climbers & scalers

What makes Mercado Libre transform itself again after having already achieved almost everything? In this episode of Climbers & Scalers , Marcos looks back on key stages in Mercado Libre’s history and explains why he believes a new one is just beginning. He talks about the moment they rewrote their tech architecture, the impact of smartphones and apps, and why today he feels the same energy as in t...

Holding your ground is sometimes a strategy. But other times, it’s a message. In this episode of scalers & climbers, Marcos recalls the toughest years against Amazon, the decisions made when the numbers didn’t add up, and why they chose to invest where others would have walked away. He also talks about the Chinese e-commerce giants, about how they compete in a market that blends shopping, entertai...

On May 21, 2025, Marcos surprised everyone by announcing that he was stepping down as CEO of Mercado Libre. He did it with a short letter, written in fifteen minutes with the help of artificial intelligence. In this episode, he tells for the first time how that process unfolded: what personal, family, and strategic factors led him to the decision, what role the Board played, and why stepping aside...

Linda Rottenberg is the founder and CEO of Endeavor, the leading global community of high-impact entrepreneurs. In the late 1990s, Linda flew down to South America and settled in Argentina. She began working in the social sector, until she concluded that what the region needed was not more microcredits, but more Microsofts being launched locally. She secured the first funding and the first entrepr...

They have a genuine calling to change the lives of millions of users. They look ahead. They love to compete and are far from being intimidated. They constantly re-prioritize. Because the context shifts so much, every year they redesign the org chart. They’d rather not hire than lower the bar. They sit side by side, argue fiercely, and from that clash come better ideas. Ari and Juan Martín share al...

For any logistics department, having demand double overnight is a nightmare. It’s impossible to scale warehouse and transportation capacity at that pace. Unthinkable — until a pandemic hits and it happens. Mercado Envíos not only managed to meet that demand, but grew 5X. In this episode, Ari and Juan Martín tell you how they pulled it off. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedi...

Ari Szarfsztejn went from presenting recommendations to making things happen. Juan Martín went from helping with the family’s real estate business to diving straight into the garage with Marcos from day one. Today, both of them have led the odyssey of making sure that the things we buy with just a few clicks on Mercado Libre arrive at our doorstep in just a few hours — using a logistics network th...

Everyone gets a complaint, a rant, or a request for help every week. Everyone — from the first to the last. In many places, people assume the user experience team will take care of it. At Mercado Libre, Sean says, you take care of it yourself. You might have a million things going on in your day-to-day, but the first thing Sean wants to understand is why the user had that problem. Producer & H...

Sean Summers trained at PepsiCo through three different cycles. But when he arrived at Mercado Libre, he sensed a founder’s mentality infused throughout the organization — something he hadn’t found anywhere else with professional managers. From his position as the top leader of marketing and the advertising business, Sean shares some of the elements of that founder’s mentality that make them uniqu...

To compete with Amazon, they needed to bring in talent with deep knowledge of how it operated. One of them was Germán Spataro, who had worked at Amazon UK, Amazon Spain, and Amazon Brazil. From his encounter with Jeff Bezos to the differences in culture, Germán shares why Mercado Libre beats Amazon. But Stelleo is clear about one thing: today, everyone takes for granted that Mercado Libre is one o...

Stelleo knew that one day Amazon would arrive, and sure enough, in 2012 they finally came to Brazil. Stelleo and the team had prepared. They studied every case of Amazon’s market entries around the world and learned that to really be competitive, they would have to deeply localize their business model for Brazil. And that’s where Mercado Libre had its advantage, because their internal mantra was:...

Two passions live within Stelleo: math and the humanities. It’s no coincidence that he’s a mechanical engineer and the son of a music store owner. With his logical, mathematical mindset, he decided to shift the course of his career toward the financial world. But his intuition would take him somewhere very different. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisner/

From earning less than the corner pizza shop to having a giant like eBay want to be your partner. From having that giant as your partner and wanting to buy you out, to becoming much bigger than that giant through the independence of your IPO. From helping change the way people buy and sell, and the way they pay and get paid, to helping create the next generation of Mercado Libres in Latin America....

Nico Szekasy left his corporate life to become an entrepreneur in a start-up that earned less than the corner pizza shop. And the minute he stepped in, he helped change Mercado Libre’s course so it could survive the nuclear winter. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisner/

Mercado Libre transformed the way we buy and sell. Mercado Pago transformed the way we pay, get paid, and invest our money. Many believe that such a colossal transformation can’t be repeated. Ozzie and Paula don’t think so. On the contrary, they believe the transformation is only just beginning. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisner/

Mercado Libre wasn’t going to survive if it couldn’t solve online payments. And solving online payments meant nothing less than solving fraud. When there are only a few transactions, it’s simple. But when there are millions, you have to think beyond common sense—until you get to neural networks. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisner/

Buying groceries, getting a haircut, a book, a cooking class, or shopping on Mercado Libre. Whatever you want can be paid for with nothing but your phone. Mercado Pago is a revolution in simplicity. But getting here was anything but easy. And Ozzie Giménez and Paula Arregui tell us how they made it possible. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisner/

Nico Berman had a position at a major company, where he was earning an excellent salary. But one day he decided to quit that job to join a company whose offices were in a basement, with no windows and no bathrooms. The salary? Seventy percent less. Why did he go? Because he saw a billboard on the street. One of the first things he did? Call Google during a break at university. Producer & Host:...

Nico Berman was the eighth person to join Mercado Libre. He didn’t study at Stanford, but at the University of Buenos Aires. There’s a saying that it doesn’t matter where you come from, but where you want to go. And where did Nico come from? From being one of the best salespeople at Mercado Libre. And how far did he get? All the way to vice president, in charge of all marketing and advertising. To...

Karen Bruck shares how she managed to convince Mercado Libre that she could lead a team of more than three hundred people when she had only been managing a team of two. Something that still amazes her is the extraordinary talent of the Mercado Libre team. Pedro adds to her story, sharing the challenges that lie ahead. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisner/

Pedro explains, among other things, the concept of permanent beta. And why being in a spectacular hotel on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, drinking incredible wines and eating dishes prepared by international chefs, is the greatest fear everyone at Mercado Libre has. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisner/

Mercado Libre needs to find a CFO, the top executive in charge of the company’s finances. What kind of profile should they look for? Probably someone who studied political science and Latin American literature wouldn’t be the most logical choice. Pedro Arnt explains how he managed to convince not only those who had to choose him, but also himself. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www...

For someone who was able to see the future more than twenty years ago, it would be very easy to just sit back and enjoy the results of that vision. But Hernán Kazah has another idea: to use his experience to find and support those who are seeing the future today. And, along the way, to tell us what that future will look like. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisn...

What happens when the world changes and no one is interested anymore in investing in your organization, your people, or your idea — no matter how exceptional they are? You find yourself an exceptional partner who buys into your company, you learn from their mistakes, and then you surpass them. Hernán Kazah, co-founder of Mercado Libre, explains this in this episode. Producer & Host: Federico E...

Hernán Kazah explains how you go from being a middle-class kid in public school to raising seven million dollars for your startup in its first funding round. Susan Segal says she bet on them because she saw exceptional people, with an exceptional idea, and an exceptional organization. Producer & Host: Federico Eisner | https://www.linkedin.com/in/feisner/