, and a few side rooms. This site collects the operating lessons that survived three companies and a decade across LatAm — written as standalone, declarative units rather than a chronological feed. Each lesson is one idea; each company is its own folder. ## Bundles - [/llms-full.txt](https://www.lauta.blog/llms-full.txt) — full markdown of every published essay (lessons + blog + portfolio "why I invested" pages) concatenated into one file. Use this for ingestion. - Every essay is also reachable as raw markdown by appending `.md` to its URL — e.g. `https://www.lauta.blog/sirena/cac-ltv-myth.md`. ## About Lautaro - Argentine serial founder, currently CEO of [Darwin AI](https://www.getdarwin.ai) ($7M raised, AI sales agents for LatAm SMBs). - Previously co-founder/CEO of Sirena (acquired by Zenvia, 2020). - Before that: operator at Rodati (vehicle marketplace). - Writes in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. - Twitter/X: [@lautaschiaffino](https://x.com/lautaschiaffino). - Newsletter: [letters.lauta.blog](https://letters.lauta.blog). ## Lessons from Darwin AI AI sales agents for SMBs across LatAm. Currently building (2023–present). - [Build AI from LatAm. Don't apologize for the region — use it.](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/build-ai-from-latam): The region's constraints aren't a disadvantage. They're an edge — if you build with them in mind. - [Be the Dumb CEO](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/dumb-ceo): If AI keeps getting better, the dumbest founder in the room — the one who delegates everything — might end up the most effective. - [Most founders think they're tier 1. They're tier 2 at best.](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/ai-tiers): A three-tier self-assessment for how a person uses AI. Most overestimate themselves. Aim higher. - [If you're over 30, manage your prefrontal cortex](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/prefrontal-cortex): AI rewards founders who can delegate to non-deterministic systems. The brain region that holds you back finishes developing around 25–30. - [Build for a world where every customer gets their own software](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/dynamic-software): If AI keeps compounding, the marginal cost of building software approaches zero. That changes everything about B2B product. - [The only AI moats in LatAm are local data and regulation](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/regulation-and-data-moats): Two questions: will the regional market atomize, and will US winners eat the local ones? Both have the same answer. - [You're not competing against AI. You're competing against the person who uses it well.](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/future-of-work): Two timelines for thinking about jobs. Both end with: humans do the human things. - [Let humans do human things](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/let-humans-do-human-things): Darwin's why. The question we have to keep asking is: what is human? - [Build like you're sailing. Never bet against AI.](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/never-bet-against-ai): Your sail has to be as big as possible, pointed in the right direction, before the wind comes. - [The Meta Sandwich: every market is a sando](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/meta-sandwich): Big tech goes after the two slices of bread. The ham, cheese, and tomato in the middle is yours. - [Veto anyone on your team who doesn't believe AI keeps getting better](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/veto-ai-detractors): A small internal rule that protects belief in the trajectory. - [AI models are gravity fields. Your prompts are masses.](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/gravity-field): Why the same prompt behaves differently across models, and what to do about it. - [Software is now non-deterministic. Be the human who's responsible.](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/non-deterministic-software): First time in history a technology takes decisions for us. The human's new job: skin in the game. - [If you're over 30, manage your prefrontal cortex (v2 — earlier draft)](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/prefrontal-cortex-v2): Earlier draft of the prefrontal-cortex lesson, kept for side-by-side comparison. Current version lives at /darwin/prefrontal-cortex. ## Lessons from Sirena B2B sales-engagement SaaS for Latin America. Sold to Zenvia in 2020. - [Start with the deer. It's the only animal that gives you optionality.](https://www.lauta.blog/sirena/start-with-the-deer): Pick your customer-size animal carefully. You'll spend a decade with it before you can move. - [Run your company on an operating system, not on your mood.](https://www.lauta.blog/sirena/run-your-company-on-an-os): Pick a management methodology — EOS or Scaling Up — and run the company on it. Two reasons most founders skip this; both are wrong. - [Drop CAC and LTV. Look at payback period.](https://www.lauta.blog/sirena/cac-ltv-myth): Why CAC/LTV is noise in early stage, and why payback period is the metric that actually matters. - [Write the angry email. Don't send it.](https://www.lauta.blog/sirena/emails-you-dont-send): Drafting an angry email and not sending it is one of the highest-leverage communication exercises I know. ## Lessons from Rodati A vehicle marketplace in Argentina (~2010s). My first operating role. - [A team that never fights is a broken team.](https://www.lauta.blog/rodati/team-without-conflict-is-broken): Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team rewired how I build every team. The counterintuitive part: the dysfunction isn't the conflict — it's the absence of it. - [The hidden tax on every hire](https://www.lauta.blog/rodati/the-hidden-tax-on-every-hire): Every hire looks like plus one capacity. It also adds communication lines that grow with the square of the team, and quietly cuts how hard everyone pulls. Two costs nobody books on the org chart. - [A team that never fights is a broken team. (v2 — mobile-friendly pyramid)](https://www.lauta.blog/rodati/team-without-conflict-is-broken-v2): v2 of the team-conflict lesson — same content, but the pyramid has its labels inside each layer instead of beside, so it fits a phone screen with no horizontal scroll. ## Blog Short essays, things I'm noticing, half-formed thoughts that aren't yet curated lessons. - [Life is the only thing that runs uphill](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/life-runs-uphill): The universe only manufactures disorder. Life is the one pattern that pushes the other way — and it cheats to do it. - [The Aeron chair fixed my neck](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/aeron-chair): My neck hurt for years. Three things fixed it. The Aeron was one of them. - [Venn Diagram for Fundraising](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/venn-diagram-for-fundraising): Most founders pick investors by brand. We picked ours by Venn diagram. - [AI doesn't need to censor you. It just needs you to disappear.](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/the-quiet-erasure): What gets indexed is what survives. The rest gets quietly erased — and we won't notice, because we won't have the source to compare against. - [Moving to San Francisco as a young founder — the short version](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/moving-to-sf-as-a-founder): The handful of moves that make landing in SF actually go well. The deeper guide is at startertosf.guide — this is just the punchline. - [Book club](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/book-club): Los pibes lectores: the reading club I started with four friends on Goodreads. - [Am I having enough meetings?](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/enough-meetings): The arrows metaphor and why some bad meetings are a sign you're working right. - [How to hack an AI](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/how-to-hack-an-ai): Prompt injection: how chatbots get broken, and how people try to defend them. - [The networking FOMO curse](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/networking-fomo): How to stop suffering for missing every event — and build something that brings the right people to you instead. - [When is the perfect time to start your company?](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/no-perfect-time): Spoiler: never. And that's the best news. - [Lessons from the Rubik's cube](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/rubik-cube-lessons): What I learned solving cubes works suspiciously well for solving companies. - [5 days to PMF? Spin to win](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/5-days-to-pmf): A five-day sprint for validating product-market fit, adapted from Google's Design Sprint. - [10% of my LinkedIn viewers work in a stealth-mode startup](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/stealth-mode-startups): What stealth mode actually buys you, what it costs, and why the second matters more than the first. - [Investors invest money in people who invest time](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/investors-invest-time): What actually happens when capital meets a founder, and what doesn't. - [The philosophy of this blog](https://www.lauta.blog/blog/blog-philosophy): Why I write here, what the rules are, and what to expect. ## Portfolio Startups I've invested in (small angel checks) and the funds I co-invest with. Each entry is a "why I backed it" essay. - [Mercately](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/mercately): AI-powered WhatsApp sales and CRM for LatAm e-commerce. Customers buy without leaving the chat. - [Vera](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/vera): AI that listens to in-store conversations and tells retail brands why customers actually buy — or don't. - [Ninjō](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/ninjo): AI sales team built for creators. Outbound, lead handling, and conversion as a service. - [Volt](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/volt): WhatsApp Superpowers. Keyboard shortcuts, voice-note transcription, scheduling, workspaces — for people who run their world on WhatsApp. - [Selenios](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/selenios): Agentic AI that automates sourcing, outreach, scheduling, technical evaluations, and recruiter notes. End-to-end hiring as a workflow. - [Samu](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/samu): Records and analyzes sales conversations across LatAm Spanish. Auto-fills CRM, scores calls, and surfaces what's actually working. - [Kleva](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/kleva): AI agents that collect debt across LatAm with 25% better recovery at 70% less cost. Compliant in six countries from day one. - [Galo](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/galo): Smart CRM for retail B2B distributors in LatAm. Eats messy WhatsApp orders, builds a data layer on top, and triggers the actions that drive more sales. - [Ato](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/ato): Voice-first AI companion device for seniors. No screen, no smartphone — just talk. - [Lara AI](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/lara): AI HR Business Partner that talks to employees over WhatsApp, Slack, Teams. Handles feedback, onboarding, FAQs, surveys. - [Vici](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/vici): Early bet, exited. - [Kapso](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/kapso): WhatsApp for developers. The infrastructure layer that lets vibe-coders and autonomous agents ship on WhatsApp without re-implementing the API every time. - [Latitud](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/latitud): LatAm-to-US bridge fund. Pre-seed only — no later-stage conflict of interest. Operator-led, founder-friendly, behaves like an extra co-founder. - [Canary](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/canary): Brazil-rooted, LatAm-wide. Decisive, frontal, ideal complement to a builder-founder. Best launchpad I've seen for opening doors in BR. - [Norte Ventures](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio/norte): The Switzerland of LatAm VC. Follow-only, conflict-free, in every best round of the region. Functionally an index of who's tier-1, plus the best events in LatAm. ## Other pages - [/whoami](https://www.lauta.blog/whoami) — bio, what I'm working on, how to reach me. - [/portfolio](https://www.lauta.blog/portfolio) — startups I've invested in. - [/press](https://www.lauta.blog/press) — interviews, talks, mentions. - [/newsletter](https://www.lauta.blog/newsletter) — subscribe to the Substack. - [/rss.xml](https://www.lauta.blog/rss.xml) — RSS feed (lessons + blog + portfolio). - [/llms-full.txt](https://www.lauta.blog/llms-full.txt) — full content bundle for LLM ingestion.