Julio Martinez, co-founder and CEO of Abacum, shares his journey from investment banking to becoming a successful founder.
Julio Martinez, co-founder and CEO of Abacum, shares his journey from investment banking to becoming a successful founder. He discusses the challenges and lessons learned, including building a sustainable business, achieving product-market fit, and finding happiness and success beyond outcomes.
let's let's try this. So I did it and hey I I will be forever grateful because I found my calling. Right. So when it came the moment to to be honest first of all I moved into a venture studio to your point um in all in all honesty I didn't see that coming. Right. somebody a mentor of mine um with whom I'm extremely grateful uh took a shot on me and they offered me a position to you know co-ound that venture studio and then you know start fundraising from a number of people and um and mostly a bank and then you know start launching fintech products to market serially h clearly I didn't have a lot of uh product experience right so uh probably that person saw something in me and whatever it was I didn't see it So, you know, to be frank, at first I refused. Like, I I don't want to do that. Like, I'm a happy I'm a happy banker here, [laughter] you know, like what are you talking about? But
hey, I, you know, I took it with me and then I reflected a little bit and I thought like, hey, damn it. Like, that that's that's really that's that's really a challenge, right? Like that's a like that's a 180 degree change. So, why not? Let's let's try this. So, I did it and hey, I will be forever grateful because I found my calling, right? uh in starting building products and building companies, I found a sense of purpose and a sense of meaning and a sense of loving my craft that I never had before. H and I was enjoying it so thoroughly like you know like this amazing journey every day. So I did it for four years and then at some point you know I decided okay you know this is not about a venture studio anymore. This is about you know solving a very real deep problem that I know very very well which is FBNA or corporate finance. Uh so aligning hey I I I was a finance professional I
understand very well these teams I was splitting in the head myself uh dealing with messy legacy systems uh but now I know how to build products right after four four years building very successful products. So um the combination of both was okay good like screw this let's do it and so it it was a sense of mission right but also a sense of challenge I I remember very well those conversations with my wife right so my uncle in life and you know hey you know I'm about to leave everything and just you know follow a powerpoint you know you know which is full of mistakes like you know hey Julio what are you smoking like you know you know [laughter] I have three kids right I have three kids I I find more guys.