Ready to get out of debt and into wealth?
Meet the founders of Investrio, winner of this year’s Built in Miami program.
Read the original story published by Refresh Miami here.
As a first-generation Latina, Joyce Medeiros knows what it means to follow the American dream. A graduate of Bucknell University and former trader at Goldman Sachs in New York, the Brazilian-born Latina thought she finally made it – until student loan debt kept weighing on her.
Despite how hard she worked, or how much money she made on Wall Street, Medeiros felt like there was no way out due to debt – and she knew that other Latinos were in similar situations.
That’s why she decided to launch a financial advice social media account, previously known as Latinx Investor, to help others through their financial journey. Soon, hundreds of people wanted to learn more from the Latina-turned-investor-turned-financial-guru, and she knew there was a need for something more to help others become debt-free.
That’s where the idea for Investrio was born.
Refresh Miami caught up with this Medeiros, this year’s winner of Venture Miami’s Built in Miami Demo Day, to learn more about her experience and what’s next for Investrio (answers shortened for brevity):
Refresh Miami: What brought you to South Florida, Built in Miami, and ultimately, Investrio?
Medeiros: When the pandemic hit and we started working from home, my husband and I decided to move to Fort Lauderdale, and we’ve been in Florida ever since. When I started Latinx Investor, which is now Investrio (@investrio.io), I put my phone number out there, and I would take calls during the evenings or weekends from people who had questions or just wanted to take their financial journey seriously. It’s how I came up with the first product, which was an excel sheet. From my previous experience at Goldman Sachs, and even after when I worked for a startup that automated things I used to do manually, I quickly realized I could automate finance and create something better. So, that excel sheet turned into an online dashboard, and I kept taking those 1-1 phone calls, which transformed Latinx Investor into a more tech and human approach. I met my co-founder, Laura Muriel Texidor, an investor and venture capitalist who is also a Latina, through Y Combinator – which is literally the Tinder for founders. We quit our jobs last summer, and in September, we started working full-time on the product. Laura actually signed us up for Built in Miami, and we were super excited when we were accepted. The program really helped us learn everything from how to improve our prototype to designing it on Figma.
What were your biggest challenges?
We have to highlight the issue of venture capital – it’s known that less than two percent of venture capital money goes to women, and less than that goes to minority women. My co-founder and I are both Latinas, so we have many odds against us. We’ve been fortunate to bootstrap so far, and participate in pitch competitions like Latinas in Tech, but it remains one of the challenges that we’re yet to fully face as we continue to fundraise. We’re also not technical founders, and we’re learning a lot as we go. We’ve been getting scrappy, but that scrappiness has shown grit and resilience that we have as Latina founders – we’ll make it work and figure it out.
Give us your 30-second (or less) pitch on your startup.
Imagine graduating college with a ton of debt – that was me, and so many Americans right now. There is no guidance for people in debt, to build wealth, or to build their financial journey – so we’re building that. Investrio is a guided, personal financial tool that will give you the journey and advisory in one platform.
What’s next for Investrio?
Participating in a program like Built in Miami has opened so many doors and conversations for us, and we will continue to nurture those relationships. We’ve grown our team from two to six, which is a big deal – we have interns, new hires in the technical side, and we’re building our mobile app to get ready for a fall launch.
What is your advice for other entrepreneurs like you?
I would say to dream big. Dream big first, then start building.
Anyone interested in using the Investrio platform can sign up for their waitlist, and stay updated on all things Investrio by signing up for their newsletter by visiting their website at https://www.investrio.io/. For more information on Built in Miami, go here.
