Gina Gotthilf

Background

Gina Gotthilf is a Brazilian-American entrepreneur, growth expert, and co-founder and General Partner of Latitud, a pre-seed venture fund and startup infrastructure platform for Latin America ¹². She is also co-founder and CMO of Outsmart Education, an edtech startup founded in 2024 alongside fellow former Duolingo executives Jorge Mazal (CEO) and Daniel Falabella (CPO) ³⁴.

Gotthilf was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, where she attended Escola Graduada de São Paulo (Graded School), earning an International Baccalaureate Diploma in 2004 ⁵. She attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, studying anthropology and Chinese on scholarship, but dropped out due to depression ⁵⁶. She transferred to Brandeis University, where she completed a B.A. in philosophy, also studying neuroscience and co-authoring a neuroscience research study ⁶⁷. She speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and conversational Mandarin ⁵.

After graduating, Gotthilf worked at digital marketing agencies in New York City, including campaigns for LVMH and Estee Lauder ⁸⁹. She moved back to Brazil around 2012, where Tumblr recruited her to lead growth across Latin American markets ⁸⁹. She subsequently founded her own consulting firm in Brazil helping US tech companies expand in Latin America, with Duolingo as one of her clients ⁸⁹.

Duolingo hired Gotthilf full-time, and she rose to VP of Growth and Marketing over approximately five years (through early 2018), helping scale the platform from 3 million to over 200 million users ⁸⁹¹⁰. She led international launches across Japan, China, India, Korea, Turkey, and other markets ⁸. After leaving Duolingo, she worked on Mike Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign overseeing digital advertising strategy ¹¹¹².

In 2020, Gotthilf co-founded Latitud with Brian Requarth (former CEO of VivaReal, which sold for approximately $600 million) and Yuri Danilchenko (engineering lead) ¹²¹³. The three connected during an On Deck live session when Requarth shared his vision to elevate Latin American startups and Gotthilf reached out with the same goal ¹³. She was named one of Bloomberg Linea’s 500 Most Influential People in Latin America in 2022 ¹². She has presented to President Obama at White House Demo Day and given a TEDx talk ⁵⁷.

Stated Thesis

Self-reported. Through Latitud Ventures, Gotthilf focuses on pre-seed investments in Latin American technology startups ¹¹⁴. Her NFX Signal profile lists a check size range of $100,000 to $5,000,000 with a sweet spot of $1,500,000, and indicates a focus on fintech at both seed and Series A stages across Latin America ⁶.

Gotthilf has publicly described her investment criteria for the Latitud fellowship (which feeds the fund’s deal pipeline) as looking for founders with “deep expertise” in their area — such as a doctor building a healthcare app — as well as people with experience at a tech startup in a leadership position, or “failed entrepreneurs” who have learned from previous company failures ¹⁵.

In a Crunchbase News article, Gotthilf outlined six reasons for optimism in Latin America’s startup ecosystem despite a “startup winter”: higher founder quality due to challenging conditions forcing lean building, declining interest rates making startup investment more attractive, dry powder from 2021 fund vintages approaching deployment deadlines, AI efficiency opportunities, a growing talent pool choosing startups over corporate careers, and massive addressable problems in healthcare, agricultural finance, and fintech infrastructure ¹⁴.

Gotthilf has stated: “Higher education hasn’t changed much in decades, but the problems just keep piling up…Our goal is to transform this model and make quality education accessible and affordable for everyone” ⁴, reflecting her personal interest in edtech that extends beyond Latitud’s investing to her own company-building at Outsmart.

Inferred Thesis

Based on the 130 active portfolio companies listed on the Latitud Ventures portfolio page ¹⁶, the following patterns emerge. Note: these investments are through Latitud Ventures (the fund co-managed by Gotthilf and Brian Requarth), not individually attributable to Gotthilf alone. The analysis covers the full Latitud portfolio which both co-founders oversee.

Sector breakdown (130 portfolio companies): - Fintech: 53 of 130 (41%) — including Pomelo, StarkBank, Yuno, Finkargo, Belo, Jefa, Malga, Kanastra, NG Cash, Silverguard, Dinie, Midas, Payana, Bamboo, KillB, and many others ¹⁶ - E-commerce / Retail: 12 of 130 (9%) — including Clubbi, Diferente, Linkana, Newtail, Zigo, Mika, Morado ¹⁶ - EdTech: 7 of 130 (5%) — including AnyoneAI, Udocz, Nulinga, BeConfident, Hunty, Apprenty, Education Journey ¹⁶ - Healthcare: 7 of 130 (5%) — including Alinea Health, Clivi, Kuri, Liti, Arvo Saude, Extendeal, Saludtools ¹⁶ - Proptech / Real Estate: 8 of 130 (6%) — including aMORA, Duppla, Kocomo, Pulppo, Woba, Pilar, Vest, Licify ¹⁶ - Insurance: 3 of 130 (2%) — Latu Seguros, Teddy, Zarv ¹⁶ - Other (AgTech, Gaming, HR, Logistics, Cybersecurity, DeepTech, CRM, SaaS): approximately 40 of 130 (31%) ¹⁶

Stage distribution: Predominantly pre-seed. Latitud Ventures Fund I invested across 100+ startups as a rolling fund deploying approximately $13 million. Fund II targets $250K average checks at pre-seed, with some seed co-investments ¹⁷¹⁸.

Geographic concentration (130 companies): - Brazil: approximately 60 of 130 (46%) ¹⁶ - Mexico: approximately 32 of 130 (25%) ¹⁶ - Argentina: approximately 16 of 130 (12%) ¹⁶ - Colombia: approximately 12 of 130 (9%) ¹⁶ - Other (Chile, Peru, Central America, USA, Global): approximately 10 of 130 (8%) ¹⁶

Gotthilf’s distinctive value-add: Gotthilf brings specific operational expertise in growth and marketing — her Duolingo background makes her particularly valuable to consumer-facing portfolio companies. The BeConfident investment memo explicitly noted that Gotthilf “was uniquely suited to mentor BeConfident in the early days” given her Duolingo experience scaling an education app ¹⁹. She reportedly provides hands-on support including crafting PR strategies, writing press releases, and teaching founders about SEO and landing page conversions ⁷.

Co-investor patterns: Latitud portfolio companies have raised follow-on capital from a16z, DST, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Kaszek, Monashees, QED, Ribbit, and Sequoia ¹⁷. The fund positions itself as a first-check partner.

Notable gap vs. stated thesis: While the NFX Signal profile emphasizes fintech specifically, the actual portfolio is 41% fintech — highly concentrated but leaving 59% in non-fintech sectors, suggesting a broader sector-agnostic approach than the Signal profile implies. EdTech, which aligns with Gotthilf’s personal expertise and company-building (Duolingo, Outsmart), represents only 5% of the portfolio.

Portfolio

The following table includes investments through Latitud Ventures, which Gotthilf co-manages as General Partner. Latitud’s portfolio page lists 130 companies ¹⁶; this table highlights those with external verification beyond the portfolio page. Gotthilf’s personal involvement is noted where documented.

This table represents approximately 7% of the 130 companies in the Latitud Ventures portfolio. Most investments are pre-seed checks of approximately $250K. Exact investment dates for most Latitud portfolio companies are not independently confirmed; years shown with “~” are estimates based on when the companies were publicly associated with Latitud.

In Their Own Words

“I’m really proud of Latitud. The impact it can have on Latin America in terms of propelling entrepreneurship, creating jobs, maybe even impacting the GDP, and impacting the lives of millions of people.” — Gina Gotthilf, The Intern Group interview ¹⁵.

“We’re tripping on our own shoelaces and we want to prevent other founders from tripping on their shoelaces too.” — Gina Gotthilf, Latitud Podcast Episode 42, on building Latitud in public ²⁰.

“It’s like: ‘Oh, imagine if we could go back in time 10 years in the US and then invest in all the companies that we now know are successful.’” — Gina Gotthilf, Latitud Podcast Episode 42, on the opportunity in Latin America ²⁰.

“In developing countries, everything is harder.” — Gina Gotthilf, The Intern Group interview, on the obstacles Latin American entrepreneurs face ¹⁵.

“Latin America has so much potential…there’s very little collaboration…between countries.” — Gina Gotthilf, Latitud Podcast Episode 42 ²⁰.

“I am proud of everything we did there at Duolingo and the people we were able to reach, empowering people to learn a language, and especially English, around the world at scale.” — Gina Gotthilf, Graded School alumni interview ⁵.

“I want it to be the case that the best entrepreneurs and the best minds of Latin America will stay there and build companies there.” — Gina Gotthilf, Latitud Podcast Episode 10 ²⁵.

“I think it was pretty good, but I’m not sure…I would LOVE to work with them.” — Gina Gotthilf, on the a16z partner meeting during Latitud’s seed fundraise, Latitud blog ²¹.

What Founders Say

“Having Gina on our board has been a gift. She is inquisitive, empathetic and hilarious. Be ready for the tough questions that others may shy away from asking. During our steady-state growth, Gina asked probing questions that pushed us toward greater ambition and accountability.” — Yasmin Cruz, Co-founder and GP at Visible Hands, 2023 ⁷.

“Gina’s growth mindset is like napalm oil: our 20-minute conversation blew my mind and motivated me to get to work! I’m here 90 days later promoted to Global Marketing Director.” — Testimonial from Maven growth course student ⁷.

“Gina provokes wise, fast thinking. Switching between strategy and tactics is remarkable. Best organic growth thinker I’ve met.” — Rods, Founder of Echoa, Maven course testimonial ⁷.

“Helped us build our 3-month growth roadmap. Course focuses on organic growth — crucial for early-stage startups.” — Akash, Co-founder & CEO at Peerlist, Maven course testimonial ⁷.

Note: The Yasmin Cruz testimonial is from a board/advisory relationship at Visible Hands, not a Latitud portfolio company. The Maven course testimonials are from participants in Gotthilf’s growth course, not from Latitud portfolio founders specifically. No independently sourced testimonials from Latitud portfolio founders about Gotthilf personally (from press, podcasts, or social media) were found during research.

Connections

• Co-Founder, Latitud (2020-present) — alongside Brian Requarth (former VivaReal CEO) and Yuri Danilchenko ¹²¹³
• Co-Founder & CMO, Outsmart Education (2024-present) — alongside Jorge Mazal (ex-CPO Duolingo) and Daniel Falabella (ex-Duolingo); raised $13M seed led by Khosla Ventures ³⁴
• Former VP Growth & Marketing, Duolingo (~2013-2018) — early employee, scaled 3M to 200M+ users ⁸⁹¹⁰
• Former Growth Lead, Tumblr (~2012) — led Latin American expansion ⁸⁹
• Board Member & Fellowship Advisory Committee Co-Chair, Visible Hands (2021-2023) — VC firm supporting underrepresented founders; co-chaired with Alex Roetter (Moxxie Ventures) ²²²³
• Named Bloomberg Linea 500 Most Influential in Latin America (2022) ¹²
• Presented to President Obama at White House Demo Day (Duolingo era) ⁵⁷
• Speaker: Lenny’s Podcast, First Round Review, Social Media Week, Campus Party, TEDx ⁷¹⁰²⁴
• Maven Instructor — teaches “Organic B2C Growth” course for startup founders ⁷
• David Karp (Tumblr Founder) — worked directly with Karp building Tumblr’s Brazil presence in 2012 ²⁶
• Luis von Ahn (Duolingo Founder & CEO) — hired Gotthilf to enter the Brazilian market; she went on to lead growth globally ²⁶

Sources