『Meet Our Venture Partners: Nicolás Melero』のカバーアート

Meet Our Venture Partners: Nicolás Melero

Meet Our Venture Partners: Nicolás Melero

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We’re pleased to welcome our newest Venture Partner, Nicolás Melero, former Head of Digital Partnerships and Innovation at Falabella. Today, Nicolás works with corporate leaders and investors to design build–partner strategies, connect with startups, and scale innovation with measurable impact, while simultaneously pursuing his MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management. At Silicon Foundry, Nicolás will work closely with leaders in corporate innovation and venture capital to continue turning emerging technologies and partnerships into scalable business outcomes with clarity. We sat down with Nicolás about building disciplined corporate venture platforms, designing scalable pilots, and strengthening innovation pathways across Latin America. Press play to listen to this conversation https://sifoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ElevenLabs_Meet_the_Team_Nicolas_Melero.mp3 What was the moment or experience that first drew you toward venture strategy and innovation, and how did that lead you to your work with Falabella Ventures? Across my career, I have been deliberately trying to become a better investor. For me, a good investor can answer two questions with clarity: why am I investing, and what is the purpose of this investment. The path I chose to answer those questions better was information. In venture capital, better information improves judgment under uncertainty and tends to improve returns. In corporate venture capital, there is a second layer, because you are also accountable for strategic value to the corporation. That is what drew me to venture strategy and innovation. It is where you build an information edge by sitting close to real operating problems and real customers, and where you can connect a technology decision to a clear business outcome and a realistic path to adoption. Warren Buffett has a line I have always found directionally useful: “Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.” I try to take it modestly, as a reminder that clarity and understanding reduce downside. At Falabella Ventures, we tried to make that discipline a habit. We were explicit about the why and the purpose behind each investment, what evidence would validate it, and what had to be true for scale. That clarity helped us make better decisions and deliver a strong track record. When you look back at your time at Falabella Ventures, what enabled the team to consistently get into high-quality rounds and build that reputation for disciplined investing and corporate integration? A big part of our success came from combining global ambition with real operating discipline. We wanted to connect the company with the best talent globally, participate in the strongest rounds in the region, and co-invest alongside world-class funds. We earned the right to do that by being consistent and rigorous in how we selected, diligenced, and integrated startups. We used a simple framework to stay disciplined: the 6Ts, which stand for Team, Target Market, Traction, Technology, Terms, and Together. Team and Target Market set the foundation. Traction showed evidence of pull. Technology was not just the product, but scalability, reliability, and how it would hold up inside an enterprise environment. Terms kept us honest on valuation and structure. Together forced the strategic questions: why this company, why now, and why should we be the right partner. Governance also mattered. Investments were decided by majority vote at the investment committee, and we required a business sponsor. That created real accountability and made integration much more likely, because someone in the business owned the outcome. We also ran rigorous technical diligence, especially on scalability and integration readiness. And importantly, we often invested after working together for a while. The partnership came first, then the investment followed once we had evidence that the solution could deliver value in our context. That combination, clear evaluation criteria, strong governance, deep diligence, and patience on timing, is what built credibility with both top founders and top co-investors, and helped us build a strong reputation in the market. From your experience inside a global retail organization, what structural factors ultimately determine whether corporate venture becomes a growth engine versus a symbolic initiative? In my experience, whether a corporate venture becomes a growth engine or a symbolic initiative comes down to two pillars: culture and strategy. First, culture. You need an organization where people are genuinely eager to innovate, improve continuously, and surprise the customer by creating value. When that mindset is widespread, corporate venture is not “a separate team doing experiments.” It becomes a channel the business actively uses to move faster, solve real problems, and raise the bar. In that environment, pilots get pulled into the organization and scaled because teams want them to work. Second, ...
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