#85 - Building from first principles: Francisco Larraín, Topsort

<p><b>Francisco Larraín</b>&apos;s professional journey tells a story of coming full circle.</p><p>It all started as a founding team member for advertisement network <b>Tapjoy</b>. Having gotten a taste for the world of startups, he went on to found payment technology solution Zappedy and to have a <b>$30 million exit to Groupon</b>, where he stayed as Head of Local Engineering for 3 years.</p><p>It wasn&apos;t long before Francisco got back on the saddle and founded <b>Maxxa</b>, the largest insurtech company in Chile, and he scaled it up to <b>over 25,000 SMB customers</b> before looking for a new challenge.</p><p>When he felt ready to tackle the next big thing, Francisco decided to go back to his beginnings in the monetization space: he and co-founder Regina Ye started auction-based advertisement solution <b>Topsort</b> in 2021 hoping to bring innovation to marketplace advertisement.</p><p>Having just raised a <b>$8 million dollar Seed Round</b> at a <b>$110 million valuation</b> from names like <b>Pear Ventures</b>, <b>Quiet Capital</b> and <b>FJLabs</b>, I&apos;d say they&apos;re well on the way to accomplishing their goals.</p><p>Today, Francisco and I are going over:</p><ul><li>His successful exit strategy for Zappedy</li><li>The challenges of tech leadership roles</li><li>Topsort&apos;s journey from idea to Product-Market fit</li></ul><p>Building something new? Apply for the <b>Latitud Fellowship</b> at <a href='https://apply.latitud.com/'>apply.latitud.com</a></p>