“I tried to take pictures, but anywhere there were lines I didn’t want to take out my phone because I thought I’d get shot or have it stolen. The crime is out of control. Kidnappings and everything. It’s at a level that’s completely insane.”

It wasn’t a paranoid idea. We were off the clock with Luis Scull, the cofounder of a brand-new startup,Payfully. Scull and his cofounder are both from Venezuela, and now both live in Williamsburg, where the company, which provides financing for Airbnb renters, is based.

We wrote about Payfully when the company raised $300,000 in seed funding last month and Scull mentioned that he was going back home to Caracas for a bit for a wedding and to see his family. He got back yesterday and we sat down after work to talk about the trip. Scull went to college here and has stayed on for more than a decade since, but he visits his home country and family frequently.

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