Carlos Chávez grew up watching his father work in insurance. Today he’s building Braven, AI agents that take over what underwriters still do by hand: processing submissions, quoting policies, binding coverage. One underwriter on Braven handles 30x the volume they did before.
But the story isn’t the product. Carlos arrived from Colombia with no network in the US insurance industry. Latin American VCs told him directly that a Latin team couldn’t run commercial processes in the US.
He ignored them. In November 2024, he bet everything on a single design partner in Miami — no charge, five months — while in parallel warming conversations with other prospects. They launched in April. Eight clients in three weeks. 80% demo-to-paid conversion.
What looked like speed was months of invisible work.
Braven raised $6M from Collide Capital, Fiat Ventures, Broom Ventures, Aito Capital, and a16z scout.
Carlos didn’t have Stanford on his resume or a warm intro to a single US insurance company. He showed up in person when everyone else sent emails. He called when nobody calls. All while everyone told him a Latin team couldn’t crack US commercial insurance.
This is one of the most honest conversations I’ve had about what it actually takes to break into a traditional American market from the outside.
[YouTube] → [Spotify] → [Apple Podcast]
Also in this episode:
[03:30] Moving to the US Gradually vs. Going All In
[08:55] Selling AI Into a Traditional Industry
[15:50] The Sniper Approach to Getting Your First Customers
[28:15] Raising From US VCs as an Outsider
[41:10] Why San Francisco’s “Boring” Culture Can Be a Superpower
