Global Mindset

Single-country markets are too small and too volatile to carry a breakthrough venture. Build for a global market from day one: English as the working language, then international structures and early filings.

The rationale

The binding constraint is the market a single company actually sells into. Regional aggregates do not help a venture selling in one country: LATAM’s combined GDP is roughly US$6tn, and yet a venture serving one country faces a market that is neither large nor stable enough for a science-based business with a long development cycle, with currency volatility and rules that change at every border. Language compounds it. Founders who build in Spanish or Portuguese produce data rooms, technical documentation and contracts a foreign investor cannot read without friction, and diligence slows or stops there.

Two layers, in order. Make English the working language for pitch decks, data rooms, technical documentation and contracts, with ESOL upskilling aimed at the vocabulary founders actually use: IP and licensing terms, term sheets, regulatory and clinical or device documentation, and investor pitching, supported by English-ready data-room templates, bilingual model contracts and translation stipends. Then add structure: a holding company in a jurisdiction international investors already underwrite, such as Delaware, and early filings. One PCT application is recognised by 158 contracting states as of 1 June 2026, which buys time to nationalise later.

Half of this is not a founder decision. Only about 14 of 33 LATAM countries are PCT contracting states; Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela are not, and Uruguay acceded at the end of 2023. A founder in Buenos Aires cannot use the PCT route at home, and accession is a sovereign act on a multi-year timetable. One editorial note for readers comparing this with the PDF: the report’s summary card prints USPTO and EPO while its chapter text specifies USPTO then PCT. The PCT is the route with treaty coverage behind it, and it is the version used here.

The evidence

First moves

1. 0–6 months

   Ship the English-ready artifact pack

   Publish a bilingual pack, data-room index, model NDA and SAFE, IP assignment and technical summary template, in English alongside Spanish and Portuguese, and require an English data room for entry to regional pitch days.

   LADP coalition secretariat + LAVCA + accelerators
2. 6–18 months

   Fund ESOL and first filings as one instrument

   Run a voucher covering targeted ESOL for founders and technical leads plus the first USPTO or PCT filing fees and attorney costs, capped per company and disbursed against a filing receipt.

   CORFO, FINEP, ANPCyT, SECIHTI + national IP offices
3. 18–36 months

   Move the non-member states toward PCT accession

   Prepare an accession dossier for Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela costing the fee schedule, national-phase workload and legislative steps, using Uruguay’s end-2023 accession as the worked template.

   National IP offices + ministries of foreign affairs + WIPO + Mercosur and Pacific Alliance secretariats

How we would know it worked

• LATAM countries that are PCT contracting states, from the WIPO list, rising from 14 of 33.
• PCT applications with at least one LATAM-resident applicant, from WIPO annual statistics, rising year on year.
• Share of companies at regional pitch days presenting a complete English data room, counted per event, above 80%.
• Median time from first international investor meeting to term sheet, tracked quarterly by the observatory, falling below six months.

What could go wrong

Who acts

Rests on

The data behind it