SM: Did you get the sense that eBay was not focused on Latin America at all yet? What was the Latin America Internet market at the time? What kind of Internet penetration? MG: It was very small. There was 3% penetration roughly. Today it is 20%, so it still can grow a lot. Out of
I did this interview in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during my recent trip consulting with Mercado Libre, Latin America’s largest online marketplace. I found the story fascinating, and wanted to capture it for my readers all over the world. SM: I would like to hear the story of how you built Mercado Libre. Let’s start with
SM: What would you like to conclude with? It seems like you are at a place in your life where you are building this company to a significant size and this is your life’s effort a built to last company versus built to flip. What are your departing thoughts? ZR: A couple of things come
SM: Listening to what you have said so far, you are going after businesses or segments which have a multi-channel dynamic. Not every industry has that. ZR: You are right about this, but a multi-channel is just one dimension. In areas where there are complexities of business, it can happen by multi-channel, complex pricing, globalization
SM: How much money did you raise? ZR: We raised about $42M from Accel and Accel KKR in June of 2000. We also had a couple of private Silicon Valley luminaries who invested in the Company. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google is an investor. Mark Andreesen, who co-founded Netscape, is also an investor. The
SM: Where are you now in terms of size, market landscape, positioning? ZR: Model N right now is a leader in revenue management in the life sciences and semiconductor verticals. The life sciences market is a more complicated market. It is segmented into medical device and biotechnology. These are two distinct markets. The company has
SM: Besides culture issues, can you talk about the business strategy decisions that helped you survive the perfect storm? ZR: A big key for us was maintaining focus. When we started the company, our two first deals out of the gate were $2M each. Then the perfect storm happened, and we could complain about it.
SM: Now I would really like to explore the details around building of the company. You are probably one of a handful of companies who started during the crash, survived the crash, and emerged as a healthy, thriving company. What was your go to market strategy and what did you do that allowed you to