Four years ago, Joaquín Fernández arrived to Volcano Summit as a volunteer. He didn’t know it at the time, but that decision would become one of the defining moments of his life. Today, many of the opportunities, relationships, and projects that have shaped his journey can be traced back to a single ecosystem: Volcano. “I can pin it back to a specific moment,” he says. “That’s when I started getting involved in the Volcano ecosystem.” What followed was a series of connections

The idea behind Lulubit started in traffic, on a rainy day in Panama, while trying to exchange $200 in cash. “It couldn’t be possible that we still had to use cash. I wanted to do it directly from my bank.” - Ianir Sonis, CEO Lulubit That simple thought became the foundation for one of the fastest-growing crypto-fintech platforms in Central America; a company now serving more than 50,000 users across Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and beyond. But the story of Lulub

Dear Volcano Community, As Volcano gets closer, we’ve been thinking a lot about a phrase that has quietly shaped this ecosystem from the very beginning: At Volcano, we’ve always believed that the most valuable outcomes are not only measured in deals, metrics, or visibility. They’re measured in trust. In alignment. In the relationships that continue long after the Summit ends. That’s why we often say that nothing at Volcano happens by chance. Everything that happens, it all be

The narrative of the "solitary founder" is a myth we are outgrowing in Latin America. Our region has never lacked ambition or talent. What we’ve lacked is the connective layer that allows that talent to compound, scale, and truly move. For too long, building in LATAM felt like pushing against the current. That is changing. We are moving beyond a transactional era into something far more powerful: an ecosystem built on trust, proximity, and shared momentum. Where Ecosystems Co

When Diego Fernandez-Townson first crossed paths with Volcano Summit, he did not arrive as a founder. He arrived as a builder, part of a small team shaping something that was still taking form. What drew him in was not the event itself, but the belief behind it. “I strongly believe that if you have a good ecosystem, you can make your country ten times better, really fast.” That idea was not abstract. It came from seeing what happens when people, capital, and ideas begin to co

There is a moment that happens quietly for many people at Volcano. It does not happen on stage or under the lights. It happens somewhere in between: backstage, in conversation, or in the subtle realization that something is shifting. For Diego Zenteno, that moment did not arrive with certainty. It arrived with a question. Growing up, Diego was taught that leadership meant becoming a “change agent.” That responsibility was personal. Impact required clarity, direction, and havi

| There’s a narrative we’ve been taught to believe: Wellness is something you get after the work is done, after the growth and success. Perhaps we are taught to believe that a “break” is something you deserve only after pushing yourself to the edge, after the long days, the short nights, and the constant pressure to keep going. As if exhaustion were the price of ambition. At Volcano, we see wellness differently. Not as a trend. Not as a reward. But as a force of balance. One

Lately, we’ve been thinking about something simple, but not easy to answer. This reflection was sparked during Volcano 2025. But it stayed with us long after. It starts with perspective. If you zoom out far enough, everything we are feels small. A single point in a much larger system. Every idea, every company, every breakthrough, happening in one place. But then you zoom back in. Into Guatemala. Into a room. Into people who chose to be there. And suddenly, it doesn’t feel sm

More than a decade ago, our co-founder Janma Bardi attended a small gathering where entrepreneurs and investors from around the world came together with one guiding question: What is your why? That experience became a turning point. It sparked a deeper reflection about aligning business, innovation, and investment with something greater, a purpose capable of transforming lives and societies. That realization eventually became Volcano Innovation Summit. What started as an idea