climbers & scalers
Episodes
S1:E28 Marcos Galperin: The future of Mercado Libre. And Marcos' future
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What makes Mercado Libre transform itself again after having already achieved almost everything? In this episode of Climbers & Scalers, Marcos looks b...
S1:E27 Marcos Galperin: Artificial intelligence and Chinese competitors. Welcome
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Holding your ground is sometimes a strategy. But other times, it’s a message. In this episode of scalers & climbers, Marcos recalls the toughest yea...
S1:E26 Marcos Galperin: The easiest letter to write and the hardest decision to take
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
S1:E25 Linda Rottenberg: Paying it forward and helping build the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Latin America
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
S1:E24 Ari Szarfsztejn and Juan Martín de la Serna: The best is yet to come
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 c...
S1:E23 Ari Szarfsztejn and Juan Martín de la Serna: Building a strategic asset with technology
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For any logistics department, having demand double overnight is a nightmare. It’s impossible to scale warehouse and transportation capacity at that ...
S1:E22 Ari Szarfsztejn and Juan Martín de la Serna: Starting to get involved in logistics
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ari Szarfsztejn went from presenting recommendations to making things happen. Juan Martín went from helping with the family’s real estate business ...
S1:E21 Sean Summers: The user's problem before a million issues
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 e...
S1:E20 Sean Summers: Founder's mentality permeating the entire organization
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Summers trained at PepsiCo through three different cycles. But when he arrived at Mercado Libre, he sensed a founder’s mentality infused throug...
S1:E19 Stelleo Tolda and Germán Spataro: Competing against the best in the world
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 Amaz...
S1:E18 Stelleo Tolda: Preparing for Amazon's arrival in Brazil
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 e...
S1:E17 Stelleo Tolda: From the American dream to an early return to Brazil
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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....
S1:E16 Nico Szekasy: The IPO as an alternative to the sale that wasn't
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
S1:E15 Nico Szekasy: Surviving the nuclear winter
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
S1.E14 Ozzie Gimenez and Pau Arregui: Opportunities, when seized, are multiplied
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 c...
S1.E13 Ozzie Gimenez and Pau Arregui: Breaking down walls with technology
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mercado Libre wasn’t going to survive if it couldn’t solve online payments. And solving online payments meant nothing less than solving fraud. Whe...
S1.E12 Ozzie Gimenez and Pau Arregui: A new start-up within a start-up
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ph...
S1:E11 Nico Berman: The call to Google during a break at university
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 who...
S1:E10 Nico Berman: Willing to invest everything he saved to be able to learn
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
S1:E9 Pedro Arnt and Karen Bruck: One step at a time goes a long way
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 manag...
S1:E8 Pedro Arnt: The fear of the Lake Como moment
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
S1:E7 Pedro Arnt: No titles, doing a little bit of everything
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 someon...
S1:E6 Hernán Kazah: Technology will save us
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. Bu...
S1:E5 Hernán Kazah: Good luck can help you, but bad luck can kill you
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ex...
S1:E4 Hernan Kazah and Susan Segal: Entrepreneurship in the desert
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 fundin...
S1:E3 Dani Rabinovich and Sole Dematteo: Racing a regatta or sailing on a cruise
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dani doesn’t really enjoy awards, or celebrations. Not even results. For him, the key to success is sustainable enjoyment. A much-needed concept whe...
S1:E2 Dani Rabinovich and Sole Dematteo: The app you get fired or rewarded for
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mercado Libre needed to develop a mobile app. The company’s future depended on it. Consultants and specialized firms charging millions couldn’t fi...
S1:E1 Dani Rabinovich: The grill designed 19 times
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most important companies in the world. And a tech giant. Very few people can grasp the size and complexity of its systems. To build and ove...