# 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. - [Position yourself in the middle of the meta sandwich](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. - [Position yourself in the middle of the meta sandwich (v2 — earlier draft)](https://www.lauta.blog/darwin/meta-sandwich-v2): Earlier draft of the meta-sandwich lesson, kept for side-by-side comparison. Current version lives at /darwin/meta-sandwich. - [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. ## Blog Short essays, things I'm noticing, half-formed thoughts that aren't yet curated lessons. - [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.