I am starting an MBA at London Business School with one goal: to work in venture, ideally investing in Latin America from Europe. The fastest way I know to learn something is to produce it in public and let people who know more correct me. So this is not a blog. It is a desk.
A desk has a database that gets updated every week, whether or not there is anything clever to say. It has memos that follow the same structure every time, so they can be compared. It has models that other people can download and break. And it has a thesis that is dated, so that in two years anyone — including me — can check whether it held.
The rules: public information only; every memo carries its date and sources; nothing here is investment advice or the view of any organisation I work with; and if a thesis ages badly, it stays up with a note.
The first three memos come from markets I have actually worked in: cross-border payments and FX, housing finance and proptech, and the industrial economy of the Andes. They are due in October, November and December. The deal database starts with the rounds announced since 1 September.