Julio Martinez, co-founder and CEO of Abacum, shares his experience raising $100M for his AI-native FP&A platform.
Julio Martinez, co-founder and CEO of Abacum, shares his experience raising $100M for his AI-native FP&A platform. He discusses his journey from investment banker to founder, building a sustainable business, and achieving product-market fit.
Go through the motions at the beginning slowly. Learn to operate with precision. Allow yourself to have the best product, the key cash product in your cafe. [music] All righty. Hello everyone and welcome to the Dealmaker Show. So, I hope that everyone is ready today because we're going to have the uh battle of accents here. you know, we're going to have the Spanglish kicking in. I'm so excited about the founder that is joining us today. He is also from uh Spain just like myself and he has an amazing story, an amazing story to share. Super inspiring, super authentic founder as well. We're going to talk about product market fit uh capitalizing the business every single financing cycle that they have experienced and then also hiring you know how they've gone through different senior uh leadership uh through the company obviously tons of lessons learned there along the way and then obsessing
over the outcome versus embracing the journey. So again, brace yourself for a very inspiring conversation. And without further ado, let's welcome our guest today, Julio Martinez. Welcome to the show. >> Uh thank you so much, Alejandra. What a blast to be here. Uh I've been uh super excited following you guys. So thank you. Thank you so much for having me. >> So Julio, originally born in Barcelona. Give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up for you? >> Uh life was awesome in Barcelona. So obviously I cannot hide it with my thick accent. So there you go. battle of accents today. Um hey uh awesome city very cosmopolitan uh and it's become during the last 10 15 years uh and it's turned into a tech um city as well right uh 20% 25% of the city are experts that moved you know to probably get mostly tech jobs right so like now the the energy is there um based
in New York right and now our our business is more on the US side uh but Barcelona obviously uh for those that haven't been there don't don't miss it um it's a great food great with great architecture and culture um but also um great opportunities today to to move into the tech space. >> I think the question that comes to mind is from investment banking too uh I guess you you also experience pattern recognition you know for being able to identify what works and what doesn't work when it comes to to businesses and execution. So I guess what were some of the things that you encountered and and that you learned from that experience as an investment banker? clarity in a strategy uh and focus uh comes to mind immediately and I think that's immediately transferable into a startup land and building technology and products. Um I think when you work across businesses and oftentimes even
industries right I I I was uh covering some industries but also I was a generalist for quite some time you start seeing some you know patterns as to what certain companies were doing with their M&A strategy or how to fund that strategy and often times the pattern recognition was hey companies going you know trying to find synergies that were very difficult to execute and deliver based on some thesis that you know whatever but probably it was you know lacking of management focus and strategic clarity and direction and and then you obviously saw that then later on on on the trading stock or or some of the performance later on as a private business right I also did private placements and stuff so um so clarity of a strategy and focus and and that discipline and not not embarking into the M&A journey but also that that that applies to hey product expansion like often times yeah many
success Like think of data dog right the company they they have claimed a lot of success layering products and products and products and and that's awesome but that can also be the survival bias right like survival bias like most companies when when they start layering products and like often times they struggle and and value can deteriorate so so I believe in more in the p in the pursuit of excellence in you know the single thing that you do right as Charlie Mangler would say hey pick a simple idea. Pick a simple idea uh and you know make it awesome. He didn't say awesome whatever he said but you know um that's the idea. Uh so so big believer in in that. >> Now you also moved quite a bit. I mean you've lived all over the world. I mean Sao Paulo Sur you name it. I guess what kind of perspective would you say that that has opened up to you as well to to experience too like different
cultures and different ways of of seeing life? >> It's been tremendously enriching um I think for both me and my wife. I I I used to live abroad as well um before getting married. Um you learn a lot I think um also professionally. So I can I can also say that professionally you learn different angles and different you know versatility in the market and then you know you realize how in Europe and often times in the US we are a bit you know western centric and then the moment you are in Asia or you know even Latin right like a big country like Brazil hey you know uh you you put things in perspective and and maybe you know uh not everything gravitates around the Atlantic right uh in in in the north hemisphere But but culturally as well I think it they have always been a bit enriching a very enriching experience. So I highly obviously I highly recommend. So then tell us about venturing
to the unknown and becoming an entrepreneur because everything started obviously with a with a venture studio uh at the beginning and obviously that transitioned quite a bit and it has evolved to becoming Abakum but it's it's it's quite the um quite the shift from being a lawyer being a banker which is like more traditionally accepted as it used to be in Spain. And I think that obviously things have changed quite a bit, but shifting and becoming an entrepreneur, how how did that, you know, come about? >> Uh, and maybe I have a chip on my shoulder or I don't know what what wound I have inside of me that I cannot heal, but I've always I've always wanted more challenge and more um yeah, stuff I needed to overcome. Uh, and I think like an international career for instance is a bit of that, right? Like encountering personal challenge and and finding the need to adapt, right? and and
overcoming and learning and um um you know satisfying natural curiosity. So when it came the moment to to be honest, so 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. 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 man like you know you know [laughter] I have three kids right I have three kids I more guys like I have like you know like um yeah >> how how old were your kids when when you decided to um to really launch Abakum >> so they were um yeah seven four and one and a half >> I mean that's uh that's quite
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