{
  "blyg": "0.3",
  "id": "4trhy39cdahf1yny389kd9r656",
  "kind": "fragment",
  "origin": "https://www.msweet.net/notes/",
  "page": "804-ivory-lynxes",
  "author": {
    "name": "Matthew McDowell-Sweet",
    "url": "https://www.msweet.net/"
  },
  "created": "2026-10-10T07:55:24Z",
  "updated": "2026-10-10T07:55:24Z",
  "version": 1,
  "content_md": "Sometimes, one can win in a market just by raising the standards existing participants have mutually agreed to let stagnate.\n\n> In Brazil, it was an oligopoly: five banks controlled roughly 90% of the market. They were all located on the same street—Faria Lima, São Paulo’s Wall Street—hired the same people, and never changed. The cost of their complacency was borne by the customer through high fees, obscene interest rates, and terrible customer service. They succeeded almost in spite of themselves. Their options sucked, but customers were still desperate to make the best use of what options they had. Vélez’s idea was to build a new option, starting with a credit card. That was it.\n\n[Coming to America: Nubanks David Vélez - Colossus ↗](https://colossus.com/article/david-velez-nubank)",
  "content_html": "<p>Sometimes, one can win in a market just by raising the standards existing participants have mutually agreed to let stagnate.</p>\n<blockquote><p>In Brazil, it was an oligopoly: five banks controlled roughly 90% of the market. They were all located on the same street—Faria Lima, São Paulo’s Wall Street—hired the same people, and never changed. The cost of their complacency was borne by the customer through high fees, obscene interest rates, and terrible customer service. They succeeded almost in spite of themselves. Their options sucked, but customers were still desperate to make the best use of what options they had. Vélez’s idea was to build a new option, starting with a credit card. That was it.</p></blockquote>\n<p class=\"source\"><a href=\"https://colossus.com/article/david-velez-nubank\">Coming to America: Nubanks David Vélez - Colossus ↗</a></p>",
  "content_hash": "sha256:475d61d983e343fc99e771294d34651c868d9f3136f6a929d5e2899b14cfcad2",
  "media": [],
  "changelog": [
    {
      "version": 1,
      "at": "2026-10-10T07:55:24Z",
      "note": null,
      "pinned": true
    }
  ]
}