E144: Europe Is Being Colonised. Most People Don't Know It Yet | Rodrigo Sepulveda Schulz

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Perception Paradox. My name is Zhivila and I'm your host. And my guest today is almost impossible to introduce in one sentence. Rodrigo Sepulveda-Schulz was born in Chile, grew up in Thailand, spent 36 years in Paris and now calls Madrid home. And he just traveled the whole world. He's been a consultant, a founder, a venture capitalist. who has seen 15,000 startups, a broadcaster with hundreds of episodes behind him, and today he is the CEO of a European AI company he believes is worth fighting for. He is also a serious wine scholar who once looked, in his own words, happier passing a wine exam than closing a multi-million dollar deal. We get into all of it, the career, the wine, why he thinks Europe can't afford to be digitally colonized and the one thing he loves more than tequila wine. And I think this 45 minutes are not enough to reveal the whole personality of Rodrigo, but it's a good start to get to know him better until we continue the different series. So I hope you enjoy it and let's dive in. Real people, real stories, and real challenges that break the status quo. I'm your host, Julia, and welcome to Perception Paradox. Rodrigo, welcome to Perception Paradox.

I'm so glad to be here.

Me too. It's been quite some time since the last time we caught up. So I always like to warm up. Was breakfast

in Lisbon?

In Lisbon, yes. Exactly. Was

Web Summit, maybe a couple of years ago, was breakfast in the sun on the little square.

And it was just before you moved to Madrid. I think half a year later or seven months later, you moved to Madrid, basically. And it was in Alfama. I remember it was dear breakfast place. Here we go. Dear

breakfast place. Yes. Yes. And I moved to Madrid in July. Lovely. 24. So it'll be a year and 51 weeks now. And you moved from Paris, correct? I was in Paris for many, many years. They summed up to 36 years. My

goodness. So how was the move? Like, it's kind of a big change in a way.

It's like moving your whole life. I had been in the same apartment for 21 years. So I called a moving company. It took me three and a half days to help the guys move the things out. I did not sort anything. And I brought a lot of stuff that I didn't need with me to Madrid. But my whole life is here now. Yes.

Did you declutter at least a bit or you just, okay, let's pack it. Let's move it. Hi Madrid.

I packed everything and hi Madrid. Hello, the sun. Hello, the blue sky. I

love it. Did you have any nostalgic moment to leave Paris and to leave the apartment where you've been for so many years?

I thought I did not, but then there was a cafe that just on the road or where I lived, where I used to go almost every day. Yeah, I had a little touching moment there when I was like, shit, this is like

the last time I'm sitting at this cafe.

More than my house, like the cafe, I had all my meetings, all my interviews, all my investments in over 20 years. I mean, I lived before my apartment for 21 years in another apartment just across that square for eight years. So this was like 30 years of my life in that cafe. I had seen four owners, you know. Yeah. So I was like leaving that cafe meant a bit more.

That's heartbreaking. What can