Welcome to Crossing Borders with Nathan Lustig, where I interview entrepreneurs doing startups across borders and the people who support them, with a focus on companies that have some relationship to Latin America.
My guest is Jose “Caya” Cayasso, a Costa Rican entrepreneur who is cofounder and CEO of Slidebean, a software company that helps people stop wasting time wrestling with presentation design. Slidebean’s product, presentations that design themselves, is used by thousands of people around the world, from students to business executives.
We’ll cover Caya’s journey from Costa Rica to New York to launch his first business, what he learned in his first startup, and how he used that experience to create Slidebean, which now has 20 employees in Costa Rica and 2 in New York City. We’ll talk about the fundraising process and Caya’s journey to raising money from Start-Up Chile, 500 Startups, Carao Ventures, Firstrock Capital, and of course Magma Partners.
Be sure to listen to Caya’s tips on how to run a business with two offices in different countries, how he thinks about scaling a SaaS business, and why he invests time in creating investor updates.
I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Caya over the past year since Magma invested and it was great to be able to talk more in-depth for the podcast. We had a few technical difficulties with the sound at the beginning, but push through, I think it’s worth it! Without further ado, Jose Caya Cayasso.
Be sure to check out his blog post/case study about how he used growth hacking to increase revenue 20x in 12 months.
I had a great time talking with Caya and I hope you enjoy his stories as much as I do. If you do, please subscribe on iTunes leave a rating, and tell your friends! Check out past episodes with David Lloyd, Adrian Fisher, Devin Baptiste, Nicolas Shea, David Basulto, and David Assael.
If you have questions, think there’s something I should improve, or have recommendations for guests you’d like me to interview, please let me know in the comments!