Hernan Kazah, co-founder of Mercado Libre and partner at Kaszek Ventures, discusses how Mercado Libre survived the dot-com crash while dozens of better-funded regional competitors collapsed.
Opinion
AI's Lack of New Distribution Channels May Favor Incumbents Over Startups
“So I think it's transformational, but that, the fact that there's no
A new distribution might give an edge to incumbents versus, versus the new folk.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Goldman Sachs Attempted to Pull Mercado Libre's March 2000 Term Sheet
“Goldman Sachs, that was the one that was leading that round, said, you know what, I'm not investing in, in you guys, and, you know, well, we didn't know what was going to happen, but luckily Susan Seager, who was leading Chase Capital Barn at the time, put lot…”
Assertion Partly supported
Mercado Libre Still Grows 70% to 80% Annually 25 Years After Founding
“The company is still today, 25 years after its beginning, the company is growing at 80%, 70% year a year.”
Assertion Contradicted
Mercado Libre's Local Market Share Likely Exceeds Amazon's US Market Share
“The market share that Mercolibre has probably is larger than the market share of Amazon in the US.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kazah: Latin American Tech Funding Disappeared for Nearly a Decade After 2000
“And then in March, 2000, as you were saying, Nasdaq started to go down, down, down, down, and the market disappeared in the world for a few years in Latin America for almost a decade.”
Assertion Supported
eBay Was Once the Only Profitable Internet Company Over Amazon and Yahoo
“Because in a period of time, it was the only profitable internet company, even more profitable than the Amazons and the Yahoo's of the world.”