Episode 202

Developing grit & stoicism as an underdog founder w/ Edrizio De La Cruz

If you love inspirational stories about entrepreneurship and want a new recommendation for your to-be-read list, this episode of The Art of Entrepreneurship is for you!

I chat with Edrizio De La Cruz about the soft skills of starting, funding and exiting a company. Edrizio is the first Latino Y Combinator visiting partner. He sold his fintech startup Arcus to MasterCard after running it for nearly a decade. Edrizio has an incredible story of overcoming challenges and beating imposter syndrome to reach his goals.

He calls himself “the underdog founder” and we’ll give you a sneak peek of his book of the same title, out now. Tune in for an inspiring and educational conversation!

📖 Order Edrizio’s book, The Underdog Founder: https://www.edriziodelacruz.com/

✍️ Check out Edrizio’s 5-part fundraising essay mentioned in the show here (Part 1 published April 18, 2023): https://www.edriziodelacruz.com/essay

About Edrizio De La Cruz

Edrizio is a former Y Combinator visiting partner. A Dominican immigrant raised in Harlem, Edrizio dropped out of college and joined the U.S. Air Force, becoming an aircraft technician to make ends meet. He later returned to college, worked on Wall Street, and earned his MBA from the Wharton School.

In 2013, Edrizio co-founded Arcus, a fintech company that raised $20M from Y Combinator, Initialized, Citi Ventures, SoftBank, and a16z. In 2021, Arcus was sold to Mastercard, in its largest Latam acquisition ever.

About the book

The Underdog Founder shares Edrizio De La Cruz’s improbable odyssey from selling guavas in a Dominican barrio to co-founding his startup, Arcus, in Silicon Valley. Forbes recognized Arcus as one of the most successful startups of 2021 and was later sold to Mastercard. This no-nonsense playbook is for the entrepreneurial dark horse, a memoir and business narrative that presents seven key principles to rise above racism, poverty, imposter syndrome, and every imaginable and unimaginable startup obstacle. The Underdog Founder is the inspirational and practical guide needed to transform obstacles into opportunities and manifest the life you’ve dreamed of—a life that goes against all odds.

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