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Fintech Operator & Advisor

I help lending businesses launch, scale and sustain P&L in LatAm.

Hi, I'm José. I'm an executive with 11+ years of experience in fintechs, revenue optimization, operations scaling, and data-driven growth. I've built and operated lending businesses from zero, scaled customer bases from thousands to tens of thousands, and advised founders and investment funds on market entry and sustainability across LatAm.

José Timarchi

Companies that know my work

VanaKashin (YC W22)CabifyAunaEY

What I do

Three ways to work together.

Advisory engagements

Hands-on guidance over a defined period.

Structured engagements where I work alongside your team to diagnose and fix specific pieces of the operation — origination funnels, collections, risk processes, customer ops, unit economics. I bring operator criteria, not a consulting deck.

When this fits: you have a clear problem or opportunity and need senior firepower for 4–12 weeks.

Assessments

Deep dives that inform a decision.

Market entry assessments, operational diagnostics, regulatory scans, vendor and scoring stack reviews. Built for investment funds, founders or leadership teams evaluating a move into a new LatAm market — or deciding whether to double down on an existing one.

When this fits: you're about to make a capital allocation or strategic call and need the ground truth.

Fractional leadership

Part-time operator, full ownership.

For companies that need a senior operator to hold real accountability over launch, country operations, or a critical function — without committing to a full-time Ops Manager, COO or Country Manager from day one.

When this fits: you're scaling into a new market or rebuilding a function and need someone who can own, not just advise.

Selected work

What I've built and operated.

Launching a regional lending fintech in Peru from zero

Vana · Operations & Relationships Manager – Peru · 2025

Challenge

Vana, a LatAm lending fintech, needed to launch Peru operations end-to-end — from entity setup and regulatory positioning to P&L ownership — with a lean local team.

What I did

  • Led end-to-end country launch: legal entity, SBS/AML positioning, banking relationships, vendor stack
  • Served as legal representative and local face to regulators, banks and partners
  • Coordinated regional product, risk, legal and finance teams around a local P&L
  • Built the monetization strategy for the Peru market

Outcome

Active customer base scaled 11× from launch within the first year.

Scaling a fully remote lending operation from 1K to 25K+ customers

Kashin (YC W22) · Chief Operating Officer · 2021–2024

Challenge

Kashin needed to scale its microlending operation in Peru without losing control of risk, cost-to-serve, or customer experience — under a fully remote operating model.

What I did

  • Built and led the onboarding, collections and customer support teams from scratch
  • Automated ~70% of customer support workflows
  • Designed A/B tests and feature engineering feeding directly into the risk model
  • Redesigned origination, risk and collections processes with P&L sustainability as the North Star

Outcome

Scaled the active customer base 25x in under three years, with CSAT sustained above 90%.

Regional brand integration and multinational process design across LatAm

Cabify · Strategy & Innovation Projects Manager – LatAm · 2018–2019

Challenge

Cabify needed to integrate the Easy Taxi brand after acquisition and restructure local operations across multiple LatAm markets, while rolling out new processes in partnership with the IDB.

What I did

  • Acted as PMO for the Easy Taxi – Cabify integration in Ecuador
  • Led diagnostics to restructure local operations across several markets
  • Designed and coordinated multinational processes across 10 LatAm countries in joint work with the Inter-American Development Bank
  • Launched MVPs for new regional business lines

Outcome

Delivered brand integration across country operations and stood up harmonized processes across 10 markets.

Redesigning corporate collections and inventory for a healthcare group

Auna · Finance Projects Head · 2016–2018

Challenge

Auna's corporate collections cycle and inventory management across clinics were leaving cash on the table and creating operational waste — particularly in high-cost oncology supplies.

What I did

  • Designed and deployed a new corporate collections model across clinics
  • Built a macro-based algorithm piloting inventory optimization for high-predictability SKUs
  • Led waste management redesign for oncology drug mixtures at Oncosalud
  • Installed the Auna Billing Committee and KPI framework across clinics

Outcome

+20% monthly collections, 25% reduction in days outstanding, 43% inventory reduction in target SKUs.

Market entry and scaling advisory for lending businesses

Independent Practice · Fintech Operator & Advisor · 2026–present

Challenge

A European investment fund evaluating Peru's online lending market needed an operator-led assessment — not a generic consulting deck — to make an informed bet. In parallel, a Mexican lending fintech needed a scaling roadmap grounded in operational reality.

What I did

  • Delivered market entry assessment for European fund: regulatory due diligence (SBS, AML, rate caps), banking landscape, local vendor and scoring stack
  • Benchmarked the Peruvian market end-to-end on unit economics, customer behavior and collections practices
  • Advised Mexican fintech on origination, risk and collections optimization, with P&L sustainability as the anchor

Outcome

Ongoing engagements shaping investment and scaling decisions in two LatAm markets.

How I think

Three convictions.

01

In LatAm lending, the P&L is won in collections and onboarding — not in the deck.

Most lending fintechs that fail to reach sustainability don't fail because of bad product or weak demand. They fail because they treat collections as a support function, underinvest in origination processes, and confuse growth with scaling. Sustainable P&L is also won with an educated customer and by watching closely how they behave. The real work is in the unglamorous funnels — risk segmentation, early-delinquency workflows, and support automation before adding headcount.

02

In regulated markets like Peru, operational compliance is an underrated competitive advantage.

Many regional fintechs entering Peru treat SBS oversight, AML requirements and rate caps as problems to resolve quickly before getting back to growth. My read is the opposite: understanding the regulatory perimeter from day one is what lets you scale without brakes. Adapting the rules of an existing fintech to the local market isn't a checkbox — it's what determines whether the business model holds or breaks at the twelve-month mark.

03

LatAm is not one market. It's many.

I've operated directly in Peru and worked across regional operations that touched multiple LatAm markets — from coordinating Cabify processes across ten countries with the Inter-American Development Bank, to assessing financial institutions across Latin America during my EY years, to supporting regional operations and market entry analyses for fintechs active in Central America and the Andean region. Customer behavior, vendor and bureau infrastructure, and acquisition channels change dramatically between markets. Playbooks designed "for LatAm" usually work well in one country and mediocre in five. My work as country launcher and advisor always starts by separating what of the global playbook applies from what needs to be rebuilt locally.

Credentials

Beyond the case studies.

Industry & community

  • Founding Board Member, Peru Lending Association (2025–2026)
  • Speaker and panelist across fintech and cultural industry forums

Teaching & education

  • Instructor, Postgraduate Program in Fintech — UTEC (2025)
  • Instructor, Finance Workshop for Cultural Managers — The Jingo Project (2022–2025)
  • BSc Industrial Engineering, Universidad de Lima
  • Diploma in Data Science for Business, UTEC
  • International Diploma in Corporate Finance, ESAN
  • PMP (PMI) · Scrum Master Certified

Contact

Let's talk.

The best way to reach me is a short email or a WhatsApp message describing what you're working on. I read everything.