Meeting LatAm Founders Before US Funds Notice | Lorenzo De Leo, ENYA Ventures | Top Decile S1E19

US venture capital has eyed Latin America for years - but it almost always shows up at Series A, after the risk is gone and the valuation is set. The founders doing the hardest work at the earliest stage are usually left out in the cold. Lorenzo De Leo is betting the real edge is getting to them first. In this episode of the Top Decile Podcast, Connor Sattely sits down with Lorenzo De Leo, founder of Enya Ventures, a pre-seed AI fund backing Latin American founders before US capital catches on. Lorenzo's path is unusual: born and raised in Italy, he became a mathematics professor with a PhD in Madrid, then spent over a decade as a managing director at Rokk3r, one of Miami's most prominent venture studios, where he helped build 40+ startups across the US and Latin America. Along the way he launched an education platform and ran accelerators for thousands of first-time founders across the region. Lorenzo explains why Latin America is at a tipping point (deep problems, a hungry new generation of founders, and AI tools that finally level the playing field for small teams), why a lack of venture-capital education - not a lack of good businesses - has held the region back, and how Miami serves as the bridge between two continents. He shares why he's backing "AI-native teams" rather than just AI products, why distribution and proprietary data matter more than the product in a vibe-coding world, and a portfolio-pipeline spotlight on an AI startup focused on sales-team training inside large corporations. In this episode: 00:00 - What US venture keeps overlooking about Latin America 02:35 - Why LatAm founders are uniquely exciting right now 04:51 - From Italy to Madrid to Miami: an operator's journey 06:08 - Building 40+ startups at Rokk3r 08:17 - The social mission: educating first-time founders 09:21 - Why great LatAm teams stall (it's education, not the business) 11:23 - From venture builder to fund: building a portfolio, not a product 12:43 - The three tiers of LPs and the first fundraising conversations 15:28 - The thesis: AI-native teams, sector-agnostic, vertical-focused 17:31 - Pipeline spotlight: focused AI for corporate sales training 19:53 - The real signals of traction in a vibe-coding era 22:01 - Who should reach out: the LP archetype for Enya About the guest: Lorenzo De Leo is the founder of Enya Ventures, a pre-seed AI fund backing Latin American founders before US capital catches on. Born in Italy, he earned a PhD in mathematics and taught in Madrid before moving to Miami, where he spent over a decade as a managing director at the venture studio Rokk3r, helping build more than 40 startups across the US and Latin America. He has also run education platforms and accelerator programs for thousands of first-time founders in the region. You can learn more about Lorenzo's fund, ENYA Ventures, here: https://decileaccess.com/funds/enya-v... About VC Lab: VC Lab is the leading venture capital accelerator, helping emerging managers launch top-decile funds. Powered by Decile Group, VC Lab has helped launch hundreds of funds across 90+ countries. 🎯 Apply to the next VC Lab cohort: https://govclab.com 🌐 Learn more about Decile Group: https://decilegroup.com 🎙️ Subscribe for new episodes of the Top Decile Podcast every week Follow VC Lab: LinkedIn:   / vclab   X / Twitter: https://x.com/govclab